The Exotic Lives of Lola Montez, REVIEW 23 June 2024 ***1/2

CABARET

Written by Jackie Smith, produced by Finucane & Smith 

At Chapel of Chapel until 30 June 2024

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: 3&1/2

This review is published only on this blog. I’ll present a radio review on Arts Weekly on 3MBS on Sat 6 July 2024. KH

Caroline Lee image by 3 Fates Media

Assume one thing when you come to see a Finucane & Smith cabaret show: it will be provocative, naughty, raunchy – and lots of other synonyms. Melbourne has waited a while for their show, The Exotic Lives of Lola Montez, because Covid interrupted its planned season.

 

Lola is saucy, sassy and saturated with flesh, feathers and femmes but, in some ways, it is a departure in style for Finucane & Smith.

 

Firstly, the equally provocative Moira Finucane does not appear on stage in all her statuesque magnificence because she is the director of this production.

 

Secondly, it is written by the other half of the production team, Jackie Smith.

 

Thirdly, unlike their previous productions, the show has a narrative framework based on episodes from the exotic life of the real and extraordinary Lola Montez (Caroline Lee), a scandalous showgirl. This structure that acts as a framework for other, interpolated burlesque acts.

 

Lee is utterly beguiling as Lola and is the pumping heart of the show as she delivers with intensity, nuance and passion, Lola’s long and colourful descriptions of her chequered and vivid life.

 

The exotic creature that became Lola, was born Eliza Gilbert in Ireland, before her epic journey across Europe where she married an aristocrat. She developed her wild and transgressive performance style, posing as a Spanish dancer, travelled America, contracted syphilis and lived a thoroughly libertine and debauched life, according to some commentators.

 

Finally, in desperate financial straits, she arrived in Australia and ended up in Ballarat where she became the toast of the town – despite her ongoing run in with a local reviewer (Apparently, she whipped him! Yep! With a whip!).

 

Backing Lee’s impassioned and sultry performance as Lola, are The Lovely Lollettes: raunchy singer, Piera Dennerstein, feather and pasties striptease artiste, Maple Rose, and the tall, lean and lithe drag queen, Iva Rosebud, who performs a striptease to La Vie En Rose. Other artists join the show on various nights.

 

Lola’s monologues are racy, flamboyant and sometimes overwritten, but Lee’s delivery is always commanding and entertaining. I do wish we’d seen an interpretation of Lola’s Spider Dance. It might not have been Lola’s original, but we were hanging out for any Spider Dance!

 

As always, this Finucane &  Smith work is enchanting, hilarious, satisfying and memorable. At 75 minutes, it is just enough to tease and tantalise.

 

by Kate Herbert

 

Directed by Moira Finucane

 

Cast

 Caroline Lee  direct descendant of Lola Montez

The Luscious Lolettes,:

Piera Dennerstein glass-shattering diva

Iva Rosebud  Parisian club kitten

Maple Rose burlesque star

Caroline Lee & Lollettes image by 3 Fates Media

KATE HERBERT Arts Weekly 3MBS Sat15Jun2024

In this radio review spot on 3MBS Arts Weekly, I talk with Nick Tolhurst about Julia by Joanna Murray-Smith and The Woman in Black which Nick has seen (I have not seen it.).

 

 KATE HERBERT Arts Weekly 3MBS Sat15Jun2024.mp4 https://youtu.be/i08aA2RQdZo

Julia, MTC REVIEW 4 June 2024 ***1/2

 

THEATRE

Written by Joanna Murray-Smith, presented by Melbourne Theatre Company, production by Sydney Theatre Company & Canberra Theatre Centre co-production

At MTC, Sumner, Southbank Theatre until 13 July 2024

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: ***1/2 (3.5)

This review is published only on this blog. I’ll present a radio review on Arts Weekly on 3MBS on Sat 15 June 2024. KH

Justine Clarke in Julia- image by Prue Upton

 

Julia Gillard’s misogyny speech on 9 October 2012 was an unforgettable piece of extemporised political debate is incisive, informed, accurate and a laudable dissection of the leader of the opposition, Tony Abbott’s frequent sexist and misogynistic comments over the previous years.

 

This speech is delivered in full by Justine Clarke at the end of Joanna Murray Smith’s play, Julia. Its impassioned and precise content, and Clarke‘s thrilling and audacious delivery of it, brought the opening night crowd spontaneously to its feet in an ovation for Gillard, her speech and Clarke.

 

This was not an ovation for the production itself – although the show is strong enough – but for the speech, Clarke’s  performance of it, and its placement as a momentous ending. During the play, we spend a great deal of time waiting for these most dramatic moments.

 

Murray Smith’s Julia is a smart, witty, one-person play with a non-linear narrative comprising episodes, characters and interactions from Gillard’s life woven into a coherent whole.

 

The fictionalisation of Gillard’s life is an extrapolation on stories, biographies, articles and her own comments. Essentially, it follows Gillard’s unexceptional persona and professional life until she became Prime Minister. After that elevation, she became a controversial figure and, finally, an iconic, powerful woman and a torchbearer for feminism when she delivered that exceptional misogyny speech.

 

Sarah Goodes’ direction is swift and deft, focussing on the character of Gillard, Murray Smith’s brisk humour and political commentary.

 

Clarke’s performance is compelling and masterly, as she shifts from Julia as an ambitious and intelligent teenager with a talent for debating, to a successful lawyer, a powerful member of the Labor Party and Member of Parliament and, finally, Prime Minister after she topples Kevin Rudd.

 

Clarke shifts in and out of direct address to audience in what is not an impersonation of Gillard but a representation of her behaviour, and her career highlights.

 

Intermittently, Clarke’s voice shifts to a direct imitation of Gillard’s recognisable broad Aussie vowels and twang but these moments are peppered throughout. This avoids any impersonation which was a feature of Heather Mitchell’s performance in RBG.

 

One weak element is the tokenistic presence of a second, younger woman (Jessica Bentley) whose role is extraneous and distracting as she trails around the stage in Clarke’s wake, perhaps representing young women in politics and society. The rear projection of video of young  people was also a distraction.

 

Despite these awkward and unnecessary elements, Julia is an engaging production with a fine performance by Clarke and the final misogyny speech is worth the ticket.

 

by Kate Herbert

 

 

Sunset Boulevard REVIEW 29 May 2024 ***

MUSICAL THEATRE

Sunset Boulevard, Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber; Book & Lyrics by Christopher Hampton and Don Black.

At Princess Theatre  Final date announced.

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: *** (3)

This review is published only on this blog. I’ll present a radio review on Arts Weekly on 3MBS on Sat 1 June 2024. KH

Sarah Brightman - PIC CREDIT DANIEL BOUD

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, Sunset Boulevard, is a saccharine, sentimental version of William Wilder’s 1950 movie which is a biting indictment of the Hollywood movie machine and its star system that chews up and spits out its artists.

The narrative is peculiarly reminiscent of The Phantom of the Opera in which a reclusive, older man (the Phantom) is obsessed with a young woman. In Sunset the older, reclusive movie star, Norma Desmond, becomes obsessed with, and virtually imprisons the young,  impoverished Hollywood screen writer, Joe Gillis (Tim Draxl).

Even the music and songs, particularly those sung by Norma, echo musical motifs and melodies in Phantom to an unnerving degree. In fact, on the way home I was singing a song from Phantom rather than one from the Sunset!

Sarah Brightman has come to Australia to play Norma, this faded, former star of the silver screen, in a production directed by Paul Warwick Griffin.

Strangely, Brightman’s career is almost a mirror of Norma’s once lauded movie career: the glittering star that Brightman was in Phantom when she initiated the role of Christine Daee all those years ago, is a stark contrast to her stage career decades later.
 
Brightman has not performed a theatrical role on stage for almost three decades – and it shows. Evidently, she does occasional concerts and has had enormous success with recordings and concerts and is still held in high regard.

She focuses her performance on the other worldliness of Norma, her obsessiveness, delusions, self-absorption and complete alienation from the real world: the real world for Norma being Hollywood movie set which, in fact, is nothing like the real world.

The role requires power, charisma and a commanding stage presence but, unfortunately, Brightman does not have it here. Her voice has not survived all those decades. It has rather too much vibrato and lacks control, although the voice was stronger in the second half and her songs were certainly more affecting.

Her acting is disappointingly wooden, perhaps because she is trying to capture the posturing of a silent movie star. She seems trapped in her body and her range is limited to posing and floating and she lacks the ghoulishness of the magnetic Gloria Swanson.

In the final scene, when Norma trails eerily across her balcony after having killed Joe Gillis, she is surrounded by a swarm of police, cameras and lights. Her total mental breakdown should be moving as we anticipate her famous final line: “Mr. De Mille. I’m ready for my close-up now.” It is not!

 Ashleigh Rubenach, Tim Draxl - PIC CREDIT DANIEL BOUD

The supporting actors, in contrast, are compelling. Draxl is full-voiced, charming, vigorous, smart and provocative. We want Joe Gillis to succeed and we want him to get the hell out of that ghastly mansion.

As  Betty Schaeffer, Ashleigh Rubenach is delightfully exuberant with a fine musical theatre voice. We want Betty’s life to be wonderful because she is the only positive thing I’m this bleak story.

Playing Norma's valet and protector, Max Von Mayerling, Robert Grubb slips into the shadows and then surges out to rescue Norma. His song, The Greatest Star of All, is touching.

The ensemble is versatile and talented, singing some jazzy, upbeat numbers such as Let’s Do Lunch and Ashley Wallen's choreography is snappy rhythmic, pulsating and unusual.

The design (Morgan Large) is glorious, with a sweeping staircase and Art Nouveau iron work. Sheer scrims edged with lacework drop front of stage, reminding us that Norma lives behind a metaphorical veil which hides her ageing, loss of spirit and mental condition.
 

Projections (George Reeve) in black-and-white that echo the movie’s film noir style feature the Hollywood sign, Joe’s  body floating in a pool and 1950s cars driving towards us.

This production of Sunset Boulevard is a patchy production that is, unfortunately, let down by Brightman as the lead.

by Kate Herbert

KATE HERBERT Arts Weekly 3MBS Sat1Jun2024

 

In this radio review spot, I talk about The Odd Couple with Todd McKenney and Shane Jacobsen and Sunset Boulevard with Sarah Brightman and Norma Desmond. Nick Tolhurst joins me to chat. k