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