Frankly Fascinating

Rising young Cabaret star Ashleigh Kreveld talks to Coral Drouyn about her show.

For a young performer in Melbourne it isn’t enough to have to just have talent. You have to be entrepreneurial. You have to be able to create your own work, and often produce it yourself. You have to get out and perform it and have faith in your ability to draw an audience - you have to have a hook, and it has to be one that you love.

For young performer Ashleigh Kreveld, the hook was the easy part of creating Frankly Winehouse. Ashleigh, still barely in her early twenties, has been a fan of Amy Winehouse’s since the tragic figure first burst onto the music scene.

“I related so much to the lyrics,” Ashleigh tells me. “I guess it was part of my teenage angst years. And then I started reading about her, the underlying melancholy, the self-destructive streak, and I was hooked.”

When Ashleigh found out that the only Amy Winehouse shows were parodies with comic send up tones, she became a crusader, determined to put that right. Frankly Winehouse has humour, because Amy had humour, but it’s actually a dark and honest look at the life of a woman who could, many believe, have been the greatest singer of her generation, especially in Jazz circles.

So, with no money, and not a lot of experience, Ashleigh set about creating Frankly Winehouse, which has been called ‘The perfect cabaret’. It was a huge success at “Fringe World” earlier this year. Ashleigh doesn’t try to colour the truth, or sensationalise it, and much of the show is in Amy’s own words.

“Like most celebrities, Amy suffered from having her words twisted; her behaviour sensationalised, by the press. I wanted to at least tell the truth as far as anyone knows it, and that meant a lot of research,” Ashleigh says.

Cabaret has gained a legitimacy in the last 15 years or so which it didn’t enjoy for a long time. Part of that is due to the various cabaret festivals. Even so, it’s a far cry from the conventional white-collar middle-class life that Ashleigh grew up in.

“No-one in my family had any connection with showbiz,” Ashleigh says, “and I set out wanting to be a teacher. But halfway through my training I realised I was on the wrong track, and I couldn’t do that for the rest of my life.”

Ashleigh quickly enrolled in a music theatre course and pushed on with single-mindedness. “My parents were shocked at first. It wasn’t something they had ever imagined for me. But when they saw I was determined, they have really been supportive. Once I truly commit to something, it’s very hard to sake me from that path,” she explains.

True, she’s had to work waiting tables, take whatever jobs she could find, “But that’s part of the experience,” she says. And she’s done it while writing, producing and directing her own show. And that deserves top marks. She even wrote the terrific press release and has done her own PR.

“Well, I couldn’t afford to pay anyone else,” she says with a laugh. “And, even though I still dream of being in a Main Stage Musical one day, it’s really satisfying to be creating something of my own.”

Amy Winehouse was a remarkable but tragic young woman, whose star burned out too fast. Ashleigh Kreveld’s star is only just beginning to shine, but I have a feeling it will burn brightly for many years to come

Frankly Winehouse plays at

Whole Lotta Love Bar, 520 Lygon St, Brunswick

Wednesday 3–Sunday 7 August 2016.

6:30pm start, 60 min duration.