Diamonds Are For Trevor

Diamonds Are For Trevor
Written by Trevor Ashley and Phil Scott, Directed by Craig Ilot. Musical Direction by Geoffrey Castles. For Midsumma Festival. Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne. Jan 28th – Feb 1st, 2014.

If you look up talent in a dictionary you’ll find definitions like: 1) a marked innate ability, as for artistic accomplishment; 2) a person who possesses unusual innate ability in some field or activity, often creative. There are hundreds of similar definitions, but none comes close to describing the amazing Trevor Ashley’s metamorphosis into Shirley Bassey last night at the Playhouse Theatre. We can’t always describe star quality, but we know it when we see it….and a packed house certainly saw it and rose to its feet in admiration at the end of the 2 hour plus concert. I’m still not 100% sure if I was watching Trevor as the dame, or Bassey “doing” Ashley. Yes, it was that good.

A fabulous band, under the direction of Geoffrey Castles, a brilliant lighting design by Scott Allan, and costumes to die for from the multi award winning Tim Chappel (Oscar, BAFFTA, Tony and AFI awards) set the scene and transport us to a Bassey concert from the seventies, but it’s not until Ashley opens his mouth that we actually suspend disbelief and believe we’re actually there. Trevor Ashley has an extraordinary set of pipes, and the chops to go with them. He masters the sing-song Welsh overtones to perfection. He’s totally “au fait” with Miss Bassey’s…sorry Dame Bassey’s …idiosyncratic intonation, breathing, vocal gymnastics to the point where you are almost inclined to think he is miming. He isn’t…and Bassey hasn’t sounded this good in perhaps forty years or more. Then there is the performance style, again honed to perfection. Bassey herself is so camp, so much larger than life, that it really isn’t necessary to do much more than let her have her head. But Ashley finds deliciously subtle comedy in the flailing hands and outstretched fingers, sometimes allowing them to get out of hand (sorry) and almost become unguided missiles; not that anything about Ashley’s performance is unguided. He’s a consummate professional who may allow the audience to lose themselves in the character, whilst he is always aware of his control of that audience. It’s stunning stuff, so never think for a moment that you are going to see a drag queen do a Bassey tribute. That would do them both an injustice.

The repertoire is what you would expect…all of Bassey’s hits from “Kiss Me Honey Honey” through the Bond songs, with a spectacular rip-off costume change for “Goldfinger”; through “Never, Never, Never”, “I Who Have Nothing”, “Big Spender” and a couple of songs Bassey didn’t sing but probably should have. And of course there’s “Diamonds are Forever”. The second act begins with “History Repeating” in which Ashley is almost strangled by a fifty foot long Boa (constrictor!). Then there are the delicious bitchy asides. Bassey is well known for her ego and difficult temperament (an Australian drummer once threw a bread roll and two fish at her after she screamed at him for not having tympani for a “roll with mallets”). But it’s when Ashley/Bassey tells the story of her daughter’s suicide that a total hush falls over the audience. It’s a completely unexpected and emotional story and we are choked by the reality of a woman who could connect with a huge audience, but not one-on-one with her own children. Ashley proves in those few minutes that he’s also a very fine actor. It makes “This Is My Life” doubly poignant and sensational. The encore of “I Am What I Am” brought the house down, particularly when Ashley whips off his Bassey wig at the end to reveal his true self.

If you’ve seen Ashley’s hysterically deep purple pantos; Fat Swan and Little Orphan Trashley, and been turned off by so much …how shall I put it?…. Filth (in a good way of course) then you will no doubt relish the fact that this show is clean and funny at the same time. Diamonds are for Trevor only plays for this week in Melbourne, as part of Midsumma, so if you love Bassey or you’ve never seen Ashley, book now while there are still a few seats left.

American poet Maya Angelou said "Talent is like electricity. We don't understand electricity. We use it". The question isn’t “How talented is Trevor Ashley?”  but rather, “How long can we hold him on home shores?” for, like Barry Humphries and a very small handful of others before him, Ashley is an original and surely destined for international super-stardom.

Coral Drouyn

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