Lady Sings It Better

Lady Sings It Better
Blackcat Productions. Hayes Theatre Co. Sunday 3 and 10 August 2014. Also at The Factory on October 4.

Four Ms wiggle and riff on the misogyny of male music

Artistic Director of blackcat productions, Maeve Marsden, recently stated “I don’t know of many people who grow up dreaming of singing songs about aggressive sexual encounters to crowds of smiling people. It’s mainly just me… and Robin Thicke. As a cabaret singer who builds each performance around the most misogynist, offensive and downright ridiculous songs written by men, Thicke’s latest antics are a creative goldmine.” The focus of this show is a female quartet singing a collection of mostly trite and offish songs written and performed by men. The performers add lashings of irony, satire and even slapstick to their delivery. Their energy is palpable. But the problem exists that most of these songs are lightweight and even tedious, so the performance begins to wear a little thin as we’re exposed to set after set of these merry macho melodies. That’s the problem with delivering an evening of songs that basically aren’t very good to begin with. The level of comedy has to be elevated higher and higher to keep the show entertaining. Also, given these are not the world’s or even the original singers’ best songs, I suspect many of the audience, particularly the older members (and there were many of these – think most Sydney theatre subscribers!) had never heard these songs before. So lack of familiarity with many of the songs made connection just that little bit harder, even in the Thicke of it.

But what was fabulous about this show was the energy and passion that poured from these four radiant women. This 75 minute cabaret show was an overwhelming vocal tsunami. This is a very talented bunch of gals, who know how to move and sing, whilst smiling, winking and goggling at their audience, who loved all the visual comedy. The fourth wall is shattered early on and the performers even jump through it during one song and caress and sit in the laps of various audience members. I had a lipstick smile planted on my brow by Maeve! Most of the songs had interesting and varietal arrangements – which spiced them up somewhat. The Berlin cabaret inspired rendition of Tom Jones’ ‘Delilah’ was a particular treat and really showed where this show could go if pushed further to the outer limits of outré satire. Then songs that are tough and trite could become outrageously bizarre when treated with tender irony.

Stephen Carnell

Artistic Director: Maeve Marsden

Producer/GM: Phoebe Meredith

Performers: Maeve Marsden, Chandra Franken, Libby Wood, Anna Martin.

Musicians: Hayden Barltrop (piano), Lauren Allison (drums), Hannah James (bass).

Images: Viv McGregor

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