Tag Archives: Jodie Prenger

A Very Very Bad Cinderella

★★★★

The Other Palace

A VERY VERY BAD CINDERELLA at The Other Palace

★★★★

“Neil Hurst and Jodie Prenger’s writing is wild and lewd but is equally sharp, and intelligently plays with words”

If you’ve been in the news this year, or are a showbiz personality of any sort, or even merely a major player in a current West End musical, you should be advised to steer clear of “A Very Very Bad Cinderella”. Unless you’re some sort of masochist. None of the above escapes the scattershot onslaught of bawdy jokes and devil-may-care references that are loaded into this most unseasonal of seasonal pantomimes. Thrown out into the audience like sweets, not everyone will catch the in-jokes, and a great many go over our heads.

The musical theatre world is well and truly ransacked. The main casualty that lies in its wake is political correctness. Despite the obligatory use of a snow machine at this time of year, this is not a show for snowflakes. It doesn’t take itself seriously, and the audience are invited (no – make that ‘forced’) to follow suit. To say that this is an ‘alternative’ take on ‘Cinderella’ is a bit of an understatement. Okay, it’s hanging onto the basic plotline for dear life, and the stock characters are there – we have Cinderella, of course, and Buttons and Prince Charming. But gone are the Disney, cutesy names for the ‘Ugly Sisters’; instead, we have Fanny and Vajayjay. You can see where this is going now?

May Tether plays Cinderella, and like the show’s title itself, is channelling a certain other Cinderella who also acquired the prefix ‘bad’. The whole show is a parody, and Tether lampoons with affection and with tongue in cheek. Although the script advocates that tongues are destined for rather more unsavoury parts of the anatomy. Yes, it is that sort of show. That is not a dig, however. Neil Hurst and Jodie Prenger’s writing is wild and lewd but is equally sharp, and intelligently plays with words. We are occasionally reminded of the likes of the Two Ronnies, for example, particularly during a very clever soliloquy in which the titles of every well-known musical are strung together to form a witty and breathless anecdote.

Keanna Bloomfield switches between Buttons and Prince Charming, drawing attention to the writers’ neglect in allowing for costume changes. Budgetary constraints and the producers’ limitations and lack of foresight are also frequently shared with the audience. Maybe spread a little too thin, but the comedy is thickened if you are acquainted with the behind-the-scenes machinations of theatre in all its variety. Genres are crossed with gay abandon as the ‘Ugly Sisters’ lead us headlong into the world of Cabaret and Drag. A captivating duo they are the wicked Queens of the night. Veronica Green’s Fanny is deliciously spicy (I never, ever thought I’d be writing that in a review). Matched by Imelda Warren-Green’s pouting, sourpuss Vajayjay (come on now, concentrate!), the self-declared ‘fab-u-lous’ pair are a comic act that draw the biggest laughs. If the show were to be streamed for general release you wouldn’t catch much of what is said due to the number of censoring beeps required.

There is a narrative thread, just in case we can’t keep up, provided by an uncredited, on-screen presence whose deadpan delivery alludes to the show being ‘very very bad’ indeed. Yes – it is ‘bad’ and ‘wicked’ and ‘sick’. But these are all huge compliments if you’re referring to the urban dictionary. It is a very very fun night out. Prepare to be offended and delighted in equal measure. Oh, and be wary of where you sit, unless the idea of wearing a face mask pulled out from Fanny’s undergarments appeals to you. There – that should get you scrolling for the booking page if nothing else.


A VERY VERY BAD CINDERELLA at The Other Palace

Reviewed on 6th December 2023

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Danny Kaan


 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

Trompe L’Oeil | ★★★ | September 2023
Dom – The Play | ★★★★ | February 2023
Ghosted – Another F**king Christmas Carol | ★★★★★ | December 2022
Glory Ride | ★★★ | November 2022
Millennials | ★★★ | July 2022

A Very Very Bad Cinderella

A Very Very Bad Cinderella

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Tell Me On A Sunday

Tell me on a Sunday

★★★

Cambridge Arts Theatre

Tell Me On A Sunday

Tell me on a Sunday

Cambridge Arts Theatre & UK Tour

Reviewed – 30th September 2021

★★★

 

“Jodie Beth Meyer steps up and her performance does not disappoint”

 

It is forty years since Marti Webb sang Tell Me on a Sunday as a TV special before the piece reached the stage as one half of Song and Dance, described then by its composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyricist Don Black as ‘a concert for the theatre’. The work has undergone several revisions since then but is still essentially a short one-woman song cycle, the length of an LP album. The current tour usually exploits the TV popularity of singer Jodie Prenger by including a Q and A session with added musical surprises as a second half, but this performance axes this due to the indisposition of the star.

The gauze curtain, superimposed with a New York skyline, lifts to reveal a very basic 1980s apartment and behind it a row of illuminated miniature model buildings – Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, Twin Towers (Designer David Woodhead). Emma enters in wedge sandals and a denim jacket. She is an unassuming girl from Muswell Hill living in New York seeking a husband and a green card. And that’s the plot, as she proceeds to sing us the story of her series of boyfriends and their inevitable breakups.

With advertised singer Jodie Prenger unavailable, understudy Jodie Beth Meyer steps up and her performance does not disappoint. The opening number Take That Look Off Your Face immediately wins over this audience and sets the standard for the evening. With her eyes twinkling and a smile upon her lips every lyric of every song is crystal clear, Jodie’s enunciation impeccable. Aided by amplification, she does not need to push her voice – this is not opera – and her style is understated rather than projected. Her high register rings out pure and glorious, a delight to listen to. The wide range required in some numbers, though – It’s Not the End of the World (if I Lose Him / he’s Younger / he’s Married), shows up some weakness at the lower end of this singer’s register.

A five-piece onstage band (Musical Director Francis Goodhand) – keys, reeds, cello, bass & drumkit – partly obscured behind the model New York skyline, provides the orchestration. Sounding a little thin at times they may have benefitted from some support from the mixing desk, but it is delightful nonetheless for this music to be performed live.

Director Paul Foster moves Emma naturally around the small set, sometimes seated, sometimes not. She goes off stage between some numbers to reappear in a change of costume. There are numerous props for her to handle – a handbag to rummage in, a floppy hat (with an unintended problematic brim), letters to read and write, a bottle of whisky. On occasions, this incessant fiddling is all rather too busy and some further static moments would have been beneficial.

The four Letters Home to England document the character’s advances in her life and provide some humorous moments much enjoyed by this audience. Other highlights in Jodie’s performance are the sensuousness she shows within The Last Man in My Life and some deliciously sleazy movement in Sheldon Bloom. Both could have been pushed further, along with some greater show of anger in Let Me Finish and Let’s Talk About You. The title song is the standout song of the evening and Jodie smashes it, sobbing through the lyrics whilst maintaining beautiful musicality.

If the largeish audience is disappointed that the intended Jodie is not available, they do not show it and after this short one-half of an evening would happily have welcomed the replacement Jodie back onto the stage for more of the same.

 

Reviewed by Phillip Money

Photography by Tristram Kenton

 


Tell me on a Sunday

Cambridge Arts Theatre until 2nd October then UK tour continues

 

Previously reviewed at this venue this year:
Copenhagen | ★★★★ | July 2021
Absurd Person Singular | ★★★ | September 2021

 

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