SOIR NOIR: A NIGHTCLUB CONFIDENTIAL
Crazy Coqs
★★★
“Not quite pure gold, but a nostalgic journey back to the Golden Era”
‘If you’re fond of sand dunes and salty air’, croons David Rhodes in the opening number of his cabaret show, “Soir Noir: A Nightclub Confidential”. It comes from the 1957 hit single by Patti Page – ‘Old Cape Cod’ – probably more recognised by modern audiences as the sampled riff in Groove Armada’s ‘At the River’. But Rhodes’ repertoire is firmly steeped in the 1950s and the decades that precede. Cape Cod is where this show began, on the Massachusetts coast at the Provincetown Cabaret Fest. From there it moved up to New York before coming over to London for its European Premiere.
It is an evening that invites us to step back in time and imagine we are in an intimate club sitting around the grand piano with a few close friends. The venue is ideal for evoking that atmosphere, and Rhodes does indeed pull off the conceit with his relaxed manner and ease with the assorted crowd he treats as his confidantes. Sometimes his inter-song banter has an over-scripted feel, but we enjoy his candid reminiscences, particularly one about his friendship with Noël Coward’s goddaughter and an errant smoking jacket. Deliciously camp in spangled vest and dinner jacket, Rhodes slips into song seamlessly and celebrates singers from Frank Sinatra to Louis Armstrong – even Dusty Springfield; and the great songsmiths such as Cole Porter, Noël Coward, Kurt Weill et al.
Musical director, Simon Beck, is at the piano providing the lush jazz-infused arrangements that help strengthen Rhodes’ fairly thin vocals. His voice suits the quieter moments. Weill and Brecht’s ‘Mack the Knife’ begins as it should: sultry and dark before it is inevitably (arguably wrongly) given the up-tempo, jolly treatment. But the vocal limitations are laid bare when a belt is called for. ‘You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me’ cries out for a grand opening which is all too absent. The passion that informs his story telling doesn’t quite cross over into his performances of the numbers. Cole Porter’s ‘I’ve Got You Under My Skin’ plods, but is later saved by his ‘Miss Otis Regrets’ which does give an outlet to Rhodes’ acting background, as he knocks back the cocktails and gets increasingly tipsy. The interpretation has character that elsewhere his voice has yet to find.
A crackle of electricity fills the room when he invites onto the stage his partner Jake Oswell. A tall, beguiling presence in high heels, black evening gown and a voice as smooth as his satin opera gloves. Oswell launches into a delicious version of the classic Judy Garland ‘I’ll Plant My Own Tree’. It is a shame they are given such little stage time – after a second number Oswell slinks back into the shadows, but the performance hangs over the stage like stardust.
Rhodes concludes the evening with a moving tribute to the great Louis Armstrong, replicating his famous spoken introduction to the classic ‘What a Wonderful World’. “Seems to me, it ain’t the world that’s so bad but what we’re doin’ to it. And all I’m saying is, see, what a wonderful world it would be if only we’d give it a chance. Love baby, love”. And so the show ends on a high, optimistic note that finally captures the essence of what Rhodes is trying to do. This is cabaret, after all, where we leave our troubles behind. David Rhodes’ “Soir Noir”, with its unpolished sophistication, does let us forget the outside world for a short while. Not quite pure gold, but a nostalgic journey back to the Golden Era.
SOIR NOIR: A NIGHTCLUB CONFIDENTIAL
Crazy Coqs
Reviewed on 16th April 2025
by Jonathan Evans
Photography by Michael Lee Stever
Previously reviewed at this venue:
TORI SCOTT: TORI WITH AN ‘I’ | ★★★★ | February 2023
BARB JUNGR SINGS BOB DYLAN | ★★★★ | October 2022
