Cabaret In
Lauderdale House:
Rebecca
Thornhill & Louise Davidson
Lauderdale
House, Sunday 25 November 2007
Review
by Emma Shane
© 30
November 2007
Surely one of the most fun cabaret’s Lauderdale House has echoed to.
Well certainly one of the best fun ones I’ve seen there.
I had seen both ladies in shows before, all the same I wasn’t all that
familiar with their talents. I certainly never expected them to be quite so
entertaining.
The afternoon finds Tim McArthur back in the role of ‘Host’. So
of course he had to sing, but he kept it brief, and generally seemed to be a
calmer host than he used to be. Their pianist, Joe took his place at the piano,
and then Rebecca Thornhill and Louise Davidson entered. Both are
wearing long elegant black evening dresses, with black shoes. They launch into
a rousing song and dance opening number, which had clearly either been written
for them, or else Rebecca had altered the lyrics to fit them (she’s very good
at rewriting lyrics). Well however they
ended up with this number, it got the performance off to a terrific start,
introducing both of them to the audience, recalling some of the shows they have
been in, especially the stuff they’ve done together. It usually seems to get a
cabaret off to a good start to have opening number that really fits the
performer’s own personality, it helps the audience to connect with the
performer, and sets a tone for the afternoon’s entertainment. Lauderdale has
seen a few other excellent openings like that (such as Gay Soper singing
about her name, or the time two years ago when Louise Gold opened with A
Little Love). Rebecca Thornhill and Louise Davidson
certainly seem to know how to connect well with an audience. After introducing
themselves they launch into a burst of Rogers & Hammerstein,
possibly a little medley, or at least I think it was Many A New Day
and I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair, the latter was
certainly included. They both sing well with a lot of enthusiasm. Rebecca is
just enchanting, while Louise has a good bit of experience of Rogers &
Hammerstein, having toured in the revue Something Wonderful
(where she did an unbeatable performance of It’s Me). They inform
us that given these days there are a lot of pop-song musicals around, by way of
a contrast they thought they’d sing some songs from the 1940s. So they settle
into an enjoyable first half, which includes two contrasting songs based around
letters. Rebecca sings one and Louise does the other, almost in counterpoint. For
this they also have props, paper and biros. Each sits on one of the silver
chairs, Rebecca closest to the audience, bottom stage right, by the window,
Louise rather further away, next to the back of the piano, towards stage left.
Rebecca sang an unfamiliar number about a woman writing to her husband in the
army, while Louise had the harder job singing the Judy Garland classic Dear
Mr Gable/You Made Me Love You. (Harder because for a singer to try and
make a number associated with a famous singer their own cannot be easy, as the
audience will have a tendency to mentally compare with whoever). However, both
these two ladies put their songs across well. They continued to mix and match,
sometimes singing duets, sometimes solos. During the solos sometimes the performer
not singing would wait on stage, sometimes off stage, it varied. Either Louise
Davidson is very good at slinking quietly into the background when not
actually performing, or perhaps Rebecca Thornhill just has the stronger
stage presence. Perhaps it’s a mixture of both. Certainly although their duets
are very much a double-act, Rebecca (who is slightly shorter) does dominate,
somewhat. At one point Rebecca went off stage leaving Louise to hold the
audience, with a number, My Ship from Lady In The Dark,
which she introduces “a beautiful song”, and mentions that when she was in Lady
In The Dark it was sung by Maria Friedman. This afternoon, Louise
Davidson made My Ship her own (she must’ve done, because I couldn’t get the
tune of it out of my head afterwards).
Towards the end of the first half, Louise Davidson went off
stage, leaving Rebecca Thornhill alone out front, to tell the audience
just where her passion for 1940s music comes from. When she went to college her
mother gave her a whole bunch of old sheet music. Her college-mates thought she
was very old-fashioned. Rebecca has even brought one of her pieces of music
with her, and holds it up for all to see (it looked very well used). Rebecca
tells us that one thing she feels has been lost, since the 1940s was community
singing. She then launches into a song, which she invites the audience to join
in. She sings it all the way through first, and then on getting the audience to
join in prompts us with the starting lines. One of the joys of Lauderdale is the
opportunity for the occasional audience sing-along. Obviously they have to do
it in their Christmas shows. But at other times too. Tim McArthur seems
to like to get the audience joining in, whether he’s being himself or “Sister
Mary McArthur”; and who could forget the occasion two years ago when one
former Mamma Mia Dynamo decided to get the audience to
sing Abba in Japanese. This afternoon the audience once again joined in
enthusiastically, even though I’m not sure how many of us had any familiarity
with the song beforehand. But a good time was had by all.
Louise Davidson returns to the stage dressed as a tramp, a la Judy
Garland. We can all guess exactly what number they are going to do. Rebecca
Thornhill makes her exit for “a quick change”, leaving Louise to
entertain the audience. This she proceeds to do by telling us a bit about the
history of the film from which the number comes, and she connects really well
with the audience as she does so. The time flies by and soon Rebecca returns to
the stage also dressed as a tramp for We’re A Couple Of Swells.
Both ladies have even added grime to their make-up and black wigs. Louise’s wig
fell off as soon as she went to lift her hat. A few moments later Rebecca’s
fell off too, was that in sympathy? But like the professional Supertroupers that
they are the pair carried on regardless. They sing and dance with such riotous
fun, that they make the number pretty much their own; (even if we are all
familiar with Garland and Astaire in the film). I think Rebecca is sort of
meant to be taking Judy Garland’s part and Louise is taking Fred
Astaire’s. It isn’t just their singing and acting that make this number.
Their dancing too is terrific, who choreographed it? It’s just as well it ended
the first half, because I doubt if even this extraordinary double act could
have followed it straight away.
The second half opens with another stunning surprise. The dynamic duo
are dressed in gorgeous glittering red show dresses, a la Marilyn Monroe and
Jane Russell in the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. They
also wear matching red shoes, and a good deal of costume jewellery. “But no
wigs” this time “they fall off” remarked one of them (after the
number). They are of course singing and dancing I’m Just A Little Girl
From Little Rock. I once heard such a terrific version (in one of Ian
Marshall-Fisher’s Lost Musicals) so it’s hard for me to feel
that anyone can make it their own. Yet somehow this duo do make it so much
their own, that for the time being (at least while they are up their doing it)
one can forget about anyone else’s version of that song. And as for there
dancing, Wow! this just gets better and better. So well done there.
The costumes look
truly stunning, and there’s an added element of surprise when Louise informs us
that Rebecca actually made them herself. What a multitalented lady Rebecca
Thornhill is. One of Louise’s bracelets (on her right arm) worked itself
loose, a detail she silently indicated to her friend, who promptly came over
and fixed it for her. I can’t remember what the next number was, other than
that the pair briefly wondered if their costume jewellery was suitable, and
decided, quite rightly that, it didn’t matter.
The second half continued in a
similar manner to the first, a mixture of duets and solos. This included a
couple of excerpts from Showboat, they explain they were both in
it at the Albert Hall, where there were a lot of problems with the acoustics,
and the singers couldn’t hear the orchestra, but they themselves couldn’t be
heard easily either. Apparently the cast nicknamed it “Shout Boat”. You
know a show is in trouble when it gets nicknamed, don’t you? (think of “Not
So Hot In November”, “Closed A Little Sooner”, and, “Fielding’s
Folly”). One thing the duo seem to forget to mention is that Showboat
actually dates to 1927. It did however have a major Broadway revival in 1945 (a
revival for which Kern even wrote additional material – the last time he would
do so), therefore I guess it does count as 1940s, with two such delightful
performers one’s got to have some leeway. Besides it gives them an opportunity
to indulge their voices in classic Kern. Rebecca sings a beautiful Bill,
while Louise does an entirely satisfactory Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man,
which in all fairness to her is the more legendary song.
At another point Rebecca goes
off-stage, to fetch a feather-boa for her number, leaving Louise to hold the
audience with Irving Berlin’s
classic You Must’ve Been A Beautiful Baby. Overall Louise Davidson
is a puzzling performer. When she’s in the chorus she’s so quietly in the
background getting on with her job, that one doesn’t always notice her. You
might not expect her to be able to hold an audience as well as she in fact
can.. Since Lauderdale cabarets are delightfully are unmiked she sang it out
with a fair amount of power, though I have heard one more powerful singer at
Lauderdale. But she did a good job with the song, and kept the audience
entertained.
Rebecca returned to the stage,
Louise exits with something along the lines of “See you in a minuet”,
and returns part way through the number to join in with dialogue, but she
stands subtly at the back, making it clear it’s Rebecca’s number, she’s only
there as the supporting player.
The pair close the
show with another of their tremendously enthusiastic song and dance
spectaculars, Kander & Ebb’s I’m Everybody’s Girl.
That song seems to be becoming a bit of a favourite among cabaret performers,
but I’ve never heard anyone sing it quite as well as these two. Originally a
solo, but this afternoon they turned it into a stunning duet, so it became “We’re
Everybody’s Girl”. Again the choreography was just brilliant, and was their
shear verve and joi de verve. I think both of them brought elements of their
own stage roles to this number. Rebecca had a hint of Ragtime’s Evelyn
Nesbitt about her, while Louise had more than a touch of Zip Goes A
Million’s Lilac Deleney in her performance (even her “Spanish”-style
accent was reminiscent of Lilac doing that South American number). They got
such thoroughly well deserved applause that Tim McArthur had to ask them
to do an encore. One of them said something about not having another number
prepared. Nevertheless game girls that they are they returned to the stage, and
declaring that it wasn’t quite Christmas, yet, agreed to sing Have
Yourself A Merry Little Christmas. Which they did beautifully. It was
simple, delightful, and made, what Howard Keel would have called a great
“Get off song”. It seemed to sum up exactly what they had done
throughout the show, it’s a classic, one which needs handling sensitively,
which is exactly how they do handle it.
All in all surely one of the best cabaret’s Lauderdale House has
hosted. In fact I’ve only seen one other act here that I liked even more, and
as that had been by someone I’m rather a fan of, well I’m biased. This
afternoon’s entertainment was jolly good fun. And surprisingly clean fun as
well.
So many cabarets, seem to take
Sex, and Women Talking About Men as their themes, that well one
can get a little boring, after the umpteenth time. While a lot of cabarets
(particularly solo acts) tend to take their performer’s Life History as their
theme, which is great for performers like Liz Robertson, or Louise
Gold, because they have a truly interesting story to tell with a strong
element of ‘Living History’; but that too can get tedious with less
unusual performers. It makes a nice change to have two performers who are
simply a couple’ a showgirls, up here having fun doing the songs
they really enjoy, entertaining the audience with a good old fashioned smash
hit entertainment. Yes there was a 1940s theme, but in fact they didn’t stick
too rigidly to that, managing to include a 1997 number by Kander & Ebb,
and of course class 1920s Kern. It certainly made a nice change from
some of that popsical modern musical theatre stuff (such as the awful Gerad
Presgarvic)
The pair perform with great
professionalism. Yes with some of the classic songs there may have been other singers
who did a better version of a number. But these two do a jolly good job, and at
least for the duration of the entertainment one is usually able to forget about
other people’s versions of the songs. While as for their wonderful dancing.
Well I don’t think Cabaret In The House has ever had an act with
so much splendid dancing, Who choreographed them? As for the little problem with the wigs at
the end of the first half, well Cabaret In The House has known
much worse mishaps than that (who remembers the 2002 Hampstead and
Highgate Arts Festival Cabaret Special?). As a double-act they are very
much a double-act, although Rebecca is the more dominant of the pair, so that
when they are on stage together she’s the one an audience will tend to focus
on. However, Louise makes a splendidly strong supporting player; and they
really make a good team.
Rebecca
Thornhill is one of those multi-talented Arts Ed gals (whom that
institution ought to be really proud of). She has a real star quality about
her. She can light up the stage, and one just can’t help but notice her,
whatever she is doing on the stage. But her showiness is not superficial, there
is a genuine tremendous talent behind it. But she’s more than just an
actress-singer-dancer. Her costume creations look great, and she’s a very
inventive talented writer too (as her contributions a Theatrecares gala
last October proved).Let’s hope that versatile Rebecca Thornhill becomes
one of British musical theatre’s brightest stars. She’s a talent that deserves
to be even better known than she already is.
Judging by her resume in
various theatre programmes, Louise Davidson seems to be on her way to
becoming a latter-day Lenora Nemetz in the making. Given the current
West End trend for big long-running shows (requiring holidays) and the casting
of ‘celebrities’ (who can’t always hack it); that’s not necessarily a
bad thing to be. Come to think of it, I’d like to hear her sing Dan Goggin’s
Playing Second Fiddle.
But the best thing about Rebecca
Thornhill and Louise Davidson, besides their wonderful song and
dance (and acting) talents, is that both ladies seem to have such a genuine
appreciation for the material they are performing, and also a strong sense of
history. They also connect really well with the audience, and both have such
nice gentle genuine smiles; that it is a real pleasure to be entertained by two
such lovely actresses.
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should be)
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