Muse – Theatre Press

Dinner with the vampire is fabulous fare

By Bradley Storer

After an hour of sampling both the fine cocktails and served a delicious array of meals at Dracula’s Theatre Restaurant whilst being serenaded by a band of vampiric jazz artists, I settled into my seat for the main show – one could only hope it would match the hilarity of the floor show being provided by the dementedly jolly waiting staff!

Luckily I was not disappointed, and my expectations were even surpassed. After a quick introduction to our various performers for the evening, mixed with a stirring group rendition of Muse’s ‘Uprising’, Spiderlash: Vampire Vaudeville launched off with an opening worthy of a gothic rock opera that integrated multimedia to dizzyingly entertaining effect and set the bar high for the entire evening.

Spiderlash is truly vaudevillian in the traditional sense of the word. One minute we’re thrown a stand-up routine that harks back to a music-hall comedian, the next we’re treated to an arachnid-themed aerial routine before we were surprised with a scintillating drag performance (a cameo by effervescent drag performer Art Simone). Dancing skeletons, a garden of living statues, a magic act that leaves most of the performers in various states of impalement and dismemberment – all happen and we were left glowing with pleasure at the sheer breadth of variety. Throughout the evening the audience is deluged with campy good humour that is sure to delight anyone and everyone (though I advise leaving the children at home) with a few choice moments of seriousness that are all the more effective for their rarity. The production values and costume quality for the show are extremely high with technological fittings for nearly every section that makes you admire Dracula’s for their sheer dedication to providing excellent entertainment for their patrons.

All the performers are exceedingly talented, many doubling as musicians onstage and off, and provide a slick, confident experience, especially when interacting with the audience. Special mention to performer Philippa Harrison, whose strong vocals come to the fore in a simmering burlesque performance of Portishead’s ‘Glory Box’ (with a twist I won’t give away here) that held the audience spellbound for its entire duration.

VENUE: Dracula’s Theatre Restaurant, 100 Victoria St, Carlton VIC

DATES: Now playing

PRICE: VIP ‘A’ Reserve Tues–Thurs $105, Fri–Sat $115, ‘B’ Reserve Tues–Thurs $85, Fri–Sat $95

TIME: 6.30pm for ‘A’ Reserve, 7pm for ‘B’ Reserve

BOOKING: www.draculas.com.au , (03) 9347 3344

In search of the sequel to success

By Bradley Storer

After her incredibly successful debut cabaret, The Damsel in Shining Armour (winner of Best Cabaret Adelaide Fringe 2011), Sophie Walsh-Harrington returns to Melbourne with her new show HOT. Crafting a follow-up is a massive task as Sophie herself is obviously aware – the first segment of HOT acts as both a funeral and exorcism of the success of Damsel, Sophie entering in mourning black, greeting individual audience members like attendees at a wake, brandishing her Fringe award in their faces.

Those coming expecting similar fare to Damsel should be forewarned: Sophie continuously informs the audience, via bullhorn, that ‘this is not a cabaret’. Instead we are taken through Sophie’s travails to leave behind her cabaret past and become a ‘serious’ artist, ranging from attempts at monologue, mime and in one particularly hilarious segment, political donkey-themed agitprop anthems. Songs fromartists such as Paloma Faith, Muse and Sia are scattered throughout the show with fragments popping up like bad habits.

Sophie nevertheless retains the goof-ballish but headstrong innocence that made Damsel such a joy, which here keeps the audience on side even as the show takes a more confusing turn. Her vocals have only increased in power, which makes one sad about the relative lack of songs in comparison to her previous work – but in a show which she repeatedly proclaims is not a cabaret, this makes sense.

The show’s major theme is a continuation from Damsel: the attempt to live an authentic life – in this case the struggle of artists to maintain artistic originality and legitimacy in the wake of enormous success. Sophie shamelessly parodies artistic self-indulgence as the show moves into the realm of ‘serious’ theatre.

The culmination of this endeavour is a lengthy, ‘Animal Farm’-style play. Despite Sophie’s uproarious characterizations and comically expressive physicality, this section began to drag the further it went along – even though this links in with the overall thematic structure of the show, self-indulgence (whether real or simulated) is only funny for so long.

However at the climax of the show, the accumulated superficiality collapses in on itself as if by magic. Sophie seems to rise from the debris of the dissembled show like a phoenix, with a spontaneous rendition of Des’ree’s ‘Kissing You’ so powerful it held the audience completely spellbound. For this alone HOT is worth seeing, reiterating not only Sophie’s incredible skill as a cabaret artist but reassembling what has come before in the show into a true, electrifying moment of artistic rebirth.

HOT stands as a riotous examination of the downsides of creative success, in its own way as cunningly and cleverly structured (if not more so) as its predecessor, and, if the finale is anything to go by, promises even greater achievement and success for Sophie’s future. What is perhaps required is a bigger audience for this show to burn at its brightest.

HOT plays at La Mama Theatre until March 4, 8:30pm Wed/Sun, 9:30pm Thur-Sat

Directed by Alex Wright, backing tracks performed and engineered by Jason Odle

Tickets: (03) 9347 6142 or www.lamama.com.au