Respect La Diva Preview 7/9/2011 In Depth Prelude The beams of the full moon bathed the two people smoking at an out of the way table outside the bar in her rays. The warm air cooled gently by the sea breeze was quiet and alive. The woman was talking. The man was listening to her troubles, doubts, and great dreams. The sound of her undulating naturally husky voice revealing more about what she would do than she ever could have imagined possible. Looking into her eyes that were neither blue nor green he could see her future coming. She was going to be alright. She was going to make it, and live some of those dreams. He could see the stars and glitter, the big lights, the accolades to come, all there clear as the moon was full and bright this night. It was all right there in her eyes coming sooner than she’d ever believe or could even dream possible. “You’re going to do it.” “Do you really think so ? I think it might be too late.” “No. I don’t think you’ll do it. I know you will.” ____________________________
The guy taking my ticket informed me that the show would be starting half an hour late. The tiny little bar area was rammed solid so I nipped outside and into the Garrick Arms for a swift after dinner brandy. The pub was pretty rammed too. It was quite a contrast to the slow steady trade of the night before and the bar staff commenting on how it was nice to have a slow night for a change. There was quite a mixture of folken gathering for the show of all age ranges. Some had dressed up smartly, others were in their everyday street wear. Some of the ladies looked like cat walk stars. I didn’t see any faces I recognised though. I took a last smoke before going in and the shout going up that the auditorium was now open. Inside a backdrop with the shows logo covered the stage. Folken gathered and settled in their seats before an American fellow, smartly dressed with a hat and beard spoke a few words of introduction. If that was Adrian Grant somebody wants to get an up to date picture up on the official ‘Respect La Diva’ web site. “Ladies and gentlemen, ‘Respect La Diva’.” The show started with a faint but rapidly building heavy and solid bass line the power of which reminded me momentarily of standing in Finsbury Park back in June 1996 watching the Sex Pistols open their ‘Filthy Lucre’ tour. Lights went on, the curtain raised, the backing singers came on stage and the rest of the band began joining with the bass opening the set with Tina Turner’s ‘Simply The Best’. The set designed by the renowned Jonathan Park, featured a split level display with three staircases which incorporated the band to the left and centre stage tucked into the stairwells. The top stage also featured a large screen on which video clips and themed images were displayed. One by one tonight’s four Diva’s emerged from the sides on the top stage and slowly and deliberately made their way down the various staircases in blood red individually styled full length dresses as they shared singing the lyrics between them. How Denis Pearson managed to leave the stage and change out of that dress and into a stunning white number to follow on with Aretha Franklin’s ‘Freedom’ in what couldn’t have been more than sixty seconds was nothing short of wardrobe magic. Zoe Birkett was up next doing Aretha’s ‘I Say A Little Prayer’ to a danced out scene on the top stage depicting domestic violence. So far the sound was fantastic. Philip Clusky obviously knew what he was doing. The mix was just right. Everything was clear with no one thing dominating over the others. So far the girls were all on form too. I could see some nerves showing here and there but Sheila Feguson seemed to be in command during the opening number giving line cues. I don’t know what went on before they came on stage but what ever it was it had put them in high spirits because they were grinning at each other so much as they descended the stairs I thought they were going to get the giggles. It was a good opener and the two Aretha numbers which followed it already seemed to have turned the audience into willing putty. Lightening crackled and the sound of rain opened ‘Natural Woman’ with dancers doing a routine with umbrellas. Sung by Sheila Ferguson, Zoe Birkett, and Denis Pearson all sharing the lyrics it sounded fabulous. Andy Abraham took centre stage as the Host. We got the introduction and hello out the way before he began building up Katy as Dusty Springfield. On came Katy in a glitzy white dress and a brand new looking Dusty wig hat. She looked marvellous and kicked things off with ‘Son Of A Preacher’. It was a good performance but I thought it was just a fraction too fast paced and I’ve heard her do it better. Andy came back on at the end and here’s where the side story comes in. You see one of the sound crew girls had been complaining that she hadn’t passed the audition for the show and how she so much wanted to be a Diva. Andy asked her to run a clip of Dusty before the next song. She couldn’t find it. It was all part of the act of course. I liked the idea but unfortunately the suspension of disbelief, that opportunity to take in your audience and kid them along a bit, didn’t last more than around thirty seven seconds. It was too staged, too obviously part of the show and would have benefited dramatically with some ad-lib commentary on the audience, back stage crew, and cast. There’s a great future opportunity here to have a good laugh about the on and off stage cock ups that occur during the production and execution of shows like this. If the audience think they’re getting something last night’s didn’t get and tomorrows won’t understand it makes their night and gives them something to talk about up the pub. There was a big opportunity missed to cover over a sound problem that occurred for real later in the show by the use of the Millie character. All that they’d needed to do to get away with that slip was have Millie run across the stage. That was a moment when the suspension of disbelief could have been recaptured and the mistake made into an ‘authentic’ Millie character moment. None of us would have ever been sure if that really was a mistake or part of the act. Back on stage Katy was doing an absolutely belting version of ‘Another Piece Of My Heart’. The band were rockin’ and Katy was sounding on top form. The tune went down a storm with the Dusty fans in the crowd who were very enthusiastic in their applause. Then we had another Millie sketch. Again, whilst I can see a great potential for the Millie idea it could so much benefit from a more gritty and humorous approach to inject the character with some depth of reality that can suspend the audiences disbelief. Sheila Ferguson was up next doing Tina Turner’s ‘Proud Mary’. This was Sheila’s first solo performance of the show and it was obvious from the crowd response that a lot of folken had come to see her. On FaceBook some controversy had broken out on the official Respect La Diva page when it emerged that Sheila wouldn’t be singing any of her well know songs herself. Whoever is in charge as Mod over there must have freaked because a whole load of stuff got deleted. Gods help them if they ever decide to open a forum on their official publicity site. Sheila rocked the place with ‘Proud Mary’ and followed it up with ‘River Deep Mountain High’. Between songs one of the dancers attempted to whip off the bottom half of Sheila’s dress Bucks Fizz style. The dress stubbornly refused to comply for a while, “What are you doing down there ?” The audience laughed, the part of the dress that was suppose to come off eventually did and the next song started. Sheila sounded fantastic and really gave a full out performance that should have had the place bouncing, but southerners are a more reserved audience than others that this show will likely play to on tour next year. Sheila left the stage and Katy began singing ‘We Don’t Need Another Hero’. Sheila reappeared and took over vocals, the girls finishing the song together. I wasn’t sure who was supposed to be singing this one. For a moment up there it looked like Katy and Sheila weren’t sure either. First night nerves no doubt. What was it Sheila said later near the end of the show after forgetting a cue, “Don’t you just love previews ?” Well, yeah, actually. This one was turning out pretty good. Andy returned to the stage and began building up Zoe Birkett as Etta James. Now to be fair I knew next to nothing about Zoe and I’d never heard her sing before tonight. I was also quite a fan of Etta James. I was pleasantly surprised at just how well Zoe did sing it. True one or two parts could have stood a little more bass in the notes but she was fantastic. The crowd behind me thought so too. Next up was Denise Pearson doing a couple of numbers I was not familiar with. The first tune passed me by with bare recognition. A slow song that just didn’t touch me other than the smooth vocal delivery Denise was giving it. The second one ‘If I Ain’t Got You’ came across a lot better and I was impressed by Denise’s delivery. Five Star was a long time ago and my memory only dredges up one notable memory of an up coming Liverpool heavy metal band called Back From Nam I saw supporting the Guana Batz back in 1988. The whole band were wearing Five Star T-shirts because they were all in love with Denise Pearson. I couldn’t decide if she was one of the most sultry women I’ve seen on stage, or the scariest, but I just bet she looks great in leather and her voice was impressing the hell out of me. Andy took over as host again and began involving the audience in the show getting us to respond on certain lines as he sang ‘Man’s World’. This was a nice little touch but perhaps some type of response based banter would have been helpful earlier in the show to engage the audience sooner. It worked well but again I think there’s more that can be done with it. Kate came on next doing Dolly Parton’s ‘Nine To Five’ in a rather fabulous pair of bright yellow high heels before being joined on stage by Zoe, Sheila, and Denise cueing another Bucks Fizz moment that went smoothly this time around. The four girls proceeded to do storming versions of Madonna’s ‘Express Yourself’ and the Pointer Sisters ‘So Excited’ before the intermission. The bar was rammed like a sardine tin. Lively chatter buzzed positively. The ladies were smiling with their eyes as well as their mouths. Men folk looked happy. The bell went, round two here we come. The second half of the show opened with the song ‘Dream Girls’ from the musical, and the film with Beyonce, about Diana Ross sung by Katy, Sheila, and Denise. A nice up tempo tune fittingly suited to opening the second half on many levels if you think about it. Next came Zoe doing a couple of Beyonce tunes. Now I could quite happy sit and pull apart Beyonce for hours and tear to shreds her Glastonbury performance and mention how police were initially working on the presumption that Chris Shale committed suicide so he wouldn’t have to listen to her, but I won’t. Just put me in the Etta James camp. Etta may not have come across clearly with her point on telly but I understood exactly what she was on about, and she was right. The first song I think was called ‘Fighter’ followed by ‘If I Were A Boy’. Having stated I’m no Beyonce fan it’ll come as no surprise to you if I didn’t like the songs. You’d be right, I didn’t, but that didn’t take away any of the power or the magic of Zoe’s vocal delivery. She was great. Denise Pearson followed it up with ……… a song I just don’t know. It doesn’t matter, whatever that song was she sang it was terrific. I mean really terrific. It was probably the singular most impressive vocal delivery of the evening and drew huge applause. It struck me that sooner or later these girls are going to try out do each other during the run of the show. Judging by what I heard and saw already that was likely to be something special to watch develop over the course of the run. Just imagine with me a moment, night after night there they are giving it large on stage. Each one doing their own particular songs trying to make that outstanding performance of the night. Each one inspiring the others to pull out all the stops and give it full tilt, every night. Gods that would be worth turning into a film all by itself. What lucky folken the rest of the cast and crew are to be witness to that. They are going to have so much fun doing this show. Host Andy appeared rising out of the top stage in a pilots uniform like something off Thunderbirds. I don’t think they intended it that way but it might work out visually and comically better if he actually had a Thunderbirds uniform on instead of the pilot thing. He did a bit of a tap dance before faking coming on to a member of the audience as Sheila appeared top left to watch him in mock disapproval. Again, this was too staged and an opportunity to engage the audience in participation was lost. We’d know it would all be part of the show, part of the act, but imagine how much better as a sketch this would be if Andy did actually chat up and swap some ad-lib banter with an audience member while Shelia looked on. The songs she performed during the sketch were ‘Where Did Our Love Go’, a song I fist fell in love with after playing the b-side of Soft Cells ‘Tainted Love’. She followed it up with ‘Stop In The Name Of Love’ and ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ and her performance was absolutely belting full throttle red hot. The crowd still seated were going nuts southern style. Host Andy took back command and no doubt in response to the FaceBook controversy made special mention that Sheila was to be inducted into next years Diva Hall Of Fame. Next up was Katy singing Judy Garland’s ‘Get Up Get Happy’. Unfortunately her mic was dead. As only a true professional can she carried on singing regardless. From row D I could still just about hear her above the band. Now this was the moment I mentioned earlier where the use of the Millie character could have saved the day. All she’d have had to do was walk across the stage looking flustered and none of us would have ever known for sure if it had been part of the show or not. She wouldn’t even have needed to act. Thankfully the sound crew were quick on the mark and got things sorted out around halfway into the song. With the shadow of the Tivoli shaken off, at the songs close the backing singers took over for a while. Now these girls had been great all night. While the four lead singers were off changing costumes or waiting for their next song these girls were up there working it. They performed two songs before Andy Abraham returned to the stage. The first was one I haven’t heard before ‘This Is Paradise’, I think by Bridget Mendler, the second was ‘This Is My Life’ by Shirley Bassey. My Ma loved Shirley Bassey, she’d have loved this show too if only she were still here. It was the backing singers chance to shine, and shine they did. The one with the red hair had a voice as impressive as a cabinet minister’s bank account. When Andy returned to the stage he surprised us with Queen’s ‘I Was Born To Love You’, Stevie Wonder’s ‘Isn’t She lovely’, and something I didn’t recognise but similar in sound to the last one. The idea appeared to be to gee up the men folk in the audience that had presumably been reluctantly talked into accompanying their other halves to the show. I suppose not everyone is a Thin Lizzy, AC/DC, and Zodiac Mindwarp freak. Never mind, Andy was actually very good. At the end of his last song he gave us the ‘lest we forget the fallen Diva’s’ speech opening the way for Katy in a full length Diva dress and a long haired wig she should think about keeping to sing ‘Memories’ while images of the gone but not forgotten played on the big screen behind her. What I don’t think had been expected was the way people began clapping the images on the screen like behaviourally conditioned sea lions in response to the different images. Now its all well and good to appreciate the fallen, but what about that poor girl on stage singing her heart out they weren’t allowing to be heard ? That’s suppose to be one of the show’s big moments, and it didn’t make it for the right reasons. It made it because the last image, and quite rightly, was of Amy Winehouse. Now that’s someone’s songs that should have made it into the show in preference to pretenders to the Diva throne like Beyonce. I’ll always treasure being lucky enough to have seen and heard Amy just before the meltdown. I always hoped I’d get another chance see her again because that girl sang with the power of a goddess. Denise followed up with cracking renditions of ‘I’m Every Woman’ and ‘Dance With Somebody’ and again I was struck with the power of her vocal delivery. Andy popped up again introducing a short message from Refuge before Denise and Zoe performed what I think was another Whitney song. Andy returned and the Millie sketch saga reached it’s all too predictable conclusion. Again it’s not a bad idea, I like it, but it could just be executed so much better. There was just a little bit too much essence of panto about it. The last song of the set was a blasting version of Aretha Franklin’s ‘Respect’ with all fours of tonight’s Diva’s, backing singers, dancers, full band, and the kitchen sink. Right at the end of the song Sheila missed a cue, “Don’t you just love previews ?” The audience gave them a standing ovation and enthusiastic applause bringing them all back on for a three song encore of ‘I Will Survive’, ‘We Are Family, and closed with ‘Sisters Doing It For Themselves’ to a rapturous approval. If you ask me I’d say, criticisms aside, they’ve got themselves a sure fire genuine hit on their hands here. I can already see the film of the show. That Millie character thing would work well there. In the end it’s all about the music. It’s the music that matters above all and forget the costumes, the lighting, the dancers, the side story thing, and just listen. Listen to those girls up there singing their hearts out because you’ll be damned lucky to hear a better set of female vocalists all live up front singing such great songs all on one stage again if you live to be old and grey. Listen because it’s the music that’s important, and that is what the show is all about. How the sound of a woman’s voice can move and smooth us like a power wielded from the goddess Aphrodite herself. It will be interesting to see how other audiences across the country react when the show goes on tour next year. I can’t wait to see how it goes down back home in Liverpool at the Empire. Our girls and men folk really know how to party. They’re going to just love this. Viper 9/9/2011 One Year Later Outside a London West End theatre a hooded black clad figure stood smoking outside in the rain after the show. The surrounding neon’s danced like stage lights across the heart and dagger ring he was wearing each time he took a drag. Day walking through his home town one afternoon he’d been struck by an urge to buy a ticket for a show so newly conceived that the auditions were barely a week completed. Now he’d seen that show. At it’s Preview no less. Seen it for the second time. The detail correct right down to the colours and the glittering shape of the stars on the backdrop. _______________________________________________ All images & text ©Viperslair.co.uk All rights reserved. Any un-authorized publication of texts, parts of texts, or images, may result in legal action. Publishing permission can be obtained from Viperslair.co.uk by written request only. First Published 10/9/2011 by Viperslair.co.uk Web
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