As cabaret goes mainstream, it faces challenges as well as opportunities. Time Out London's cabaret editor explored the issues in a talk at this year's Edinburgh Fringe
Julie Madly Deeply review
Gilded Balloon Teviot
Over the past few years, Sarah-Louise Young has established herself as a Fringe favourite with her ‘Cabaret Whore’ shows, musical character-comedy pieces in which she plays, and sings, as a Piaf manqué, a country-and-western good time gal, a Broadway diva of a certain age et al. This show, like those, is created with her co-songwriter and accompanist Michael Roulston and shares their wit and well-turned formal accomplishment, but marks a departure. Young plays (a version of) herself and tells us a single story: that of Julie Andrews. ‘Julie, Madly, Deeply’ aims to reclaim Andrews from the stereotype of saccharine sentimentality and the show’s emphasis on her precocity, resilience and willingness to experiment is both rounding and heartening if hardly radically revisionist or provocative. More than anything, it’s a teatime tour de force for Young, whose love for and affinity with Andrews is aptly realised through her pin-sharp diction, superbly controlled voice and dextrous character work alongside narration judiciously larded with biographical gobbets: in between inventive bits of comedy, mime, dance and of course song, she gives us music-hall, newsreel, Broadway and Hollywood types, plus nifty Hepburn and Minnelli impressions to boot. The one person she rarely impersonates in this pacy, heartfelt and hugely accomplished hour is Andrews herself – the mark, one feels, of one disciplined, passionate and terrifically talented trouper’s respect for another.
If you like the sound of this, try:
'In Vogue: Songs by Madonna', Michael Griffiths's tongue-in-cheek straight-faced tribute to a very different kind of pop-culture icon.
For more from Ben Walters in Edinburgh, follow him @not_television
The latest Edinburgh Fringe cabaret reviews
The hilariously entertaining and exuberantly queer alt-drag troupe hit the Fringe
Gruesomely satirical storytelling from a Deep South fop with a way with words
A Parisian tribute to musical theatre bursting with joie de vivre but lacking in momentum
The nominees are announced for the TO&ST Fringe cabaret award 2013
Eye-boggling dexterity and cheeky charisma from the young sleight-of-hand illusionist
Wonderfully entertaining, utterly unsentimental show from the Fringe's favourite octogenarian
A confrontational, inspirational, riveting show from the New York-based clown pedagogue
A warm, witty and tightly written satire on the discontents of the beauty ideal
Though not without rough edges, at its best this debut set is electrifying
Discover Time Out original video