From an impactful entrance with a rousing rendition of Whitney Houston’s ‘I’m Every Woman’ through to a slowed down, jazzy version of cupcakKe’s brazen dirty rap hit ‘[I’m rolling with the] LGBT’ and a unique reworking of a certain hit song made famous by Frank Sinatra, ‘My Way’ – Milo Hartill has the audience utterly entranced from beginning to end in her laugh-out-loud debut solo show, Black, Fat and F**gy (BFF).
There aren’t many 23-year-olds who could perform the latter song with the gravitas it demands – but Milo isn’t your average Gen Z triple-threat performer (slash underwear model and accidental influencer).
Painting a picture through a pastiche of personal stories, anecdotes, and interpretive covers of well-loved tunes, you can’t help but fall in love with this multifaceted entertainer by the end of this 70-odd-minute romp. The audience is allowed an intimate insight into the realities of life as a mixed race, fat, bisexual woman on antidepressants navigating tumultuous career paths in theatre, music and social media influencing. (As Hartill explains, it can get really demoralising, even if you are profusely hot and talented *sigh*.)
Go see this entertainer now, before the industry catches up and puts her in the spotlight of every mainstage in the country.
While Milo’s story is unavoidably centered around her position “stradling pretty much all of the hottest 2024 minorities”, she steers clear of self-deprecation while giving the middle finger to everyone and everything that has tried to keep her down. She carries herself with masterful comedic timing, and impressive command of her material – to the high standard that you’d expect of a seasoned stand-up comedian. (What’s more, she can also dance and sing! And that voice will send shivers down your spine.)
The performance is infectiously joyful, however Milo manages to never stray into toxic positivity. She celebrates aspects of her identity which she has been othered for throughout her life as the positive attributes that they are. Meanwhile, she is also able to hold space for the dark and the light, acknowledging the dangerous rise of conservatism, and the active genocide taking place overseas – and then, she’ll break the tension by whipping out vibrators for a hilarious demonstration about the bizarre career of the modern influencer, without the audience ever straying from their position in the palm of her hand. She has a knack of putting her audience at ease (except for, perhaps, the mortified white woman in the front row who she invited up to “touch my hair” on opening night).
What’s perhaps most impressive is that, as she tells us, none of the stories she shares are fictionalised or exaggerated for the drama. From the trauma of her family unit to the shocking things that past boyfriends, lovers, fathers of boyfriends, and casting directors have said to her, it's all true.
Safe within the underground cave of the Old Fitz Theatre (Australia’s last-remaining pub theatre, where all Sydney’s edgiest shows are incubated), BFF is a cathartically funny night of entertainment – especially for anyone else who has lived the pipeline of “fag hag, to queer awakening, to non-practicing bisexual with an affinity for non-binary soft-butch lesbians” (as well as the middle-aged cis white blokes who want to hear some words they’re not allowed to say anymore, *ba dum ching*).
Accompanied by Lucy O’Brien on the piano and shrouded in Isobel Morrissey’s simple-yet-impactful lighting design (which entirely transforms the 60-seat basement theatre), the Fitz provides a fittingly intimate space for this solo debut. This show is so evidently a labour of love for Hartill and the rest of the small army of creatives who have helped to have it realised (including head chef/collaborator Robin Goldsworthy, and producers Andrew Henry and Dino Dimitriadis). Do yourself a favour, and go see this entertainer now, before the industry catches up and puts her in the spotlight of every mainstage in the country (and so they should!).
Black, Fat and F**gy is playing at The Old Fitz Theatre, Woolloomooloo, until April 13, 2024. Tickets range from $30-$40 and you can snap them up over here.
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