Review: Red Hot and sizzling mama brings the house down
Monday, February 22, 2010 at 4:47AM
Last of the Red Hot Mamas
February 20th 2010
La Boheme
By Lena Nobuhara
Every now and then, you see a show and literally FEEL the heart and soul the performers have poured into it. The songs stir up emotions that only you know where they came from. You are deeply moved. The show becomes very personal. And those moments stay with you for a long time.
Last of the Red Hot Mamas was one of such shows. It pays homage to the life of Sophie Tucker, a popular entertainer during the vaudeville era, whose career spanned six decades with a Russian Jew background.
Sidonie Henbest does an outstanding job of recreating the dynamic Tucker who was well ahead of her time. In fact, she IS Tucker on stage. She spent considerable amount of time and effort researching everything about Sophie Tucker. And she does live and breathe her. In her sparking black dress, Henbest opens the sold-out show with an appropriately sizzling number ‘Red Hot Mama’, and illustrates the fascinating character that is Sophie Tucker through her songs.
Henbest’s voice is rich, expressive and smooth. She communicates every nuance in songs, which make them sound raw and real. When she sings Spencer Williams’ ‘I Aint Got Nobody”and the smouldering rendition of the Gershwin brothers’ standard ‘ The Man I Love’, you can almost taste Tucker’s yearning for that special someone. The gut-wrenching Turner Layton’s ‘After You’ve Gone’ and Jack Yellen’s “If Your Tears Can’t Hold on to The Man You Love”, remind you of the day when your heart got broken into pieces.
The musical director Matthew Carey is in fine form on piano. According to the show notes, he transcribed the notes by listening to the scratchy originals, as sheet music for much of this material was no longer commercially available. Not only did he restore the songs to their former glory, he brings us enthralling and sassy arrangements as well as imaginative solos that would’ve made Ted Schapiro, Tucker’s long time pianist, proud. His performance, like Henbest’s, exudes emotion. Carey also banters with her without missing a beat and even duets with her when she sings “Life Upon The Wicked Stage”.
Henbest can do light just as well as she can do shade. She shares some of Tucker’s pearls of wisdom, such as “From birth to age 18, a girl needs good parents, from 18 to 35 she needs good looks, from 35 to 55 she needs a good personality, and from 55 on she needs cash” and “Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, weep and you sleep alone” with impeccable comic timing. “I’m Living Alone and I Like It” is a song I could’ve sworn was written for me, and I feel that much closer to Tucker for it.
“I Don’t Want To Get Thin” is the showstopper of the evening. It’s full of laugh-out-loud lyrics like “I’m fat, I know it and I intend to stay fat”, “If you wanna keep your husband straight, show him a lot of curves”, “All the married men who run after me have skinny wives at home”. Henbest delivers the song with uncanny storytelling ability and brings the house down.
Another Jack Yellen song “My Yiddishe Momme” shows Tucker’s tender side. When Henbest talks about the death of her own mother, I imagine her grief and sorrow, and wonder what I’d do if I ever went through such a significant loss.
“Some Of These Days” by Shelton Brooks, a century old song, hasn’t aged at all and I can’t help but to marvel at the timelessness of her material.
Tucker wasn’t afraid of expressing sexuality when it wasn’t socially acceptable and refused to conform to people’s expectations. This is a compelling story of an extraordinary woman who was bold, defiant and courageous that simply said, “I am what I am”, then wore her heart on her sleeve.
The care Henbest and Carey took to resurrect Tucker’s legendary life was palpable, and it makes the show that much more meaningful to the audience. This is one of the finest moments in cabaret that I’ve ever experienced. I invite others to see the show and be touched by the same magic as I was.
It’s a fitting tribute to the queen of vaudeville, and Henbest/Tucker is absolutely right; Red Hot Mamas never die, they just go up in smoke - Red Hot, indeed.
Venue: The Promethean
23-24 Feb, 2-3 March @ 9.30pm
A$25/C $20/FB $18/G $20
Venue: La Boheme
8 March @ 7.30pm
A$25/C $20/FB $18/G $20
Book at FringeTIX (1300-FRINGE) or click here.
Other cabaret shows featured in Adelaide Fringe 2010:
Women - is your orgasm all in HIS mind?
Everybody’s Got Something to Hide (Except for Melissa, Mark and Libby)
Ali McGregor in ‘Jazz Cigarette’
Grocery Girls Gone Wild OR Lock Up Your Porters
Nikki Aitken Presents - Cabaret Live and Kicking
Isabel Hertaeg - Dangerous Dinner Party Guest
Sex and Songs. What More Could You Ask For?
Matthew Carey
Other publications’ reviews of The Last of the Red Hot Mamas include
“When Sidonie Henbest sings from her heart, her voice is velvety and meaningful.” The Advertiser/Adelaidenow site
“If you love a little bit of something sexy after supper…” TalkFringe.com.au
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