Time travel divas make this dressing room rock
Doris, Dolly and the Dressing Room Divas (Assembly Hall) Musical mirth
TWO-TIME Fri nge First winner and creator of hilarious hit pastiche Casablanca: The Gin Joint Cut, Morag Fullarton turns her attention to musical theatre here.
Judging by the standing ovation the show received, she has another hit on her hands.
On leaving the venue, I overheard one woman tell her husband: ‘This could easily be on at the Playhouse.’
Who knows? Time may well prove her right.
As it stands, Miss Fullarton’s celebration of the secrets, songs, and love lives of five musical divas – Liza Minnelli, Doris Day, Judy Garland, Julie Andrews and Dolly Parton – has a lot going for it.
Not least the combined musical and comedy talents of three well kent faces on the Scottish theatre scene.
These are Gail Watson, Clare Waugh and Frances Thorburn, whose silky smooth offerings are heartbreaking. Yet Miss Watson’s rendition of I Could Have Danced All Night is hysterically funny and saucy and Miss Waugh’s Deadwood Stage lively.
Miss Andrews is portrayed here as a potty mouth sick to death of being famous for her supposed saintliness and playing nannys. In I Could Have Danced All Night, she leaves out key words to raunch up the innuendo-laden effect.
More than just an evening of feel-good karaoke, or slick cabaret hoping to pull in t he pi nk pound and fans of the singers, Miss Fullarton has instead opted to i nject plenty of broad comedy brushstrokes into the mix to give it a wider appeal.
Sometimes a little too much, as in the case of the two Scottish shrinks, one with a comedy beard, trying to get to the heart of who the real Dolly Parton is.
It’s a slice of cheap laugh parochialism that could easily have been left on the dressing room floor and not been missed.
BUT that aside, the device of having the cast travel back in time to the dressi ng rooms of the f i ve women in question, then take it in turns to deliver potted histories and all the hit numbers you would expect from our five divas works a treat.
The line that Liza Minnelli and Judy Garland were the last to know they married husbands who were gay is priceless.
Especially Vincente Minnelli – his wife was Judy Garland and his daughter Liza Minnelli. Of course he was gay.
Among its many other attractions, Edinburgh i s renowned for i ts hen parties.
And if they should get wind of what’s cooking up on the Mound, then God help regular Festgoers.
Assembly Hall until Aug 30