I was really not sure what to make of it all, as I walked the red carpet, slugged back my shot and avoided the photographer (no-one needs to see that – there were plenty of ‘beautiful’ people queuing for the experience anyway). I felt singularly underdressed for the occasion, one of the Thursday night stagings of Sinematic, boldly claiming ‘sin and scandal with London’s baddest babes’ (the handsome man next to me was in a dinner jacket). People were posing and pouting, selfies aplenty, as we waited for the show to make its belated and slightly chaotic start (the first number had to begin again due to a brief technical issue).
The awkwardness also centred on how best to describe the event – how do you effectively review something that defies initial characterisation? It is part burlesque, part cabaret - with a caustic and clever host, Lolo (full name – Lolo Self Esteem, director of movie showcases and children’s parties) and her scantily clad assistant - part movie tribute act, part variety show, with an array of incredibly athletic feats on show (fire features quite a bit, including a spectacular musical based finale that needs to be seen to be fully appreciated). There seems to be nothing quite like it on offer in London at the moment – a strip sketch show of sorts (but all done, to quote Kenny Everett, ‘in the best possible taste’ – that dates me!).
In some senses, it is easier to say what it is not. It is not meaningful, although it is memorable. It is not complex or compelling – if you want an emotive evening, head to the Old Vic, where Tom Stoppard’s complex comedy Arcadia is playing, or to the Aldwych, to see Shadowlands. This show is deliberately superficial in its spectacle. It is (literally) skin deep – but is also smutty, sexy, silly and sinful. And it defies full definition – there is a loose theme regarding female empowerment in the movies, but in the second act it felt the movie element was lost a little, with only the pulsing music from Pulp Fiction offering any sort of link to the dictates of the dominatrix on stage, ‘humiliating’ a willing volunteer, much to the amusement of the crowd.
The entertainment, while following a set pattern of sorts, proves to be eclectic. Icons – Marilyn Monroe, Jessica Rabbit, Mia Wallace – stand alongside the truly inventive (Jaws and Jurassic Park may not immediately seem to fit the bill, but they are very cleverly – and in one case amusingly – done). For movie buffs, there is Satanico Pandemonium, an opening act that found unusual uses for fire, before quenching one audience member’s thirst in a fashion he did not imagine before the show started. For lovers of musicals, the show opened and closed on the West End stage, with Chicago and Moulin Rouge ending the evening and – a particular treat for me – Rocky Horror opening it, with Charity Case amending the lyrics to suit the event. There was even a nod to the most recent movie releases, with a mirroring Wuthering Heights routine that took more liberties than the other Emerald – Fennell – managed in her adaptation and added new meaning to ‘bodice ripper’….
For the straight men in the audience, the attraction seemed clear enough. And, with a troupe of well-toned backing dancers – who also get their moment, first with a Magic Mike routine to close the first act and a patriotic Austin Powers sequence (complete with Union Jack underwear and a cute, curly haired hero facing down three Sixties seductresses) – there is something for gay men like me (we also love a diva and a bitch with an attitude). For the women in the audience, this was an evening where – literally – they would be on top (‘we always finish our women off’), where feisty femme fatales called the shots. Like Catwoman, they literally had the whip hand. The show is only running for a few Thursdays in March at the moment – if you like something different, snatch a brief glimpse (or a glimpse of briefs….) if you can.
Tickets: here.
Review: David Brown