Friday 5 December 2008

 

The latest culture as recommended by our staff

Michael Henderson

Michael Henderson suggests


Taking liberties

Wednesday, 6th August 2008

Her Naked Skin
Olivier

Elaine Stritch At Liberty
Shaw

Women’s suffrage is a large theme that deserves the attention of a decent dramatist, but this tiny, lavishly produced show won’t do the trick.

Talking of tiny but lavish, Elaine Stritch flitted briefly into town with her prize-winning solo performance, At Liberty. Written with the theatre historian John Lahr, and already boasting a Tony award, the show is a brilliantly polished mixture of show-tunes and anecdotes about Marlon Brando, Rock Hudson, Ethel Merman, Noël Coward and all the characters Stritch has met during her decades in showbiz.

The will to survive, the will to entertain surges gloriously from her furrowed, silvery little figure. She skips on stage in a plain shirt, no dress, and with her tiny legs wrapped in black tights that make them look like burned Twiglets. Hard to tell if this is just daft or monumentally self-possessed. Her age is a mystery but she gets a big laugh by telling us the Sondheim classic ‘I’m still here’ mustn’t be performed by a woman under 50. ‘You need to be in your 80s to sing that number. But it’s such a beautiful song I can’t wait 20 years.’ And when the guffaws die down. ‘Thanks for that. But what are you laughing about?’

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