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Flamboyant nod to a bygone era
SOPHIE TUCKER’S ONE NIGHT STAND
King’s Head Theatre
THE last of the red hot mammas is alive and kicking. She’s
Sophie Tucker and being gloriously brought back to life by the
effervescent Sue Kelvin, who is joined by Michael Roulston on
piano and cleverly taking on a number of male personas.
Chris Burgess’s script focuses on Ms Tucker’s turbulent
life. While it may be high on schmaltz it provides a clear picture
of a bygone era in which the ambitious singer sacrificed all
for her career. The daughter of immigrant Jews from Russia,
as a teenager she escaped the family home in Hertford, Connecticut,
abandoning her two-year-old son, to make it big in showbusiness.
At a deeper level, the story looks at an independent spirit
raging against paternalistic chains.
In providing a narrative of Tucker’s life Kelvin sings
many renditions from an array of artists, including Berlin,
Gershwin and Yellen such as Last of the Red Hot Mamas, I Don’t
Want To Get Thin, Give My Regards To Broadway, Shine On Harvest
Moon and Hooray for Hollywood. You don’t have to be Jewish
to appreciate the story or its songs, particularly My Yiddeshe
Mama, which the impressive Kelvin sang with such flamboyance
that the number gave me goose-bumps.
Under Susie McKenna’s considered direction, the show, which
wooed audiences last year at the New End Theatre, is likely
to do the same at the King’s Head. The star, of course,
is Kelvin who certainly knows how to win an audience. Students
of cabaret and drama should be encouraged to watch her confident
and skilful portrayal of Tucker’s larger than life personality.
A real joy.
Until April 9
020 7226 1916
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