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The Review - THEATRE by SEBASTIAN TAYLOR
Published: 12 June 2009

Pedi is queen of diva parody

CHRISTINE PEDI
Jermyn Street Theatre

SHE’S a diva on Broadway and off Broadway in New York and has been the leading lady of countless musicals over the years.
She’s won a multitude of awards for her cabaret show Great Dames, parodying the great ladies of the American stage and screen.
She’s toured the show all over the world.
So it’s disappointing that Christine Pedi’s splendid performance in her Great Dames show has not been attracting more people to the Jermyn Street Theatre off Piccadilly.
If you know about the great American divas and the ladies impersonated, often with rapier sarcasm, by Christine Pedi, and if you know your American musicals, you’ll need to catch her before the show ends on June 21.
Her impersonations tumble out in serial micro-parodies.
One moment it’s Ethel Merman, the next it’s Bette Davis.
Then come Elaine Stritch, Bernadette Peters, Joan Rivers and Bernadette Peters.
And there’s a wonderful take on Julie Andrews and the trouble she has singing in tune.
Christine Pedi sings “I Could Have Danced All Night” in the Julie Andrews style, slipping down a couple of flats with each phrase.
(Our own Jessica Martin does something similar in her parody of Helena Bonham Carter).
After that, Christine Pedi tells what really didn’t happen in the Doris Day/Rock Hudson love nests.
Then it’s a send-up of Barbara Streisand in one of her many final farewell shows and Liza Minnelli getting so excited and het-up singing in front of so many friends.
Finally, there’s a delightful sketch boiling Anna Karenina down into words sung to the tune of the “Atchinson, Topeka and Santa Fe” train song.
It’s a show not to be missed by London’s Broadway cognoscenti.
Until June 21
020 7287 2875

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