Wayward: A Surreal Musical Cabaret was performed at the Brighton Spiegeltent as part of the Brighton Festival Fringe.
Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩
Making her debut at the Brighton Fringe, Cat Loud performs a cabaret that blends songs with a narrative telling of a seemingly wholesome Scottish lass (think Shirley Temple) seeking her next adventure. Her story brings a touch of Faust to a contemporary Alice in Wonderland.
Walking home through a sleazy alleyway, she encounters a white rabbit and descends into a subterranean world – a playground of subversive mythical figures.
A sip from a bottle that says ‘Drink Me’ and Cat’s life takes a turn for the wicked in what is quoted to be ‘a politically-charged quest for empowerment and community’. Add to that a very large dash of feminism.
Her narrative is woven around a collection of contemporary and classic songs. The set is a fine mixture of folk, jazz blues and pop, all beautifully delivered.
She opens with the unaccompanied ‘When I Was a Young Girl’ which is followed by an unusual but successful slowed-down version of ‘Bad Moon Rising’.
A couple of Billie Holiday numbers, allowing for some powerful blues singing, are sharply contrasted with the contemporary ‘Hotline Bling’ and Martha Wainwright’s B.M.F.A.
Loud’s idol is Bette Midler which explains her desire to mix stand-up comedy with singing.
There is a Midler moment in the show where she tries to emulate her hero and performs a Las Vegas style number, ‘Everything’s Gonna Be Alright’.
However, the dancers have not arrived and she has to invite members of the audience to cover for them. This leads to some amusing improvisation during which she cleverly ditches her Shirley Temple frumpy costume to reveal a glitzy and glamorous dress.
While I loved Loud’s singing, I failed to engage in her surrealistic storytelling liberally sprinkled with expletives. No doubt it is an age gap thing, but how I longed to hear more of her exquisite singing and less of her chat.
She receives excellent musical support from Rachel Carey on saxophone and Fraser Parry on piano.
Parry’s stylish playing not only acts as accompaniment to the vocals, but also discreetly provides a musical framework to the monologues.
Barrie Jerram
SHARE THIS POST:
Comments are closed.