Christie Whelan Browne in Britney Spears: The Cabaret at The Other Palace, London. Picture: By Jeeves
Britney Spears: The Cabaret continues at The Other Palace, London until 9 September.
Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩
After first emerging into the music industry in the early noughties, it seems Britney Spears has been and done everything these days: become a global pop star, claimed the title of Billboard’s sexiest woman in music, chased butterflies in countless perfume advertisements and become one impressive internet meme. Is there anything this woman can’t do?
With this in mind, it seems only appropriate to dedicate an entire cabaret to the princess of pop. Britney Spears: The Cabaret is a show in which star of Australian stage and screen, Christie Whelan Browne, takes the audience on a pilgrimage through Britney’s most iconic rise and falls, all while taking a satirical look at the perils of fame.
Whelan Browne first burst onto the professional stage at the age of 22, playing Patty Simcox in the Australian production of Grease: The Arena Spectacular.
After then being awarded the Sydney Theatre Award for Best Newcomer for her portrayal of April in Company, she put on a blonde wig and took to the stage as her alter ego in writer and director Dean Bryant’s production of Britney Spears: The Cabaret.
The show transforms Britney’s greatest hits into cabaret standards, with the guidance of musical director Mathew Frank. They are then woven into the fabric of her life story, from childhood to modern day.
Besides mastering Britney’s voice (that iconic eerie croak at the beginning of ‘…Baby One More Time’ is a skill only few possess) Whelan Browne nails even the subtlest of Spears’ mannerisms.
The beauty of cabaret can lie in its complete disregard for any rules and Whelan Browne certainly follows none. The show is intimate. Shockingly intimate. There is a great irony in revealing the cautious, delicate nature of a global superstar while dressed in skimpy underwear. This is Britney as we’ve never seen her before.
However, the occasional dwelling on Britney’s infamous career lows allows Whelan Browne to tell a few darker jokes which, at times, cut unreasonably close to the bone.
Polly Sisley
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