Little Pink Dress continues at studio at C ARTS, C venues, C aquila until 30 August 2026 (except 17 and 24).
Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩
When someone tells you their life story, you listen. When they tell you in song, you listen… and feel.
Joey Jennings begins his bold and upfront self-penned, autobiographical tale with a bench, a stool, a Stetson, a mic and whole load of creativity.
This is a song cycle show, where Jennings opens his world and his heart to you. An absent father, a single mother (coping and not coping), growing up different (gay? we don’t know that yet), career frustrations, and Grindr dating (we know by now), all delivered with catchy tunes that sometimes belie the seriousness of his lyrics.
This is no maudlin self analysis, it’s an honest attempt to assess where we are in our lives, how we got here and how we cope.
Jennings switches the emotions and mood in an instant. There are accurately comic songs about gay stereotypes, star signs, your first crush, your first car (crash). These contrast beautifully with the reminiscent title song.
‘Little Pink Dress’ speaks to all of our childhood innocence, that time before we knew we’re not supposed to be who we are. ‘Another Night Alone’ could easily dissolve into self pity, but doesn’t. Jennings keeps us on the right side of sentimentality.
Musically, this is strong. He can sing – he can act and move too – and his band arrangements (on track this time) are stylistically on pointe. Light rock/country best describes it, but he finds all sorts of variety within the genre to keep the story vibrant. And for such a small venue, the lighting design really amplifies the action.
By the end, he leaves us wondering if he’s going to be alright, but as his song says, we can’t know the future, so just do your best for now.
Joey Jennings gives us his best, and his best is very good.
Steven Wren
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