Miss-Leading Ladies: The Revenge continues at the Crazy Coqs, London until 27 March 2022.
Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Such a joy to see a full house in a cabaret room again with brother-and-sister act Ceri Dupree and Ria Jones milking every moment in a riotous evening at the Crazy Coqs.
Jones, a former Eva Peron, Fantine, Grizabella and more recently an outstanding Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, has the voice – and what a voice! – but big brother Ceri gets the best (and naughtiest) lines in this homage to the Grand Dames of Hollywood and Broadway.
With Marlene Dietrich, Carol Channing, Ethel Merman and Barbra Streisand among his targets, Dupree’s wicked innuendo has plenty to work on. He is a consummate drag artist with perfect timing, saucy in a seaside postcard kind of way, but bitchy when he wants to be.
Garishly outrageous costumes, all self-designed, all changed with bewildering speed, are wonderful props as he tears into Hello, Dolly! star Channing and the face-lifted Dietrich. The skin-coloured, figure-hugging dress and endless white-fur train looks a loving copy of the extravagant outfit Marlene wore at the end of her career.
Dietrich’s unforgettable ‘Falling in Love Again’ becomes a biting ‘Lifting My Face Again’ and ‘Where Have All the Flowers Gone?’ turns into ‘Where Have All the Big Stars Gone?’ as Dupree relates how the ancient German superstar “started out as a waitress… at the Last Supper. Jesus, he could drink!”
The delightful Jones plays her part in the banter that links the well-chosen material but gets serious with Piaf’s ‘Je Ne Regrette Rien’ and ‘If You Love Me’ followed by Garland’s haunting ‘The Man That Got Away’.
The Richard Kates number about a singer bemoaning how ‘Streisand Got There First’ whenever a song came along she wanted to record, gives full rein to her comic side. and nobody is left in any doubt about why ‘The Marrow Song (Oh What a Beauty!)’, a naughty little music hall number, is in the show.
Along the way we have Dupree’s take on the gravel-voiced Louis Armstrong in the Hello, Dolly! segment and his Danny La Rue is also uncannily accurate.
It came as no surprise when the audience rose to applaud ‘Rose’s Turn’ – with Dupree as Mama Rose and Jones, in matching outfit, as daughter Louise.
That nod to Gypsy is just one magic moment in an evening that is great fun from start to finish, much assisted by some gorgeous piano work by Mark Dickman who has the spotlight all to himself with a thrillingly-played overture to Mack & Mabel.
From Jones’ ‘As If We Never Said Goodbye’ at the top of the show to ‘The Best of Times’ at the bottom of it, this is good old-fashioned Entertainment with a capital E. Warmly recommended.
Jeremy Chapman
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