Only an Octave Apart – Wilton’s Music Hall

Picture: Ellie Kurttz

Only an Octave Apart continues at Wilton’s Music Hall, London – until 8 October 2022.

Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩

Keep it pretty, keep it shallow, keep it moving – so goes Justin Vivian Bond’s motto. And as a mission statement for a cabaret show it also works, as long as it’s not too shallow and it is moving in terms of both pace and emotional depth.

That’s certainly the case for Only an Octave Apart, a hybrid cabaret and opera recital formed by the twin talents of Bond – long a cult cabaret star, thanks in no small part to their character of Kiki DuRane in drag duo Kiki and Herb – and countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo.

It’s certainly pretty, thanks to Carlos Soto’s set design and a succession of glorious costumes by Jonathan Anderson. The patter between songs can be pretty shallow (and is dominated by Bond’s attempts to get Costanzo to corpse) while the musical numbers are moving in every sense – although more through a connection to general emotion than via any full-throated confessional.

As the title suggests, the pair’s vocal ranges are very different, Costanzo’s beautiful operatic high register contrasting with Bond’s deeper, rasping drawl. Apart from the opening title number of the show, which highlights the pair’s contrasting voices, the pair tend to alternate performances.

It’s a structure which works well when one song bounces into a related one from a completely different discipline: for example, when Costanzo’s rendition of Purcell’s ‘One Charming Night’ from The Fairy Queen gives way to Bond going all-out camp with ‘There are Fairies at the Bottom of our Garden’.

At other times, Bond’s ability to captivate with a torch song is breathtaking, especially with songs not normally considered part of that genre. A beautiful, whimsical arrangement of ‘Me and My Shadow’ early in the show is an early example, although stronger is a rainbow-themed medley later on in the evening.

Bond is also the more humorous of the pair, although Costanzo’s spirited rendition of ‘Crudel! Perche finora’ from The Marriage of Figaro – playing both roles of Susanna and Count Almaviva – gives him the opportunity to show that he, too, is a gifted comic performer. As with al the numbers, the nine-piece chamber orchestra under musical director Daniel Schlosberg deliver a powerful, resonant accompaniment.

When the duo’s conversation moves away from how they met, and how in awe they are of each other’s talents – which may be true, but risks imbuing proceedings with a veneer of insincerity – and moves onto more relaxed joshing and camaraderie, it becomes clear that the mutual respect is utterly genuine. Both Bond and Costanzo are having a blast, and the audience are kept onside throughout.

A rendition of the Peter Gabriel/Kate Bush hit ‘Don’t Give Up’ provides another basis for the pair’s unlikely combination of voices to be put to use in a duet. Swiftly followed by the Queen/David Bowie hit ‘Under Pressure’, this a pop-heavy but masterfully performed official finale.

Then comes the obligatory encore numbers – here, a couple of amusing mashups. ‘Dido’s Lament’ segues into ‘White Flag’ by British singer Dido, for example, and Costanzo’s aria from Philip Glass opera Akhnaten (in which Costanzo played the titular pharaoh) morphs into a riotous rendition of the Bangles’ ‘Walk Like an Egyptian’.

It’s a finale which is dripping with fun, with respect for two very different musical forms, and with love for and from two exquisite practitioners of their art. Pretty, shallow, moving – what else could one wish for?

Scott Matthewman