Party of One – Christina Bianco – London Hippodrome

Christina Bianco, soon to appear in the London production of Forbidden Broadway, performed her show Party of One at the London Hippodrome

Christina Bianco performed her show Party of One at the London Hippodrome Matcham Rooms.

“I’ll be your host… and also your guest list,” quips Christina Bianco at the start of her solo show at the Hippodrome’s Matcham Rooms. Bianco has gained a formidable reputation as an impressionist of female singers, but her show Party of One indicates that impressionism is just one aspect of a multi-faceted talent.

The entire show is a carefully constructed journey through her personal and professional life, allowing her to mix songs for which she feels a strong personal affinity with numbers that showcase her versatility and gift for mimicry. And so a trillingly accurate Snow White (describing Disney as “the gateway drug” to a love of musicals) slides smoothly into Stevie Nicks, illustrating the range of music Bianco was exposed to and came to love as a child.

Unafraid to laugh at her own precocity as a child performer, Bianco gleefully shares audio recordings of her bit parts, and efforts to stand out (“That’s what I call, ‘changing the vowel sound to be louder than anyone else’,” she admits of one particularly toe-curling rendition). As her life story starts exploring her professional career, she is able to continue to laugh at herself. Talking about her role originating the part of Dora the Explorer in the musical version of the pre-school TV show, she says (in an accurately cute, but shouty, voice), “Can you say ‘humbling experience’ in Spanish?”

Amidst all her stories of childhood and starting out in the business, discussion always reverts back to her affinity for, and ability to perform, impressions. This includes the ultimate in cabaret parlour games, as throughout the evening she is challenged to deliver 26 impressions, from A to Z. Starting with Ariana Grande, Bjork and Cher, the impression game peppers the rest of the evening, sometimes interrupting the flow of her story and at others complementing it.

But not only is Bianco a gifted performer of sung impressions – she also demonstrates a keen ear for spoken impersonation, too. Nowhere is this more apparent when she reads from Barbra Streisand’s coffee table book My Passion For Design in a variety of voices. Hollywood voices from Drew Barrymore to Penelope Cruz rub shoulders with recognisable British names such as Cheryl Cole and Jane Horrocks’ Bubble from Ab Fab. It’s laudable that Bianco even attempts more subtle British accents, from Keira Knightley to The IT Crowd’s Katherine Parkinson, let alone does them so well – although her Miranda Hart is what her screen mother would describe as “what I call a ‘work in progress’.”

Although technically a one-woman show, a guest spot from Bianco’s husband Billy Ernst is most welcome, as is the presence throughout of musical director Joe Louis Robinson. The latter in particular demonstrates his own delicacy of touch in his vocal performance in a duet with Bianco of Disney classic ‘When You Wish Upon a Star’ that is one of several moments of heartbreaking tenderness in an evening of riotous comedy.

Bianco made her name in New York as a performer in the long-running comedy hit Forbidden Broadway. This week sees her join the UK version as it transfers into the West End – and that production, as this one, should help cement her as one of the funniest, most talented, performers around.

Scott Matthewman

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