The Brides of Bluebeard is on tour in London, Lincoln, Birmingham, Stafford and London again until 22 October.
Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩
The Ruby Dolls is a quartet of close-harmony singers – Jess, Suzie, Becca and T (aka Jessica Sedler, Susanna Fiore, Rebecca Shanks and Tara Siddall) – who flirt effortlessly on the boundaries between cabaret, performance art, musical theatre and comedy. Their previous shows, which include Fabulous Creatures (2014), Rubies in the Smoke (2012) and Rubies in the Attic (2011–12), all received critical acclaim and rave reviews, particularly in Edinburgh, where they were the hit of the Fringe Festival in 2014.
Their latest offering is a reworking of the enduring French folktale of the murderous aristocrat with a penchant for offing his wives. Using a mix of original music and covers by, among others, David Bowie, The Eurythmics, Amy Winehouse and Rage Against the Machine, the Dolls recount their own updated version of this sinister fairytale, accompanied from the piano by the excellent MD Benjamin Cox.
I’ve never had the joy of hearing this musical comedy troupe before, and I suspect they usually put on a spectacular show. This particular outing, though, left me a little cold. Or boiling hot, in fact, in the sweat box that is the Camden’s People Theatre. It’s a nice space on the Hampstead Road, but it’s basic, and the venue did this show no favours, in terms of its tech (the mic quality wasn’t great) and its temperature (way too hot).
It’s such a pity, as in the right house, The Brides of Bluebeard might just work. There’s no doubting the quality of the performances or the voices: the Dolls have totally nailed the close-harmony singing and make a delightful sound (when the mics work). They’re also funny and charming and all very likeable, and their original songs are great (I loved ‘The Edible Wife’).
Pianist Benjamin Cox is a great addition to the team, and his arrangements of the recognisable numbers are interestingly inventive, even if I’d have preferred for the whole show to comprise original songs.
The engaging performances help to make the nonsense story weirdly compelling, even if it makes no real sense or has anything to say. Why does this monstrous man test his wives and butcher those who fail? Why are women being punished for their thirst for knowledge? History is littered with cautionary tales of curious cats – Pandora and her box, the disobedient (and usually unnamed) wife of Lot, Eve and her forbidden fruit – but the nonsensical story of Bluebeard doesn’t seem to have anything to add. I took home nothing.
The fact that it’s served up in Camden as part of the theatre’s Calm Down, Dear festival – “Britain’s original and best festival of innovative feminist theatre” – puts the material under more pressure to be meaningful and it’s just not.
Wishing they’d picked better source material, I thought it best to ignore the attempts at finding a message and just enjoy the quality performances. I suspect that The Brides of Bluebeard is one of these shows where a more informal cabaret setting (and alcohol) would bring the material to life and let these talented chanteuses shine. The St James Theatre Studio, for example, where the show ends in October, is sure to offer a much more conducive atmosphere.
Craig Glenday
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