The Faaaaaaabulous Ceri Dupree Show at the New Wimbledon Theatre, London and Touring.
Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩
You could never accuse the wildly entertaining female impersonator Ceri Dupree of being a drag and Wimbledon where he was wowing panto audiences in Jack and the Beanstalk only a few weeks ago welcomed him back with open arms for his one-man, 21-woman show. Just 21 then from a repertoire of 97.
The lavish, self-designed costumes were a show in themselves, so colourful I wish I’d taken my sunglasses. And I can vouch for the authenticity of the flashy full-length white mink coat and shimmering ivory dress beneath of the fabulous Marlene Dietrich as I was there for her final London concert 53 years ago. I doubt whether Dupree’s cost quite as much though!
If you wanted to see the Queen of England, Dame Edna Everage, Dame Shirley Bassey and Tina Turner on the same stage, this was the place to be. And that was just the start of it. If you fancied a visual and vocal run-through of the leading ladies who have played Dolly Levi on stage and screen, Dupree had Hello, Dolly! wrapped up too.
From husky Carol Channing to a roof-raising Ethel Merman, a gospel-style Pearl Bailey, the inevitable Streisand and of course Danny La Rue, we got most of them. Bringing the act up to date, Imelda Staunton even got a mention. And lowering her voice to rock-bottom gravel, even Louis Armstrong, who had a part in the 1969 movie, made an appearance.
If any line in Dupree’s script didn’t contain innuendo I must have missed it. She is the master of the double entendre but you have to be quick off the mark to pick them up. One ‘old dear’ next to me never smiled once while three along from her was the dirtiest, loudest, longest laugh you ever heard. It’s a thin line between risqué and clever on one hand and crude and vulgar on the other but Dupree had such affection for her subjects that nobody took offence, not even the audience members at the front who got insulted during the Edna Everage routine.
That alone was worth the price of the ticket. Whether they were planted or primed in advance I have no way of knowing but, my, they took a lot of stick. “You must have been good-looking once upon a time” she said to one, other matrons had to endure jibes about their false teeth, awful hair styles and the degrading bed and toilet habits we oldies fall prey to. But they took it with a smile and, my goodness, it was funny.
I had seen the routine several times before when Dupree does her Miss-Leading Ladies cabaret with her famous actress-sister Ria Jones, it never ceases to raise the biggest laughs of the night. Close behind though came a riotous “Queen Camilla” who opened the show in the plummiest upper-class voice and with several disparaging remarks about one or two royal relatives. The Duke of York and his ladies were not exempt.
Dietrich with her guttural English-German “high-wanking officers”, she had a well-documented penchant for them in wartime, was spot-on as were a magnificently garbed and hand-fluttering Bassey and an earthy, short-skirted Turner – even at 57 she has the legs to get away with it – ripping into ‘River Deep – Mountain High’, although some of the stuff is starting to look a bit creaky even though she stuck in Taylor Swift to include the younger generation.
Mouskouri, side-achingly though Dupree lampooned her, doesn’t have much impact these days and it’s time for Peggy Lee to go judging from the lukewarm applause she elicited. It’s doubtful if anybody under 40 would know if Lee was a good impersonation or not. Dupree realised that and was quickly off for another quick costume change.
The screen where the audience saw her in silhouette getting in an out of her elaborate clobber (with assistant Lee’s help) was the only prop on an otherwise naked set. Here was a seriously talented artist who doesn’t need backing singers or dancers. It’s pure Dupree and far from being exhausted after two and a half hours of going it alone, on came the man himself in open-necked shirt for as moving a version of ‘My Way’ as you will ever hear. “Better than Sinatra” said my companion who had never heard of Dupree before “because of the context”. Sure, he could have made a decent living just singing but he did it his way. and long may he continue to do so.
Jeremy Chapman
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