The Imitator continues at the Assembly Rooms – Bijou until 26 August 2023.
Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Julián Fontalvo loves to sing. He loves imitating voices. He always has, but it has taken him some time to achieve his dream.
The promotional material says “1 singer, 70 voices and a story to tell” and that’s really it. With a minimum of props and a razor-tight production, he takes us on a journey from his childhood in Colombia, through his struggle to find acceptance in New York and Europe, to the factors which led to his becoming a full-time artist.
A tremendous singer with a mind-boggling range, he is also a tremendous actor, slipping from despair to joy to whimsy with precision and taking the audience with him.
There are a couple of bravura set-pieces in which he shows off his prowess, switching from Piaf to Presley to Proclaimers and a dozen other singers in quick succession, but it’s always done in the context of the story and many are the gasps and giggles of delight when yet another well-known voice escapes from his lips,
It’s not all show-off. The script, by Fontalvo himself, is tight and there is a plethora of characters to meet on the way (his accent work is great too). There’s a hilarious sequence involving his mother urging him to get a proper job and his fruitless remonstrations, all done to a word-doctored ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.
Most importantly, he comes across as a nice guy. By the end, the audience was exhausted and ecstatic.
Quite simply, Fontalvo is astonishing.
James Bryce
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