On A Night Like This – The Erin Minogue Story (Charming Rebel)
Brisbane Powerhouse, Visy Theatre
January 27 – 28
This is it…. the moment for which the other, other Minogue sister Erin has been waiting – a call from Dani’s assistant and request that she join her famous siblings on tour, far away from Frankston, where she runs the Erin Minogue fame school for ages 3 – 8 (#nevertooyoung). And boy is she excited as she shares her story with the Brisbane Powerhouse crowd.
As the fictional Erin, Lizzie Moore is every bit the bubbly optimist. Rather than resenting Kylie and Dani for their successes or obsessing over her own missed YTT audition, she is proud in boast of their achievements, defending Dani’s as astute business woman because she does have her own Target line after all.
Although the show is filled with much humour, often at Dani’s expense (‘her’ hilarious tweets shared on screen are but one example), it is the music that is most memorable, particularly the manner in which songs are remixed to make them Moore’s own. And later songs in particular offer a wonderful opportunity for her to showcase her powerful vocals, with ‘On a Night Like This’ and ‘Better the Devil You Know’ resonating through the Visy Theatre space. In ballad too, Moore makes her vocal mark with a heartfelt ‘I Believe in You’, in departure from the song’s original Eurodisco sound.
The biopic cabaret features more than just a Minogue setlist. Accompanist D’arren (Brad Rush) delivers a punchy ‘Suicide Blonde’ introduction to chronicle of Kylie’s Michael Hutchence inspired metamorphism from singing budgie to pop temptress and joins with Erin for some Stock Aitken Waterman sentimentality care of ‘Especially for You’, complete with cheesy action accompaniment. Jason Donovan features too, in music and narrative, providing an appealing nostalgia for those audience members of a certain vintage. (Why hasn’t any done a Kylie and Jason themed cabaret? #justsaying)
Like Kylie and Jason’s teen romance, “On a Night Like This” is a show full of froth and bubble(gum pop) (#inagoodway). The show remains largely unchanged from its earlier outing, at the expense of opportunities to update some of its non-Minogue references (lip-sync fail mentions of Brittney Spears for example), but all the good stuff remains.
With audience ‘I Should Be So Lucky’ sing-along and jump up, jump back hip swing share in debut single dance, it’s a perfect inclusion for the end-of-summer celebration of queer arts and culture that is Melt. Full of bubble and bounce it’s a peppy, pop, comedy cabaret insight into a non-existent celebrity sibling and her entirely untrue story, that is guaranteed to make you happy when you’re feeling blue, if you give it a chance now.
Photos c/o – Joel Devereux
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