Please please please please please (no, this is not a James Brown homage) Melburnians, do yourselves a favour and go and see Songs for Nobodies at the Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre before it closes this weekend.
Written by playwright / Australian theatre-luvvy stalwart Joanna Murray-Smith and performed by Bernadette Robinson (Who? I know, I know, it's obscene I hadn't heard of her before), this tribute to Judy Garland, Patsy Cline, Edith Piaf, Billie Holiday and Maria Callas is told (and sung - Oh my God, how it is sung) through the stories of five ordinary women whose lives briefly intersect with those of the twentieth century's most famous and talented divas. Ms Robinson performs all the parts. And when I say 'perform', I mean perform - she does NOT merely impersonate (think Little Voice), she inhabits.
I'm a Patsy Cline fan, so any rendition of "Crazy" is going to make me a wee bit weepy, but this one had me reaching for my handkerchief after only ten seconds. By the time Ms Robinson got to Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit", my sleeves were sodden beyond repair. I was a mess by the end of it. And if you have half a soul, you will be too.
Minor quibble - why the Arts Centre saw fit to warn patrons of the non-nicotine cigarette-smoking on stage (all three seconds of Ms Robinson's shallow, girly puffs) only proves we are turning into a nation of sooks and need to harden up.
Go and see it NOW.
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