London
Musik – The Billy Trix Story
A cabaret by Jonathan Harvey and the Pet Shop Boys
4****
Leicester Square Theatre, 6 Leicester Place, London WC2H 7BX to 1 March 2020.
Tue – Sat 7pm. Sat 15 Feb – 9.30pm; Sun 16 Feb 7pm; Fri 21 Feb 9.30pm; Sat 22 Feb, Sun 23 Feb, Sun 1 March 4pm.
Run 70min No interval.
TICKETS: 020 7734 2222
www.leicestersquaretheatre.com
@Reviewsgate
@pursuivant
Fabulous, filthy and funny Frances Barber’s performance as Billie Trix, icon, rock star, screen goddess and drug addict in which she recounts the diva’s life story and sings some songs by the Pet Shop Boys is an evening not to forget. Barber, laced into a black girdle, black shoes and trousers is a distinctly off colour mix of Dietrich, Middler and the late great Leigh Sutton with just a touch of Madonna as she taunts the audience, claims that you never know what is round the corner and se could have been First Lady – the Donald, it seems, was one of her conquests – or the Duchess of Sussex. It is a master class – no, in the circumstances mistress class in the art of the one person show as she manipulates the audience, claims to have slept with the Prince of Sweat, takes drugs, castigates the memory of her mother, tells how she spent years living in a call box in Soho Square and that at one time in her varied career she had “the most handsome men in the world lapping at my cat flap.” The songs are really neither here nor there. The Boys could easily have tossed them off on a wet afternoon and Jonathan Harvey’s script would serve pretty well for a performer in any drag pub down the East End were there still any in existence. The reason for see it is simply the demon Barber of Leicester Place strutting her stuff. As she says, you never know what is round the corner - or what she will come up with next.
Director: Josh Seymour
Choreographer: Anthony Whiteman.
Set & Costume Designer: Lee Newby.
Lighting Designer: David Plater.
Sound Designer: Fergus O’Hare.
Production Photography: Marc Brenner.