The biggest bitch in Hollywood is back. Performed as part of the Midsumma Festival, Queen Bette delves into the life of film legend Bette Davis. Having had its initial development in 2014, its creators, director Peter Mountford and performer Jeanette Cronin, have refined this into a spellbinding production that gives a stirring voice to a woman that Hollywood often wished would just stay quiet and do her job.
Cronin may bare an uncanny resemblance to the movie icon, but her mannerisms and speech add to the authenticity of her portrayal that highlights Davis' fiery personality. This is further heightened when you consider that most of the dialogue was originally spoken or written by Davis, which is based on much research by its creators. In this captivating performance you can easily find yourself believing that Davis is standing right in front of you, because apart from capturing Bette Davis' eyes, Cronin also finds a way to capture her spirit and soul.
Visit Bette Davis’ grave and you’ll see the inscription
on her tombstone reads: “she did it the hard way”, and indeed she did. During a
Hollywood career that spanned 60 years, Davis made a name for herself as being a
fiercely outspoken and independent woman at a time when Hollywood preferred their
female stars to be demure and complaisant. Davis was quoted as saying
“I survived because I was tougher than anyone else” and in Queen Bette, Jeanette Cronin retraces the life of the Hollywood
icon and screen legend in a tribute performance to the woman who was regarded as the biggest bitch in
Hollywood.
Apart from an uncanny resemblance to Davis, Cronin’s channeling of the
Hollywood star in the 2015 premiere of Queen Bette was met with critical
acclaim in her inimitable portrayal of Davis. However, before she felt comfortable becoming Davis, Cronin spent a substantial amount of time understanding her by reading books, interviews,
stories and film viewings, to get as much insight as possible into Davis. “I suppose we had a mini Bette Festival in preparing for this show. The
first volume of her autobiography, The Lonely Life, played a huge part in its creation, as did the many interviews she gave over her entire career,”
Cronin tells me. “There is a wealth of material in the public domain and she
was a great raconteur, very entertaining and articulate. A very bright lady. A
lot of the dialogue is verbatim but there are also original speeches inspired
by true events which I have penned.”
In 2015, Sophie Joske performed her first solo show called Become a Functional Adult in 45 Minutes, a cautionary tale on society programming people to be what it wants them to be. In the 2019 Melbourne International Comedy Festival, she stars in her second solo show, Woman of the Hour, and while they are completely different shows, you can't help but wonder if the main character from her current outing, Cassandra Barbitoll, is the tragic outcome of the societal indoctrination highlighted in her first.
Cassandra Barbitoll is a Hollywood star. She has been one ever since she was a child. The media loved the youngster with a heart-melting smile but then she got older. She recalls moments of her life with her adoring public; from the life-changing pram stroll her mother took her on to the various auditions she attended over her illustrious career. There is nothing Cassandra won't share with her fans, but it's what she won't share that speaks volumes.
Mummy Num Nums is a name you'll never forget after this Melbourne Fringe Festival experience. The Hollywood starlet has had an illustrious career as long as both your arms put together. Her wide range of movie sequels to sequels include Dunston Checks in 4: Dunston Checks Out but her career has somewhat stagnated, so Mummy is on a mission to reclaim her place back on top of the Hollywood food chain, but first she has to contend with Bette bloody Midler.
The eponymous star of Mummy: A Sexy Comedy Party is played to dazzling perfection by Brianna Williams in this part sketch comedy, part improvised show. Williams has a commanding presence on stage and knows how to charm an audience. She is at total ease with her character and is clearly having a lot of fun with her.
To help Mummy get her career back on track however, she has enlisted some well known - to her anyway - people to come and chat to her. Each performance of Mummy: A Sexy Comedy Party has three different performers and on this evening, I was fortunate enough to have Sarah Reuben, Martin Dunlop and Aunty Donna's Broden Kelly. Unlike the introduction to the show, these interactions are completely improvised and it's always fun for an audience member to see performers lost for words and unable to contain their laughter on stage.
One of Melbourne's favourite vaudevillian and raconteur returns to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival with another offering of her unique humour and take on life. Yes, Clara Cupcakes is back with one of my favourite show titles in this year's festival, Hot Patootie.
"Hot Patootie is fun! Like really fun! Well I guess that's all opinion but I have so much fun performing it so I would hope that it's fun for people watching. It's a choose your own adventure style show so the whole audience gets involved which is nice," Clara explains. "It's actually two different shows - Hollywood and Circus. The audience picks which one they want to see and then there are a whole bunch of choices within the show they get to make. I have no idea what the show is going to look like when it starts. That's pretty fun for me!"
These days, you just need to look at a cover of a
magazine or access a website to be bombarded with Hollywood stories and
gossip. Some might say it’s the price to pay for being in the
industry, however in Bette & Joan: Bitch. Slut. Liar. Whore.,
writer and performer David Morris explores how this type of reporting is
predominantly focused on women and how not much has actually changed since Hollywood’s golden era.
As she sneaks into her bedroom to escape a dreary party, Bette Davis (Morris)
comes to find the real party is in her bedroom, as she finds
thirty audience members in there. She begins to reminisce about her life and
the lost loves she has encountered. Of course, one such as Davis cannot reminisce
about her Hollywood life without an appearance by her infamous arch-nemesis
Joan Crawford, brilliantly played by Tom Halls.
Having two gay men portray these immortal Hollywood stars is an effective and
clever idea in reminding the audience of the fact that men who behave in this
way are rarely scrutinised or expected to justify themselves to anyone.
It was the
golden era of Hollywood, where stars truly existed and there was a sense of mystique surrounding them. Stars like the indomitable Bette Davis and
Joan Crawford, who despite their circumstances, never quite managed to see eye to eye with each other. Their feud, which continued even after Crawford passed away, is one that has captivated people for decades. Performed as part of the Midsumma Festival, Bette & Joan:
BITCH. SLUT. LIAR. WHORE resurrects these two dead women and pits the
Hollywood legends head to head in one final battle; winner takes all.
"Bette and Joan are the
epitome of the Old-Hollywood ‘star-system’. They worked their way up through
the Hollywood Studio system, and carved out an image and brand for themselves," explain co-creators David Morris and Tom Halls.
"They poured their entire being into being a Hollywood star, to being worthy of
the big screen. They worked
tirelessly at their craft, at executing their characters; that was awe
inspiring. I guess what captures us creatively is the incredible sadness they
both had in their personal lives. They both were desperate for the love of a
partner and their children and friends, but somehow managed to push away every
person whom they ever really got close too."
Alfred Hitchcock was a genius when it came to creating cinematic experiences. Very few directors, if any, have been able to recreate the tension and anxiety that Hitchcock managed to conjure up in scenes such as Janet Leigh's shower death in Psycho and Grace Kelly's attack in Dial M for Murder. However, behind the scenes, things weren't always so "great" for his leading ladies. In Hitchcock's Birds, Laura Johnston explores what it really meant to be a woman in one of Hitchcock's movies.
Johnston portrays a number of these Hollywood legends, including Leigh, Kelly, Doris Day and Tippi Hedren and while many of the stories are not exactly new to anyone who has an interest in the man behind the camera or the women in front of it, the way Johnston tells these stories is what draws you in. Johnston uses verbatim interviews and speeches from these stars, which builds on the authenticity of Hitchcock's Birds. This is also supported by her portrayals of the eight actors, where with some simple but highly effective mannerisms and expressions she captures the elegance of Kelly, the liveliness of Day, the frustrations of Hedren and so on and so on.
Everyone has an actor, singer, athlete or performer of some sort that they idolise and dream of being. As people get older, they generally grow out of the fantasy but not 17-year old Alexandra Keddie. She wants to be Hollywood actor, Meryl Streep, or at least be just like her. Welcome to cabaret show, I See Me; and Meryl Streep.
The stage immediately reminded me of when I was a teenager and my bedroom was adorned with posters, and memorabilia from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. From what I can see, Keddie appears to have every single film Streep has made, photos and posters, cushions and clothing with her face printed on them, and a signed frame image of her too. The finishing touch is the "Mountain to Meryl" chart, where she has a picture of Meryl's face at the top of a mountain and her own at the bottom. Each time Keddie perfects a new skill or accent, she climbs up the mountain, inching closer to her idol.
