ShooShooBaby
Great Cabaret Safari
The Pheasantry, London, U.K., April 27, 2018
Reviewed by Thanasis Kalantzis for Cabaret Scenes
Tanya Holt Photo: Tom Gliss
The Great Cabaret Safari is the love and brainchild of ShooShooBaby, the double act of Tanya Holt and Anna Braithwaite. The two women met 20 years ago while studying opera at Birkbeck College, built on their relationship, and have worked together since. Braithwaite is the designer of the extraordinary costumes of the act, and also in charge of many amazing vocal arrangements, while Holt is responsible for the lyrics and music to all original songs that frame the act.
ShooShooBaby tours the U.K., is invited to perform at private parties, and travels the world on commissions. It’s obvious this double act is very successful, and the scores of fans that had filled The Pheasantry at Pizza Express to the brim was solid proof of that.
They kick-started with an interweaving of “Sing, Sing, Sing” (Louis Prima) and “I Hear Music” (Burton Lane/Frank Loesser) which, I thought, meshed perfectly. In “Chocolate Song” (Chris Hamilton/ShooShooBaby) the descriptions of her desperate feelings of love of chocolate were so vibrant I could actually taste it! With “Être ou ne pas être” (Holt), the singers paid homage to Sarah Bernhardt and, on the way, we learned some interesting facts about her life in what sounded like macaronic French with English translations as required. On to current affairs, “Country Roads” (John Denver), sung in both French and American-English, offered as a union of French music and country music in celebration of Macron’s visit to Trump’s…reign? From the duo’s visits to different countries, Macedonia could not be left out and, courtesy of Braithwaite’s arrangement, the team performed, a cappella, a really lovely folk song called “Sto Me E Milo.”
The second set was as rich and diverse as the first. Just before it started, though, kazoos began to land on every table in the room. They were to be used for Holt’s highly suggestive “James Bond Medley” of songs and actors, to the melody of “Goldfinger,” the last piece in the medley. The exercise simply brought the house down with laughter. They then decided to go to the movies, and with “Ennio Morricone” performed vocally without words (the score from the film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly), which Braithwaite arranged for saw, ocarina, drum, and percussion, and I still have the beat in my head. “Eleanor Rigby” was serene, the poor thing, but her song was gloomy and turned even more haunting with Braithwaite’s a cappella arrangement. In the end, an enthusiastic YEAH was heard from the audience. I don’t know if it was of approval or relief. An original by Holt, “One Place on the Podium,” was accompanied by cheese grater and knife, the perfect instruments to describe the relationship of a mother who, just like stage mother Rose in Gypsy, will do anything to see her child succeed—and I mean anything. They wrapped up their show with “The Wind Beneath My Wings” (arrangement by Michael Roulston and ShooShooBaby), but this one came with a difference. The parody lyrics were written less to reflect the friendship in Beaches and more of two bitchy performers thanking each other, blaming their successes on the poor light the other owns on stage. It was just hilarious.
Surely, this evening was filled with wonders, but it did get me thinking about the title of the show and why call it a Great Cabaret Safari. Great it was, and it was quintessentially Cabaret, but was it a Safari? I concluded it was, for, during a safari you visit new places. In 16 songs we traveled to France, Macedonia, and a few times to America. Also, Holt’s original songs are, well, all original and took us on a trip on each and every one of them. Finally, Braithwaite’s new arrangements of other artists’ work offered a welcome departure from those artists’ renditions.
And then there were the musical instruments used—Indian harmonium, drums, toy piano, saw and comb, percussion, ocarina, glockenspiel—all exotic instruments that the artists played with amazing comfort, especially Holt who excelled on most of them. I can’t imagine the sheer number of hours they put in practicing.
Or, I may be over-analyzing and they just called it “safari” for the fun of it.
Holt and Braithwaite have the goods to deliver such a high octane, abundantly creative show for they both possess great voices which are in absolute sync. Furthermore, their comedic timing, peppered with generous camp, is impeccable, and the hairdos simply outrageous! They are also prolific storytellers, interacting with ease with the audience while maintaining their banter compact onstage, furthering the storyline and taking it to the next song. Their references, turned jokes, were understood by us, causing a continuous roar of laughter. If you think that you deserve a good night out and a belly laugh, this show is for you.
Special mention needs to go to Jenni Gould, with the duo for about three years, who brilliantly commands the piano and, actually, should be given big kudos for playing those highly demanding scores.
