Jack Bartholet
Lady with a Song
Phoenix Arts Club, London, U.K. July 17, 2019
Reviewed by Gavin Brock for Cabaret Scenes
Jack Bartholet has given up trying to save the world. Instead, he announces, he has heeded the call to channel his outrage at the modern world into his performance art, one worthy of its own sub-genre: caba-RAGE!
Sporting a neatly coiffured shock of blonde hair and a silver-sequined jacket, from the moment he emerges into the limelight it is immediately clear that we are in the presence of a studious and carefully honed talent, whose ability to captivate with storytelling is equal to his superlative renditions of songs drawn from an extensive catalogue and delivered here with stunning vocal quality.
From the rotten fruits of toxic masculinity to the perplexing political rationalizations surrounding gun control, no subject is off limits. It is credit to Bartholet’s skill as a storyteller that the portrait of our society that emerges is both as warm-hearted and wistful as it is painful and poignant. Lady with a Song deals with a number of such paradoxes, by turn both beautiful and blistering, and (perhaps most charmingly of all) juxtaposes wide-eyed innocence with an impish delight in filth.
The breadth of the musical material on display demonstrates an eclectic palette that comfortably combines contemporary R&B, folk, and jazz with echoes of Judy Garland and Marlene Dietrich. Among many delights, the 1920 “Lavender Song” elicits chills with its echoes of LGBT defiance in pre-Nazi Weimar Germany, mocking zealotry and rigidity with the rallying cry, “What is it that you are frightened of? The way we dress, the way we meet, the fact you can’t destroy our love?”
While the message of this show will certainly resonate loudly with queer audiences, its universality has a much broader appeal. Ultimately, you may not change the world but, as Bartholet points out with the conviction of experience, you can bring people over to the other side.
Given Bartholet’s wit and vocal talent, I don’t doubt that for a moment.
