By Julia Loipersberger
Men in towels. There really are worse sights to see on a freezing Adelaide winter Friday night (at least from this viewer’s and, judging by the mood in the Space Theatre, most of the female and some male audience members’ perspective). So I was looking forward to venturing into Josie Lane’s bathhouse and all the sexy stories that were sure to come with it.
Josie has a fabulous voice which is strongly reminiscent of the Divine Miss M in strength and clarity. Frankly, Josie singing in the shower would probably sound brilliant. Which is a good thing, because unfortunately the show was sufficiently under-rehearsed and poorly coordinated to give it all of the characteristics of a bathroom – and not a bathhouse – jamming session.
The five piece band accompanying Josie played well, but were heavily reliant on direction from the pianist and musical director. Similarly, Josie’s personal towel boy ‘Michel’ (AKA Michael Griffiths, who himself brings a one-man tribute to another great diva, Madonna, in the Cabaret Festival) struggled to recall the lyrics when performing a duet with Josie and appeared unsure of the direction of the performance, while his patter about picking up on Grindr or going to the Mars Bar was just that little bit annoying.
Despite being obviously unpolished, the show still had the bawdy, feel-good vibe to it that you would expect from a Bette Midler-esque bathhouse performance. Yes, the patter seemed a little bit like the tipsy ramblings of a good friend (yes, we all love McDonalds at 4am. Is it really necessary to sing about it, though?), and yes, it seemed kind of pointless to re-write the hilarious Flight of the Conchords classic ‘Business Time’ to make it, well, a song that’s also about sex.
But it made for an entertaining Friday night evening which made you leave feeling just a little bit naughty and ready for the weekend ahead.
Kryztoff Rating 2.5K
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