The Look, The Legend, The Musical. The Production Company and Adelaide Festival Centre. Adelaide Festival Theatre. 31 Dec 2016

 

Was it the bopping hits of yesteryear or the dazzling performances of the cast which brought audience members to their feet at the opening of Dusty?

A bit of both.

It was a nostalgia springboard into 2017 - something old as new again.

 

The Production Company’s look at Dusty The Look, The Legend, The Musical is a wickedly extravagant portrayal. It is a blockbuster co-production with the Adelaide Festival Centre of a very successful bio musical created by John-Micahel Howson, David Mitchell and Melvyn Morrow. It revives all the corn and bling of the 60s and then some. The wigs! The wigs! The frocks! The frocks!

 

Dusty Springfield’s story is not one of the great happy sagas of showbiz. Not that there are many of those.

 

It stands as an interesting piece of pop star history. While Dusty was no rarity as a lesbian in the upper echelons of showbiz, she was of an era when such were kept in the whispering shadows and double lives were lived. Added to the ‘sturm und drang’ of life at the top and the vicissitudes of the music industry, not to mention the ever-presence of drugs and alcohol, Dusty existed within a deepening psychological minefield from which, remarkably,  this star eventually rose like a Phoenix, several times.

 

This is delivered as a theatrical emotional rollercoaster from hope and rebellion through conflict and triumph to rebirth and, eventually, death.

 

The Production Company’s fabulous orchestra under the direction of Michael Tyack, is elevated very elegantly on a high dais above the action onstage. This is apt for the theme of the show and much more fun than having the musos buried in an orchestra pit.

 

The staging generally is skilfully unfussy allowing the large cast to dress the stage with dance and costumes and the lighting bods to bring on the moods. The show’s choreography by Michael Ralph is just divine.  It draws on a zillion heavenly retro moves and the dancers give their able all. As they say in the classics, you gotta love it.

 

The songs belt out and the beats throb forth - I Only Want to be With You, Little By Little, Silver Threads and Golden Needles, Dancing in the Street, Wishin’ and Hopin’,  I Just Don’t Know What to do with Myself, Son of a Preacher Man, You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me…

 

In the world of juke box musicals, this is a good one covering pop music decades and crossing from the UK to the US and back again.

 

Of course, to many it is not the greatest music in the world and this sort of pop history is not for everyone.  But this revisiting of what was, at the time, a thrilling world in which pop ruled the air waves, is providing a rare chance for boomer parents to give their young a window into how it was.

Of course, it is mainly millennials who are doing the work to deliver it all.

 

The cast, directed by Jason Langley, is largely young and fresh and fit and strong - and talented.

 

Amy Lehpamer is all big lungs and strong notes as Dusty. Talk about belting out songs. One after another. Dusty had a big voice. It is a strenuous and impressive performance in which Lehpamer also reaches into the heart of Dusty and brings the audience a sense of a real wonderful, flawed person.

 

Adelaide’s Baylie Carson plays Mary O’Brien, the young Dusty, and, despite having to perform costumed in a drab school uniform, her singing brings the house down. She’s a huge hit with the home crowd.

 

So is Paul Blackwell, perhaps the most beloved Adelaide actor of our time. He plays three roles, all with his usual charm, skill and whimsy. Piece de resistance is the great night club scene which represents Dusty’s latter-day rise to the superstar status of gay icon. The house comes down again.

 

Then, of course, there is one of Australia's musical superstars, Todd McKenney playing a supporting role to give added class and pizazz to the show. He’s waspish and sweet as Dusty’s hairdresser and loyal friend. He gets to wear a fabulous wig or two, also. And it is ever and always a joy to watch him work on stage.

 

Chloe Zuel gives a sterling performance as the American singer Reno, Dusty’s great love. Oh, how she makes one feel her dilemmas. 

 

Sheridan Anderson and Emma Hawthorne are vivacious support as Mary’s girl group. Then there is Virginia Gay, strong as stalwart Peg, along with Chidi Mbwkwe and Ruvarashe Ngwenya as The Nevadas, Jackie Rees as Kay O’Brien, Brenton Wilson, Nicole Melloy… among the large and notable cast.

 

Dusty is not high art. It has no pretences. It is a good-time nostalgia show.

It hits that mark with a flourish - and everyone goes home happy and humming.

 

Samela Harris

 

When: 31 Dec to 22 Jan

Where: Adelaide Festival Theatre

Bookings: bass.net.au