by Izaak
Lim, Amalie O’Hara and Kathleen Douglas
Music by Harold Arlen
Directed by Michael Loney
Performed by Anne-Marie Biagioni, Cassandra Charlick and William Groucutt
Downstairs at the Maj
29 - 31 October, 2015
Music by Harold Arlen
Directed by Michael Loney
Performed by Anne-Marie Biagioni, Cassandra Charlick and William Groucutt
Downstairs at the Maj
29 - 31 October, 2015
Fancy Meeting
You is the third outing for the team of writer Izaak Lim and director Michael
Loney in the Downstairs at the Maj cabaret seasons, and, while it’s something
of a departure from their previous shows, it’s every bit as successful.
Their
formula is as simple as it effective; take a great American songwriter –
composer or lyricist – and build a narrative around their songs. You’ve Got
That Thing and Exactly Like You were biographical pastiches of Cole Porter and
Dorothy Fields respectively, but Fancy Meeting You breaks the mould, using the
songs of Harold Arlen to tell a neat story of love faithless and faithful set
in a joint something like the Cotton Club.
That story
takes in themes of race and homosexual love that give it a contemporary
relevance without weighing down the evening’s entertainment.
