What mark will you leave on the world? What will your last words be? What will people remember you for? This is – partially – the theme of this superb musical comedy at the Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose.
Rocking high-heeled crocs and socks, the captivating star of the show greets the audience as they come in, on the prowl for 'name twins' with a level of energy I can only wish to possess.
Michelle has the voice of an angel, and the mind of an Aussie; if you have spent any extended period of time with one, you'll know exactly what I mean by that. A dry sense of humour coupled with razor-sharp wit, and the word 'fuck' is essentially punctuation.
Going back to her voice though, it was phenomenal. A real ballad powerhouse. Accompanied on stage by musician and partner Tim Lancaster, the show comprises a mix of music and narrative comedy as Michelle regales the audience with two simultaneous events. The first was her quest to solve the mystery of an envelope filled with change she was handed at the cinema. The envelope had her name on it, but it wasn’t for her. The second is her journey to Montreal for a comedy festival while dealing with a bleeding, pus-filled cyst that got progressively worse as the journey continued.
Neither story on their own could have carried the show, and neither should have been funny, but combined and delivered with the bombastic main-character energy that Brasier exudes, this becomes a whirlwind experience that from the first moment had the audience enamoured. Even Tim, who is in the show every night – and as her partner has lived these anecdotes – was laughing at the ridiculous situations Brasier finds herself in.
This truly is a wonderful show. Michelle is a superb raconteur, a powerful musician, a great advocate for self-acceptance, and a fantastic entertainer; even if she’ll never be in 'Cats'.
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