Review - The Rise and Fall of Little Voice - Touring - Playhouse Theatre Liverpool

Originally written 30 years ago very much as a showcase for the vocal dexterity of Jane Horrocks, Jim Cartwright’s The Rise and Fall of Little Voice has to wait patiently for revivals, because it requires a singer who can not only turn out an array of pin-sharp vocal impersonations but also deliver a sensitive acting performance.

This new UK touring production has had the tremendous good fortune to find Christina Bianco, who really is a perfect fit for the part in every way.

Sara Perks’ set is a realistic 2 storey house torn open to reveal a scene of faded domesticity. Downstairs Mairi engages in outrageous flirtations, occasionally banging on the ceiling as LV plays her precious record collection in the room above.

The story of LV’s slow emergence from her chrysalis of self-isolation with the encouragement of the shy telephone engineer Billy is well enough known, as is the way in which talent spotter Ray Say and club owner Mr Boo dupe her into performing like a circus act, by suggesting that she is doing it to honour her beloved father’s memory.

Under Bronagh Lagan’s direction, Mairi, Ray and Mr Boo are played by Shobna Gulati, Ian Kelsey and William Ilkley. They undeniably deliver the comedy that Cartwright has written for them, but the performances, especially that of Gulati, are so over the top that it is hard to find much to like about any of them as characters. The text gives enough emphasis to their self-serving personalities without the need for quite such pantomime. Similarly the almost wordless part of Mairi’s friend and neighbour Sadie (Fiona Mulvaney) is given little opportunity for exploring the reasons for her apparent eating disorder.

On the other hand, Akshay Gulati gives a sensitive portrayal of Billy, and his gentle Romeo-esque wooing of LV from a ladder outside her window raises an audibly emotional response from the audience.

Ultimately though, this is Bianco’s show. The American actress has carefully studied the northern accent that she uses for LV and never wavers from it for a moment. It’s easy to imagine that she has spent as much if not more time on this part of the process as she has on the array of singing performances she delivers, and it pays off in our engagement with the character. It is noteworthy that, when Bianco arrives at her big medley of power ballads from the likes of Garland, Bassey and Monroe, she adds Cilla Black to the mix, and if you can pull that off on a Liverpool stage with this much alacrity you’ve cracked it.

This is not a subtle reading of Cartwright’s bittersweet drama, but it finds its heart in the most important places and, most of all, finds a perfect star vehicle to belt out the showstoppers with style.

Star Rating: Three Stars ★★★✩✩

 

All production images © Pamela Raith

Christina Bianco and Akshay Gulati

Christina Bianco

The cast of The Rise and Fall of Little Voice

This review was originally written for and published by Musical Theatre Review