Virtually Victor victorious

Victor Victoria (Beenleigh Theatre Company)

Crete Street Theatre

April 26 – May 11

After overture, “Victor Victoria” beings with a welcome of the “Cabaret” kind by resident performer Carrol ‘Toddy’ Todd (David Austin) at Chez Lui. It’s not Berlin, but rather 1930s Paris, where, we are told, there is no dream you can’t find. Toddy is the club’s flamboyant resident performer, clearly generous and with a heart of gold as he rescues down-on-her-luck, British soprano Victoria Grant (Jane Rapley). We are not in club long, however, as one of the production’s many efficient scene changes takes us to Toddy’s tiny apartment, where he has offered the penniless Victoria shelter from the wet wintry night. As a friendship is formed over tea, he comes upon a brilliant realisation: with a few superficial alterations Victoria would make a damn attractive man.

So the incredible decision is made to dress Victoria as a man and pass her off as the world’s greatest female impersonator from Poland to delight the whole of Gay Paree given her astonishing vocal range. As soon as the songstress find success in her new role, she falls for tough Chicago nightclub owner and implied gangster King Marchan (Michael McNish). He, in turn, is terrified to find himself falling for a man, so refuses to believe that Victor is as ‘he’ seems. Meanwhile his dizzy girlfriend Norma (Isabel Kraemer) is consumed by jealousy.

The musical comedy offers much of both aspects. Kraemer especially, as the shrill showgirl Norma out for revenge, gives audiences many laughs even during the lyrically lacklustre ‘Paris Makes Me Horny’. And when, by an unwelcome coincidence, King and Norma, and bodyguard Squash (Ryan Thomas) find themselves in the adjoining hotel suite to the newly successful Toddy and Victor, the ensuring “Noises Off” style cat and mouse physical comedy farce is a riot of missed opportunities, slammed doors and hidden-in-plain sight attempts to remain unnoticed.

Rapley is excellent in the complicated challenge of playing a woman playing a man playing a woman Although barely bedraggled in her initial struggle at the outset of the story, she is still delightfully endearing and vocally very impressive. Indeed, as Victoria, she is a victor, from her first song confide to Toddy ‘If I Were a Man’. Austin is charming as the genuine optimistic Toddy and the two have a great on-stage chemistry and rapport, best illustrated in their ‘You and Me’ song and dance number.

Although things are a little slow to start, Act One features the grand number, ‘Le Jazz Hot!’, which doesn’t really say much but introduces the immediate sensation of Victor to Paris café society. Despite some reoccurring out-of-step ensemble members detracting from its art deco-ish finesse, the big band centrepiece of the score makes for an opulent highlight. It’s an aesthetic that continues through to Act Two’s opener, when in Marie-Antoinette drag, Victor continues to take Paris audiences by storm in the patter song ‘Louis Says’, particularly noteworthy for its lavish costumes. Costumes are noticeably thematically considered throughout, such as when Victor meets and greets amongst a crowd of hued-pink apparel, however, musically, orchestration suffers from noticeably off-point brass sounds, from the outset of its overture.

While it is great to see an under-produced show such as “Victor Victoria” being embraced with such enthusiasm, it is troublesome nature is certainly apparent with its humour relying on the comedy of finding out someone is gay. Similarly, the way in which Victoria’s emancipation is viewed through modern audience lenses is not assured. Perhaps this is what makes it a guilty pleasure of a musical and while it may be an ambitious choice for a community theatre group, it is an ambition virtually realised in many regards, making it one of my favourite Beenleigh Theatre Group productions thus-far.