Márcio Delgado*
The idea behind Dusty, a new production running in London until august 2015 is good: it was meant to be a multimedia show celebrating Dusty Springfield’s music with the use of technology.
I was looking forward to it and the fact that, two weeks ago, the show got cancelled on the day due problems with the hologram - and my tickets ended up being used to see Memphis instead - just made me want to see Dusty even more.
I finally saw it last night and a friendly note of advice for those ones still to go: don’t get your hopes high, as the musical you will see at the Charing Cross Theatre is more a collage of standard black and white old videos, rather than cutting edge 3D surprises.
Yes, they have a couple of holograms in it – something that has already been used in the past, from the stage to TV and concerts, with Michael Jackson and American band Black Eyed Peas leading the process by successfully resourcing to the novelty years ago. And yes the cast can dance - and some of them, like Francesca Jackson, the actress playing Dusty’s best friend, Nancy, can sing too.
However, having said that, there is very little left, I am afraid. The characters are plain, barely likeable, making it difficult to root for any of them. Besides, during the whole performance your brain keeps saying to you that a nice twist may is about to happen - or someone at least will smash it, belting out one of the 60s pop icon’s songs to save the show at the last minute.
Unfortunately it doesn’t happen, making the production to lack in drama as much as it lacks in live performances from the cast. Instead, the show carries on relying on videos being played and the occasional dancers trying to blend with the projection on the stage. It works at the beginning, to be honest. However by the interval’s time the technique has been exhaustively used and wears itself off. That is when that initial good idea officially turns into something else. It becomes so monotone that you wish you had brought back from the bar, not a single glass of wine, but a whole bottle to help copying with the rest of the show.
My biggest surprise was still to come.
It took me sometime to realize that the leading lady, a beautiful young actress playing Dusty, was never singing, actually. In some scenes there is an attempt, but never a full song, adding to the viewer’s frustration [comment overheard from the couple seating behind me, which I don’t know: God, she can’t sing. Glad we saw ‘Beautiful’ as she sings]. For those ones unfamiliar with, ‘Beautiful’ is the award-winning musical about singer and song-writer Carole King, also currently being shown in the West End.
If the actual production of Dusty ever wants to make it into a bigger venue – or last beyond August charging the high West End prices that they do, despite being in a small non-air-conditioned venue - they will have to make quite a few adjustments, starting by getting rid of half of the old videos (we have You Tube and BBC re-runs for it, thank you very much) and replacing videos for live singing instead.
After all, when it comes to theatre, technology should be wisely used to enhance life performances and make it even more magical, not to replace it.
................................................................................................................................... * Márcio Delgado – Not an art critic. Opinions are my own, based on a life of daily listening of good music + regularly attending great shows + reporting on the entertainment scene + owning a dog that seriously loves Tchaikovsky, Clean Bandit, Vivaldi and Paloma Faith.
