ABSOLUCY

DIRECTOR: Alex Tops

CAST: Lucy Tops

VENUE: Kalk Bay Theatre

UNTIL: March 3

RATING: ***

Sweet and short, Absolucy is a great showcase for Lucy Tops’s vocal ability.

From the moment she starts singing I Wanna Hold Your Hand to the bottle of wine in her hand, it is her voice that holds your attention.

This is a little cabaret show, complete with costume changes on stage, a couple of different accents and a story to thread it all together. The show is couched as Lucy’s visit to an Alcoholic Anonymous group meeting that turns into a karaoke session because she is just more comfortable launching into song.

So, we then become privy to the sad little story of her addiction to booze, and singing, which appear to go hand in hand.

At times – such as when she launches into Nutbush City Limits – her voice is almost too big for the little Kalk Bay Theatre, she could do this show with no artificial augmentation and still manage just fine.

She works in everything from Lady Gaga (a slow version of Pokerface is now nothing new, since I saw the same thing in the same venue with Rose Red) to Abba’s Gimme Gimme Gimme.

There are some funny jokes and some heavy nostalgic giggling when she breaks out into her 1990s club moves.

Audience participation is key – it’s not like she needs a string volunteers, but it is the kind of production where spontaneous clapping to the beat is going to help your enjoyment of the show.

What saves it from being an extended karaoke session is that Tops has created a real character, by the end of the show you believe that this lonely alcoholic cabaret artist has shared an intimate part of her life with you, for all that you’ve been laughing at her experiences in Chinese gambling halls and other dodgy places where alcohol makes life go down so much smoother.