Simoni shows her wizardy as Judy Garland

Cat Simoni

Cat Simoni

Published Feb 3, 2015

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CAT SINGS JUDY!

CAST: Cat Simoni and Paul Spence

SCRIPT WRITER AND DIRECTOR: Paul Spence

VENUE: Auto & General Theatre on the Square, Sandton

UNTIL: February 14

RATING: ****

 

Judy Garland’s yellow brick road and Dorothy’s iconic song Somewhere Over the Rainbow from the movie The Wizard of Oz (1939) which overnight paved its way into the hearts of millions, would, alas, on a personal level never guarantee her a golden highway to lasting fame.

At the age of just 17 Garland sang it in her distinctive trembling, emotion-choked voice with a built-in throb. Her greatness as a singer was secured, but her personal life began to intrude. Later in her career during concert performances she could seldom escape singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Where in the soundtrack recording the already well delineated emotions were simpler and purer, she as an adult sang it as a lament for lost childhood.

Cat Simoni and Paul Spence’s latest bio show is a brave follow-up to Cat Sings Ella which was staged at this venue in May last year. There are often vast differences in style and emotional expression between Ella Fitzgerald and Judy Garland. Although the latter no doubt had a feeling for jazz and swing, she was rather more in her element in swooping, heartfelt love ballads.

Simoni succeeds in entering the various mood swings within the Garland persona with convincing accuracy, giving each of the dozens of songs a personal stamp, reaching much further than the predictable and hackneyed aura of “cover versions” of the originals.

Her voice has developed over the past months – especially on the level of characterisation. The Fitzgerald exercise was a perfect stepping stone towards Garland and her songwriters’ world.

As with the previous show, Spence, Simoni’s scriptwriter, director and partner in this show, describes each specific era in Garland’s development with the kind of flair which pulls the audience right into her life with all its problems and tragedies, but also and especially those times when fame, being in love or thriving on attention took her career into orbit, even if those ecstatic spurts were, it seems, always rather temporary.

Accompanying herself on the piano gives Simoni’s performances a unity and a freedom which always entertains, but also encapsulates the meaning of each song, be it Zing Went The Strings Of My Heart sung a capella with a great range of expression, You Made Me Love You, a song she especially sang for Clark Gable, or the extrovert deliriousness one feels when listening to Get Happy, one of the earlier gospel songs.

Towards the end of the show the audience’s reaction to the world of showbiz is challenged. As Garland’s life came off the rails more often, slightly rampant moments, with a lump in its throat, a tear in its eye and a catch in its voice, appear – even emoting all over the small stage of the Theatre on the Square. Don’t worry: it is known that Garland late in life could go at acidic lyrics like a demolition man…

Cat Sings Judy! has a song list second to none, is a feast of nostalgia, partly intellectually stimulating, but mostly entertaining. Be there if it fits the bill.

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