Review: Phoenix Rising: Bar Staff Takeover Cabaret, Phoenix Arts Club

Although there is no single figure, hospitality has long been a survival job for actors, with as much as 25.5% of secondary jobs held by creative workers. As Phoenix Arts Club co-owner Kenneth Wright explains in his impassioned call to arms, “You never know who might be serving you a drink.”

So, to have a whole evening highlighting the talent from the ‘other side’ of the bar is an inspired idea: early-career artists, people coming back after breaks, the new, the fresh and the fearless. A perfect evening at the theatre, surely?

In some parts you would be entirely correct. When we soar sunward there is no holding us back, although we all know what happened to a certain craft-minded ancient Greek.

First, some old-school drag. Donafella (the name alone!) has the works: multi-storey hair, a mug painted for the corner shop across the street, sass and sensation – towering above us as we get some old 60s Hollywood slinking and a glamorously desperate performance of Ray’s ‘Where Is My Husband?’ On the other end of the millennium there is Deluna, looking like a cross between Christina Aguilera in the 2000s and Charli XCX’s Brat era. There are duck walks, hair flips, cartwheels and some inventive lip-sync choices including (but not limited to) Nikki Grahame’s food-based breakdown from Big Brother, along with more expected c***y girlie-pop club anthems.

Nor is this just a night for THE GURLS, there are pipes at play here (that did not mean to sound dirty, but here we are). Jade Weatherhead vocally trillin’ and trippin’ through a lesbian country anthem and a slow ballad, exquisitely presented with a collected calm and vocal wham. Her duet (‘Shallow’from A Star Is Born) with Fergal O’Hanlon is especially impressive considering Gaga’s musical howl halfway through, which Weatherhead achieves with little fuss. O’Hanlon treats us to a male version of the Waitress tear-jerker ‘She Used to Be Mine’, and boy was I jerked (oh, stop it).

Elisabeth Ellingsen smears some jazzy balm on our excited nerves, but what really stands out is her hilarious yet subtly disquieting performance of Judy Garland’s ‘The Man That Got Away’, with “the writing” literally on the wall. Projected behind her are real interactions with men on dating apps, ranging from comically delusional to genuinely terrifying. Variety shows like these are so important to make space for emerging talent and also project ideas, as this could easily – and should – be stretched into a nifty little solo musical show by Ellingsen, one I would love to watch.

To platform less-experienced artists effectively, there must be a solid structure. Throughout the evening this is lacking. Asking the ever-energetic stage manager Tricia Wey to run the show, sing and act creates various practical bumps. The same applies to the barman and musician Dan Fishlock, whose guitar playing, bar-keeping and MC-ing has him all over the shop. Throughout, we can hear talking backstage during the quietest songs, people traipsing around for little reason, names of performers forgotten and the running order confused. The feeling of a talent show is strong, which is a shame for such a clearly, but not uniformly, talented group of humans.

Wright explains that The Phoenix Arts Club, one of the few independent venues in central London, is facing financial instability. A fundraiser is running upstairs on Monday 20 April. As we beat a swift retreat Sing Out, Louise! (the weekly show tunes extravaganza) is in full Disney-adult swing. If you care about culture, slick on down those sticky stairs and see the next generation of stars as they are born. Help protect an institution, and make sure this firebird rises again.

Produced by: Josilyn “Jeneevah” Campbell
Co-owners: Colin Andrew Savage, Kenneth Wright

This show has completed its current run.