THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
Since 1992 The Rise & Fall of Little Voice has been staged at the Royal National Theatre (by Sam Mendes), in the West End and on Broadway (by Steppenwolf), and has won awards and rave reviews. But for a play that's so popular with audiences, producer and directors, it's had surprisingly infrequent revivals. Or maybe not so surprisingly.
The show hinges on the ability of the actress playing the title role, Little Voice or 'LV', to convince the audience that she can transmute from a withdrawn, timid mouse into a series of the biggest, most famous divas in popular music, from Garland to Bassey via Monroe and Piaf (real divas only need one name).
Jane Horrocks memorably played LV in that first production, and in the successful film adaptation that also starred Brenda Blethyn, Michael Caine, Ewan McGregor and Jim Broadbent. But the role could have been written for American singer/actress Christina Bianco.
Bianco, twice a Drama Desk Award nominee, made her West End debut in Forbidden Broadway in 2014, and recently won plaudits playing Fanny Brice in the Théâtre Marigny Paris production of Funny Girl but she's most famous to millions as a genuine internet sensation. Check her out on YouTube, performing songs as dozens of divas, switching from Celine to Liza to Barbra on a dime - but allow a couple of hours. However, she's not just a comedy impressionist. Add that she's a talented actor, has an attractive singing voice of her own, and despite the big voice(s) is actually little at under 5 feet tall, and she was born to play Little Voice.
LV lives vicariously through her late father's record collection. It's her way of avoiding the 'grotty' house she shares with her boozy, slutty, man-hunting mother Mari whose latest dodgy man friend, Ray Say is a small-time theatrical agent looking for the big time. Overhearing LV singing when the power goes out, he thinks he's found his meal ticket. But does LV want to monetize her special talent, the one thing that connects her to her departed dad?
The characters inhabit a credible, Northern English seedy nether world, cleverly represented by a cross-sectioned terraced house set. One or two small productions hiccups will have been ironed out by the time you see this show (we saw it at Southampton's MAST Mayflower Studios on its second ever public performance, way before the official press night) so it's not worth enumerating them.
Mari (Shobna Gulati, from the film of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie) behaves appallingly and treats LV worse, but still attracts sympathy – how would you behave if your life had turned out like hers? Ian Kelsey's Ray Say is believably boorish and second-rate until he turns unbelievably nasty, shocking our audience. They are supported by a solid cast.
But if you need one reason to see this show, you'll find a dozen of them in the star, Christina Bianco.
The show is touring the UK, visiting Southampton, Horsham, Exeter, Malvern, Brighton, Derby, Salisbury, Liverpool, Wakefield, Crewe, Salford, Blackpool, Colchester, Richmond, York & Cheltenham. See littlevoiceuk.com for details.
