Divas is a stunning virtuoso vocal performance from Bernadette Robinson, as she presents portraits of ten iconic female singers. In their voices and their essential characters.
She has a stunning vocal range. The octaves she can cover I am not qualified to comment. She covers the three-octave range of Maria Callas with apparent ease.
Callas is the artist I am least familiar with, but the control Robinson has with a stratospherically high soprano is immediately captivating. Then she comments that as a performer, Callas found a greater depth by being able to listen to the music whilst singing.
A simple stage set-up. The band stretches across the rear. Mark Jones on piano and keyboards is also the musical director. Bray Jeffrey guitar, bass and keyboards with Alistair Deverick drums. Jones and Jeffrey are backing vocalists with a genuine presence when they appear sparingly.
Overhead is a large billboard with Pop Art Warholian style portraits of the ten featured singers. Each one is spotlighted in turn as they are featured.
It is a simple platform for Robinson too. She walks the breadth of the stage between standing mikes and chairs. The drama comes from her ability to channel the individual characters and their mannerisms.
There appears to be costume changes as she sheds layers or adds them for each performer. It appears to be sleight-of-hand, as she never leaves the stage.
The director is Simon Phillips, a veteran of a multitude of shows including Priscilla Queen of the Desert.
Each artist is instantly recognisable in the first few words. Audience members are barely seconds in responding.
All this appears easy, but it would require a good deal of technical skill.
The high girlish, theatrical cadences of Kate Bush of Wow open the show. Which morphs into the great song of the ghostly spirit that is Wuthering Heights. Robinson capture the eerie succubus quality of a highly talented Art Rocker.
And there is Running Up That Hill, which arch music critic Robert Christgau provocatively described as a woman’s orgasm in 4.58 minutes.
Dolly Parton is simply one of the best Country music songwriters, especially over the mid-Sixties to Seventies. Jolene is a classic, and I couldn’t help recalling the White Stripes possessed version, as Robinson lays out a more faithful rendition.
Then she restores I Will Always Love You. As much as Whitney Houston was also a great diva, her version could almost be seen as a hate crime of overblown monstrosity. Parton was always smart and pragmatic and said that Whitney’s version brought her a lot of revenue.
Both Dolly and Miley Cyrus appear on Wrecking Ball. There are the Country Rock pipes of Parton, and the explosive and dynamic Pop Rock of Cyrus.
Robinson unleashes the powerhouse vocals of one of the best contemporary female performers. With We Can’t Stop, she captures that snarling hedonistic screw the world attitude.
Hearing those two back-to-back and I had a sudden yearning to hear Pasty Cline, who seems to sit between those two in the fashion of the dynamic Fifties. Robinson has dedicated a show to her previously. Patsy Cline: Her Songs and Stories.
Karen Carpenter may be the hardest voice to capture, in the sense that the recordings were multi-tracked with the vocals. Karen three-octave range as well as Richard. This gave a thick mellifluous sound, thoroughly addictive for a pre-teen listening to the radio back when we had real DJs.
An introduction with (They Long to be) Close to You, followed by We’ve Only Just Begun and Rainy Days and Mondays.
A special mention for Amy Winehouse. One of the highlights is the Jazz to Soul phrasing that Robinson can bring out so well. She also captures the authentic London accent and the self-deprecating way Winehouse presented herself, without pity or remorse for her behaviour.
Bernadette Robinson presents all these iconic women as diamonds, which are forever. Divas after all, just wanna have fun!
Rev Orange Peel
DIVAS runs until 22 October 2023
More information and tickets available at ASB Waterfront Theatre