The Blonde Bombshells of Jazz - Adelaide Fringe

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Sun 25 Feb 2024

In an array of wigs and costumes, on their February 25 one-off performance of Blonde Bombshells at Goodwood Theatre and Studio, SA vocalists Bonnie Lee Galea and Kerry Reid channel iconic blonde chanteuses of yesteryear Doris Day, Peggy Lee, Mae West, Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, Marlene Dietrich, Rosemary Clooney, and Betty Hutton.

Trademark tunes and duets are punctuated by in-character quips and famous one-liners as the two headline performers work the room, backed by the skilled and seasoned Jazz in Cheek Quartet of Quinton Dunne on double bass, Richard Coates on keys, Josh Chenoweth on trumpet and Steve Todd on drums.

It is a tribute performance, an unashamed celebration of old-school glamour and style in a musical world subsumed by the tidal pull of stadium-filling megastars like Taylor Swift, a period piece to remind us of a time without the digital universe of Tik Tok and Instagram.

If bigger is deemed better in an age of next-level pop super-stardom, it is a refreshing change to embrace a genre that values intimacy, a one-on-one connection with the audience with more depth and meaning than a random high five in a seething sea of hyped super-fans whose ticket purchase required economies in areas like the monthly rent, food for that time, or credit-card max-out for the next six months.

The two singer-performers demonstrate some creditable versatility in their cameo characterisations. Reid’s Marlene Dietrich doing Can’t Help It and Mae Come Up and See Me Sometime West probably garnered greatest audience favour, but Galea as Marilyn Monroe, Doris Day and Peggy My Mama Done Tol’ Me Lee was not backwards in embracing character and engaging the audience, the more musically informed of whom seem inclined to forgive a couple of harmony bloopers amidst what was, for the most part, a tight, well-rehearsed set on the part of the performers.

Towards the end, Galea re-entered as Rosemary Clooney and with Reid as Marlene Dietrich, they performed the duet Too Old to Cut the Mustard, a definite highlight of the performance. The quartet each enjoyed some solos in the spotlight and proved once again to be a polished ensemble. It is a shame that there was only a one-off performance. The theatre technician was clearly looking at the digital projections for the first time, given the number of times the required slide was late in its appearance on the cyclorama.

In all fairness, the show has more than enough merit to drive multiple performances. However, I would have liked to see more Marilyn, Mae and Marlene in particular. The show could drop a few of the lesser names, like Blossom Dearie, who had one song only and a somewhat lame exit line. Greater focus on the better-known stars of the past would allow more scope for effective characterisation and depth in the writing of the show.

That said, there is plenty for the older fans to reminisce on, and sufficient intrigue for younger audience members to keep them engaged across its approximate ninety-minute running time. Modern megastars fill stadia and have massive production teams applying levels of polish on their popular offerings with technology beyond the wildest imaginings of the stars of yesteryear.

A vast gulf forms between the Taylor Swift class of superstars and the rest, but even ten thousand-seat auditoria are the norm and not conducive to old-fashioned audience engagement of the more meaningful kind. Galea and Reid understand their club-sized audience and know how to play to it. This, allied to their innate musicality and that of the Jazz in Cheek Quartet makes Blonde Bombshells a show worth building on.

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