Saturday March 30, 2024
AT LAST THE ETTA JAMES STORY
Review

AT LAST THE ETTA JAMES STORY

May 1 2013

AT LAST - THE ETTA JAMES STORY, The Playhouse at the Sydney Opera House, 30 April-5 May 2013. Photos by Lightbox Photography: Vika Bull.

Vika Bull is probably best known (in Sydney at least) as half of a soulful duo with her sister Linda. Not any more. In singing the turbulent, tragic yet ultimately triumphant life of rock, soul and blues pioneer Etta James, the Mudgee-born Vika is revealed as a sold gold stellar performer in her own right.

The show is described by its writer John Livings as a "narrative concert" and that's pretty much what it is. Bull and a solid, seven piece band rip through a chronology of Etta's life from Tell Mama - when the then under-age blues shouter was on the road and not yet out of control - through 20+ sumptuous songs to the one everyone knows, At Last. It was one hell of a life and musical talent and Vika Bull more than does it justice.

Over the course of her 73 years Etta James came out the other end of lifelong booze and drug addictions, serious brushes with the law and some of the more outrageous antics of the rock'n'roll life to influence the greatest of the greats, be inducted into every available Hall of Fame and collect Grammys and other awards like ordinary mortals collect autographs.

Vika Bull brings her own vocal pyrotechnics to the occasion and they are considerable as she sets light to one of the most thrilling songbooks of the 20th century. From the raunchy I Just Want To Make Love To You (which so stirred the young Mick Jagger and Keith Richards) through the international anthems W.O.M.A.N and It's A Man's World, to the sexy-yearning glories of I'd Rather Go Blind, Sugar on the Floor and Spoonful.

AT LAST THE ETTA JAMES STORY

This show has been seen already down south with some success and this is its first venture north of the border. Audiences need to see Vika Bull's performance which ranges from outstanding to magnificent.

However. Although she is backed by excellent musicians, she needs more help than she gets from a poorly constructed script and a co-narrator who, according to his bio notes is an actor as well as a musician but nevertheless should not be allowed anywhere near the spoken lines in this show. The thinking behind the presence of a dominant male narrator also needs to be examined. Etta James spent her entire life battling against discrimination - the two feminist anthems mentioned above tell you that - so to have her life taken over and told by a man is crass and silly.

Vika Bull could fix all the problems and have a show on her hands that matches her vocals by making a phone call to one man. Rodney Fisher is a director, singer's coach, script doctor and all-round theatrical wizard who could turn At Last and Vika Bull into an international success. Vika: call him. Meanwhile, audiences can thrill to her singing performance and and hope for Mk II.

 

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