MIRACLE CITY
MIRACLE CITY, Luckiest Productions in association with Hayes Theatre Co at the Hayes Theatre, 17 October-16 November 2014. Photography by Kurt Sneddon: Esther Hannaford, Josie Lane, Blazey Best and Marika Aubrey; right: the family.
First seen in a brief, mythic staging at STC in 1996, the anti-musical brain child of Nick Enright and Max Lambert is now full on and fabulous at the Hayes with Blazey Best as tele-evangelist Lora Lee Truswell, adoring wife of Ricky, a charismatic preacher who, like his wife, specialises in dazzling teeth and sincerity.
Played pitch perfect by Mike McLeish, Ricky is a smooth exhortation this side of smarmy. Just like the real Jim Bakker before him, his true ambitions and the price he is prepared to pay to realise them form the backbone of the show.
Lora Lee, on the other hand, is a woman of rigid smile, perfect blonde bob and dewy-eyed duty to husband and saviour. And in her perfectly groomed and glamorous fervour she conjures the real life ghost of Tamara Faye LaValley Bakker Messner. Yes, brothers and sisters the late great Jesus-o-phile otherwise known as Tammy Faye Bakker (1942-2007) looms large over Miracle City.
Nick Enright seems to have known instinctively that truth is stranger than fiction so, in many ways, the show’s time has come. In it Enright accurately foreshadows the sociopathic sense of entitlement of men such as Ricky and his mentor and hero Millard Sizemore (Peter Kowitz) – the Jerry Falwell to his Jim Bakker.
Now living in comfortable retirement, Bakker was first drummed out of his and Tammy Faye’s Praise The Lord ministry for raping 21-year-old church secretary Jessica Hahn. He later did jail time for massive financial fraud and signed over the business to Falwell who flew on Teflon wings until 2005. Then the FBI found the child pornography he had been making and distributing from his home. Plus ça change.
These men and so many others like them screwed not only their followers but also their faithful doe-eyed wives and those they literally screwed – girls and boys. The infamous Jimmy Swaggart is hilariously immortalised on Youtube delivering his tearful “Ah hay-yuv (snuffle sniff) see-yunned” speech but it didn’t stop him doing it all over again before long.
The grubby world of hypocritical, self-entitled men isn’t confined to the USA, however, think of Robert Hughes and Rolf Harris; nor to US Bible-thumpers: think of Hillsong's eminence gross Frank Houston – whose son and current Hillsong boss Brian apparently said to the victim, now 52 and then just seven years old, “You know it’s your fault all of this happened. You tempted my father.”
All of this makes Miracle City an extraordinary pseudo-documentary as well as a funny, shocking and in the end, unexpectedly poignant and unique work of musical theatre.
Like the Bakkers before them, the Truswells cast a juicily-baited hook to the gullible masses. Their success was eye-watering. As well as fire and brimstone, they raised millions to service a luxurious lifestyle as well as building and running a God-bothering theme park, Miracle City (its inspiration: the Bakkers’ own “Heritage USA”).
The weekly Sunday morning TV show (Truswell/Bakker it makes little difference) is beamed to millions of homes across the USA. The two lovely Truswell children, cute Rickie Bob (Cameron Holmes) and nubile Loretta (Hilary Cole) appeal to the kiddies while the hallelujah trio of Charlene (Josie Lane), Eulella (Marika Aubrey) and Esther Hannaford as Bonnie-Mae shimmy their tambourines and bring the masses to Jesus and the money to Miracle City through thrilling harmonies and happy smiles.
That all isn’t peachy in the Garden of Eden becomes evident with the arrival of the creepily jocular Reverend Sizemore. Then, as tragic single mother Bonnie-Mae, Esther Hannaford brings the pace and tone into sharp and dark focus when she appeals to the Reverend for help and healing.
It’s then left to Blazey Best – who lives up to her name at the beginning with an electrifying entrance and sustained performance – to take up the baton of the disturbing mood shift. Lora Lee’s forced re-entry into the real world is Best at her best.
After a slight sag in the middle that is no fault of the performers, Best takes the show to a bold and thrillingly affecting conclusion.
The truth – intended or otherwise – behind this fascinating confection possibly lies in the ultimately tragic figure of Tammy Fae Bakker. Despite her excessive shoulder pads, big hair and bling-heavy wardrobe, she was unique among latter-day evangelical money-makers in not being a bigot.
No one was turned away from Praise The Lord ministry on her watch: all denominations, races and sexual orientations were welcome, even convicted criminals could be sure of the Lord’s love from Tammy Fae. And echoes of that are clear in Lora Lee’s final decisions.
Director Darren Yap unobtrusively orchestrates his first rate creative team and brilliantly chosen cast in the tight space of the Hayes via a simple stage-filling curtain-on-wheels (set design Michael Hankin, lighting Hugh Hamilton and costumes Roger Kirk) with the five-piece band onstage behind them – led by Max Lambert – and choreography by Kelley Abbey.
It’s unlikely you’ve ever seen anything quite like Miracle City and you really ought to. It’s a special piece that’s been given a rarified production that could scarcely be bettered. The cast is spectacular and the 90 minutes fly by. It’s yet another winner from the little theatre company that could.
