| EFFIGIES OF WICKEDNESS at London’s Gate Theater is an evening composed of Weimar era songs banned by the Nazis. The show is the brainchild of the young British baritone Peter Brathwaite who is someone to watch. In fact, as good as the show is the standouts are the cast, who seem poised to become very well known. The composers of the songs might be familiar to some, Kurt Weill, Hanns Eisler and others completely unknown but all the songs were unfamiliar to me and eye opening. The evening opens and closes with a kind of march song that is an homage to queer people, “The Lavender Song” by Misha Spolianski. In between there are songs that range from escapist to harrowing. And even though after the end of many of these songs there is an uncomfortable silence as the audience rouses itself out of the feeling that this all feels too closely contemporary for comfort, the tone throughout is light, friendly and fun. Two of the cast have fine operatic voices while the other two including the magnetic Lucy McCormick and the aptly named Le Gateau Chocolat are more in the line of cabaret performers and brilliant ones at that. The entire evening is brilliantly conceived and executed and all the more so for having an anarchic, informal sense of fun about it. Highly recommend. It runs to June 9th. |
