We were tempted to go and see this show by the posters showing MEOW MEOW in a dress and tiara made of matches which was on fire. It was more than enough to suggest it might be worth a trip to the South Bank.
We managed to book front row seats, far better to see what Meow Meow was going to get up to while performing her deliciously dark twist on Hans Christian Andersen's story as the posters would have it.
Well apart from seeing a mouse running about in the foyer before we took our seats we were prepared for almost anything, especially seeing as they had transformed the stage so that it had a runway coming down the centre and seats either side of the runway as well, not to mention the chandeliers over the stage.
The show starts with some of the musicians on stage performing the opening number where Meow Meow was wheeled up the runway on a double bed, sitting on top of a guy tied to the bedstead. From the off, Meow Meow doesn't manage to finish most of the songs she starts to sing, getting side-tracked or interrupted by other thoughts and things happening. For example, all the lights suddenly go out so she has to strike a match to see us all.
Much is made of the lack of lights and they then find more matches and torches and she is off in the audience grabbing plants and normal members of the public to help her while making much of the relationship between the homeless and poor match girls and her and our lives.
All the while she is dancing in very seductive dress and tights and being up front. This means we get some intimate views of her cleavage and legs. It more than made up for the fact the tunes she was performing were mostly easily forgettable. They really conformed to the idiom of being Show-tunes that should never be heard out of the shows they belong in.
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While the action of how to light the show unfolds it has to be said that Meow Meow has quite a voice and she is very funny. She also weaves the role of the plant into the story very well so when he is transformed from Hapless lighting assistant from the audience into Leading man it's pretty much the high point of the show when he starts singing with her.
But the longer the show went on the more I was sitting there hoping for a decent tune to accompany her voice and something that was going to stick in my brain, but not even the Patty Griffin tune they finished with stuck in any way. Consequently, a mere four days later I don't remember any of the stuff she sang.
Ultimtaely, this show was great fun to look at and the music all sounded good played by the 5 piece band (percussion, violin, keyboards, guitars and woodwind) but it was more aural back-drop than anything. Unfortunately, it also made the way she wrapped the show up with a big pitch for the CDs and T-shirts she was signing afterwards seem a bit too grabby. Oh, and what happened to the dress made of matches? It never even made an appearance in the show itself.
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