Review: Justin Bond in May Queen: A Vernal She-Quinox
Venue: The Contact Theatre
Date Reviewed: 24th May, 2008
The audience at the finale of Justin Bond’s May Queen: A Vernal She-Quinox rewarded the performers with standing ovations and whoops of delight. This rapturous reception left me in a state of bewilderment. Maybe I missed something along the way but I don’t feel the show deserves a response even remotely as enthusiastic.
Justin Bond, a Tony Award nominated performance artist, hosts this cabaret show and provides spoken and musical interludes between each guest performer. With outrageous outfits and live musical accompaniment he has the potential to be extremely funny but he makes the fatal error of confusing sophisticated comedy with tastelessness and vulgarity. His act consists of a series of long winded and boring anecdotes and a number of songs with crass lyrics and unmemorable tunes.
His guest performers are a mixed bunch. Musical poet Bitch is the easiest to warm to and endearingly performs two simple but fairly nonsensical songs displaying a lovely singing voice and a talent for adlibbing when things go wrong. She coped remarkably well when the microphone stopped working after also forgetting her words.
Jonny Woo, in an intriguing costume, has a knack for story telling and his lengthy tale about the cat Tiddle Tum Tums and his trials with Mummy Mumkins, the baby and Jasper Wasp starts off well but it’s too long and before long attention starts to wander.
Local performer David Hoyle takes to the stage to cheers and a warm welcome but fails to live up to the expectation. His performance is crass and rude and his juvenile comments about the clergy only serve to demonstrate his own bigotry and ignorance towards the people he mocks.
Theatre artist Taylor Mac isn’t given enough time to develop an act fully and this is a shame as he is clearly a very talented man. He has an enviable singing voice which he cleverly distorts and manipulates to make ever stranger sounds and successfully multitasks at the piano. However, he too delves down into the dark depths of vulgarity for material.
The one performer who emerges from this show with some credibility is pianist and musical director Our Lady J (aka Jonnah Speidel). Her piano playing is outstanding and her obvious enthusiasm for music shines through. She is rewarded with a winning solo spot where she brings the house down with a clever song about the deadliest sort of revenge.
If only all the other performers were as entertaining as Our Lady J the show would have got 5 stars. As it is, it wasn’t. And it hasn’t.
-Malcolm Wallace