Edinburgh review: Rachel Tucker: Unplugged (Pleasance Forth)
© Darren Bell
"Did I tell you I was in Wicked?" quips Rachel Tucker in her Fringe debut, flashing her wide, cheeky smile. She didn’t, actually, but she really didn’t need to. Tucker is one of the Elphaba alumna who inspired legions of adoring fans to queue up at Apollo Victoria's stage door each night she was on. There are quite a lot of them in the front row, wearing her t-shirts, for this show.
The thing is, you don’t have to be a Wicked fan to love Tucker. In this solo show she proves exactly why that is. She’s funny, charming, relaxed, and listening to that voice deliver showtunes new and old is like, well, like not much else. Her extraordinarily powerful lungs can boom through the songs, but they can also bring them right back in, making them quiet, emotional and heartbreaking.
It’s just her and her MD Kris Rawlinson in this version of Unplugged. But that doesn’t phase her: she clearly loves being onstage and seems as easily confident in her own skin as she was in Elphaba’s green one. That has come from growing up on the Belfast nightclub circuit, she says, where she gigged with her father. It was he who told her she needed a gimmick and although it’s not entirely clear what Tucker’s gimmick is – does she really need one? – back then she wanted to be like Tina Turner. That anecdote lines up an astonishingly good impersonation of Turner in a rendition of "Simply the Best".
The songs also include new Broadway hits from shows such as Dear Evan Hansen and Waitress and every time she knocks them clear out of the park, engaging with the stories within the songs whilst also managing to still be so precise about the delivery. Tucker is down-to-earth, she connects directly with her audience – including in several moments of audience participation – and listening to her talk and sing is basically just really fun.
This fringe show – only on for one more night up in Edinburgh – is a shortened version of her longer touring show, which she’s taking to London and then Broadway later this year. And after only an hour of winning banter, stories, songs and laughter you are absolutely left wanting more.
Rachel Tucker: Unplugged runs at Pleasance Forth until 8 August. The show then opens at Shoreditch Town Hall in London in November.
