Soho Theatre, London – until 1 December 2018
Guest reviewer: Gloria Trubshaw
Old Spice: If you couldn’t obtain/afford/be bothered to get tickets for the Spice Girls’ re-re-reunion, Denim The Reunion Tour may just be the very thing you’ve been waiting for.
As the mother-f***er of all girl bands, Denim did it all then came back for more. Apparently. Leaving behind the dodgy solo careers, batty mystical pseudo-religions, ‘charidee’ work and body image angst, the girls are back in town. And here at least, there are five of them.
With slightly out of kilter vocal performances, they effortlessly nail every faux-empowered, frighteningly sincere, past-their-prime, ‘artiste’ on any number of reunion tours. ‘Sound of the Underground’, ‘Wannabe’, ‘Titanium’, ‘Venus’ and ‘Gaga’ all get the Denim makeover, and the Beyoncé breakdown in the final sequence channels Norma Desmond as an X Factor contender. It’s gloriously, unapologetically uneven.
Vauxhall Tavern-style cabaret meets political stand-up, with the Labour Party, Brexit and Islam given an unmerciful blasting from the hairdryer, but at the same time the Elaine Page mash-up (‘Memory’ segueing faultlessly into ‘Smelly Cat’, Phoebe from Friends’ dreadful folk ballad) is a little Fabergé egg for the handful of ageing gentlemen-who-moisturise in the audience.
Five big-voiced talents – you’ll warm a lot to GlamRou La Denim, especially when reduced to having sex with an antidepressant dispenser, but it’s Tom Rasmussen as Crystal Vaginova who’s the Posh to everyone else’s Sporty. Shakira’s ‘Underneath Your Clothes’ has never been so affecting as when sung by a comfortably chubby guy-gal who’s just stepped out of a red bustle, and Tom’s powerful falsetto to baritone voice certainly covers this, and any other available waterfront.
