Dear Diary

Martin Miller — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 11:35:51 +0000

This is the tale of Melody Singer, a hopeless romantic who reads to the audience extracts from her diary from when she was a young woman.
The tale itself is nothing special, a young woman envious of her friends’ relations, she is desperate to fall in love and her dreams come true when she meets a flamboyant interior designer. Surely the rest can be easily guessed.
While the story is fairly uneventful there are some gentle laughs to be had as she paints a nostalgic time of innocence and chivalry. It’s just a shame that Cheryl Anne Easton delivers her narration in an amateur fashion, all high voice and simpering tone, and her show bares more than a passing resemblance to that of a parent reading their child a bedroom story.
It is only when she stops the story and begins to sing several golden oldies such as, Judy Garland’s ‘The Trolley Song’ and ‘Wonderful You’ that the audience begin to sit up and take notice. This woman’s voice is incredible and, armed only with a little CD player by her side, delivers tender, note-perfect songs that would put many a recording artist to shame.
This is the perfect show for those who like a nice, inoffensive story but anyone of a younger age with be craving something a little more exciting.

3/5

Delilah Dix and Her Bag of Tricks

Martin Miller — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 09:08:48 +0000

Amy Albert’s new comedy creation is a cross between an ageing lounge singer crossed with an even more prescription ‘pilled-up’ Karen Walker of ‘Will & Grace’ fame. At times the similarities are a little too close for their own good but Albert takes the familiar elements of Walker and pushes them to the extreme, carving out an odd, filthy and very funny character.
As Deliliah Dix takes to the stage, propped up against the piano sipping a cocktail in a goldfish bowl, the audience know they are in for a good time.
She sings catchy, sexy little lounge numbers about drinking all your troubles away and having a lesbian affair with Queen Latifa while at the same time, covers some classics like Kirty MacColl’s, In these shoes. Her songs impress and Albert has a decent enough, if not spectacular, voice that has the audience chuckling away to themselves throughout.
Around the half-way mark the show begins to falter, loosing its momentum as Dix has an over long (and judging from the audience’s silence) not especially funny section. Later she slips further telling a long and baffling story about The Olsen twins being her sisters and how they had to become ladies of the night, to get themselves famous. This completely misses the mark and even makes the public uncomfortable in their seats.
Deliliah Dix is a great comedy character, ripe with comedic potential, she can and does regularly have the audience in stitches, but its clear that the show needs a polish and a re-edit before Dix can really make the big time.

3/5

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Dear Diary

Delilah Dix and Her Bag of Tricks