Gimme More

I'm very excited about taking Britney Spears: The Cabaret to Melbourne in October. This remarkable little gem of a show was written by Dean Bryant as a one-woman show for the incredible Christie Whelan - originally for the Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2009. We at Luckiest Productions have been fortunate enough to produce the show in Sydney last year, and now an upcoming season at Chapel off Chapel in Melbourne.

The show is a brilliant and multi-layered piece, which is both a satire (of Spears's public image, and of wider celebrity culture) - but also an attempt to make audiences empathise with the girl in the spotlight (not an easy task for a writer or performer where this girl is concerned!) A large part of the success of the show is the incredible job Musical Director Mathew Frank has done of adapting Britney's perky, sexy, and over-produced pop songs into cabaret numbers - from a slow and stripped-down Toxic, to a version of Slave 4 U which gives a glimpse into Britney's life as a hard-working and strangely sexualised child star on The Mickey Mouse Club. The way that Christie scales this range of moods and emotions in her performance is testament to her considerable acting talent, as well as her versatility as a singer, dancer and comedienne. One of the most common reactions from people who've seen the show is that they expected to laugh, but were shocked that they ended up crying too. It takes you on a journey - as any piece of art should - and works in many ways more like a piece of theatre than a cabaret show.

One of the best things about being a producer is being able to take shows that you believe in, and try to bring them to wider audience. It's really rewarding working on Britney Spears: The Cabaret because I'm so confident that every person I get through that door will walk out satisfied and fulfilled.

I'm also looking forward to spending three weeks living in Melbourne while the show is on - a lot of my friends are living down there at the moment, but I have a complicated attitude towards that city. But that's for another blog!