Now playing in The Other Palace’s basement Studio, Julie The Musical makes a welcome return after a successful run last year.
Abey Bradbury’s musical about Julie D’Aubigny (“French-opera-singing-sword-fighting-bisexual”) is an unusual piece, for which its creator supplies book, music, orchestrations, lyrics, costumes and plays the role of Thevenard!
This is a vibrant four-piece presented in a knowing, chaotic style, regularly breaking the fourth wall and dipping in and out of “this is a show” mentality.
Sam Kearney-Edwardes (they/them) is a smashing Julie, with bags of charisma and energy and a sarcastic edge. Although she’s a fighter and a loner, there’s a tragic arc to her story, which is captured throughout.
Julie is a comical actor-musician piece, with guitars, drums, banjo, and various percussive instruments (even the spoons), adding to the anarchic feel.
The songs are classic rock with a pinch of Weimar and the Folies Bergere. Characters are larger than life, and men in particular are figures of fun and convenience.
Zachary Pang is eye-catching as various people in Julie’s story, including a predatory Count and a nun looking for fun. His vocals and acting are a strong complement to Kearney-Edwardes’s force of nature lead.
As Maria, Julie’s perfect love, Melinda Orengo has more to do in act two, displaying a delicacy and curiosity at their pivotal meeting. Bradbury’s Thevenard (“all beard and manilness, but nothing to show for it down there”) is a show-off and a bore.
Julie‘s set, by Rebecca Cox, is all decadent decay, with a sense of the unfinished and unresolved. Conor Dye’s direction allows characters to explore, pause, invent, implode, and overshare, never losing us along the way.
There’s a feel of the clown and the pantomime throughout Julie. Very amusing and very easy to like. It’s a 17th-century tale like no other, about a woman who lived and loved on her own terms.
Julie succeeds because it tries to do something different. It could present a tragedy of the exploited and outcast woman, ostracised and disregarded, who died at 34.
Instead, it gives her a warm personality and a story on her own terms.
Julie continues at The Other Palace Studio until 30 Jun – tickets and information here.
****
Image credit: Ben Wilkin