Kayla Boye turns her hand to playing yet another Hollywood legend for her appearance at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, following her popular show about Elizabeth Taylor.
Her choice for Shake It Away is legendary hoofer Ann Miller (1923-2004), and she has the voice and the look honed to perfection.
This is the story of Johnnie Lucille Collier, and how this firecracker who found herself on stage at the age of 9, in the movies at the age of 11, and signed to RKO at 14.
Unlike many of her contemporaries who knocked a few years off their birthdate, Ann added a few years to present herself at 18.
Shake It Away opens at the 1970 MGM auction, as Ann remembers the stars she worked with in the studio that was once held to be the best. As each item is called, it sparks a new memory.
As a young dancer, she wanted to rub shoulders with Fred and Ginger at RKO, and so she did, then heading to Republic, Columbia, and eventually MGM.
Boye’s Ann Miller convinces from the first time she steps on the stage, especially once she reveals those long legs and lets her long hair down.
She reminisces about all the big names of the period, and if you love classic Hollywood, you’ll know them all. Eleanor Powell, Lucille Ball, Judy Garland.
Absolutely classy and polished, Boye’s craft makes this an unmissable piece of theatre, with song, dance, and gossip. A chatty monologue that knows its stuff, Shake It Away shines a spotlight on one of the greatest of the all.
By the time Ann Miller died in 2004, she was a fixture on chat shows and had even had new success on the stage late in life.
Not that she hadn’t trod the boards and earned her keep early on, as she tells us with relish. And if you don’t know her from her musicals, you’ll remember Coco in Mulholland Dr., on the screen in 1999.
A true trooper and star, and Kayla Boye brings her right back to life in front of us. The posture, the smile, the walk are all there.
There’s the personal stuff, too, delicately balanced with the career stuff including Miller’s big successes in Easter Parade and Kiss Me Kate.
As with Boye’s previous Fringe show, Call Me Elizabeth, she gets inside the skin of her subject with charm and style.
4 stars.
Shake It Away has now completed its Edinburgh Fringe run, but you can follow Kayla Boye’s website to find out future plans.