Granny’s Gone Wild
This outrageous octogenarian’s bus-pass peep-show is just the tonic for the jilted, the jaded and those about to flounder on the slippery Sisyphean slopes of impending later-life crisis.
For the young – here is your role-model for mis-spending your youth. It is part kitsch-me-quick end of the pier cabaret, part busty burlesque and not, infrequently, vaudeville vulgar. Structured around a medley of romantic, reflective ballads and occasional torch-songs, Miller machine-gun splatters the audience with contrived, cheesy one-liners.
The back-drop video-clips are a triumph of makeshift retro-tech. The group of good-natured young lads on the front row clutched their much needed lagers like protective talismans. Miller teased them with her opening feather-boa ‘strip’ routine and closed the show with them dancing in wigs.
Apparently she ‘Wrote The Book On Sex Appeal’ – revels in Jewish mother stereotype jokes and has some sage advice for elderly men and their priapic short-comings – so to speak. Taken with a hefty pinch of salt and shrewd appreciation of the What The Butler Saw sauciness there is much to enjoy, cringe and gasp at.
Perhaps not one for your maiden aunt – she may get ideas. At eighty years old Ms Miller certainly give those whipper-snapper ‘Stand-Up’ young’uns a run for their money. In fact, they actually run away from her.
C Nova, India Buildings, Victoria Street. Venue 145. Running until August 26th
