SONGS TO MAKE YOU SMILE
The Press CLUB at Christ’s College, Christchurch
16/01/2014 - 25/01/2014
World Buskers Festival 2014 | SCIRT
Production Details
Lili La Scala is a one-of-a-kind performer with a cascade of vintage glamour and charm in her arsenal. It’s easy to see why the little Diva with the big voice – nicknamed the ‘Songbird of Trafalgar Square’ – has become a sell-out favourite worldwide.
Lili’s latest offering, the award-winning, “Songs To Make You Smile” is an enthralling, upbeat hour of wartime classics, show tunes and decidedly bright-and-breezy numbers from yesteryear bound to put a spring in your step.
From American composers Irving Berlin and Cole Porter to British legends Gracie Fields and Vera Lynn, and with a splash of George Formby thrown in for good measure, Lili offers traditional tunes delivered with cabaret sass.
16-25 Jan
Cabaret at The Press CLUB at Christ’s College
5.30pm (except Mon 20 Jan at 2pm)
60 mins
http://www.worldbuskersfestival.com/songs-to-make-you-smile
Cabaret ,
A thoroughly satisfying magical hour
Review by Erin Harrington 18th Jan 2014
Lili la Scala – rocking a magnificently glamorous electric blue evening gown and some killer heels – describes herself as a “vintage singer of vintage songs” but this isn’t the whole story: she is a commanding figure with a startlingly lovely voice.
Her show covers upbeat wartime classics from entertainers such as Cole Porter, George Formby, Ivor Novello and Gracie Fields, interspersed with wry anecdotes and warm patter. The renditions are variously saucy, witty and heartfelt, and given Lili’s verve and enthusiasm for the genre, not to mention a good spoonful of innuendo, each sound as modern as they would have done the day they were written. The audience plainly adores her: her torch songs are met with sighs, and the comic ditties with cackles and eager applause.
She and her wonderfully dextrous accompanist, Dickie (Richard Healey), have a fine chemistry. The two performers, as well as the technical crew, are to be commended for making the unforgiving institutional maw of the Christ’s College auditorium feel like an intimate club.
Songs to Make You Smile is a thoroughly satisfying and magical hour’s worth of entertainment by a world class performer. Depending on what you bring to the performance it will either be a rousing trip down memory lane or (for philistines like me) a whirlwind introduction to the music hall’s back catalogue. Either way, you’re likely to love it.
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