“Drama and talent and sex - combined"
Since they were cast together as the divas in the musical of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Portia Emare, Emma Lindars and Charlotte Riby have harnessed their
considerable talents to form The IDolls, a musical trio who’ve built up quite a
reputation for themselves with their powerhouse vocals. Their repertoire may
have been born out of a mutual love for soul music but their set tonight at the
Matcham Room in London’s Hippodrome casino went way further to embrace their
musical theatre beginnings as well as 70s disco, Motown, self-penned tunes and
contemporary pop.
So given their natural strength and the unique selling point of the gorgeous
blend that they come up with, the first half of their gig felt slightly
unbalanced. After a thrilling opening that featured Sister Act’s sparkling
Fabulous Baby and an epic soul/Motown medley including a fierce rendition of I
Heard It Through the Grapevine, the eclectic mix that followed felt a little
too, well eclectic. Giving each of the IDolls a solo spot to showcase their
individual voices is an integral part of the evening, but allowing the same for
each of the guest performers alongside a duet with them felt a little
excessive, the interval arrived with the feeling that the group numbers were
just something of a special treat rather than their raison d’être.
Song choices didn’t always help either by not being as adventurous as they
might: it’s hard to get excited by a medley of Aretha’s Respect and Think no
matter excellently sung it is, and a clutch of Bond theme songs only really
caught fire in its final moments. But when The IDolls are good, they are
absolutely fantastic and from the final third of the first act onwards, they
tore it up. An incandescent rendition of One Night Only started a Dreamgirls
section which ended with Sharon D Clarke bringing the house down with a
magisterial And I Am Telling You (I’m Not Going), full of rich throaty power
and interpretative nous.
It’s their arrangements of the modern pop songs that really impress though.
Beyoncé’s End of Time gets a stomping martial beat, Christina Aguilera’s
stridency is softened in a version of Candyman that evokes a wonderfully
genuine Andrews Sisters vibe and Katy Perry’s Firework is simply transformed
into a stunning acoustic torch song. The sheer diversity of exceptional talent
that emerges is only bolstered by the all-too-clear affection they hold for
each, creating such a mutually supportive environment for each to sing their
solos – one can’t imagine any of them diva-stropping off for a solo career!
By the time the party atmosphere was well and truly established with a
first-rate Supremes medley backed by some fierce high-kicking support from
Priscilla’s friends and Rachael Wooding popped along to add some fresh energy
to a soaring run through Proud Mary, it was clear that this was most definitely
the IDolls’ house in which we were being allowed to play. Such is the range of
their talent and that of their guests, there’s a danger that a show like this
can lose a little focus in trying to show too much. But whether in the
devastating simplicity of Randy Crawford’s poignant Almaz or the anthemic
splendour of CeCe Peniston’s joyous Finally, these stars showed that there was
only one place to be on Sunday night to see the real x-
factor in action.
Originally written for The Public Reviews
