Simply named and confidently performed, it’s safe to say this cabaret double act does what it says on the tin. The pairing of the energetic singing, dancing, stripping performer Belle de Beauvoir with the casual, always-seated-behind-a-wall-of-keys musician Pete Saunders (Dexy’s Midnight Runners) delivers on both parts of the bargain, leaving you desperately wanting more.
Rather than drawing from the canon of classic blues records that any blues band might perform, Saunders has crafted a handful of original songs that reflect the pessimistic view on life many share in today’s world of strikes and political dissatisfaction. His musical performance is embedded with world-wearied sensibility, which provides the ambience of a smoky blues club even when the varied songs themselves do not. Amongst his original compositions are covers of Kylie’s ‘Locomotion’ and Saunders’ own 80s hit ‘Come on Eileen’, which are appropriately bluesed up to match the air of sexiness and sarcasm.
This is the show’s strength and why, as a whole, it is far more than the sum of its parts. The humorous cynicism that spikes both the music and the performances, lifts the ‘Blues and Burlesque’ experience from quality to incredibly entertaining. For her first number, de Beauvoir emerges at the back of the audience stumbling, vodka bottle in hand, massive fur coat on, supposedly ‘on a walk of shame from Leith’. The reveal of the stunning costumes for the many numbers may add some real glamour to the affair, but the lyrics never quite allow us to stay innocently enthralled – at least not completely.
If any in the audience managed to carry on with any notion of the performers taking themselves seriously, they would not be able to continue for long. The clearest picture of the show’s comedic identity is given in a number towards the end, which addresses the audience directly and affirms the crucial sardonic wit that binds the cabaret. Duetting, both sing ‘we’re Blues and Burlesque, nothing more nothing less… we’re drunk, we’re angry and we’re full of booze’. There seems nothing else to add than this.
Living in post-Covid, cost-of-living crisis Britain, it feels like the ability to laugh at life’s more disappointing and embarrassing moments may provide the catharsis we need to carry on. ‘Blues and Burlesque’ does this and then some. Hence, even if you buy the ticket for the dancing naked women, which I can confirm you will see to great effect, I think you’ll stay for the constant laughs our two performers arouse together. A must-see, so long as you don’t take yourself too seriously or faint at the sight of breasts.
Image provided to The Student as press material