A new cabaret about how sh*t it is to be a performer.
The dynamic duo of Jess Walker (writer & singer) and Joe Atkins (composer & musical director) take you on a dismally entertaining journey through life as a performer, from cradle (almost) to grave. In a provocative show including 5 new songs and stories about sexual assault, talent show burnout and getting old, this is an evening of telling it like it is, because it's impossible to keep quiet any longer.
Joe and Jess's last theatre collaboration was her sell-out play with songs, All I Want is One Night, produced by the Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester, and soon to be heading to the Brits Off Broadway festival in New York in June of this year. Their other recent cabaret appearances have included Live at Zédel, St James Studio, Brits Off Broadway, and festivals across the UK.
Kings Head Theatre
115 Upper Street
London N1 1QN
Forbidden Love
CABARET
Wednesday 28th February & Thursday 1st March, 7.30pm
Half a century after the legalisation of homosexuality, Jessica Walker and Joseph Atkins return to the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester to present a provocative cabaret about illicit same-sex desire in times of repression.
Beginning with the male impersonators of the Victorian music hall and the first openly gay songs of the Weimar Cabaret in 1920s Berlin, we journey through the erotic songs of 1930s Paris, and into the hidden sexualities of artists in Britain and America, right up to the introduction of the infamous section 28 in the 1980s. From Noël Coward to Dusty Springfield via Marlene Dietrich, this is an evening of queer history in song not to be missed.
Royal Exchange Theatre
St Ann's Square
Manchester M2 7DH
Liza Pulman Sings Streisand
CONCERT
Wednesday 21st March - Thursday 24th May
Liza Pulman, the acclaimed singer and comedienne, and one third of the satirical comedy trio Fascinating Aïda, is back by popular demand with her show Liza Pulman Sings Streisand. This is no Stars In Their Eyes, this is no Channel 5 biopic, this is sexy, sassy Liza weaving together history, humour and harmony as she celebrates the songs of the great Barbra Streisand with her six-piece band.
Alongside renowned musical director Joseph Atkins, Liza brings you glorious new arrangements and orchestrations of these now legendary songs.
Expect the much loved classics Evergreen, The Way We Were, New York State Of Mind, Second Hand Rose and many more in a full to bursting 90 minute show.
The shows on the 29th and 30th April are particularly exciting, as Liza, Joe and the band will be joined by the world-famous Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band.
Joe spends a week at the Lichfield Festival this July as an artist-in-residence, performing with Jessica Walker across four events. They begin with Soldiers, Sirens and Suffragettes a cabaret celebrating extraordinary women in history, followed by an afternoon cabaret of 20th-century popular song and an evening of music by Gershwin and Bernstein, performing alongside the other resident artists of the festival. They conclude the week by reprising their 2014 Brits Off Broadway sell out show, Pat Kirkwood is Angry.
With the centenary of the end of World War I in full swing, the acclaimed Jessica Walker takes us on a powerful journey through European and transatlantic cabaret repertoire inspired by the brutality, futility and passions of the Great War. Including Vesta Tilley's army recruitment numbers from the music hall stages of London, rare American pacifist songs, and the biting satire of the Berlin cabaret scene, Jessica brings her unique theatrical and vocal style to these superb songs, accompanied by musical director Joseph Atkins.
Jessica Walker's new music drama is inspired by Helen Zenna Smith's novel Not So Quiet, Radclyffe Hall's war account in The Well of Loneliness, and the life of war artist and ambulance driver Olive Mudie-Cooke. Not Such Quiet Girls tells the stories of three women at the front line of the First World War. Bringing together an all-female chorus, staged scenes, film projections and music hall songs, this new musical drama weaves an inspiring narrative out of neglected stories of women in the Great War. Featuring new choral arrangements and an original composition by Joe.
Further information about the production can be found here.
Howard Assembly Room
46 New Briggate
Leeds LS1 6NU
Liza Pulman Sings Streisand
CONCERT
Thursday 11th October - Saturday 8th December
Liza Pulman, the acclaimed singer and comedienne, and one third of the satirical comedy trio Fascinating Aïda, is back by popular demand with her show Liza Pulman Sings Streisand. This is no Stars In Their Eyes, this is no Channel 5 biopic, this is sexy, sassy Liza weaving together history, humour and harmony as she celebrates the songs of the great Barbra Streisand with her six-piece band.
Alongside renowned musical director Joseph Atkins, Liza brings you glorious new arrangements and orchestrations of these now legendary songs.
Expect the much loved classics Evergreen, The Way We Were, New York State Of Mind, Second Hand Rose and many more in a full to bursting 90 minute show.
This is Joe's fifth consecutive year as Musical Director for this special community event at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, which welcomes groups from across Southwark to participate in a winter celebration in song. This year's theme is 'Journeys'. Tickets are free.
Shakespeare's Globe Theatre
21 New Globe Walk
London SE1 9DT
