Skank Sinatra | The Ellington | til Feb 7 | ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Skank Sinatra’s opening night at The Ellington Jazz Club was a sell-out and for good reason. Skank’s (aka Jens Radda) new show is sensational. Being a solo performer there are no safety nets. If the voice is off scale or the jokes fall flat then that’s all ‘tough titties’, but in Skanks’ case, this sassy ‘broad’ delivered some classy hysterical dialogue (no F’s or C’s), paired with impeccable comedic timing and with laugh out loud facial expressions that clearly sets her way above the rest. Skank was a joy to watch and I was totally absorbed and invested in her 60-minute set piece.
Dressed in a pink and red ensemble and with a face like Angie Dickinson (in her good years) a body like Keira Knightley and paying homage to a 1970s Darrell Lee-inspired checkout chick (you know the extended shoulder-to shoulder huge pink satin bow around the neck) accessorised with a smartly-bouffant platinum wig, Skank certainly looked the star!
Changing the lyric lines of popular classic songs to convey the story of her journey from WAAPA to stardom came with some interesting surprises. Skank’s baritone voice has a wonderfully-rich tone which equally matched her own excellent keyboard accompaniment skills on the Yamaha grand. One never over-powered the other, which only very few performers achieve these days.
There were so many memorable numbers, but if I had to pick it would be Cher’s Bang Bang, Sinatra’s Strangers In The Night and Dusty Springfield’s I Only Want To Be With You, plus Minnelli’s New York, New York. I particularly loved the Berlin rave warehouse story, so well-written and delivered with frenetic pace and humour; it was comedy at its best.
Before moving to Australia in 2007, Jens Radda grew up in South Africa to a Danish and Afrikaans speaking family. A WAAPA’s Musical Theatre graduate in 2016, Jens studied Clowning with Philippe Gaulier in Paris and Vocal Technique at Complete Vocal Institute in Copenhagen. Such is his approach to theatre that it didn’t come by chance, it took a lot of study, effort and hard work, which today now pays dividends as he entertains to sold-out shows in Edinburgh, Adelaide and now in Perth. I salute you, Jens Radda!
See Skank Sinatra at The Ellington until Wednesday 7 February. For tickets and more information, head to fringeworld.com.au
Terry Larder is the founder of Club West (1989-2015) and in this role over those years was the director/producer/compere/drag performer. He is keen to foster goodwill and nurture new and emerging artists both on-stage and off.
He has been a writer for OIP since 2007, and has reviewed numerous shows as well as interviewed and written about Debbie Reynolds, Anthony Callea, James Morrison, Elaine Paige to name but a few. Terry also writes history articles for OIP and university publications.
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