The Ruby Red Fatales | Noodle Palace – Bok Choy Ballroom | Until Feb 18 | ★ ★ ★ ★ ½
Set during the rambunctious and dark times of World War II’s 1930’s the Ruby Red Fatales takes sexy and satirical to a grotesque and mortifyingly laugh out loud level where you are unsure whether the jokes are more funny than outrageous and yet deeply touch on the poignancy of war-time ignorance and the role of women in their coming of age during the great war period.
When you think of Nazi’s one hardly conjures to mind a romping time full of sex, love affairs, musical bangers, cross-dressing, homosexual escapades and the precursor to Amyl Nitrate being used recreationally and yet The Ruby Red Fatales is exactly that. Throw in a jazz guitarist in the tightest skinny jeans known to man wiggling his pelvis to-and-fro and you have yourself the cabaret comedy musical that will titillate you and have you aching to find the cast recording on Spotify for those lonely Valentines nights in your bedroom.
Seriously, the music and voices in this production are beyond phenomenal and really showcase the talent behind Paper Haus Productions. Sinead O’Hara and Cindy Randall have power ballad vocals that both stun in solo performance and when harmonising, whilst a gristly, bearded Ryan Hunt and Brett Peart will leave you floored and gagging for more with their bearish charm and show-stopping number.
All this is accompanied by spies dancing and dressed in the American flag adorned in the way of a cheesy drag act or Trumpette. To top it off, the whole show is splashed onto a backdrop of live jazz musicians, suavely dropping chromatic hipster realness that will feed your inner-geek fetish and sensualise your ears.
If I have a bad word to drop, it would be that the Bok Choy Palace venue was perhaps not the best suited for the shows sound requirements. The microphones crunched at times within the space, and the hilarious skits of vintage adverts were muffled if you sat on the outer edges of the audience and consequently, the speakers. The blackouts also felt clunky, and I had wished they were replaced with something smoother to streamline the show whilst the band kept the atmosphere running high.
Overall, The Ruby Red Fatales is highly entertaining and quick-witted craftily jumping on every expectation and just going, “let’s do it and see what happens!”
The Ruby Red Fatales will be at Noodle Palace’s Bok Choy Ballroom until Saturday February 18th. Tickets and more information available from fringeworld.com.au
Kyle J Kash
