Watching Trevor Ashley’s fabulous show ‘Liza (On An E) is like entering a parallel universe where everything is perfectly ‘way over the top’. Ashley embodies Liza Minnelli channeling her spirit and letting it out at the audience with a monologue that is downright hysterically funny. Yet what makes this cabaret show magical is not the comedy but the true talent of impersonation that lies beneath – Ashley has an amazing voice – close your eyes and it sounds like the real thing.
On the east coast of Australia Ashley is a well known performer thanks to his stage roles in ‘Priscilla Queen of the Desert’, ‘Hairspray – The Musical’ and string of successful cabaret shows. In Western Australia he’s not as well known but Sunday’s opening night was filled with the who’s who of Perth’s LGBT and musical theatre communities.
A few songs in Ashley repeats Minelli’s intro to her TV special ‘Liza with a Z’ – it’s word perfect, expect until five lines in when some new dialogue appears talking about drug use and drinking. In this parallel universe of Liza – she talks more openly about her drug use, her parents, her less famous siblings and husbands. This sets the tone for the show – it’s a roller coaster ride of excess from here on in. Dressed in Minnelli’s signature pant suit covered in red sequences Ashley comes alive in the spotlight. The voice, the laugh, the Fosse moves – are all spot on.
Over the course of the show we travel through the hits from ‘Cabaret’, the standards, that forgotten album made with the Pet Shop Boys and we even find out what Minnelli singing Lady Gaga would sound like. A great show from beginning to end – it’s camp, it’s crazy and it’s cabaret at its best.
Trevor Ashley’s ‘Liza (On a E)’ is playing at Fringe World until Saturday February 16
Graeme Watson
