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Miz Ima Starr 'You Asked For It' Chandelier Room, Freemasons Hall Sun 12 March Having given her last in a trilogy of shows at the 2005 Adelaide Cabaret Festival, it was a pleasant surprise to see Adelaide's foremost 'cock in a frock' Miz Ima Starr (Charles Bracewell) returning for the Fringe. However 'You Asked For It' is not exactly a new show as such. Upon entry, audience members are given a song list and pen and asked to pick their favourite songs from Ima's many hits from her previous eight shows. When she appeared, she handpicked audience members with malicious caprice and then sang their selections without fail. Hence, the show then became a random pastiche of requests and a bit of a handful at times when the choices were a succession of up tempo numbers - Midnight Radio followed by Sleeping In My Car, fully testing the diva's fitness and her six inch heels. Playing to an audience that included Adelaide drag luminaries Vonnie, Fifi, Rochelle, and Brenda Baclava aka Brian North, Ima minus backup dancers, but with classy backing track in hand, showed once again that she is a pocket rocket diva with a substantial counter-soprano voice to back up the brass. The audience played it safe and chose the predictable standards by Doris Day- Secret Love, Que Sera Sera - Marilyn Monroe - Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend and the obligatory Judy Garland - The Trolley Song. However, the unquestioned highlight was Ima's pop version of an operatic mad scene in Julie Brown's cult classic The Homecoming Queen's Got A Gun where even the pink wig got wasted. And of course, there were the outfits, a slinky see through black cocktail dress befitting a true hussy followed by a leopard skin Mae West gown complete with faux fur trim and feathered headdress. While respectful of the drag history from which she has evolved, Miz Ima Starr really is a DQ for the Generation X brigade belting out postmodern white trash standards with gusto and true panache. The girl's got it, and it's about time some television station executive with foresight realizes it giving Ima the broader exposure she craves and richly deserves.  |
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