CABARET: Justin Pearce
On My Way to Here does itself an injustice by calling itself a tribute show. That term is the one used to describe what has become the staple diet of Cape Town live shows: an uninspired, if competent, band and/or singers gallumphing their way through a list of hummable tunes associated with a once-famous band or singer.
Shows like this trade on the familiarity of their material. Tricky things like interpretation are undertaken only with caution lest the version heard on stage strays too far from the one by the Beatles/Billy Joel/Liza Minnelli/whoever.
On My Way to Here satisfies only one of those criteria: the songs are all compositions by Dory Previn, who, in any case, never had her name up in lights as a performer. Familiarity is not an issue, and the tunes, while haunting, are not necessarily hummable.
The show has a dramatic thread of sorts, a psychological journey in the mind of Previn which incorporates biographical details — a bizarre incident of childhood abuse, the pervasiveness in her life of Catholicism which she rejected but never recovered from — without being an open-and-shut biography. These details rather serve to illuminate the impulses behind Previn’s writing.
Neither is the audience asked to suspend its disbelief and cast Heather Mac as Previn herself — even though Mac carries the show. Taking time off from her regular appearances with her rock-oriented band, she reminds us that her unaffected vocal style can also be breathtaking when singing unmiked, a capella or with only the discreet guitar accompaniment of Tom Fox.
Peter Susman, speaking poems and song lyrics by Previn (it’s hard to tell which is which), is an effective stage partner to Mac — they create some beautiful sounds simply by speaking in counterpoint.
This isn’t a production that will have you dancing on the tables, but if all of the endless round of tribute shows were as original as this one, there’d be reason to be excited about the state of live entertainment in this town.
On My Way to Here is on Upstairs at Elaine’s, Observatory, Cape Town, until January 29