By Jennifer Beasley.
A beloved Australian Icon holds viewers enthralled in this touching and funny one woman show.
I can remember by mother watching Jeanne Little on The Mike Walsh Show during the 70’s to 80’s.
Her face would light up like a sunflower blooming in the midday sun, as she exclaimed,’ Jeanne is so outrageous! And those outfits made from garbage bags. How useful.’ Not realising, of course, that Jeanne Little’s creations were part shock value and part of Little’s appeal to the public for the niche style she had carved out for herself on Australian Television.
As a tribute to this remarkable woman, who started from humble beginnings to becoming a household name within 2 years (voted Most Popular Female by 5 million people on TV in 1976 and won the Gold Logie – yet no one congratulated her!) to her one-woman cabaret show Hello Dahling! (1991), Marlene-A Tribute to Dietrich (1994-2004), More of Little and MM-A Tribute to Marilyn Monroe. What makes these one-woman shows amazing is that Little was nearly 50 years old when she changed career tracks to become a performer.
Written by esteemed playwright Kieran Carrol in 2017, whose other tribute to tennis legend John Newcombe (NEWK) I saw earlier this year (amazing! Let’s drink Cinzino!) Darlin! It’s The Jeanne Little Show is performed by a very believable Caroline Ferguson, who weaves elements of Jeanne Little’s life in a meandering tale that hops around timelines yet makes sense as you watch the performance unfold.
Ferguson is marvellous as Little. Before the show had begun, she engages with the audience wandering amongst them, as the nearly full 150 seat Shirley Burke Theatre patrons burst out laughing at her comments, discussions on clothing, and cheeky asides and sets the tone for the great love Little had for people.
Navigating through her life with ease, (aside from some awkward moments with hair style changes), the performance is punctuated by Jeannes’s erratic style of speaking (a trait left over from the crippling stutter Little suffered as a child), hyperactivity and frequent changes of topic. Which suited ADHD me but left my companion scrabbling to catch up until I whispered, ‘she’s a bit like me.’
And acceptance is what Jeanne Little was all about. Delving into her unusual marriage to her husband Barry and connections to the LGBTQ community and support of their rights and charity work, the perception of the ‘ditzy’ queen of outrageousness hid a creative mind that was tuned into the zeitgeist of the moment. Ferguson comes out with some hilarious one-liners and demonstrated the power of Little’s personality that saw her fly to England to be on the Parkinson Show, with the distinctive theme music jiving across the stage. Recollections of Jeanne Little’s stint singing to Prince Charles and Princess Dianne on their Australian Tour at the Sydney Opera House and her sell-out performance in The Jerry Girls are some of the highlights touched on in this moving performance with costumes and set by Tracey Hogan.
There are a couple of standout moments for me. Ferguson’s voice is captivating as she sang, without any musical accompaniment, a few songs from Jeanne Little’s shows. Absolutely gold. The other is the display of Alzheimer’s, that Jeanne Little suffered for over ten years and was cared for solely by her husband Barry.
There are not many plays that can touch you in a way that brings you to tears. When the audience understood that Jeanne Little’s mind was failing, the play shifted. When she couldn’t remember the names of her grandchildren, and her wild, exuberant gait became shuffling, her fingers chasing, plucking, mind thoughts from the air, the tone, slower and sadder, delved into an emotional depth that many people can relate too.
If my mother could comprehend the show, I know she, too, would have clapped at the end.
Dahlin! It’s The Jeanne Little Show played at the Shirley Burke Theatre Sunday November 24th, 2024.
