New York cabaret trailblazer Salty Brine delivers the latest chapter in his collage-cabaret cult-hit Living Record Collection at the Sydney Festival with a bravura mash-up of high drama, indie rock and memoir.
Bigmouth Strikes Again is a fever-dream fusion of The Smiths 1981 album The Queen Is Dead, Shelley’s Frankenstein, and his own lived experience – this is literature and live music with great lashes of camp.
Read on to get Salty Brine’s take on his show, his love for cabaret and his own personal inspirations.
How would you describe your show to someone who knows very little about it?
Bigmouth Strikes Again (The Smiths Show) is a monstrous mashup of the melancholically divine Smiths album The Queen is Dead and Mary Shelley’s unforgettably eerie masterpiece Frankenstein. You get the whole album and the whole novel in one show. And that’s just the beginning. The show is a memoir, a stand-up comedy set, a rock concert, a drag show, a literary event, a spectacle and a chance for all of us to connect in the dark.
What makes it stand out and why should people see it?
The show is riotously fun and funny and also deeply poignant and achingly sad. It’s the combination of these experiences that I believe makes cabaret transcend beyond the stories and the gags and the pretty notes sung well… and become something else; Something astounding that will sit with you for days. I’m always on a mission to give audiences that experience. We’re reaching for something thrilling. Something human. And gorgeous. And bigger than all of us. Come see!
How long was the process from idea to writing to stage? Any challenges along the way?
It took several years to build the final version of this show. With lots of performances along the way. Which my team and I learned from immensely. Touching it up and tweaking it here and there with each performance until it settled into the show you’ll see at Sydney Festival.
One of biggest challenges with my shows is moving things around so that each lyric on the album is helping move the show forward. Some lyrics fit right away. And others need some time to find their place. We’re waiting to find out what their purpose is in the evening. It took a few tries to get it right.
Please tell me about what attracts you to the Sydney festival and why you love performing there.
This is my first time at Sydney Festival! I’m so very excited to be a part of this grand 50th anniversary! I can tell you that the folks I’ve already met from Sydney… the folks that work at SydFest itself… and the Sydney locals that I’ve crossed paths with… have been incredibly welcoming and warm and generous. I can tell this is a phenomenal institution in an incredible city and I can’t wait to be a part of it all!
How would you describe your relationship with the audience and what do you love the most about live performance?
I love working in the form of cabaret precisely because of my relationship with the audience. With no fourth wall in my way, I can quite literally connect with everyone in the room. I spend quite a bit of time roaming about in the house during the show. But don’t let that frighten you. I interact with my audiences but no one is ever asked to do anything more than sit there and connect with me. We share a moment. We look into each other’s eyes as the music soars and swirls around us. The audience is as much a part of the story I’m telling as anything. And every show is different because every audience is different. That’s what I love about live performance. It’s always new. It’s always a surprise.
Who would you say has been your biggest inspirations?
The list feels endless. Singers like Nina Simone, Bowie, Jacques Brel. Raconteurs like Kenneth Williams and Quentin Crisp. Comics like Eddie Izzard and Margaret Cho. Cabaret icons like Justin Vivian Bond and Meow Meow. To name just a few.
What are three things that would surprise people to learn about you?
I’m a fabulous drag icon on stage but truly a nerd off stage. I love trains and science fiction and plays and very proper afternoon tea. And I’m hopelessly punctual.
I’m a morning person. I like to be up at 5:30am. Which makes my life in cabaret an absolute nightmare. I’m always going on stage just when I’d like to be getting into bed. Then the spotlight hits and I’m on fire.
Perhaps most surprising of all… I’ve seen every Fast and the Furious movie. I’m a huge fan.
Finally, what would you like audiences to take away from the show?
I’d like audiences to leave feeling that they are not alone in feeling alone. Life can be a lonely thing. Even if we’re surrounded by people. And ever more increasingly so as the world gets better and better at technology and farther and farther away from offering up rooms in which we find ourselves together. Reaching out across the void between one person and another, a simple act, can sometimes feel frightening… even impossible. I’m going to keep on reaching out. I hope my audiences leave feeling bravely the same.
Pussy-bowed, frocked up and unleashing his incredible voice, Salty’s idiosyncratic tapestries of storytelling intertwine tales from his own life with Victor Frankenstein’s chilling creation – and Morrissey’s own melodic melancholy.
From sold-out runs at Joe’s Pub (NYC) to Soho Theatre (London), Salty Brine’s genre-bending shows dazzle and disarm. He’s taken on Adele, The Beatles, even opera – now, he welds post-punk anthems to classic literature and sparks something new. It’s alive!
January 14 – 18
