Without question Joanna Murray-Smith’s latest work Songs for Nobodies is set to be a huge hit both nationally and internationally I expect. Yes this is a play that would easily work well overseas, especially in Europe and the US where many of the famous songbirds Murray Smith brings to life in her play came from. Indeed if we were doing a check list, this play would have all the boxes ticked, and both Murray-Smith and director Simon Phillips should be more than happy that the play practically starts from perfection in its naissance.
Of course the team have already achieved great success creating this form of theatre musical in 2002 with the spectacularly successful Bombshell for Caroline O’Connor. The overarching reason for the success of Songs for Nobodies is Bernadette Robinson’s incredible voice and unforgettable performance which received a full standing ovation on opening night (more than 90% of the audience rose to cheer Robinson’s sublime singing and stamina). And according to Simon Phillips the play was commissioned with Bernadette Robinson in mind.
The script for Songs for Nobodies is a pretty simple premise. Murray-Smith presents us with five anonymous women who at some point in their life meet or come across a famous chanteuse: the likes of Judy Garland, Billy Holiday, Edith Piaf, Patsy Kline and Maria Callas. These anonymous “ordinary” women share their encounters with the famous divas before breaking into the iconic songs these women made famous, that everyone and anyone now knows. These songs, although famous, have individual and particular flavor and meaning, – and value for any number of anonymous nobodies – and it is these nobodies that are the “stars” of the piece.
The idea is immediately likeable and one that the audience easily connect with as Robinson in character teases us with throw away lines like “who me? I’m nobody”.
One issue that stood out for me, however, was that all of these five anonymous women’s stories held the status of “the unmarried”. This could either be seen as a post feminist slant on the heroine’s role as an independent warrior, or leads us to view the correlation of “the unmarried” to that of the “nobody”. I’m not sure here, but I did wonder why these women’s narratives didn’t include a happy union somewhere.
Yet this latest work by Joanna Murray-Smith is again beautifully written (Murray-Smith certainly does have an impressive way of doling out sometimes acerbic, sometimes tender reflections on humanity) and even more impressively, the performance by Bernadette Robinson, who (incredibly) never seems daunted, out of step or off note, was simply magnificent. She truly was a one-woman tour de force of acting and singing for over an hour and a half. No wonder Bernadette Robinson is one of Australia’s most sought after singers and entertainers.
Songs for Nobodies runs until23 November. Visit the ArtsHub Events listings for more information on Songs for Nobodies.
