An intimate journey through her life and career told in song and stories. Rachael Beck – This Girl. Photograph by Darren Thomas.
Rachael Beck has a warm and charming personality; winning over audiences with her glorious voice. Her flawless diction, extraordinary breath control and emotional intelligence ensure that each phrase is lovingly crafted so that the narrative is always crystal clear. She’s also a born stage animal.
For her This Girl solo show: the Cremorne Theatre was transformed into a cabaret venue with table seating, chandelier and red curtains – serving the format of the evening well. The 70 minute program commenced with a song, ‘Who I am!’ which helped introduce us to Rachael’s early life – brought up on a farm in rural NSW, schooled in Lismore and with a mum and dad strongly encouraging her desire to perform. There were fun anecdotes about rival kids and theatre mums at an early Eisteddfod, in which she both tap danced and sang a rather dismal song about counting ‘I am the Count’ (with its emphasis on the double-entendre and complete with Dracula cloak!) which, surprisingly, won her first prize. Her audition for Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s Cats followed where, at the tender age of 15, she was cast as Rumpleteaser in the premier Australian production being the youngest ‘Cat’ in the business.
After these early references to the sub-title of her This Girl show: ‘An intimate journey through her life and career told in songs and stories’ there were fewer stories about her future life with passing references to screen and television shows and some of her musical theatre leading men. Maybe some screen shots or photos of her early life and her roles might have helped fill in the details a little more, although she did dedicate two fabulous songs from All that Jazz to her daughters, Tahlula and Roxie.
It would have been great to see her tap dance but instead she randomly invited an audience member to dance with her to the sexy tango ‘Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps’. While her guest, Michael, started off tentatively he soon got into the humour of the song, proving to be hilarious. Rachael was clearly taken by surprise at his antics and took a few minutes to compose herself for the most moving song of the evening, Bob Dylan’s love song, ‘To make you feel my love’. She managed to remain focused on this wonderful ballad and gave it amazing tenderness and control.
A diverse program across a wide gamut of popular and musical theatre hits followed. The choice of songs was clearly specific and personal – each having meaning for the singer in different ways and many from musicals in which she has performed. These included Belle’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’ in which she starred with Hugh Jackman and Fantine’s ‘I dreamed a dream’ from Les Misérables, which was exquisitely delivered and brought a lump to the throat. From her recent role in Next to Normal, she also sang an expressive and emotional ‘I miss the mountains’.
Two songs which resonated superbly were Jason Robert-Brown’s ‘I’ll give you stars and the moon’ from his Songs for a New World song cycle. This composition has a wordy narrative but she imbued it with depth and clarity, despite some tricky melodies and key changes, with the resolution sharply felt. And the glorious ‘Send in the Clowns’ from Sondheim’s A Little Night Music was well paced and sensitively phrased in an insightful arrangement.
Last year, she toured with her ex-co-star from Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang, David Hobson, in a show called ‘My baby just cares for me’ and, as she told it, he influenced her to try opera. For the first time she decided to make her attempt at opera with Carmen’s ‘Habanera’ by Bizet, which was an impressive debut.
Over the past week, Rachael Beck has been working with the 3rd year graduate class at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University Musical Theatre course. She commended their talents and the course publicly while choosing one young singer, Hilary Harrison, to join her in the very beautiful duet ‘For Good’ from Wicked. Rachael had the lion’s share of the singing, but Hilary did an amazing job and matched her counterpart note for note. It was a highlight of the evening.
Rachael Beck has the ability to make whatever she sings look easy and unrehearsed, helped by her self-deprecating style, but one knows how professionally polished the show is at every level. As the concert neared to an end, she announced that the showstopper, Cabaret, showing her off at her raunchy best, was the final song of the night but that, if we kept clapping, she would return for an encore. She then treated us to Leonard Cohen’s heart-warming and passionate ‘Hallelujah’ as a most memorable finale and clearly a favourite work.
Accompanied by Max Lambert on piano, who provided fantastic and empathetic support, one felt that Rachael Beck enjoyed this intimate ‘living-room’ show as much as the audience.
Perhaps one of the greatest compliments one can give her, above all other accolades, is to say how truthfully she serves her music and each hand-picked song. She is a very fine interpreter of everything she chooses to sing and one of the classiest artists I have had the privilege to hear and see. Apart from entertaining us joyously, this was a marvellous evening of stunning, well-chosen and expertly delivered music.
Star Rating: 4 1/2 stars out of 5
Rachael Beck – This Girl
An intimate journey through her life and career told in song and stories
Musical Director/ Accompanist: Max Lambert
Presented by QPAC
Cremorne Theatre, QPAC
28 October 2016
