Peaches Christ Superstar

An extraordinary idea that made for an extraordinary evening. Peaches is pretty extraordinary to start with, but couple that with Lloyd Webber and Rice’s first major musical and who could know what to expect. The audience were clearly baffled by it all, not quite knowing whether this was some grand joke or a massive homage to the work. Giggling was evident but cautious giggling and the usual whooping afforded to an artiste like Peaches happened but felt somewhat strange. This however is not a review of an audience. Peaches gave it her all, really her all if not more than her all as the evening progressed and her voice started to waver. It did not matter, the impression that I got was this was a testament of love for the music and especially for the lyrics, which came across remarkably well. Her accompanist on grand piano delivered a stunning backing too full of subtle complexities that might never have come across with a full orchestration. I’m not convinced that Peaches delivery of the story had much to offer but in powerfully representing the songs it was a ten out of ten performance, certainly avoiding silliness or campery, even at the crucifixion finale when she was joined on stage by enthusiastic, pre-arranged, audience members, whose cries of ‘crucify him’ were strangely disturbing. In fact that was the most disturbing moment of the whole piece, turning the audience into the blood hungry Jews of the bible story and the Lloyd Webber interpretation – yes very odd and very clever to put the shoe on the other foot, after all, in similar circumstances, would we not all cry for the blood, or at least the suppression, of a man who threatened our beliefs?

Did I like it? Yes – and no. Was it entertaining? Yes for sure, but it did beg the question why and perhaps the answer is that Peaches simply grew up with the music and loves it – to death.
Peaches Christ Superstar
Theatre Royal Brighton
19 May
Andrew Kay
4 stars