Showstopper

Published Friday 3 March 2006 at 17:55 by Jon Holliday

Nostalgia is potent in this one-woman show about the glory days of Hollywood musicals when glamorous stars wowed cinema fans with wonderful singing voices not always their own.

Inspired by the life and career of Marnie Nixon (“the ghostess with the mostest”) who dubbed the songs for Deborah Kerr in the King and I, Natalie Wood in West Side Story and more significantly here Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady, Dan Rebellato has fashioned a witty comedy examining celluloid fame and its effects on real life. Directed by Pip Minnithorpe, Rebecca Thornhill plays an English ex-pat living in Hollywood desperately striving for the recognition her singing adds to the reputation of superstars. With this assured portrayal, both funny and touching, she provides a real treat for movie buffs with her pointing of one-liners, endless name-dropping and showbiz gossip. Besides showcasing her attractive singing, Thornhill’s performance encompasses some top-class clowning while her shifts of mood from enthusiastic optimism to bitter disappointment are as impressive as her show of determination to survive humiliations and view setbacks through the rosiest of spectacles. As she struggles gamely through an unsympathetic recording session, a casting interview and audition for The Sound of Music (leading to an encounter with Julie Andrews) and finally an embarrasising PR exploitation, there surfaces an obsessive love for Audrey Hepburn, a fantasy built on the flimsiest of bases. Quite the tour de force.