The Stage

Jill Halfpenny Celebrates the Great British Songbook

Published Thursday 30 September 2010 at 11:19 by Mark Shenton

The Great American Songbook has arguably been sung to death in cabaret circles - but now, as part of a newly resurgent British cabaret scene, there’s the third entry in the Great British Songbook series, devised by producer Neil Marcus, that began with Maria Friedman and Kerry Ellis at the Shaw. Now relocated to the far more atmospheric Wilton’s Music Hall, Jill Halfpenny continues to prove the range and depth to the work of British composers (and not just those from the world of musical theatre), while also providing an ideal showcase for her own quirky, uniquely British variety talents.

Though she may currently be offering a brassy performance as a downtrodden hairdresser in Legally Blonde the Musical, her own persona has an endearing, at times surprisingly tentative, modesty. A Geordie-born lass, she has an unforced warmth, wit and charm, but she also has an easy, generous pop singing voice to match it, duly heard to its best advantage in such pop numbers as the Beatles’ Ticket to Ride (channelling her childhood vocal heroine Karen Carpenter as she does so) that is blissfully paired with Jesus Christ Superstar’s ‘I Don’t Know How to Love Him’, one of the few musical theatre entries in her repertoire.

For Eric Clapton’s Tears in Heaven, she sheds her microphone and sings simply and beautifully acoustically. It resonates around the room of the Wilton’s Music Hall with an aching sincerity, especially as she performs it as a heartfelt tribute to her dad.

She is sweetly joined by Chris Ellis-Stanton, who plays the hunky UPS man she becomes hitched to in Legally Blonde, on a few duets, including the Rocky Horror Show’s Dammit Janet - and the two of them bring the first act to a rousing close with a sultrily choreographed dance. It’s not every day you see cabarets that feature dance so fully, but then talents like Halfpenny’s are hardly two-a-penny, either.