Left – Bernadette Robinson. Photo – Jeff BusbySuch is the magic of theatre that the Sydney Opera House is transmogrified into the White House for a nostalgic ninety minutes in the memory lane music and lyrics of Pennsylvania Avenue.
Bernadette Robinson stars as Harper Clements from Thunderbolt, Georgia, who after a teenage transgression, is shipped out to Washington DC to become an assistant to the assistant of the assistant to the entertainment officer at the White House in 1962. She stayed in the job forty years, seeing the passing parade of Presidents from Kennedy to George W.
The conceit of Johanna Murray Smith’s text is the melding of back room observation of the Oval Office with the songs of performers booked to entertain the Leader of the Free World.
It is a marvellous construct for the prodigious talents of Bernadette Robinson, stupendous singer, marvellous mimic and accomplished actress.
Starting with the breathy birthday serenade of Marilyn Monroe to JFK, Robinson ratchets up a tour de voice as she rockets through the decades with vignette narratives enhanced by “soundtrack of our lives” standards. Tapping into the Civil Rights era with Sarah Vaughan, the first black entertainer to be invited to the White House, Robinson follows with a dissing of LBJ over the escalation of the Vietnam War via a purr-fectly delectable channelling of Eartha Kitt singing Ne Me Quitte Pas. C’est si bon!
Chanteuses for the Commander in Chief take on personal musical motif when Harper loses her heart. Fervent fornication is fuelled by Peggy Lee’s Fever and the deep desire for post nuptial bliss is lyrically defined by The Supremes’ I Hear a Symphony.
Heartbreak, of course, is only a heartbeat away and the melody turns to melancholy with beautiful renditions of Roberta Flack’s The First Time Ever I saw Your Face and Julie London’s Cry Me A River.
Playful irony is employed by the choice of Tammy Wynette’s Stand By Your Man to illustrate the Clinton era, counterpointed with a bristling rendition of Aretha Franklin’s Respect.
Played against a blue draped set redolent of the White House’s Blue Room, adorned with portraits of past presidents on which pictures of events and personalities paralleling the narrative are projected, the show also boasts a star spangled backing band in splendid sync with the arresting arrangements and fabulous front and centre brilliance of Ms. Robinson.
A little bit gossip, a little bit gospel, a little bit soap and a whole lot of soul, Pennsylvania Avenue is a swingin' address to visit.
Duet presents a Melbourne Theatre Company production
Pennsylvania Avenue
by Joanna Murray-Smith
Directed by Simon Phillips
Venue: Playhouse | Sydney Opera House
Dates: 28 April – 22 May 2016
Bookings: www.sydneyoperahouse.com
