NEWS
:: click on the dots to view ::
Darlene Mietrich, The One Who Didn't Make It To Hollywood, Volupte Lounge, April 2007
Independent on Sunday, ABC Magazine Review ****
It's official - cabaret has gone mainstream. Just a few years ago, partying like it's 1929 was the reserve of a few east London dandies. Nowadays, we've got Dita Von Teese titillating the masses from the pages of Glamour, girls cavorting in giant martini glasses at every posh party in town, and now, an up-market retro cabaret club smack bang in the middle of the city, the Volupte Lounge.
Bethnal Green Working Men's Club, it ain't. In place of the sticky floors, twentysomething hipsters and drunken dancing, you have five-star service, a ladies-who-lunch clientele, chi-chi decor and quality food, served at your table while you enjoy the performance.
The entertainment was top-notch, as Fiona Staniland performed popular Weimer songs as her alter-ego, 1930s Berlin cabaret starlet Darlene Mietrich. Obviously, one can't mention the words "cabaret" and "Weimer" without thinking of Sally Bowles, but Darlene Mietrich is a fun character, even so. She holds her own, peppering her chit-chat with sexual double entendres as she complains of the blonde who stole her name and moved to Hollywood, and constantly flirts with the audience. At one point, she even cuddles up to my boyfriend, and purrs "hello, gorgeous", while wearing a Nazi helmet and carrying a shotgun. As it goes on, the show becomes more depraved, as Darlene is stripped to her underwear and cavorts with a Nazi officer.
AJ