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| Petula Clark |
Canberra Theatre 10th May 2019
Reviewed by Bill Stephens
They’re two words that are thrown around fairly
liberally these days, but when you watch Petula Clark perform, you know you’re in
the presence of a genuine “legendary star”.
Indeed, it’s hard to believe that Petula Clark’s career spans eight
decades. She appears ageless as she commands the stage for a performance that
lasts well over two hours.
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| Petula Clark in performance |
Her adoring audience needed no encouragement when
invited to sing along with her. They knew every word to “Downtown”, “This is My
Song”, “Don’t Sleep in the Subway”, “Colour My World”, with which she topped
the charts in the 1960’s. But Clark’s career commenced well before the 60’s,
beginning as a child star entertaining troops in concerts and on radio during
the Second World War.
Her catalogue of song hits is vast, but Clark had much
more to offer than hit songs. She’s a gifted story-teller, and her stories of
her friendships and encounters with other legends, like John Lennon, Peggy Lee,
Fred Astaire and Charlie Chaplin, are told with grace and humour. She paid
tribute to Lennon with “Imagine” and to Peggy Lee with “Fever”, explaining
before she sang it, that she refused to record “Fever” until after Lee had
died. She told of spending an afternoon with Chaplin, dancing with him to her
recording of “This is My Song” which Chaplin wrote for the film “A Countess
from Hong Kong”. She shared memories of working with Fred Astaire when they
starred in the film, “Finian’s Rainbow”, and sang two songs from the film.
Though her voice, understandably, has lost some of its
bloom, it’s still immediately recognizable as Petula Clarke’s. She’s aware of
its deficiencies, even stopping at one point to repeat a phrase, when her voice
faltered. Not that anyone was worried. She still had plenty of soaring notes to
share, singing in both French and English, with impeccable annunciation and phrasing.
She offered masterful interpretations of Lloyd-Webbers “Don’t Cry For Me
Argentina” and his demanding “With One Look”, which she performed wrapped in the
cloak she wore when she starred in “Sunset Boulevard” on the West End.
Clark also included several of her own compositions in
her program, including the catchy “From Now On”. For one or two songs she accompanied
herself on the grand piano, but mostly she sang to the sensitive accompaniment
of her long- time musical director, Grant Sturiale and four local musicians who
made up her impressive backing band.
Following her Australian tour Clark will return to
London’s West End for the first time in 20 years, to play The Bird Woman in
“Mary Poppins”. No doubt her performances in that will earn her more standing
ovations to rival the one given to her by her enthusiastic Canberra audience.
This review also appears in AUSTRALIAN ARTS REVIEW. www.artsreview.com.au