BWW Reviews: THE SUPREME FABULETTES IN LOVE, RHYTHM AND TEARS, Madame JoJo's, October 24 2012

In a succession of stunning bias-cut gowns with more darts than a meeting of the Sid Waddell Appreciation Society, The Supreme Fabulettes lord it (or should that be "lady it"?) over a stage just big enough for them to throw some elegant shapes in long stain gloves. Between costume changes, video screens show the ladies at leisure including a hilarious encounter with Sinitta. There's plenty of bitchy banter with the audience (and amongst themselves) too as hit after hit after hit is belted out to an audience lapping up every second.

In their first full-length show, Miss Mary Mac, Miss Vicki Vivacious and Miss Vanilla Lush are funny, clever and spectacularly entertaining. Which is what you might expect from a cabaret act with the kitsch factor dialled up to eleven, wearing false eyelashes so big they endanger the front row's martinis. What might be less expected is that these ladies can sing - really sing.

Very much using their own (masculine) voices, the three enthralled the room with a succession of classics, from The Supremes' Baby Love through Ms Winehouse's Back to Black and on to a closing medley that had all three decked out in Emma Sjoberg's Thierry Mugler outfit from the Too Funky video while giving Beyonce's All The Single Ladies a thorough seeing to. It's that kind of show!

Backed by a creative team (John Themis, Terry Ronald and Stevie Stewart) who have worked with some of the biggest names in the business, the ladies are equally at ease singing individually or in harmonies, working through full songs (All Cried Out was sensational) or delivering mash-ups (as the kids say), dancing in formation or joshing with the punters. Two hours simply whistles by and the cries for an encore were loud and insistent from a room that most definitely wanted more. And more is exactly what we'll get of Miss Mac, Miss Vivacious and Miss Lush - they're much too good to be a secret any longer!

Photo Zoe Hunn

Gary Naylor is chief reviewer for westend.broadwayworld.com and feels privileged to see so much of London's theatre. He writes about cricket at nestaquin.wordpress.com and also for The Guardian, Spin Cricket and Channel Five and commentates at testmatchsofa.com. His writing on films and other subjects is at tootingtrumpet.wordpress.com. Comments are always welcome.

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