GlamourPussy and The Hip Replacements

Conceived and performed by Naomi Eyers

Sydney Fringe Festival

Cabaret Hub, Castlereagh Boutique Hotel

Reviewed by Ron Lee, CSP

Naomi Eyers' new offering, GlamourPussy and The Hip Replacements, has opened as part of the Sydney Fringe Festival.

Eyers has enjoyed deservedly enduring success all over the world with The Fabulous Singlettes that she founded more than 35 years ago. In the new show she embraces post menopausal middle age. With this phase of life comes degrees of hope, cynicism, frustration with the invisibility of age and the desire to no longer care about what people think.

Eyers can still belt out songs in the styles of jazz, doo-wop, blues and whatever genre Shirley Bassey is. Lyrics have been customised to suit the topics. The packed show includes, I’m Gonna Live ’Til I Die, I’d Rather Be With You, It Aint Nobody’s Business What You Do, You Don’t Know Me, Girl Talk, Like A Virgin and Nothing Stays The Same. I’ll Be Watching You is powerful and Are You Ready For A Miracle? is a rousing gospel experience.

Another highlight comes when she does a moving duet with a television recording that she did in 1985. In a nod to The Singlettes, Eyers wears a grey beehive, and in the tribute to pelvic floor exercise inventor Dr Arnold Kegel, she performs three-part harmonies with herself to the tune of The Chordettes' Mr Sandman.

The banter and audience involvement reveals traces of Dame Edna and Carlotta.

“The Hip Replacements” are Bev Kennedy on keyboards and Mark Harris on double bass.

We already know that any Naomi Eyers production will be memorably musically entertaining, creative and funny, and GlamourPussy and The Hip Replacements also brings in the authenticity that accompanies self-reflection. It has a depth and maturity that is eminently appealing.