Tragic glamour puss and songstress, Hope Springs, sprinkled a bucket-load of lametta over the Komedia on Tuesday, December 8, with Now It’s Christmas Time, her sparkling Christmas show filled with festive songs so finely sculpted you’d be forgiven for thinking they’d long-since entered the classic Christmas songbook!
The creation of Ty Jeffries, ex-Vegas chanteuse and towering blonde, behemoth Hope has come such a long way since Je m’appelle Hope, her inaugural show in 2011.
By using a palette of many fine influences she evokes the sadness of broken dreams, faded glamour and delusions of grandeur – all told under the weight of a blow-dried Dusty Springfield wig and enveloped in a layer of 1970s variety show cheese, harking back to pop-up acts entertaining the nostalgic at Butlins, bingo halls and Benidorm.
Dressed in a festive sequined two-piece, Hope’s expert piano playing was leavened by the addition of a double-bassist and a percussionist, both of whom gave the songs an added injection of festive oomph, most noticeable during the up-tempo numbers, and especially forceful during the finger-snapping Christmas Calypso, which was drenched in sunshine and the tinkle of glockenspiel!
If Hope has the monopoly over anything it’s the range and tapestry of emotions she displays, from the steeped-in-cyanide The Devil Made Me Do It, a girl-gone-bad anthem of epic proportions and a sure fine hit for women serial killers everywhere, to the cloudy-eyed whimsy of Paper Moon, a touching and fragile When you Wish Upon a Star moment.
Outside of the songs, one of the best devices of the show was the repartee, used sparingly to segue into the songs, and as a tool to deftly introduce Hope’s character, and share her many idiosyncrasies, in fine strokes. From Hollywood schmoozing to being touched up by who she thought was Barbra Streisand, You could say I’m making this up! was the underlying theme.
The funniest of these, and indeed the most effective, was the story of Hope writing the theme tune to Joan Crawford’s final film, the utterly ridiculous Trog. The song didn’t skulk away from the preposterous subject matter, but instead revelled in its absurdity: “It’s not his fault he’s a trog. He can’t help it he’s a trog. That hairy bastard is a trog!” – all delivered with real conviction!
And that was the crux of the evening. What Hope Springs brings to the stage, and this time of year, is that no matter what life throws at you or how difficult things become, there’s always one thing you can hold onto no matter what: Hope!
A five-star show from a unique five-star artist.
For more information about Hope, click here:
Now It’s Christmas Time with Miss Hope Springs
The Komedia,
Tuesday, December 8
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