INTERVIEW Mari Wilson

IN amongst the post punk and new romantic movement of the 80s one woman stood out in more ways than one.

With her skyscraper beehive hairdo, glamorous look, catchy pop tunes and fully choreographed 12 piece band The Wilsations, Mari Wilson was a breath of fresh air and a welcome distraction from the rest of the decade that fashion and taste forgot.

Dubbed the Neasden Queen of Soul, it wasn’t long before she had notched up a succession of hit singles of which the biggest and most well known was Just What I’ve Always Wanted.

But just when things were getting interesting, she ditched her band and the beehive, left pop behind and changed direction with a move to jazz and more intimate shows.

However, pop music was in her blood and in 2000 she was chosen to play Dusty Springfield in the hugely successful UK tour of “Dusty – The Musical”.

Stints in musical theatre followed as did a succession of albums and then in 2014 she launched her show Mari Sings Dusty.

Now she’s back again with her Ready Steady Girls Tour which comes to the Royal Vauxhall Tavern on Thursday and features songs that influenced her as she was growing up.

They include interpretations of iconic classics by Dusty Springfield, Petula Clarke, Cilla Black and Sandi Shaw and Mari says it represents a rather personal and emotional journey through life.

“I played Dusty in a musical in 2000 and it was amazing,” she tells me. “Dusty is iconic and I grew up listening to her so I didn’t want it to be a tribute act or an impersonation, rather my interpretations of her songs.

“I loved doing it but one of the problems I found was that there were a lot of ballads and trying to find songs I wanted to sing was difficult. When you do a gig you need light and shade.

“So a friend of mine said why not do songs from all the girls and I realised it was a really good idea – so here I am!”

By looking through the back catalogues of all these “fabulous” women, Mari said she had much more choice in terms of tempo and style.

It has also led to her recording some of the songs for an as yet untitled album which she hopes to release in September.

“It’s been fabulous,” she says. “By having all these different songs to choose from it’s become a better show and will be a better album and I’m really pleased with it.

“These songs are timeless but some are quite challenging – for example we do a version of White Horses which is very different and an up tempo version of Can I Get A Witness. Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa is unrecognisable – it’s a bit of a Marmite moment,” she laughs.

“Some of them are just very different simply because I don’t have a full band with me but we do have beats and loops and some are very poppy. Some are quite demanding vocally but they are all incredible.

“I do have favourites,” she adds. “I love Burt Bacharach’s The Look Of Love as it’s like a standard and I’ve made it very sensual. Then there’s Island Of Dreams which Dusty sang with the Springfields. They are all classics though and I love them all.”

Although Mari has never collaborated with any of the ladies whose songs she will be singing, she does admit she would like to have done.

“It would have been amazing to do so when they were younger,” she says. “Dusty was the one in particular.

“I would also love to have worked with Amy Winehouse. She was amazing. I loved her singing and think she was a genius. Fame is a terrible thing yet everyone seems to want it.

“I was never that famous and only had about three years when it was quite intense.”

But it was that intensity that led Mari to quit pop for a while.

“I walked away from the whole pop thing in 1986,” she says. “I was surrounded by people asking me to do different things. One wanted me to be like Cilla and be on TV but I only wanted to be a great singer.”

She also got rid of the hairdo which she had cultivated since before she was well known.

“Oh my goodness it was expensive!” she laughs. “The maintenance was huge and it stank as well! I was sponsored by the hair spray company Bristows at one point but in the end I got tired of it and had to let it go.”

Thankfully she didn’t quit pop for long and given she always wanted to be on stage it was no surprise to see her return.

“When I was a kid my older brother and sister and I used to put on shows for my parents,” she remembers. “We had a space in the corner of the living room and my brother would be Al Jolson and my sister and I would sing our party piece Sugar In The Morning.

“My mum had a beautiful voice too and could have been an actress or a singer – in fact we could have been the Von Traps of Neasden,” she laughs.

“There was a lot of music in the house as I was growing up which was fantastic and being a singer was the only thing I wanted to do.”

And now she’s preparing to take to the stage at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, a venue she says she loves.

“I’m really excited about the gig because I’ve never done a full set there before,” she says. “It’s a great venue, lovely and intimate with a fantastic atmosphere and I know the audience will be up for it. It’s going to be great.”

And she promises that as well as the songs from “the girls” she will be singing the one that made her famous – Just What I Always Wanted – though sadly without the Wilsations and the hair.

“People do still want to hear it,” she says warmly. “It’s a great song and it brings back great memories so it will definitely be on the set list!”

Mari Wilson will be at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern on Thursday June 18. Call the box office on 0207 820 1222 for tickets.

REVIEW - High Society, Old Vic

FIVE STARS

WATCHING Maria Friedman's production of High Society is like being at one big fantastic and "swell" party.

It is full of champagne, great music, convivial characters, joie de vivre, fun and frivolity and if you don't leave with a spring in your step you must be very hard to please.

Written by Cole Porter and now on at the Old Vic, it is staged in the round which adds to the party atmosphere with a piano that rises from the floor on which musician Joe Stilgoe tinkles the ivories while the cast drink and dance around.

And while there is a definite feel good factor it is a story full of snobbishness and class - where everyone knows their place.

It features the extremely wealthy Lord family, and their servants, on the eve of daughter and Long Island socialite, Tracy Lord's nuptuals to working class man made good, the rather stiff and boring George Kittredge.

All is going swimmingly until Tracy's ex-husband, Dexter Haven (Rupert Young), appears at the house to try and persuade her to ditch boring George and get re-married to him.

Things for Tracy are complicated further when tabloid hack Mike Connor, brilliantly played by Jamie Parker, arrives to cover the nuptials, and finds he too takes a shine to the bride-to-be.

With three men vying for her affection Tracy has a big decision to make but plenty of music, song, dance and champagne, plus a naked swim in the family pool, help her realise that dullard George just isn't really her type.

Not only that when the hangover hits, she realises that despite her petulance at chucking Dexter in the first place, he really is the one for her.

It is a fantastic show - the direction, staging, singing and acting are top notch and with a stellar cast headed up by the fantastic Kate Fleetwood as Tracy, it really does have the wow factor.

High Society is on at the Old Vic, The Cut, until August 22. Tickets from £10. Visit www.oldvictheatre.com or call the box office on 0844 871 7628.

INTERVIEW - Lorna Luft

LORNA Luft made her showbiz debut aged 11, singing Santa Claus Is Coming To Town on her mother Judy Garland’s TV show in 1963.

Now, 50 years later she’s starring in a touring production of The Songbook Of Judy Garland, a musical trip down memory lane, celebrating the life and music of the legend that was and is her mother.

The show will marry live performances of Judy’s songs including The Trolley Song, The Man That Got Away, Get Happy, I Got Rhythm and the iconic Over The Rainbow with some never before seen film clips and interviews.

It is coming to the New Wimbledon Theatre on June 16 for a week-long run and Lorna tells me she’s extremely excited at the prospect.

In fact during our chat the 61-year-old speaks very fondly of the town, a place she has visited many times and says it’s “like coming home”.

“I can’t wait to see all my family and friends when the show arrives in Wimbledon,” she says.

“It’s a beautiful theatre and I consider Wimbledon to be very special.”

But it’s the show Lorna really wants to talk about, describing it as a musical celebration of her mother’s life.

“It’s like a work in progress because we are still cutting things and adding things,” she says.

“But the audience can expect to be truly entertained and to be taken back in time with some movie clips and songs that they grew up.”

It boasts a star studded cast with Lorna joined on stage by the likes of Ray Quinn, Louise Dearman, Rachel Stanley and Darren Bennett as well as dancers The Boyfriends, named after Judy’s original dancers of the same name.

It is billed as the only show authorised by the late star’s estate and has been choreographed by Lorna’s long time friend, Arlene Phillips.

In fact the whole project came about after a chat Lorna had with Arlene.

"The idea was that of [producer] David [King] and Arlene," says Lorna. "Arlene and I have been friends for 40 years and we’d never worked on anything together before so it was a great opportunity and I jumped at it.

"She is such a positive force and is so smart - it’s been a joy and we’ve had a lot of fun.”

But with such an incredible back catalogue to draw on I ask if it was difficult to choose which of her late mother’s songs to feature.

“Oh absolutely!” she laughs. “The amount of material we had to go through to put in the show was incredible so it was a huge task!

“We chose songs that we loved and that we knew the audience loved and identified with. There are also some video and movie clips too which have never been seen before and which are fascinating.

“For example, there is a clip out of Easter Parade that was cut from the movie – it was a song that MGM felt was too modern but it was the first time Judy ever wore a tux and a fedora which ended up being her famous look.

“I think it will be nostalgic for the audience but they will see the real Judy shine through.”

While she remains secretive about her own personal favourite song – you’ll have to see the show to find out which it is – Lorna does admit that most hold special meanings for her and the rest of the cast.

“It’s emotional for the audience and at times I know people will be in tears,” she says. “Ray [Quinn] said he didn’t know how I was doing it because he was in tears but this is my comfort zone.

“I don’t think it’s tragic and sad. It’s sad she’s not here but look what she left us. Some people only get still photos of their parents but I have movies, books and TV shows as well – I’m very fortunate.

“And I’m very proud of the show,” she adds. “What we see on screen is her artistry, her amazing sense of humour and how funny she was. That’s the real person we see.”

Born in Santa Monica in 1952, Lorna was the first child of Judy Garland and her third husband Sidney Luft.

Her half sister Liza Minnelli, from Judy’s second marriage to director Vincente Minnelli, was six years older. Her young brother Joey arrived three years later.

And to Lorna, being born into and being part of Hollywood royalty was perfectly normal as was having celebrities of the day such as the likes of Frank Sinatra, who incidentally is Lorna’s godfather, and Sammy Davis Junior come around for dinner.

She concedes this isn’t the norm for most people but stresses it was normality for her.

“She was a working mum so we moved around a lot staying in different hotels as she was out on the road a lot,” says Lorna.

“She worked with the greatest directors and actors and was friendly with JFK and it wasn’t unusual to have these people in our lives - that's just the way it was. To us they weren’t famous, just friends of my mother’s.

“However, she was fiercely private about her home life and children and would never have had a camera in her house in some kind of reality show.

“But as a woman juggling work and kids in the 50s and 60s she was way ahead of her time. Back then it was usually the mums who were at home making dinner and cleaning the house and the husbands working. Nowadays we don’t give it a second thought.

“But she had a family to support with three kids and her own mother too. It wasn’t that she had to do it – she wanted to do what she did. She loved singing and performing and making movies – and we believed every single character she played because of her honesty.”

And Lorna says it was no surprise that she herself went into “the family business” and ended up as a highly successful stage, film and TV actress and singer in her own right.

“I didn’t do anything that was that unusual. My mother was the best she could be and was an inspiration to me as a human being - not just because of the love of music she instilled in me but because of her openness and complete demand that no on be treated differently.

"She was incredibly smart, kind and made us understand that people will be different all over the world and we have to be tolerant.

"That’s the legacy she left us and people who come and see the show will see that.”

So would Judy approve of the show I ask? Lorna laughs loudly.

“She would be directing it!” she says. “She would have been an amazing director. She knew what she wanted and was incredible and had her own mind.

“But she is definitely part of the cast and in the show she gets the last bow.”

The Songbook of Judy Garland is on at the New Wimbledon Theatre between June 16 and 20. Visit www.atgtickets.com/venues/new-wimbledon-theatre/ or call the box office on 0844 871 7646 for tickets.

REVIEW As You Like It, Globe Theatre

FOUR STARS

SHAKESPEARE'S As You Like It is one of his most clever and sublime comedies and features some of his best loved characters.

Done well it is a joy and this can certainly be said of Blanche McIntyre’s glorious production now on at the Globe.

It is often described as a pastoral romance full of cross dressing, brilliant conversation, satire, love and forgiveness.

Most of the action takes place in the Forest Of Arden where Rosalind, the daughter of an unjustly exiled duke, escapes to after her usurping uncle banishes her from court.

It is a cruel blow as she’s just caught sight of the Orlando, a courtier who has also been wronged having been deprived of his birthright by his brother.

However, Rosalind disguises herself as a boy and together with her cousin Celia goes looking for her father and his friends in the forest.

As luck would have it she bumps into Orlando again. He confesses his love for her via a series of love notes posted on the trees but she cannot reveal her true self to him as she’s in her boyish garb. Instead she counsels him in the art of love.

It is a fantastically written play and this current production shows it off spectacularly.

Michelle Terry is fabulous as Rosalind – showing a feistiness that is delightful. Her reaction of "phwoar” at the sight of Orlando’s (Simon Harrison) rather impressive six pack is hilarious.

She is ably supported by a stellar cast including James Garnon who puts in a memorable performance as the rather miserable Jaques and Daniel Crossley as a truly funny Touchstone thanks to the speed of his delivery.

As is the norm with the Globe the actors make full use of the audience and it is a joy to be and feel fully involved with this funny and brilliantly staged production.

As You Like It is on at Shakespeare's Globe, Bankside until September 5. Tickets cost from £5. Visit www.shakespearesglobe.com or call the box office on 020 7401 9919.

INTERVIEW Tom Varey

HE’S only recently graduated from RADA but Tom Varey is “riding the crest of a wave” thanks to starring roles in TV shows The Village and No Offence.

But the Forest Hill-based actor is now taking on a very different character in that of boxer Ollie Olsen in Tennessee Williams’ play One Arm which has its UK premiere at the Southwark Playhouse.

The 24-year-old says it’s a dream role and has resulted in at least two items being ticked off his career bucket list.

“I love Tennessee Williams’ work,” he enthuses. “His writing is incredible and this is just a fantastic story.

“I’ve always wanted to do a Tennessee Williams play and also perform at the Southwark Playhouse so to do both at the same time is amazing!”

One Arm was originally conceived as a short story which Williams wrote in 1942. He later adapted it as a screenplay but it was considered too provocative for Hollywood in the 1960s because of its overt references to homosexuality and so was never staged – until now.

In a chat during rehearsals Tom tells me it is a dark tale about how Ollie’s career, and ultimately his life, ends after a devastating car accident.

Ollie believes his once-invincible body to be irreparably broken and so embarks on a journey which sees his life go on a downward spiral of self destruction.

“Ollie is a very complex character and the play follows his journey from the night he wins the boxing championship to the night of the car crash in which he loses an arm to what happens afterwards,” says Tom.

“We see him change a great deal over the course of the play. Before the accident he was quite a sweet naive boy but then when he loses his arm, he turns quite nasty, violent and aggressive - he feels his life is ruined.

“You have a sense that he’s a vulnerable kid who has had his career taken away from him and he tries to find work but no one wants him.

“So during the play the audience follows Ollie and his journey across America from New York to New Orleans and his different encounters with men,” adds Tom.

“It’s also a commentary on what was going on at the time with the repression of gay men. Williams was in New Orleans when he wrote this and it gives a bit of insight into his own life.

“In the end Ollie ends up on death row so it’s a bit bleak, almost like a Greek tragedy as fate is set out before him.”

Despite this, Tom says he can’t wait to bring it to UK audiences though he does admit to a few nerves.

“For an actor Ollie is a gift role because every scene is full of drama, humour, intense sadness, emotion and tension,” he says.

“Losing the arm was tricky but you’ll have to come to see it to see how we manage that!

“It’s such a great story though and so beautifully written that I couldn’t believe it hadn’t been done in the UK before so it’s very exciting to be part of something so special.

“I graduated last year so to get a role this size and in London is a massive dream. Southwark Playhouse is such a cool place and does a lot of good work so I’m feeling nervous, plus it’s also the UK premiere and I will be the one introducing Ollie for the first time but it’s massively exciting."

One Arm is at the Southwark Playhouse, Newington Causeway from June 10 to July 4. Tickets cost £18. Visit www.southwarkplayhouse.co.uk or call the box office on 020 7407 0234.