Show Rating:

You won’t find many more shows that start as elegantly as Wendy Wason’s, as she comes out in a glamorous black cocktail dress, inspired by Holly Golightly, and starts passing around champagne to the front row. But in horrid plastic glasses.

It could be a metaphor for the show’s theme, the mix of the swanky fizz with the mundane practicalities. Wason appears graceful, bright and confident; but in truth she’s struggling to deal with uncooperative kids, melodramatic parents and a depressing divorce.

None of this is plumbed to any great depths. Wason has a light touch and a middle-class aversion to baring too much of her soul on stage. Many of these are ‘yummy mummy’ anecdotes, sparking lots of smiles, and the occasional howl, of recognition from fellow parents, not to mention a few shocked faces as she shares a few casually mean comments.

Added taglines or jokey asides attempt to bump up the comedy, with varying success, but the show lives or dies on Wason drawing out the inherent humour from the stories. The hour rests almost entirely her personality, more than sharp gags.

Fortunately, she’s a naturally funny and charismatically beguiling performer. She conspiratorially ropes in the audience with the impression that she’s betraying secrets, bringing them into her confidence and getting them on-side.

She doesn’t fare too well with the generic observational comedy, but when she draws on her own life, people are interested. Especially when it turns to shit.

A surprisingly bitchy comment her six-year-old blurts out gets a laugh too, but Wason needn’t wonder where such behaviour comes from, as she can be entertainingly mean-spirited, too, even if she’s not in the same league as her own self-obsessed mother.

Some jokes could be sharper, and the show could benefit from sharper focus or more penetrating insight; but there’s plenty of warmth and charm to compensate, making for a reliably entertaining hour from an engaging performer.

Reviewed by: Steve Bennett