Theatre
Where’s Lulu?
Oran Mor, Glasgow
Mary Brennan, three stars
“Come closer, come closer and listen...” Because what you’ll hear, in this biographical slice from Lulu’s early singing career, is the stuff of those unseen dressing-room dramas that subsequently lurk in memoirs. Writer Danny McCahon has delved into Lulu’s own memories, and has chosen one particular episode, her winning performance at Eurovision 1969, to give us a glimpse into how wee Marie Lawrie from Dennistoun became a global star called Lulu.
Success on record and on TV has already come to the teenager, But now, aged 20, nerves and doubts are unexpectedly gripping the Lulu (Stephanie McGregor) who’s waiting backstage in Madrid. Mum Betty (Sarah McCardie) and her manager, Marion, (Romana Abercromby) are doing their best to reassure her: Boom Bang-a-Bang is a winning song – and indeed it is... albeit tying along with the entries from Spain, France and The Netherlands. The real competition, however, is on a more personal level. Latent friction between Betty and Marion over who knows what’s best for Marie/Lulu fills in back-ground details, echoing Lulu’s own emerging concerns about where her future career lies – especially when a hot-shot American producer like Jerry Wexler is offering an escape from fluffy pop songs.
Since Lulu is ‘one of oor ain’ we have a vested interest in McCahon’s serviceable narrative but he, and director David Ian Neville, have been blessed with a cast that really energise the script. Yes, Stephanie McGregor has a useful resemblance to Lulu, but her mastery of the distinctively variable accent, the lively facial expressions, the belting delivery (of Shout) has a well-observed truth to it – she makes the character’s conflicted loyalties and innermost ambitions come across as real. McCardie’s gallus Betty is a great foil to the posher Marion (an elegantly controlling Abercromby) – and Boom Bang-a-Bang gets extra wellie when all three sing it together at the end!
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