Miss-Leading Ladies

There’s something inherently comic, and somewhat uncanny, about watching brother and sister Ceri Dupree and Ria Jones perform together – as sisters. He’s in sumptuously OTT drag, all wiggle and mince as he impersonates leading ladies from Mae West to Bette Davis to Marlene Dietrich. She offers Julie Andrews, Doris Day and Edith Piaf, but these are more subtly vocally persuasive, and usually sung straight. It’s a strange combination.

It also sounds a mournful note. Veteran performers, the Welsh siblings acknowledge they’re getting on a bit by poignantly performing the later-in-life hits of these women, or casting them as comically bitter old bags; Dupree’s dolled-up divas are often outrageously grotesque.

The show is one for musical nerds. The joy is in getting references, second-guessing songs and managing to follow as they daisy-chain through the histories of which stars stole which parts off each other during the golden age of Broadway and Hollywood. If you don’t know your Carol Channing from your Ethel Merman, it’s probably not for you.
‘Miss-leading Ladies’ may be directed by young cabaret star Sarah-Louise Young, but it’s distinctly old-fashioned. Dupree laces his impersonations with innuendo, recalling variety show turns from another era. Of course, these often come from the characters he plays. His hip-and-lip-waggling Mae West is rapid-fire with the sex-obsessed bons mots: ‘Sex is like bridge. If you don’t have a good partner, you better have a good hand.’

Dupree designs all the costumes too, and they really are fabulous, with more sequins, feathers and elaborate headdresses than the Notting Hill carnival – and so many changes: ‘Five minutes in the same outfit is against my religion,’ he purrs. Jones, meanwhile, keeps things relatively simple; her big flourish is her voice, which as well as imitating the vocal tics of leading ladies has its own show-stopping power.