in a creepy, industrial insane asylum we meet a diminished Marilyn Monroe, her curls dishevelled, dressed in a depressing white slip. Sad, fragile and taunted by the voices in her head, this Norma Jeane, played well by Sarah Rose Denton, is worlds away from the Kennedy-seducing pin-up we remember.
But in this revival of a musical from TL Shannon and Anton Mullan you get two Marilyns for the price of one. Sharing the lead is Joanne Clifton – her off ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ – who plays a breathy, funny, over-the-top version, whose every move is exaggerated. She enters the stage in the iconic pink dress from ‘Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend’ – this is the quotable, fabulous Marilyn, the caricature who is splattered across every form of social media account.
The voices in her head, singing and dancing their way around the stage, represent her past. There’s the religious and highly odd aunt Ida who took her in as a baby; the man she wished was her father; her real auntie who helped make her a star; her errant mother; first husband and a teenage version of herself. The cruel, bullying narrator is the most constant voice: it belongs to an uncle she never met but was fixated on. Veering wildly between tragic and touching one moment, and then camp and funny another, it’s tricky to pin down – sort of like multi-faceted Marilyn Monroe herself.