You Give Me Fever

Reviews

If you see nothing else in the  Fringe, you must catch this little gem… Jack Lynch has written and directed an absolute gem of a show… Winslow’s luxurious voice and Jerry Hall looks make her irresistible to her lovers and to us too. From steamy passion to the girlish, she hits every mood going. GScene

A stunning Greek musical experience… in the hands of Pippa Winslow the evening quickly becomes a tour de force… Superb accompaniment and Jazz arrangements from James Shannon… not to be missed. **** Remote Goat

What an intelligent antidote to the Jukebox Musical gravy train Jack Lynch has written… how refreshing to see a more thought-provoking, entertaining and intellectually challenging work ***** Essential Surrey

@pippawr is one sexy, jazz diva. Love the combination of Greek Myths and jazz standards. She gave me fever. Sunday Show Tunes

FULL REVIEWS

***** Essential Surrey, Andrew Morris

"What an intelligent antidote to the Jukebox Musical gravy train Jack Lynch has written", says Andrew Morris

Was the huge success of Mamma Mia! responsible for the deluge of so-called “Jukebox Musicals” invading our theatres over the last 20 years, do you think? We Will Rock You, Our House, Jersey Boys, Thriller... the list of musicals with contrived plots woven loosely around artists’ songbooks goes on and on.

I guess it’s all about the Money, Money, Money, so how refreshing to see a more thought-provoking, entertaining and intellectually challenging work from that over-extended genre, performed on a much more intimate stage.

Head down to The Back Room of the Star Inn, Guildford to see You Give Me Fever - “the Phaedra Cabaret”, an innovative production from LynchPin for the Guildford Fringe. I bet you didn’t know that the tragic heroine of Greek mythology loved the jazz and blues classics, did you? Or that she mixed a mean Aegean Fizz cocktail?

Sultry siren Pippa Winslow is Phaedra (“Fey”), luring us into her tangled mythological web of Greek gods, bull-headed Minotaurs and doomed love affairs as she mixes drinks and sings us jazzy standards. Mad About The Boy, Let’s Face the Music and Dance, One For My Baby, Crazy.... Fey seduces her enthralled cabaret audience in perfect harmony with the sad narrative of her life story.

Thwarting her sister Ariadne in pursuit of Theseus, falling in love with Hippolytus – son of Theseus by another woman – Fey warns us from the outset that her story will not have a happy ending. But along the way, thanks to brilliantly synchronised song choices and some crazy cocktails, the mythological minx serves up a whole lot of fun.

Pippa delivers a seductive performance as Fey in this one-woman show, equally adept at singing, acting and mixology. No wonder Theseus and Hippolytus fell for her significant charms.

Also on stage throughout is James Shannon, a jazz guitarist recently graduated from Guildford’s very own ACM, and whose moody finger-style arrangements breathe even more life into Fey’s songs. Watch out for James’s brief – but perfectly pitched – acting cameo....

You Give Me Fever – “the Phaedra Cabaret” – is written and directed by Jack Lynch, co-founder of LynchPin Productions Theatre Company. What an intelligent antidote to the Jukebox Musical gravy train Jack has written.

And thank you to the Guildford Fringe for another 5* piece of stimulating and entertaining theatre.

GScene, Brian Butler, Brighton Fringe

Jack Lynch has written and directed an absolute gem of a show, which plays just right in the intimate cocktail bar space at the Broadway Lounge.

Accompanied by guitarist James Shannon, its solo performer Pippa Winslow, recreates the Greek myth that was Phaedra.

She whimsically and tipsily takes us through her life story – featuring her brother the Minotaur- half-man half-bull, his love affair and marriage to Theseus, their eventual coronation, his infidelity and her fascination for her step-son Hippolytus.

If this sounds dry as dust – it isn’t. Because in between times she sings some of the best classics from the 1920s 30s and 40s – from Gershwin, Porter and others.

And it works – as she covers the uncontrollable nature of love, its destructiveness and its addiction. As she says in one lyric “Do I order cyanide or order champagne?” Of course ironically she succumbs to both but that’s Greek tragedy for you.

Her luxurious voice and Jerry Hall looks make her irresistible to her lovers and to us too. From the steamy passion of Mad About the Boy to the girlish Zing went the strings of my heart, she hits every mood going – and she mixes cocktails as she goes along. As a bonus we get the cocktail recipes in our programme.

Her wry asides to the audience are delicious “If you don’t have a drink you’re gonna wish you had.“

When she eventually gets the man of her dreams – singing You Give me Fever, and Let’s Face the Music and Dance, and You’re getting to be a habit with me, it all of course, as per a good tragedy goes what she so aptly calls “tits up“.

As she says “when you are heartbroken you tell the same story over and over again to anyone who will listen.” When Theseus takes mistresses, her reply in song is Mean to Me, and the ironic My Man.

Her obsession with the handsome step-son leads her to a medley You Go to My Head, Embraceable You, Bewitched Bothered and Bewildered. I guess you are getting the idea of the show which so cleverly weaves the classics into classical mythology.

As she describes her “diversity of misery and woe” the story comes to its inevitable fatal conclusion.  She has her personal Hell, but in a very ingenious ending, we discover that we do too.

The guitar of James Shannon is subtle, moody and just right throughout.

If you see nothing else in the  Fringe, you must catch this little gem.

‘A Stunning Greek Musical Experience’ **** Remote Goat, David Rumelle

This presentation may be a bit of coat hanger on which to hang many jazz standards - but in the hands of Pippa Winslow - the evening quickly becomes a tour de force.

Greek tragedies (in her own words) - are so complicated you're going to wish you had a drink" - and there are cocktails aplenty packed in amongst the standards - each ironically referencing the plot of the Greek tragedy - (Greek Buck, Bloody Mary/Maria/Greek Passion) - from which our protagonist takes her stand.

Stunning in red (and black for the 2nd act) - Phaedra guides us through the intricacies of one of the most complicated Greek tragedy with all the consummate skill of Anna Russell. And - along the way we are also treated to the derivation of Greek phrases and words - Hypocrite, Delirium - to name a few.

Pretty much every standard is woven into the plot - from “Orange Coloured sky" to " Crazy" and from "S'wonderful" to "Mad about the boy" - each sung with passion, resonance and conviction - as if the Greek plot had woven itself around the songs - rather than the other way round. Even the tale of Icarus and Daedilius lends itself to the insertion of "Paper Wings".

Even "Nothing can be done" receives a Carol Channing type treatment - and slips effortlessly into the plot.

At times - even our protagonist gets confused with the intricate plot - but she is quickly back on track. The onstage cocktail making could be a little more second nature - and the drinks could do with a bit of stage colour - but these are small points compared with the piece as a whole.

Superb accompaniment and Jazz arrangements from James Shannon and atmospheric lighting from Elizabeth Tooms, blended with Jack Lynch's direction make this an evening that lingers in the mind for a long time.

For a relaxed, chilled night, with songs you can hum along to - beautifully performed - this is a show not to be missed.

**** Musical Theatre Review, Christopher Wiley

Presented by LynchPin Production Theatre Company’s ScripTease, You Give Me Fever – The Phaedra Cabaret is the brainchild of local playwright and director Jack Lynch (himself no stranger to ScripTease events), and performed by singer-actress Pippa Winslow, accompanied by James Shannon on jazz guitar.

Its inaugural outing at Godalming’s Cafe Mila may have been billed as a ‘rehearsed reading’, with stage directions read from the wings, but in reality the evening offers a very polished performance in which Winslow makes only minimal reference to the book.

You Give Me Fever – The Phaedra Cabaret retells one of the classic tragedies of Ancient Greek mythology through the eyes of Winslow’s character Fey, a reimagining of the eponymous protagonist as a glamorous 1950s chanteuse.

Lynch’s script combines Fey’s monologue with some 30 standards, several of them drawn from musical theatre, including the delightfully performed ‘Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered’ (Rodgers and Hart, from Pal Joey). The resulting cabaret-style show is a distant cousin of the jukebox musical, but with a more novel, creative feel about it such that it eludes classification. It is a particularly welcome change of pace that the instrumental accompaniment is provided by a single guitar, expertly played throughout by Shannon, rather than the ubiquitous piano or multi-piece band.

Act I focuses on the story of Theseus and the Cretan Labyrinth, and Act II on Phaedra’s affair with her stepson Hippolytus. The script is replete with intellectual references to Ancient Greek mythology (Theseus, for example, is described as ‘so very full of bull’) and points of etymology (mention of the derivation of the word ‘hypocrite’ from the Greek for ‘actor’ is especially apt).

Once or twice, allusions to such elements as Hades or the gods of Mount Olympus seem to sit uncomfortably with the 20th century setting established for the show, and this is an incongruity that the audience does need to look past. That said, the deliberate departure from standard retellings of the myth towards the end of the evening puts a refreshingly original spin on Phaedra’s story.

Winslow plays the character of Fey in an intimate vein throughout, and her execution of Lynch’s well-paced narrative is consistently engaging. The script moves seamlessly between speech and song, one particularly ingenious instance being the segue into ‘Mad About the Boy’ (Noлl Coward, from Words and Music) in Act I. Some of the reprises lie very close to the song’s initial presentation on the set list, not least in the case of ‘Little White Lies’ (Walter Donaldson), which bookends just one other number, ‘Lovers Will’ (John Hiatt). While unusual, this seems to work well within the narrative to lend some wider framing to the series of standards.

Many of the songs are presented incompletely, and sometimes I wished they might have run on a little longer. One of the briefest is the a cappella fragment of ‘Crazy’ (Willie Nelson), one of several numbers that are anachronistic within the show’s 1950s context, in that it was not written until 1961.

Just occasionally the reversion to music following a long stretch of unaccompanied monologue can be jarring, as it is challenging for the guitar to break its silence unobtrusively. Conversely, much effective use is made of delivering speech over quiet musical accompaniment, the instrumental version of ‘Misty’ (Erroll Garner) being a particularly effective example of Shannon’s sensitive underscoring of the narration, and this technique offers one means of smoothing the transitions.

Occasionally I felt that greater musical variety may have been warranted given that the succession of slow jazz standards can become a little monochromatic after a while. Even ‘Stop! In the Name of Love’ (Holland-Dozier-Holland), a potential opportunity for the performance to step up a gear, is reinterpreted as a slow ballad quite far removed from The Supremes’ original.

Some possibilities for contrast are indeed capitalised upon, for instance, the sequence of ‘Embraceable You’ (George and Ira Gershwin, from Girl Crazy) followed by ‘Mad About the Boy’ and the title song, ‘(You Give Me) Fever’ (Eddie Cooley and John Davenport). Nonetheless, it may be advantageous were future presentations of the show to tweak the set list such that it yields a slightly greater sense of light and shade.

You Give Me Fever – The Phaedra Cabaret’s retelling of Ancient Greek myth through the medium of jazz standards represents a pleasingly innovative and creative approach. Its development benefits from an illuminating post-show talkback with the audience following each performance, a commendable endeavour for a work in progress that should be encouraged for more new theatre works. Notwithstanding one or two junctures in which further fine-tuning might perhaps be considered, the show is rich in potential for repeat performance and would doubtless meet with much success as a touring production.

**** Essential Surrey, Deborah Harris

Surrey playwright Jack Lynch takes classic Greek tragedy Phaedra and retells it with a heady blend of jazz, blues and comedy. Deborah Harris witnessed an experimental treat at Goldalming's Cafe Mila.

World premiere You Give Me Fever is a bitter-sweet blend of jazzy cabaret entombed in Greek mythology.  Entwined with whimsical cocktail motifs, it’s a case of “pick your poison.”

In a one-woman show, Phaedra (Fey) played by West End actress and singer, Pippa Winslow falls in love with Theseus and then later with her step son. Along the way, we explore the stresses of unrequited love, mental illness and loneliness which eventually drives a sinful dame to hold her head in shame, sit at a bar and sling down booze!

Emotive story-telling sucks up the audience with symbolic parallels drawn between Greek tragedy and modern living. 

Punished by Hades (god of death) for being a woman. Fey is stuck with the god-damn price to pay for immorality. Stuck here forever, she’s ordered to purge her soul and re-lay her sins - over and over again!

Sleeveless deep-red satin dress, long-black gloves, the bar-tender hands her a nightly drink - Long-tall bloody Mary, ice slowly melting.  Softly she murmurs, “Mmm – nice!”

The show is laced with undertones of sultry, heart-throbbing blues and jazz numbers including the soul-searching, “I’ve Got a Crush on You, Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” and then lightened with love ballads including, “Stop in the Name of Love” and the finger-clicking, “You Give Me Fever.”

Metaphors for maintaining one’s sanity include stringing a ball of string through a labyrinth - more appealing than fighting your way through an endless maze (which leads to nothing but dead ends).     

This work maintains an “avant-garde quality” with stage directions and theatrical notes read by a visible prompt as part of the work’s sparse staging.  Costumes are minimal. This gives the play an ever-evolving experimental feel. Acclaimed musician, James Shannon, set the tone with an accomplished performance on jazz guitar.

Della Edwards https://www.facebook.com/PhaedraFever/?fref=ts

Della Edwards Praise must fall to the breathtakingly energised actress Pippa Winslow who seamlessly glided her way through a decadent abundance of lip-smacking and mouth-watering jazz standards, all served up to punctuate historical highlights in this supreme and complex story of tragic heroine of Greek theatre, Phaedra. James Shannon, on guitar, balances the effective collaboration beautifully, bringing colourful undertones and melodic co-partnering with enrichment and subtlety. The result is both sensual and controlled, letting the songs speak for themselves to convey the emotionality of each to the audience. Scriptwriter Jack Lynch delivers an original, illuminating and fast-paced stage production, which after its second airing at Cafe Mila in Godalming this evening is certainly deserving of future outings and wider presentation. Make mine a large one! Cheers...

***** Theatre Reviews by Janice Dempsey

A re-telling in modern terms of the classical Greek myth of Theseus, Ariadne and Phaedra, seamlessly incorporating a score of well-loved hit songs performed by Pippa Winslow in a cabaret setting. An imaginative, engaging piece of musical theatre.
 
In the small, intimate setting of the Star’s Back Room this week, there’s a show that surprised and delighted us with its wit and smooth presentation. The lush range of Pippa Winslow’s voice, both technical and emotional, and her perfect feel for pace in the narrative, translated a little-known ancient myth into a tale that everyone could relate to.
 
Effortlessly moving from spoken narrative into jazz singing and back again, Winslow held us entranced. She’s able to change register with lightning speed. We particularly enjoyed Zing Went the Strings of my Heart, her bitchy portrayal of a lisping Ariadne through the jealous eyes of Phaedra: a masterly piece of comedy. We loved Comes Love in the voice of Daedelas, the man who made wings for Icarus. Her original interpretation of Girl from Ipanema, was also a highlight. She could hit a note of pathos, too, as in One for my Baby. Sensuality dripped in every note of I am in Love and many others of the songs in this rich score.
 
The accompanying guitarist, James Shannon, gave the musical numbers sensitive support with his arrangements. He did emerge from anonymity once, memorably, but no spoilers!
 
The fast pace, witty writing and character acting and brilliant musical performances make it a go-see.