Live at Last – East meets West

I really admire Sydney showgirl Christy McNicol who is celebrating a whopping thirty years at the top of her game. Lucky for me I’ve been a friend of Christy’s for the greater part of that time and at various times over that period I’ve had the wonderful experience of working with her. What you see on stage and in the media is exactly what you get, one of Sydney’s most glamorous and witty showgirls.

Christy has really done it all, starting at Les Girls in Kings Cross when very young and further developing her signature style working with the prestigious Simone and Monique's Playgirl Revue. She is one of only a handful of drag show entrepreneurs who have gone on and created their own shows. In the late nineties Christy brought together some of Australia's finest transsexuals to create The Original Priscilla Show which toured the country and was nominated for a Mo Award.

To achieve all this and stay at the top you need to be innovative, clever, focused, brave and talented. And I saw all this when Christy launched her new show Live at Last – East meets West, a transgender cabaret to a house full of showgirl colleagues, friends and entertainment agents at Slide Bar this week.

The show is a two hander of Christy and her partner Darlene, a new comer to Australian shore’s fresh from Singapore and two dancing boys. The whole show is two hours of live singing, cute chorry and clever patter and very glamorous costuming. 

The concept of the show, being a union of east and west, is created right from the beginning with clever video shot in Bangkok and the girls hitting the stage with a lively One night in Bangkok from Chess and maintained right through to their very glamorous ‘tits and feathers’ Kylie Minogue medley finale.

In between the girls take it in turn to sing solo as well as duet covering a great collection of well-known songs. Both girls get to talk to the audience; Darlene’s fresh approach to sharing the transgender story with the audience a delight.

The girls have used the best to create the magic, with the soundtrack being by Ian Gordon at Atlasworxk, costumes by House of Priscilla and Mama Shirl, wigs by Prada Clutch and Melissa Ali and choreography by Nick Bozanic. 

The show launched this week will be further developed and tour the gay pride circuit, cabaret spots and RSL clubs of the country. The girls have a great base from which to grow this show, perhaps add a little more comedy, and along with more experience of singing live will add to this unique cabaret show.