A night of beating around The Bush, suitable for both Fish People and casual observers alike...
If you know anything about Kate Bush (other than her song was recently in Stranger Things) you may know she’s an artist who rarely tours. A decade ago she took on a residency at the Hammersmith Apollo for a month. Aside from that and a handful of gigs at the end of the 1970s, she doesn’t play live. She’s never gigged in Nottingham and sadly it’s likely she never will.
However, Kate’s lack of public appearances has opened the door to a shadow industry of tribute acts; Cloudbusting, Kate Bush-Ka, Baby Bushka etc. What we see tonight is at times a bit like one of those, but it’s also quite a lot more – a tribute act crossed with a comedy show and an academic thesis on the artist. This show is created by Sarah-Louise Young and Russell Lucas and stars Young as the principal and only cast member. It’s charming, funny, emotional and at times quite moving.
The first thing that we should probably say about Sarah-Louise Young is that she’s got an amazing voice on her. Quite a lot of Kate's notes can be hard to hit and she’s basically note perfect all night. This despite the fact that during some songs she’s also running, clowning, doing gymnastics and quite a lot more. She works her way through all the songs you’d expect; Cloudbursting, Babooshka (sung entirely in Russian), This Woman’s Work, Hounds of Love, Hammer Horror, Wuthering Heights and more.
She gets the crowd involved and up on stage with her, accompanied by the kind of suitcase full of props and costume changes you’d expect to belong to a 1970s Butlins comedian. She’s also constantly spouting facts about Kate Bush that even the most-hardened ‘Fish People’ (apparently what a collective of Kate Bush fans is known as) may not know.
At the beginning of the show Young states that she wanted to create a show that can be enjoyed by both enthusiasts and also for people who don’t know much about the artist. I’m probably somewhere between both of those and I completely loved it. Entertaining from start to finish, when it finished I wanted to see more. The only shame is that Kate herself wasn’t there to see it.
An Evening Without Kate Bush took place at Nottingham Playhouse on Tuesday 29 October 2024.
An Evening Without Kate Bush website
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