If this were a nineteen-sixties nouvelle vague movie, Chansons de Jacques Brel would, instead, be Jacques et John, the tender account of two men, dear friends, who never meet. John Waters first heard the songs of Jacques Brel as a young man on the loose in Europe and his engagement with them has marked an important part of his performing career.
He's got no time for the sentimentalised American versions, though. The full-length show, Jacques Brel is Alive and Well etc., is part of his history. He sings them in French and prefaces each with a dramatised approximation in English of what each song means. Less talk, more song, I kept feeling, but, if I'd just wanted to hear the songs, I could have stayed home and listened to them in comfort.
Interviewed on 5EBI FM on Friday, he picked out Ne Me Quitte Pas(Don't Leave Me) as a chanson completely misunderstood by translators (Rod McKuen, If You Go Away). It's a desperate attempt by a man to blackmail his partner into coming back. Not a nice song, indeed, but his performance was very low-key.
The one hour show, a cut-down version of the previous incarnation, featured many favourites and one rarely performed song, Mon Enfance (My Childhood), in which Brel tells of his Flemish childhood and the disassociation with the adults, his family, around him that prompted him to leave for the world.
We heard Amsterdam, Jackie, my favourite, Chanson des Vieux Amants (The Song of Old Lovers), and other familiar songs, in fresh and imaginative arrangements; some blissful Brel memories.
My big problem with the show in the Meeting Hall was the sound mix. I was sitting in the back row. I could see Tony Mitchell's fingers on the strings of the bass guitar, but could hear nothing. Stewart D'Arietta's nimble pianism and Michael Kluger's accordion came through clearly. The two swapped places on occasion. Waters' voice was often muffled.
D'Arietta has put his impressive musical stamp on other tribute shows, playing in the venue this weekend.
A Brel devotee, a friend with whom I'd spend afternoons in Sydney drinking and listening to Brel and getting maudlin, has the Waters CD, which I'll borrow after the Fringe.
Reviewed by Ewart Shaw, Friday 25th February 2022