Review: JANIS JOPLIN - FULL TILT, Theatre Royal Stratford East, February 16 2016

In the late Sixties world of Sex and Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll, the women were there largely as "birds" for the men (say Anita Pallenberg) or through associations with men (Marianne Faithfull) or as a member of a band (Nico of the Velvet Underground). But Janis Joplin was there entirely in her own right, performing with her band under her name as the headliner. Like so many back then, she burned brightly but briefly, gone, like Amy Winehouse, with whom she shares many traits, at 27.

Janis Joplin: Full Tilt (at the Theatre Royal Stratford East until 5 March) is part tribute show and part life story (and part introduction to her music for many) and is both an entertaining and gruelling experience.

The entertainment comes from the songs, played by an excellent live band and sung with great gusto and no little soul by Angie Darcy, who becomes Janis on stage and in concert. There are songs that you'll probably know ("Piece Of My Heart" and "Me And Bobby McGee") and others that you might not: the songs that show Joplin's adoration of Bessie Smith and other Blues singers of the early 20th century, alongside whom her reputation now stands.

The gruelling element comes with Darcy's monologues between the numbers, which tell the story of a misfit at school, whose mother hardly helped her crumbly self-esteem, who spirals into drink and drug dependency as her public success is counterpointed against her private torment. Though many people seem to enjoy watching someone fall apart (eg in soap operas), I've always found it hard work, particularly in this case, as Joplin is presented without any of the balancing sweet charm of Ms Winehouse in the film Amy.

The show comes from Edinburgh where it received well-earned good notices and it certainly has power to spare even in a big theatre like this one. Whether you want to spend two hours with so self-destructive a personality as Joplin, for all her undoubted talent and importance in popular culture - well, that's up to you.

Photo Robert Day