The towering blonde ex-Vegas never-say-die show-business trouper Hope brings to the stage a pantechnicon of career wrong turnings and disastrous love affairs. A truly gifted songwriter and captivating performer, Hope will be playing the piano and singing her self-penned all original songs from her brand new LP The Devil Made Me Do It. In a virtuoso performance Hope heartbreakingly moves her audience to tears and then exquisitely makes them laugh out loud. Her new LP is "really a look back over what I call my 'Ritz to the pits' life. It's a trip down memory lane and a bit like that long winter I spent in Copenhagen, back in the day making 'art films' it's not always a pretty sight."
One of the new album tracks is the previously unreleased Please Don't Desert Us at Dessert which Hope recently found in 'her archive' (an old shoe box under the bottom bunk of the camper-van she shares with her husband Irving and his hairdresser pal Carlos.) "It was written especially for me by Sir Noel Coward over lunch at The Pink Pelican Casino where I was a showgirl in the early sixt - I mean seventies." Also included in her concert will be firm favourites such as Seedy Little Nightclub in Pigalle, the riotous Zodiac Lover and the truly heart-breaking Queen of Fools.
Hope is cut from the same fabulous sequinned cloth as Dame Edna, Lilly Savage and Danny La Rue, but she responds dismissively "That's simply a bitchy rumour put about by Goldie Hawn. She's a nice girl - but can be a little jealous... Listen, I've always been tall for my height - end of story!" Hope's celebrity fans are as glittering as her stage wear including: Marc Almond, Julian Clary, Rula Lenska, Jonathan Ross, Fenella Fielding, The Beverley Sisters and Lady Helen Windsor.
Still wearing the sequins she left the USA with in 1972, Hope tours her remarkable new show to very selective venues around the UK from June. "I've played in the world's premier rooms from The Dew Drop Inn to the Cucaracha Club, but the Wigmore Hall? My mother Rusty would have been so proud (she's not dead - we just don't talk anymore.) Someone said I'm putting the wig back in Wigmore, I don't know what they're trying to insinuate, my hair is purely a reflection of my Irish/Lithuanian/Eskimo heritage - just like my double layers of thick black eyelashes...It's all down to good genes."
Wigmore Hall - Friday 16th June at 10.00 pm
Address: 36 Wigmore St, Marylebone, London W1U 2BP. Phone: 020 7935 2141. Tickets: £15 Website: wigmore-hall.org.uk
Chapel Arts - Thursday 23rd and Friday 24th June at 8.00pm
Address: St. James's Memorial Hall, Lower Borough Walls, Bath BA1 1QR. Phone: 01225. 461700 Tickets: £20 in advance / £22 on the night
Website www.chapelarts.org
Astor Theatre - Saturday 8th July at 8.00pm
Address: Stanhope Rd, Deal Kent CT14 6AB. Phone: 01304 370220. Tickets: £20
Website: theastor.org
Wilton's Music Hall - Wednesday 12th and Thursday 13th July at 7.00pm
Address: 1 Graces Alley, Whitechapel, London E1 8JB. Phone: 020 7702 2789.
Tickets: from £20.Website: www.wiltons.org.uk
The Stables - Friday 14th July at 8.45pm
Address: Stockwell Ln, Wavendon, Milton Keynes MK17 8LU Milton Keynes. Tickets: £20
Phone: 01908 280800. Website: www.stables.org
Komedia - Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd July at 8.00pm
44-47 Gardner St, Brighton BN1 1UN. Tickets £15 / £12.50 cons. Phone: 0845 293 8480. Website: www.komedia.co.uk.
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