Review: A NIGHT WITH JANIS JOPLIN THE MUSICAL, Peacock Theatre

Who wouldn’t want to spend a night with Janis Joplin? Despite barely hitting the charts on this side of the pond, the American rock 'n' roll star still symbolises the best (and worst) of the Sixties over fifty years before she joined the 27 Club. Not that you would know from this show.

Written and directed by Randy Johnson and with support from the singer's family, A Night With Janis Joplin The Musical never really decides what it wants to be. Is it about Janis’ early influences? Do we want to hear about her siblings, early art musings and how she went from a middle-class Texan background to famously hanging out with Jimi Hendrix (and, unmentioned, infamously with Leonard Cohen)? Or do we want to see a fictional version of her rocking out? 

Perhaps on a misguided mission to defy the thought that "less is more", the end result is something of a decidedly not moreish mish-mash of all of this. Throughout, the excellent Mary Bridget Davies gives us full bore Joplin: a supremely confident swagger, some sweary insouciance and blast after blast of gutsy blues sung at a blistering volume. It’s frankly a performance that deserves a show far better than this one and, if she wasn’t waylaid by Johnson’s numerous diversions, would have made more impact. Possibly due to the stresses of the role, Davies gives way to Bat Out Of Hell’s Sharon Sexton for the matinees.

Those diversions, to be fair, are occasionally enjoyable. Amid some dire verbiage about childhood chores and Broadway musicals, the first half focuses on the forgotten classics that inspired the young Joplin. Songs from icons like Etta James, Bessie Smith, Odetta and the Queen of Soul herself Aretha Franklin sung are live by a quartet (Kalisha Amaris, Georgia Bradshaw, Choolwe Laina Muntanga and Danielle Steers) who also double as a troupe of the backing singers labelled “Joplinaires” (not a term that Janis would presumably have had much truck with). Almost all of Joplin’s biggest hits are cover versions and it is fun hearing how her inspirations sounded before she turned them into rawer rock numbers.

The second half is more gig-theatre as Davies is more front-and-centre, her flat call-and-responses hailing the stiff press night audience into actions that they are unwilling, unable, too sober or just too British to perform. Her barnstorming performance as she rattles through “Piece Of Me”, “Me And Bobby McGee” and “Mercedes Benz” puts to shame the poorer aspects of this production; at times, it feels that this show was created not to tour theatres than to provide cruise ship diners with some aural entertainment. 

Aside from splendid costuming for the singers from Jennie Quirk, there’s no real sense we’re in the Sixties. None of the other musicians have period stylings and the set design is a basic gantry with a few platforms and some video projections of Joplin’s early artwork. There’s no real sense of time and place and it’s not helped by a historical perspective which is more hagiography than biography; in this age of Wikipedia, Johnson’s choice to gently nod to her crippling and ultimately fatal heroin addiction and avoid all mention of her eventual early demise is baffling.

A Night With Janis Joplin The Musical continues at Peacock Theatre until 28 September.

Photo credit: Danny Kaan