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London,

Reindeer Theatre Season: Tina C: Par Rum Pa Pum Pum

Description: Country music and satire with the 'good old country girl' creation of Christopher Green.



Rating: 3 out of 5 Bruce Dessau's rating
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Reindeer Theatre, Old Truman Brewery Brick Lane, E1 6QL

Phone: 0845094 2996

Transport: Tube: Aldgate East/BR: Shoreditch Transport for London

Country music satire is hit and miss

Tina C
Rhinestone cowgirl: Country spoofer Tina C

By Bruce Dessau
20 Dec 2006


The trouble with rhinestone cowgirl pastiche Tina C is that the songs never quite live up to the titles. The lip-quiveringly ironic power ballads are witty, but the clever, tragicomic titles are even wittier. A particular favourite mentioned in passing in this tinsel-sprinkled seasonal show is If You Can't Live Without Me Why Weren't You Dead When I Met You?

Drag artist Chris Green's unfeasibly leggy creation explained her Xmas connections. The Virgin Mary was white trash, just like her sister Donny Marie. Proof ? Her donkey was typically trashy inferior transport. Then again, Jesus's mother is all things to all comedians. Hubby not the dad? Sounds like Vicky Pollard to me.

Between hit-and-miss Yuletide yodelling, including a muscular pro-death penalty interpretation of Silent Night, there was uneven satirical patter. The gold-frocked redneck crooner has done country, now she has gone global and has something to say on everything from Australian gay marriages to troops in "Eye-Rack" to the Palestinian conflict involving "Fatter and Ham-Ass".

Frustratingly though, the impressive ingredients never quite gelled. The medium-sized audience rattling around this major-sized temporary venue hardly helped. It was only during a full-on encore of Dolly P's 9 to 5, with rap, dance and foregrounded politics that Tina really clocked on. Nice to end on a high, it would have been nicer to be on a high throughout.
Tonight (0845 094 2996).

Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.

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Everyone loves a bloke in a dress when it's in good healthy fun, celebrate the player, not the game.

- Fabian, Charlotte, North Carolina, 20/12/2006 23:25
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