Writer: Monica Salvi
Director: Clare McKenna
Perfectly timed for Halloween, Madame Monique Mystique’s Haunted Cabaret comes to the Stagedoor Theatre in Covent Garden, combining a series of spooky songs wrapped in an autobiographical obsession with all things ghoulish and mystic. Fully investing herself in the scenarios and her leading role, Monica Salvi’s show is a little disjointed in putting together a set list, but this singular cabaret is certainly consistent in its presentation, fully embracing the gothic sentiments throughout.
With nine songs in each of the show’s halves, the first part of Spirits in My Closet focuses on the young Salvi navigating her way between numbers from the 1950s, 1980s and 2000s. The premise emerges from an early interest in graveyards that takes hold in her teenage years, leading to performances of a bouncy and calypso-inspired Zombie Jamboree with skulls doubling as drums, O.O.B.E flowing from an anecdote about an out-of-body experience which Salvi adds wild dance moves to, and a sincerely acted Witches in Bikinis that involves a creepy scramble through the woods and a fear-inducing capture.
There is a lot going on with all elements of the macabre, supernatural and even clairvoyant experiences included in Act One, which stages a partial séance, distributes tarot cards and engages the audience in an “energy spell” encouraging each individual to manifest their heart’s desire before a pre-interval I Put a Spell on You. It doesn’t quite act as a narrative-led experience despite the frame, but Salvi skips the generic Halloween song choices, thankfully, and certainly looks the part in a series of lacy veils, cloaks and bejewelled corsets.
Act Two abandons the life story and jumps from visiting London and learning musical theatre to attending a Psychic School at a creepy house and experiencing sleep paralysis while the USA and USSR perform mid-century psychic experiments. The links to the songs become increasingly tenuous, relying on thematic references to unexplained experiences such as psychic phenomena, visions and extra-sensory perception, but Salvi never goes into detail in the two-hour show, making this a bridge between songs rather than a full worked-through cabaret structure which becomes increasingly disconnected.
But there is plenty of imagination here with props and costumes that bring out the high Victoriana of Spirits in My Closet with changing paintings offering some visual scene setting. Salvi and musical director Michael Ferreri also incorporate a raft of instruments and sound effect gizmos that audiences may never have seen before, including Song Pods, which have a light chiming sound, a large Water Gong used to dramatic effect in several places and a Waterphone redolent of many horror soundtracks which add to the atmospheric creation of context.
Salvi’s operatic range is put to impressive effect, and she also composes some new lyrics for The Phantom of the Opera that are entertaining. The vision is certainly there, but the narrative needs a tidier focus and some stronger detail to connect Madame Monique to her song choices.
Runs until 3 November 2024
The Reviews Hub Score
Strong vision
