Sophie Tucker Last of the Red Hot Mamas
The high-energy show delighted a responsive audience in the Irish Classical Theatre opening night. Philip Farugia as her seen-it-all, tell-nothing pianist Teddy Shapiro, played her foil with bemused good humor.
Bocock-Natale as Sophie flirted with and teased the audience, even bringing a hapless patron on stage, dressing him in a grass skirt and coconut bikini and coaxing his awkward efforts to match her hip gyrations. Farugia as Teddy looked patiently on while accompanying her to “Hula Lou”.
The outrageous jokes are familiar as are the songs, from “The Lady is a Tramp” to “Yiddishe Momme”, but Bocock-Natale’s delivery is fresh and Sophie’s life story is a deftly intertwined roller coaster ride from laughter to tears.
Sophie Tucker was born Sonia Kalish-Abuza to Russian refugee parents in 1884. The plain, stout singer began her vaudeville career in blackface as a “coon shouter”. She soon moved on to a short-lived career in the Ziegfield Follies where her larger-than-life performance overshadowed the show’s stars.
Her three failed marriages, the first to Louis Tuck, from whom she took her stage name, gave fodder for her bawdy stage shows, much in demand after her critically acclaimed stage and screen career.
Sophie Tucker: Last of the Red Hot Mamas, written by Jack Fournier & Kathy Halenda and directed by Lisa Ann Ludwig is the last production of Irish Classical Theatre Company’s 2006-2007 season and is presented in conjunction with Musical Fare.
Through June 24 $30-$35 Irish Classical Theatre 625 Main, 14203, 853.ICTC
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