Ute Lemper: Rendezvous with Marlene MUPA Budapest
Feb 13th 2020
This was a magnificent and powerful show. The genesis of it is interesting. In her earlier career, Lemper played Sally Bowles in Cabaret in Paris and was hailed as ‘the new Dietrich’ which she found embarrassing and ridiculous (and this tells you mothing u how smartly clear-headed she is; I suspect an American performer would have totally embraced it but she being European is far more level-headed! She wrote to Dietrich, then living a hermit-like life in her Paris apartment but completely connected to EVERYONE in the world (from Gorbachev downwards) by her telephone. Dietrich contacted Lemper at her hotel and asked her to call her (a screen at the back of the stage showed an image of the note) which she did and it led to a several hours-long conversation between the two of them.
This show is the result of that experience and Lemper both performs as Lemper, singing Dietrich’s repertoire but as well channels Dietrich , speaking to us as Dietrich. This is a marvelous conceit and what was fascinating was that when singing she often started ‘as Dietrich’ (although never I felt as a mere cabaret imitation) but then would morph, in terms of her style of singing, into something more Lemper – often much more jazzy and freestyle than D did. In the course of the evening (a good two and a half hours) we got a biography of Dietrich as well.
This idea of course worked as Lemper, as has often and tediously been pointed put, bears a striking resemblance to Marlene, particularly facially with wonderful cheekbones. And she wore Marlene’s cabaret-style clothes wonderfully – in Part 1 a very simple long black dress that hung wonderfully on her (not sure what the material was – it wasn’t anything glitzy like satin but more like exceptionally high quality cotton or may be wool, and) with a hip-high slit on one side. Even I found that sexy – but then I have always found Dietrich extremely alluringly attractive and in a sexual way too. Not many/hardly any other female people of whom THAT can be said I can assure you! In part 2 she was in a tight glittering silver dress – the Marlene cabaret look.
Bearing in mind this was a one-person show, when I went into the MUPA main hall I did wonder if it would be too cavernous and lack the necessary intimacy which I thought a show of this nature should have. But I was wrong (although I was admittedly sitting near the front). An atmosphere and mood was wonderfully created and on a bare stage with a screen at the back on which were shown occasional images like the one mentioned above, such as images of entertaining the troops (which, in her own words, she did with great enthusiasm!) She had a small band with her – drummer, violinist, and keyboard and they were as much a part of the evening’s success and impact as her performance. I suspect they have been doing this show for some time.
She started, boldly, with THE iconic Dietrich song but started as she entered the stage from the wings – and she left t the end of the show in the same way. A very stylish and classy way to begin and end – but this was a wonderful classy and intimate show which, if it comes to your city you MUST see. Her use of the mike was masterly – truly enhancing what she was performing and never seeming to be used merely to increase the volume of the voice – which I think is not large.
A fabulous evening (in every sense of the word).