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The Review - THEATRE by JANE MASUMY
Published: 23 October 2009

Diana Vickers

Vickers’ voice?
A little below par

THE RISE AND FALL OF LITTLE VOICE
Vaudeville Theatre

WHEN she competed on ITV’s X-Factor, her singing was compared by Simon Cowell to Marmite – you either love it or hate it.
Diana Vickers will also divide audiences with her title role in Jim Cartwright’s tragi-comedy The Rise and Fall of Little Voice.
The 18-year-old garnered standing ovations on the revival’s opening night, although her quirky voice didn’t quite carry the piece.
Vickers gives a convincing performance as the shy girl who can’t speak up to her abusive mother Mari (Lesley Sharp). She is inspired by her dead father’s records, which she learns by heart, copying famous divas.
Admittedly, it’s no easy task slipping from Marilyn Monroe’s I Wanna Be Loved By You (sung too harshly) to Marianne Faithfull’s As Tears Go By (too bland) and on to Shirley Bassey’s Goldfinger. But Vickers just can’t live up to the incredible Jane Horrocks in the 1998 film adaptation.
But the acting is delightful: Lesley Sharp is brilliant as Little Voice’s lecherous over-the-top mother, who rattles on in an authentic Northern accent to her silent fat friend Sadie.
She flings herself onto sly small-time club agent Ray Say (perfectly embodied by Marc Warren). There is a heartfelt subtle love affair between telephone installer Billy (James Cartwright) and Little Voice, and Lesley Sharp really looks at home in the working-class flat where the fuses constantly blow.
Until January 2010
0844 209 1805

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