Cake: The Marie Antoinette Playlist @ The Other Palace - Review
Silly, joyful, efficient. ★★★★
At The Other Palace until 29th September 2024.
Tickets from £17.55.
Rating: ★★★★★
Cake tells a highly fictionalised version of the story of a jewellery heist in 18th century France, implicating French high society right up to Marie Antoinette. It is music forward, described as “musical, come gig”, and stylistically takes a format more like a concert than a musical: a central rotating stage; a troupe of backing dancers; AV-forward set.
While Marie Antoinette is in the title, our main protagonist is actually Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Rémy (Renée Lamb), a French conwoman from fallen nobility. Marie Antoinette is still one of the main cast, played by Zizi Strallen. The dynamic is fantasic, Marie played as a clueless rich girl with a deep hole in her soul she tries to fill with material goods, while Jeanne is a self interested trickster who gradually comes to care about both Marie and the revolution. They play excellently off one another, avoiding a good vs evil story and instead showing us two flawed humans. Travis Ross is fantastically cast as the lecherous social climber Cardinal de Rohan. A brazenly corrupt sex pest is played camp, a wise choice to keep the tone light, and one that allows for fun musical numbers from an objectively awful figure.
The plot resembles a 90s movie more than a historical drama, with sneaking out, improbable mistaken identity and a jailbreak. This is refreshing, we all know the story of the French revolution and the lower stakes setting makes it easier to sympathise. It loses this slightly towards the end, with a closing call to change the world, but it avoids moralising for the most part. The music is fantastic, jumping between genres and being remarkably dance-able despite containing most of the narrative. Strallen has immense range as a singer.
The costuming is fun and circus-y, if a little sexist. The whole cast is in revealing, loosely rococo pastels, pink and blue silk. It’s unfortunate that only one of the male backing dancers is shirtless, the other two in odd loose wader-style overalls, while all the women are in tight leotard/playsuits. The choice not to attempt historical accuracy works very well with the overall feel of the piece. The staging is minimalistic and effective, a cake-shaped rotating stage is used impressively, with physical locations indicated by projected backdrops, which keeps the pace fast.
Cake is a fantastic night out, and efficient too - it runs without an interval for under 2hrs, you can be home by 10pm. Once again, the formula popularised by Hamilton of highlighting one largely forgotten historical figure has absolutely delivered.
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