I love the energy of a Fringe audience, the excitement and support of whānau and friends and the anticipation of the audience for something new and different.

Moonroe’s Happy Hour is conceived and performed by Laura Oakley and Jackson Cordery as Inverted Citizens. It is a pastiche of cabaret, vaudeville and music hall/variety performances with a twist.

The costumes and music are a hybrid of the glamour ages of jazz and film (1930-50s) and the opening is a brilliant and simple showbiz number, with roving spots and a small leaf blower used to great effect. Marilyn Moonroe is our compere, a Marilyn Monroe lookalike with a crescent moon on her head. Jackson Cordery is the hapless and talented musician who serves her.

The variety acts which follow include memorable circus acts: tissu and hula hoop, and Jackson Cordery as a giant tamarind with a ukelele. He is equally engaging as the crooner at the piano. There is a hilarious stroppy schoolgirl stagehand character who makes random appearances, a human mirror ball and musical interludes. Laura Oakley is a funny, generous and quirky compere/host and we are engaged and thanked profusely as an audience. There is so much promise in the concept and execution of this show – the variety, the ideas and surprises, the exploration of the musical double act, the original songs… I look forward to seeing this develop.

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