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Ruthless People: Ruthless - Arches Lane Theatre

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What is it about the Madoff’s that writers can’t resist writing about? Sure, it may have been the largest Ponzi scheme to collapse (so far), but there isn’t much more to explore. Or is there? In Ruthless by writer Roger Steinmann, Ruth Madoff is imagined as a wronged, gun-toting woman anchored in the past while trying to move on with her life. It’s not entirely successful but a fascinating look at life and wig choices, It’s currently playing at the theatre now known as the Arches Lane Theatre in Battersea. Ruth Madoff, played by Emily Swain, is here wearing a wig. I thought it was an odd look until I reviewed how closely it matched the photo of her interview in  The New York Times .  Typically, it’s the sort of wig you might see worn by Ladies on a night out in central London, not someone who once had over $80m in assets. With Bernie in Jail and both her sons now dead - one by suicide and one due to cancer, she is setting a table for the men who have left her. And ordering p...

Endless banter: Just another night with Lady Rizo


Lady Rizo is making her London debut playing downstairs at the Soho Theatre and amusing and enthralling audiences with her mix of incredible vocals and offbeat humour. She tells the audience frequently that she is a chanteuse, and it is her singing rather than her comic ability which is what you should see her for. She is more mildly mischievous than funny. Her banter last Wednesday tended to get in the way of the music... Even if it involved a fascinating discussion with a lady in the front row who disclosed she raped a man at a heavy metal festival when she was sixteen, it still was very mildly risque fare.


What makes her show a real treat is her ability to give a new, often comic perspective, on familiar songs. She also has a powerful set of vocals with a range that she uses to comic effect. The songs she covered when she wasn't getting distracted by people in the audience included a funny, stalker-like torch song for our times, I Google You which felt like a worthy update to an earlier stalker song, Blossom Dearie's I'm Shadowing You. Other songs included a haunting rendition of Bali Hai from South Pacific and a wonderfully powerful rendition of Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colours.

Dolly Parton's song about a child who loves her mother's coat made of rags is given an added personal dimension after she tells the story of being raised on a commune in California and only coming into contact at the age of six with children from the outside world. In this world of clean faces, white bread sandwiches and juice boxes, she found herself treated as an outcast. Of course she eventually rebels against this hippie upbringing with glamour and penchant for feathers, gowns and false eyelashes, but this is just one of her props for putting on a great show. She still seems true to her roots and that makes her a fascinating and unique performer.

Her show runs at the Soho Theatre until 9 March but be quick as only a handful of tickets are remaining in this run...

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