Alot has changed for Lady Sings It Better over the years.
Members have come and gone and the format has evolved, but the troupe’s core has grown stronger with age. The eight performers descending on the Sydney Fringe are still doing what they do best: hilariously exposing the casual misogyny couched in far too many contemporary songs. But more than ever, their cultural critiques are first and foremost entertainments. Their show is the Bechdel Test, but with harmonies to die for.
“We think of our songs as being in three categories,” founder Maeve Marsden explains. “Stuff that’s genuinely offensive, stuff where we’ve manipulated the lyrics so it seems more offensive than it is – like, we sing ‘Throw Your Arms Around Me’ and we make it really creepy – and then songs we do just because they’re kind of weird. Some people get confused. ‘But that song wasn’t sexist!’ And we’ll say, well no, but it was funny.
“There are heaps of messed up songs out there,” Marsden laughs. “One we’re doing is a Brian McFadden song called ‘Just The Way You Are’. I thought, ‘Awww, like the Billy Joel or Bruno Mars song!’
“But the lyrics are: “I love you just the way you are, drunk as shit dancing at the bar, I love it and I can’t wait to take you home so I can take advantage.”
“There was a backlash, and he said, ‘No, no, I’m talking about my wife, and I like it when she’s drunk and she’s dancing!’ And I thought, well, you probably aren’t actually talking about date rape, but the vibe and the lyrics might make people think it’s OK. I mean, we’re not anti-sexual content, but rapey content we’d like to see eradicated.”
Lady Sings It Better’s level of sexuality-focused content immediately brings to mind the recent production of Hot Brown Honey, in which the cast led their audience to question issues of gender through song and dance. Utilising music is an effective method of surreptitiously engaging in content that theatre audiences may not always be willing to confront, and while Marsden certainly wants the crowd to walk away better informed, she is also adamant that they will leave whistling under their breath.
“If we’re in a rehearsal talking about a particular song, we’ll always think, ‘What is it about? What is the point?’ And if we can’t answer that question, we don’t do it. If we can’t make the arrangement work or we can’t make it funny, we’re not going to do it. It has to have both elements to make the cut. Sometimes, no matter how funny it is, something will just sound boring musically. Or it doesn’t matter how beautiful it sounds, people will get bored because they’ve come to engage with something other than a cover act. No-one’s there for a political lecture. Nobody will engage if we’re not funny and entertaining at the same time. I don’t like going to political theatre that’s really didactic and preachy. I want to be entertained.”
With Marsden promising the world’s longest ’90s boy band medley, the odds of being entertained are pretty high. Just don’t expect to ever hear some of your favourite artists quite the same way again…
“One of the girls found an Elvis Presley song called ‘Kissin’ Cousins’, that’s all about cousins who want to make out. We’ve taken a kind a dark delight in finding these songs now. It’s like Stockholm Syndrome. The more offensive material that there is, the easier it is for us to make the show. I think we’d be a bit sad if feminism won,” Marsden chuckles, “because we’d be out of a job.”
Lady Sings It Better perform, as part of Sydney Fringe Festival 2016, at Seymour Centre Thursday September 22 – Saturday September 24.
