Review: A Gen Z'er Burns & Beheads Her Way Into Your Hearts & History Books As BLOODY MARY Brings Her Daddy Issues To Club Cumming

What Teen Wouldn't Have Angst Over Having 5 Stepmothers?

Heigh-Ho, My Merry Rainbow Readers! Bobby Patrick, your RAINBOW Reviewer here. Putting the silent T in cabareT to bring you all the T!

Well, my dear ones, Wednesday night found us hitchin' up our highwaters and heading waaay downtown to Club Cumming to see... you guessed it - A QUEEN! No, not the Drag sort, a real one plucked from the past to storm the tiny stage at the Lower East Side watering hole. BLOODY MARY is a concept/performance art/comedy/drama piece conceived, written, workshopped, and enacted by the very talented Olivia Miller - a young person with very solid training and experience playing some choice female roles, such as Audrey in LITTLE SHOP, Viola in TWELFTH NIGHT, Susan in TICK TICK BOOM, Squeaky in ASSASSINS, hell she's even done PINAFORE, which brings us to Olivia Monk, Miller's director then as now for her self penned solo piece. Monk has guided her star quite well through some complex ups and downs in a one-woman presentation that is really much more theatre than it is a "gleefully vicious 'stand-up' special" as described in the press. Playing Queen Mary the only daughter of Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine of Aragorn... Aragoan... Aragon... who cares it's history (SNORE!) Miller's premise is the Bloody Monarch as a Gen Z teen terror taking the mic in a modern-day club to walk her audience through the woes, and trials of being her family's least favorite royal child and least favorite first-ever queen of England (her half-sister Elizabeth often gets that credit). Miller's hook is her ability to joust with her audience putting them on the spot thrusting her microphone in their faces and questioning them on their own family angst, life, and relationship tribulations. This bit of improv depends on the particular audience's engage-ability, the things they throw out when questioned, and Her Majesty's skill at picking them up and running with them. Herein Miller scored pretty well, for the most part, as her audience was fairly active and engaged by the show and Bloody Mary didn't bleed too much during the moments where she left the stage to mingle with the peasants. She was quick, witty, and energetic and not deterred by the occasional patron's shyness or lack of anything interesting to offer her.

Moving from her script to those unscripted segments and back a structure to the piece began to emerge that, at first, was a little baffling for a Mary newbie expecting a "stand-up special". As the piece evolved it became clear that more than stand up, this was a play about a historic character doing her own mic set relating the frustrations of family life in a family that ruled a huge chunk of western Europe. Yes, her rant about her 5 bitchy step-monsters, her oversexed dad, and the uncomfortably young betrothals that amounted to a misogynistic daughter-as-commodities trading were funny as well as pointed, her take on her own need to burn protestants at the stake was even darker, and her tirade about her Bloody Mary nickname was a comedy home run. But, the comedy and the improv are nested within a story about an underappreciated and underloved young woman looking for validation that means she is not invisible OR inaudible - not in her time, or in ours. This is where Monk & Miller stick the knife and give it a firm but gentle twist. Is it successful? For the most part. It would behoove director and playwright to do some judicious trimming of the more "Wikipedia" factoids that weigh their play down by tethering them to historic truth. As it stands, we get a fairly linear walkthrough of Mary's life from start to finish with those facts occasionally taking the place of story and drama. Also, with a one-person show, it can become difficult for that one person to experience real obstacles and the intentions to overcome them rather than talking about them in the past tense. Miller is a gifted player and her emotions are raw and real but coming from internal obstacles that she has placed there for herself rather than Mary fighting to tell this story in her own way to people who may or may not want to hear her.

As the writing becomes more and more serious though, the audience inclines more and more towards Mary and her plight of being a ruling woman in a man-ruled world with treason and suspicion being served at every meal. The parts of BLODY MARY that are successful really do sing and the parts that don't hit the mark are just a little flat - not a lot. We really do think Olivia Miller has something here and for that, we must tell you, dear reader angels, to check it out as we give BLOODY MARY a solid...

3 ½ Out Of 5 Rainbows

Check it out This weekend on Sunday 11/21 At Club Cumming: CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS

Check OUt Her WebbySite: HERE

Listen To Olivia Miller's BLOODY MARY Podcast: HERE

Look Up Her YouTubes: HERE

All Photos By Yours Truly, Bobby Patrick