Suzy Solidor, icon of erotic performance and ‘most painted woman in the world’ reborn on stage at Wilton’s in All I Want Is One Night
· Intoxicating play-with-songs tells the untold tale of bisexual cabaret sensation Suzy Solidor
· 27 June – 1 July, Wilton’s Music Hall
Paris: 1935. Suzy Solidor, sizzling celebrity sensation, steps onto the tiny stage of her cramped cabaret theatre, ready to wow the hippest crowd in town with her lesbian erotic songs. She is surrounded by her 225 portraits and high from success, both from her best-selling records and from her status as most painted woman in the world. Suzy Solidor is probably the most famous woman you’ve never heard of.
All I Want Is One Night, an exhilarating new play-with-songs coming to Wilton’s for an exclusive six night run, reimagines the all-but-forgotten life and songs of cabaret idol Suzy Solidor. As happy in an Admiral’s uniform as an evening gown, and the first woman to own her own nightclub in Paris, Suzy was the original self-made celebrity, releasing best-selling songs and having her image captured by many of the great artists of the day, including Tamara de Lempicka, Man Ray, Francis Bacon and Jean Cocteau.
In the play, during an increasingly whisky-fuelled evening, Suzy vividly remembers former glories; she and her audience are transported back to a night in her Parisian club, when she was at the height of her sexual allure. As past and present collide she encounters previous lovers, artists, and her absent father. Finally, as the last song plays out, she is forced to confront both the loss of her allure and her imminent demise. In this brand new interactive play performed at Wilton’s, in which Solidor’s risqué songs are performed in English for the first time, much of the action takes place in and amongst the audience members, who, seated at cabaret tables, become the guests at Solidor’s erotically charged and intimate club.
Originally produced by Royal Exchange Theatre in 2016, and re-directed by Sarah Frankcom especially for Wilton’s, the play is written by and starring Jessica Walker, with help from actors Rachel Austin and Alexandra Mathie, and MD Joe Atkins. This is an exhilarating new piece, bringing one of the showbiz world’s forgotten icons back to life in the atmospheric Wilton’s Music Hall for a limited run.
Jessica says ‘I can’t wait to share Suzy’s story with a London audience. She was so ahead of her time – a self-made, gender-fluid performer and entrepreneur before we had words for such things. And the songs are not only beautiful, they are incredibly sexy!’