The Crazy Coqs, Piccadilly Circus, London W1 – 13 December 2024
Reviewed by Phil Brown
5*****
Barb Jungr and Dillie Keane (from Fascinating Aida) have been putting on this Christmas cracker of a show since 2021 and it fully deserves an ongoing place in the pantheon of seasonal culture.
Described as “two of international cabaret’s grandest dames”, both performers have long and illustrious careers in sophisticated musical entertainment and proceeded to demonstrate why, with a delightful evening of festive fun and imaginative artistry. They were brilliantly accompanied throughout by the superb Sarah Travis, a Tony winner, on grand piano and occasional vocal.
Like many inspired ideas, the concept of the show seems so obvious, you wonder why no-one hasn’t done it before – it’s deceptively simple yet very clever; create an entertainment around Christmas songs that are not in the mainstream.
It seems that every artist feels the call of the Christmas single or a Christmas album at some point in their careers. Even Bob Dylan! (Not generally known for his Christmas songs as Barb pointed out). So there is a cavernous and likely growing reservoir of material to sift. Dillie and Barb have delved deep into the archive, applied their critical instincts and come up with (or should I say “curated”), a blend of 16 fine songs and one recitation that manages to cover the full spectrum of novelty to classic, humorous to serious, light hearted to sad.
Dillie & Barb introduced the show and themselves very aptly with a two song medley from the 1950s – the jazzy (Everybody’s Waitin’ for) The Man with the Bag either side of Christmas Waltz made famous by Sinatra.
So far, so reasonably conventional, but then things started to move off piste with the nostalgic, foot-tapping 60s beat of Hey Santa Teach Me to Dance (originally by Debbie & the Darnells), followed by the tricky tonsil twister of Must Be Santa from Dylan’s Christmas album (he didn’t write it) with Barb playing a mean harmonica.
Dillie then took centre stage with Miss Fogarty’s Christmas Cake – a comic Irish song written for the American stage in 1892 and rendered to perfection through Dillie’s authentic Irish accent. Barb continued with one of her first recordings as a member of the Three Courgettes with the rather excellent Christmas is Coming, which appeared on the Z Records 1982 Christmas compilation album. Possibly foolishly, Barb mentioned the double entendre which previous audiences had detected in the lyrics. Sadly we let her down again.
I will be forever grateful to Dillie for introducing us to Grant Baynham’s Wine Song – no specific reference to Christmas but as Dillie said, most of us will have a lot of it over the holiday. A genuine masterclass in writing lyrics.
One of life’s little mysteries is why egg nog is (a) associated with Christmas and (b) who drinks it anyway, so the fast vocal swing of the whodunnit song Who Spiked the Egg Nog was particularly amusing, as was George Washington’s private (but splashed all over the web) recipe for it.
Dillie’s Irish take on the 12 Days of Christmas was amusing and very well performed, but, to be honest, you get the picture after the fourth day. Other novelty songs included Christmas Don’t Be Late which became absolutely charming in the hands of Dillie and Barb, as well as Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer (!)
In addition to her fine vocal performance on John Legend’s yearning By Christmas Eve, I thought Barb excelled on two other outstanding songs – Ray Davies’ brutally prescient Father Christmas and Joni Mitchell’s lovely River. For Dillie’s only straight song of the evening, she donned her ukulele to sing a pleasing version of Blue Christmas with Barb accompanying on harmonica.
Whilst seeming to be spontaneous, between song links were really well crafted – humorous and wonderfully informative. And throughout, the interaction between Dillie and Barb made it seem as if you were in the rehearsal room with them.
The only way to close such a show is with a classic, and a lovely, heartfelt duet on Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas sent us on our way joyful, having experienced an intimate and richly entertaining evening. Personally, I’m thrilled to have heard so many wonderful “new” Christmas songs.
Overall, this was an original, perfectly judged and brilliantly performed show.
The full programme was:
| Song | Singer | Original Performer |
| The Man With the Bag/Christmas wall | Duet | Kay Starr/Frank Sinatra |
| Santa Teach Me to Dance | Duet | Debbie & the Darnells |
| Must be Santa | Duet | Bob Dylan |
| Miss Fogarty’s Christmas Cake | Dillie | Irish Rovers |
| Christmas is Coming | Barb | The Three Courgettes |
| The Wine Song | Dillie | Grant Baynham |
| By Christmas Eve | Barb | John Legend |
| Who Spiked the Egg Nog | Duet | Straight No Chaser |
| Father Christmas | Barb | Ray Davies |
| Dear Nuala – 12 days of Christmas | Dillie | Frank Kelly |
| Christmas Don’t Be Late | Duet | Alvin & the Chipmunks |
| Blue Christmas | Dillie | Elvis Presley |
| River | Barb | Joni Mitchell |
| Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer | Duet | Elmo & Patsy |
| Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas | Duet | Frank Sinatra |