Jay: This play has a classic musical storyline – two people meet and fall in love, they’re caught up in conflicts caused by the consequences of their past lives, they're torn apart. Can they overcome the difficulties by the final number???  The 'twist' is the fact that the stars are two transwomen. 

Val: Yes, Bianca is 50, runs a building company, has an ex-wife and two kids.  Sheena is an ex working girl with a worrisome pimp who’s just turned up again and is threatening to upturn her life.  So much for the plot.  Why did we love this?

J: Well the dialogue to begin with.  It was by turns clever and snappy, naturalistic and comedic – and it moved the action along very well.

V: And I couldn't fault the performances.  Those actors, and it was a small cast – 11 people?  There was a LOT asked of them in a short space of time.  They did a great job of moving their characters from 2-D to 3-D where possible.  And director Borni Te Rongopai deserves great credit for that too.

J: The main characters were quickly defined and then well fleshed out.  And the actors really owned their characters. The supporting characters supplied tantalising glimpses of very interesting side-stories.  It all meshed nicely.

V: And don’t forget the other star of the show - Dot’s Bar itself, where the majority of the action takes place.  You’ve got transpeople, gender-fluid people, androgynous, gay, gender queer, whatever… A real sense of people mapping out a spectrum.  And a tangible sense of a real life community up there on the stage.  And not all that surprising as it’s based on the writer’s experiences of ‘coming out’ at Dorothy’s Sister, (the bar in Ponsonby) in, I’m guessing the 1990s?

J: And Joanna is a song-writer as well as a novelist, round the world sailor and first-time play-wright.  She’s been writing songs since the 1960s and included a wonderfully eclectic selection of them in the show.

V: Yes! Between her and Lavina Williams (Musical Director, lyric-credit sharer and all-round show transforming magician), I don’t think there was a style or era that wasn’t covered!

J: And the singing was superb.  All the voices were strong.  Luke Bird, who played Bianca, is an opera singer.  I’m pretty sure he had to be prompted to turn it down at one point by the Ramon Te Wake, who played Sheena, because his voice was just too big for the Pumphouse stage!  And Ramon also has a great voice.  She really did the songs justice – both musically and emotionally.

V: And it was all dancing as well as all-singing, don’t forget.  Choreography by the one and only Taiaroa Royal.

J: So in less than two hours they managed to pour us a potent cocktail of poignant dialogue, belting songs and soft ballads, and a garnish of pure drag show oomph.  I reckon Zakk D’Larte as Twinkle absolutely stole several scenes.  And Cindy of Samoa as Vera owned the stage whenever it was her turn.  Vera is apparently based on Peter Taylor’s alter ego from the original Dot’s Bar, and is a straight up tribute.

V: So a great show, but I think there was one thing that let it down – the stage not big enough!  It needs to go on again – somewhere two or three times the size.  And to be completely honest, it would be possible to lose maybe three or four of the less strong songs, and still have a tune-packed show

J: I can see that. And that would make room for more of the excellent dialogue and character development.

V: Yup – I hope everyone involved keeps working on this show – because it has all the hallmarks of becoming a cult classic.

  Z I N G  !