REVIEW: Craig Revel Horwood: Revelations – Eastwood Park Theatre
The boy from Ballarat has certainly done good, from the Victorian Gold Rush city to international success and acclaim, Craig Revel Horwood takes us on a musical biographical journey in his intimate cabaret show Revelations.
From a childhood scarred by an alcoholic father charged with attempting to murder his mother and brother, it is, in many ways an astonishing rise to stardom. An overweight child relentlessly bullied, he found solace in dance classes, and in a few short years found himself on the professional theatre circuit in Australia at the tender age of seventeen. That success led him to stints at the Lido in Paris and an ill-fated stint at the Moulin Rouge. After making the short hop across the channel, Revel Horwood found himself on the West End, cast in Cats and Miss Saigon and astonishingly playing one role in one show for the matinee before crossing the street to play in another show that same evening.
His diligence and work ethic saw him spread his wings into choreography and direction on both sides of the Atlantic and a hugely successful seven year stint at the acclaimed Watermill Theatre when a fateful phone call came from the BBC. predicting it would last three weeks and thinking the whole idea “car crash TV” he went for the Strictly audition and the rest is history.
Revel Horwood brings his CV bang up to date with recent directorial work on Strictly Ballroom and Now That’s What I Call a Musical, choreography for the second Paddington movie, an appearance in Nativity Rocks and multiple stints in panto.
What sets the show apart from the norm is the, quite frankly delightfully unhinged nature of it all. In between the revelatory private and personal stories are a smorgasbord of content. An anecdote about playing the recorder on the stage of The Royal Opera House in Sydney is accompanied by a recorder duet by R-H and musical director Ben Goddard and a rousing rendition of Waltzing Matilda with full audience participation. There are wildly flamboyant costume changes from Annie’s Miss Hannigan to Shirley Bassey to Ursula from the Little Mermaid, a raft of big-hitting show tunes including a pastiche of Sunset Boulevard – Strictly BBC. There’s a moving tribute to the late drag superstar The Vivienne, with whom he shared the role of the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz, a live cookery demonstration, an audience Q&A with no prohibited questions and a little bit of dancing from the man himself and the audience.
Revelations is packed full of content and the evening cracks along at a break neck speed. Unique and unexpected this is a full-blown, one man (and his musical director) variety show. There truly is something for every fan.
Continues to tour the UK an album and book accompany the tour.
