Pamela always wanted to be a performer. She wanted ballet lessons when she was six years old but her mother, a former model, disdainfully rejected that idea. Ballet dancers get fat legs. She eventually found her people by a fairly meandering path and became a performer, and in Naughty, Pamela tells the story of the some of highs and lows of her show business life. The joys and sorrows are linked by a selection of songs that lend insight into her remarkable life. Her voice is well suited to the show tunes that make up a considerable part of this show.
Pamela has been inspired by Roald Dahl’s Matilda. Matilda’s strength and intelligence and her ability to reject negativity are some of Matilda’s inspiring characteristics. Pamela sees Matilda’s willingness to take risks as a creed to live your life by. After opening with It’s Possible (In McElligot’s Pool) by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty from the musical Seussical she jumps into Tim Minchin’s Naughty, from Matilda The Musical. These lyrics from Naughty give us significant insight into Pamela’s life. She set out to climb the hill to show business, ran into various difficulties and in the end decided you have to take risks and make your own way.
“Jack and Jill went up the hill,
To fetch a pail of water, so they say,
Their subsequent fall was inevitable,
They never stood a chance,
Sometimes you have to be a little bit naughty.”
Pamela was having technical difficulties with her microphone and while this was being sorted the band launched into a great raunchy blues number. Daryl Wallis, musical director and pianist, Toby Hall on drums and Michael Gallazzi on bass provided excellent support and entertainment to the performance.
One of the difficulties of making it in show business for women is dealing with exploitative producers. The #MeToo moment of this show is when Pamela sings an emotional rendition of John Bucchino’s A Powerful Man. It is telling when she sings, “Don’t tell him what you really think, Think of your career.”
Other songs featured were Being Good Isn’t Good Enough, The Streets of Dublin, Marc Cohn’s True Companion, Gloria Estefan’s Let’s Get Loud and Bob Seger’s We’ve Got Tonight.
Pamela Shaw Presents: Naughty…With a Band played at The Newsagency, 74-76 Pyrmont Bridge Road, Camperdown. The show was for one night only. Fans of musical theatre and cabaret should keep an eye out for Pamela Shaw. The Newsagency is a charming little live music venue and is located above Wayward Brewery, one of the inner west’s excellent craft breweries.
