Beauty! Glamour! Fame! Brent Thorpe is back with Brenda Trolloppe

Beauty! Glamour! Fame! Brent Thorpe is back with Brenda Trolloppe

BARRY Humphries rocked Dame Edna. Reg Livermore as Betty Blokk Buster. And Brent Thorpe as Brenda Trolloppe is a new(ish) dame in town.

Brent Thorpe, the man behind Brenda Trolloppe
Brent Thorpe, the man behind Brenda Trolloppe

Beauty! Glamour! Fame! is a laugh-a-minute one act stage comedy written and performed by stand-up comedian/writer/actor Thorpe who plays a multitude of characters including his alter-ego drag wannabe-superstar Brenda Trollope, sex-symbol Bev Haughton, talkback radio caller Deirdre Flick and Sister Mary Lesbos from the Sisters of Mercy.

Thorpe spoke to Star Observer on the eve of its launch tomorrow, where he was putting the finishing touches on stage at Sydney’s Imperial Hotel.

“Oh my God I can’t wait,” he said, giddy with excitement.

The show is about how how after winning it big, Trolloppe heads to Vegas with a hot little pizza boy in toe.

“What could go wrong?” he said, laughing.

The night is a mix of pub theatre and comedy and has received rave reviews from previous outings including at Katoomba’s Clarendon Dinner Theatre, a camp theatre icon.

Thorpe is joined on stage by Zan Cross who plays pizza delivery boy Nathan from the Shire, homosexual Don Finlayson from the 70s TV hit Number 96 and threat to humanity Frankie Doyle from Prisoner.

Beauty! Glamour! Fame! is a riotous romp in the tradition of Reg Livermore,  Benny Hill, Dick Emery and other revered humourists. Brenda Trolloppe is uncompromisingly, hilariously, politically incorrect. She describes herself astrologically as “a Cancer with a ring around Uranus and a Scorpion stinging my mound of Venus” who is also “an introvert extrovert slash bipolar organic manic depressive cognitively speaking”, and whose “problems started at the age of seven when I was interfered with by Santa Claus in the window of Farmers Department Store”.  She also likes to drink “special organic smoothies with soy milk and wheat germs and spirulina and spina bifida which keeps all my internals doing what they’re supposed to do.”

The play draws much of its humour from a litany of Australian cultural references from the past 50 years. It’s cheeky and irreverent and chock full of profanities, classic Aussie songs and boasts a generous sprinkling of bare bums. The audience is taken on a mind-bending journey through Brenda’s psyche, where she shares her hopes, fears, dreams and desires of becoming a famous and glamorous showgirl in Las Vegas starring in her own production of Australia the Musical.

Thorpe’s previous plays include Too Old For TV (The Chippendale Hotel, Mardi Gras 2013) ,The Fabulous Punch and Judy Show (Old Fitzroy Theatre, Mardi Gras 2010) and Betcha Thought I Was Dead (The Factory Theatre, Mardi Gras, 2009). He will perform his stand-up comedy show Scratch and Sniff at the Chippendale Comedy Festival on May 31 before kicking off this season of Beauty! Glamour! Fame! at the Imperial Hotel, Erskineville from June 5.  Beauty! Glamour! Fame! has had previous performances at The Roxbury Hotel, Glebe, The Old Fitzroy Hotel, Woolloomooloo and  the Clarendon Dinner Theatre in Katoomba.

If camp theatre comedy is your schtick, there are only five shows, every Thursday from tomorrow.

SEASON DETAILS:

VENUE: Imperial Hotel, 35 Erskineville Rd, Erskineville

DATES: June 5, 12, 19, 26 & July 3.

PERFORMANCE TIME: 8pm  Running time: 70 minutes

PRICES: $20 plus booking fee

BOOKINGS:  www.moshtix.com.au or Phone 1300 GET TIX (438 849)

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