Review: QUEEN BETTE, King’s Head Theatre

The King’s Head Theatre, a formerly small but mighty pub theatre, has recently moved into a brand new, purpose-built theatre space, to provide a larger stage and platform for its critically celebrated programme of new work and queer voices. In a particularly challenging time for theatre venues and capital investment, such an ambitious expansion needs to be supported and celebrated. Building on their cultural legacy of over 50 years, the King’s Head continue to operate as a haven of art on Upper Street.

Peter Mountford and Jeanette Cronin’s Queen Bette is charged by the vein of queerness and irreverence that runs through the core of the King’s Head’s artistic programming. In the UK premiere of this acclaimed one-woman show, the audience is guided through the biography of celebrated actress, infamous personality and treasured gay icon: Bette Davis.

This account of Davis’ life focuses predominantly on her grappling for independence as an artist under the yoke of restrictive studio contracts. The show opens with Bette in costume for her role as Elizabeth I in the 1939 film The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, and although the loose connection between pioneering movie star and famously independent monarch is there, it could be more consistently threaded throughout the show.

Jeanette Cronin bears a remarkable resemblance to Bette Davis, and captures her quintessential mannerisms delightfully. There are moments – how could there not be – when the performance strays towards the melodramatic, but given that Davis made a name for herself in melodramatic performances, this seems only appropriate.

There are flashes and moments of absolutely uncanny mimicry in this show, which will surprise and delight the worshippers at the altar of old Hollywood divas. For the uninitiated, this remains an engaging insight into the blinding lights and dark shadowy dealings of the world of showbiz. Cronin and Mountford have devised a sweeping tale of ambition, passion and pride, that resonates across decades.

Bette Davis’s was a rich life, and one crammed with altogether too much content for an 80-minute one-woman show. Queen Bette is ambitious in its scope but could benefit from sharpening its focus to really land the punch it so nearly delivers.

A funny and thoughtful piece of history, performed with panache and served with a colossal helping of bitch.

*** Three stars

Reviewed by: Livvy Perrett

Queen Bette plays at London’s King’s Head Theatre until 23 November, with further info here.