Recently had the pleasure of a reunion with deranged and inspired lunatic Dina Martina when the “tragic singer, horrible dancer and surreal raconteur” and “Second Lady of Entertainment” brought her latest one-woman cabaret revue “The Comparable Dina Martina” to the Soho Theatre in London’s glittering West End for a triumphant residency. Between musical numbers, the endearingly ditzy queen of non sequiturs and malapropisms regaled us with showbiz anecdotes and intimate glimpses into her complex personal life. As ever, Martina was challenged by timelines. “I’ve been in entertainment all my life – if not longer!” she exclaimed by way of introduction. Later, she announced that her daughter just turned eleven – but in the same breath, explained she adopted her almost 17 years ago. Martina also discussed her tough early years: her mother relocated to Las Vegas to pursue her lifelong dream of being a compulsive gambler. Her father died in childbirth. Martina herself was born almost nine months prematurely (“I looked like a poached egg … it took 2 ½ months for my facial features to coagulate”). The song choices this time included Glen Campell’s “Wichita Lineman” and “Murder on the Dance Floor” (retitled “Goiter on the Dance Floor”) by Sophie Ellis-Bextor. For Dolly Parton’s “Hard Candy Christmas”, Martina delivered it in earnest singer-songwriter mode, seated on a stool and pretending to play acoustic guitar. (She made Parton’s lyrics “Maybe I'll sleep real late / Maybe I'll lose some weight / Maybe I'll clear my junk / Maybe I'll just get drunk on apple wine” sound like an existential crisis). Best of all, for her opening number, Martina lashed into “But Alive”, the song Lauren Bacall infamously rasped in the 1970s musical Applause (“I feel twitchy and bitchy and manic / Calm and collected and / choking with panic / But alive! But alive! But ALIVE! I feel half Tijuana, half Boston / Partly Jane Fonda and partly Jane Austen / But ALIVE!!”). The lyrics also nicely captured the Dina Martina worldview: “I admit I’m slightly cuckoo / But it’s dull to be too sane.”
