Can I just say… give this show the “Best Show of Fringe” award already! It was the best Fringe show I’ve seen so far this year, and one of the best I’ve seen, period (and heard chatter after the show of people saying the same thing).
Kaleigh Baker as Janis Joplin is pure gold. Watch out Amy Adams, you got some competition on your hands. Everything from the way Baker spoke to the rasp in her voice while singing to her movement and interaction on stage with the band, Baker was beyond excellent.
Everything about the show was spot on: from the changing of what Baker wore to represent the different points of Joplin’s life to what the band members wore or how they played.
Director Andy Matchett, who also plays television show host Dick Cavett, was just as entertaining on stage as he was brilliant while putting the show together in its entirety.
Amanda Warren plays Laura, Joplin’s sister, and her attitude toward Janis before her fame, during her career and after her death was very cold and straightforward and so in character. The story told partially through her, and also Baker, Cavett and the music, tied the entire show together— but Warren’s narration and how she delivered it was a key in the show, and she nailed it.
The show, located in the new Gold Venue in the OMA, had to have been pretty much sold out because as I looked around right before the show started (during Fringe’s always-extra-long reminders at the beginning of every show), there didn’t seem like there was a seat left in the house.
And it wasn’t just me who loved the show—it was the entire crowd. People were dancing in there seats, swaying their head to the Baker’s voice and even one lady in the front kept throwing up her hands and grooving to the music. At times I forgot I was at Fringe and felt I was at a Joplin concert; that’s how moving, entertaining and amazingly spot-on the show was.
I would not be surprised if this show sold out every single show. Actually, I’d be surprised if it didn’t. “Janis Joplin, Little Girl Blue” reminded us why Joplin Joplin is the queen of rock and pioneer for woman rock artists.
The only things I’d have to complain about is the people working the lighting; sometimes the spotlight didn’t come on until after the character started their monologue, but nothing else really.
From the afro bassist player in the Big Brother & the Holding Company to Baker’s rendition of “Ball and Chain” after a scene of shooting-up to the entire crowd belting out with Baker to “Piece of My Heart,” this show is a hit and I suggest if you want a ticket you better Get It While You Can, because tickets to this show are going to be gone quick.
“Janis Joplin, Little Girl Blue” is playing at the Gold Venue at the Orlando Museum of Art.
