The Cluster Cabaret Theatre delivered a performance worthy of the West End stage

By Marco Marcelline

Cluster Cabaret Theatre entertained in jubilant style with Party Like It’s 1899, a riotous musical cabaret staged at Ye Olde Rose and Crown Theatre Pub in Walthamstow on Friday, 18th and Saturday, 19th July.

Accurately billed as “witty, wild and joyfully anachronistic,” the show invited audiences into the fictional “Walthamstow Palace of Earthly Delights” – a cracking reimagining of London’s lost Victorian music halls. What followed was a surreal and upbeat evening of song, sketch, and bawdy theatre.

Fronted by Ian Burfield (of Eastenders and The Bill fame), who took on hosting duties with dry wit and commanding ease, the show unfolded in two acts. The first introduced us to fortune tellers, miracle workers, literary vocal trios, and forest-bred tigers (yes, tigers) while the second saw appearances by the great comedienne, premier danseuse, and “Cockney Chaffinch” Miss Lettie Lush, a creepy ventriloquist dummy and a psychotherapist.

One stand-out moment saw the cast sing a subversive and haunting rendition of Billie Eilish’s bad guy. Throughout, the Natural Voices choir provided the production’s vocal backbone with commendable confidence and flair, and their harmonies added polish to an otherwise proudly surreal and chaotic show.

The tone of the show was unapologetically nonsensical while the humour ranged from knowingly ridiculous to cuttingly sharp, all delivered by a talented cast that wouldn’t be out of place on the West End stage (or down the road at the new Soho Theatre).

Check out more photos from the production here

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