Review of Boomers Behaving Badly

Boomers Behaving Badly at Circa is not true to label. There is not much bad behaviour, it isn’t all about boomers and it’s not even another strident feminist polemic. Rather, it is a charming expose of what happens us all when we are getting on a bit.

It’s a cabaret act presented with style and panache and its success owes a lot to pianist Michael Nicholas Williams who is a highly accomplished musical delight. Jane Keller has a verve and energy that compensate for her sometimes rather wobbly voice. Williams holds it all together with his own musical wit and devoted support for his diva.

Keller has put together twenty songs, and through them cleverly tells her loosely linked yarns.

Only some of the time are the experiences universal. Clichés about phys ed, high school reunions, and dyslexia warm us up with some familiar stereotypes. Hello Tom and Just a Housewife are corny sad. On the matter of divorce it all gets a bit exotic. There is a theme of alimony and money-grabbing women and while amusing and in places deliciously cruel it is not a New Zealand experience.

After the interval we learn some amusing tips for getting by in French and Spanish and there is encouragement for some of the chaps in I Want them Bald.

The BBB is full of laughter and smiling and fun. There are well-timed daring little flickers of smut and naughty words and Keller and her setting look good in the intimate Circa 2. An interval in the middle for you to get another plastic glass of wine and to relive some of the laughs will help to make it an entertaining undemanding night out for you and your mates.

ENDS

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