Berlin - Cabaret of Desire - Silo Theatre
But for my money the star of the show was Lana Nesnas, a sensuous presence with a hugely assured voice that went straight to the emotional heart of all her songs. The audience were spellbound as she drifted among the tables, conjuring up the aching melancholy of "Youkali", a haunting paean to an obscure and unattainable ideal.
The standout performance was her rendition of "Pirate Jenny", a darkly disturbing song in which a housemaid turns the tables and takes bloody revenge on the gentlemen whose floors she has been scrubbing. Bob Dylan has described how he chanced on Pirate Jenny in a Greenwich Village theatre and came away with a radically altered concept of what songwriting could be. Nesnas' mesmerising performance reveals how this song could have produced such an epiphany.
Paul Simei-Barton - NZ Herald - Nov 2006
[Jennifer Ward-Lealand] gives a stirring rendition of "Munchhausen" and camps it up in queer classic "When the Special Girlfriend" with diminutive, doe-eyed Lana Nesnas as Angelique. Sultry and poignant, Nesnas's torchy "Youkali" and her vengeful "Pirate Jenny" are mesmerising.
Natasha Hay - New Zealand Listener - Dec 2006
Jennifer Ward-Lealand's rendition never missed, and Lana Nesnas quickly charmed in a Sally Bowles way, opening with the yearning "Peter Peter" but her walk through the audience ballad "Youkali" (by Roger Fernay and Kurt Weill) was delicate and exquisite. "Moon over Alabama" Lana Nesnas in duet with Jennifer Ward-Lealand was delivered with a biting despondency, riveting and vivid. Jennifer and Andrew Laing executed "Maskulinum-Femininum" with choreographic comedy. The songs were delivered from stage without microphones or amplification with top shelf musical accompaniment.
NZBLUES.COM - Dec 2006
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