A night with Janis Joplin, the musical

A Night with Janis Joplin, the musical
Peaco*ck Theatre, London
27th August 2024

The passion and vocal magnificence of Janis and the Joplinaires is nothing short of electric, so much so that Phil Ross is genuinely moved to tears. So why did he feel that a little piece of his heart was missing at the end of the night?

Janis Joplin along with Jimi Hendrix, The Doors and the Stones were very much to the fore of the late 60s counterculture movement. And tonight, taking our seats to the discordant guitar and pounding bass of Hendrix’ Purple Haze, smoke wafting across oil wheel projections transports us in an instant to that hazy era; of drugs, sexual revolution, and hippy music. She is remembered for breathtaking performances on songs such as Me and Bobby McGee, Piece of My Heart and Summertime, and sadly, for her untimely death at the age of 27. But Joplin didn’t simply emerge onto the stage at Woodstock from a vacuum in 1969 to overdose a year later, and Randy Johnson’s production attempts both a document to her troubled life story as well as a powerful historical testament to the pioneering black vocalists who inspired her.

Tonight’s show kicks off with an explosion of light as the enormous sound of a seven-piece band heralds a trio of Joplinaires belting out Combination of the Two from the Cheap Thrills album. The Joplinaires take turns to sing in character; Nina Simone, Bessie Smith, Aretha Franklin, and it’s obvious from the outset that they’re not simply backing singers but extremely strong solo vocalists in their own right. The band medley into Tell Mama before Tony Award nominee Mary Bridget Davies as Joplin erupts onto the stage to rapturous applause. Speaking directly to the audience Janis sets out to tell the story of her life, her blues and her musical influences with passionate renditions of her greatest hits and the Joplinaires rotating as Etta James, Odetta, Chantel and more.

I’m thrown slightly by the moving lead characters but when Davies breaks into Joplin’s ‘Summertiiiime’, I experience the most spine-tingling goosebumps. For me, this sensation is an early litmus, worth the price of a ticket, and I submit myself to the whirlwind of soul, blues and rock that lies ahead. The audience on their feet cheering and dancing, confirm my instinct and from the thumping rendition of Piece of My Heart through Bessie Smith’s slick bluesy Nobody Knows You, the first half climaxes with Janis’ raucous duet with Aretha on Spirit in the Dark. The house lights come up for the interval and I’m curious about the audience around me, who consist of a range of ages, from men and women old enough to have seen her play live to younger people in their 20s and all ages in between. It’s a racially diverse crowd, with slightly more women than men, and quite a significant number of queer fans. This perhaps is unsurprising since Joplin was openly bisexual, and I’m intrigued as to how the show tonight will address this.

Coming from Port Arthur, a conservative Texas oil town, there’s much about Joplin that could be described as pioneering. She attended a segregated school but railed against it, garnering accusations of being a ‘n****r lover’. She strove to be an independent woman breaking out from an environment that expected her to conform to the norms of dress and demeanour and eventually to marry, settle and reproduce. She carved out a career through a love of black music but was at pains to give frequent credit to her influences. In her small way by living her life on her own terms, she contributed to the 60s counterculture which spawned many of the freedoms we enjoy today. Civil rights for black people were fought hard for, as were women’s rights and gay rights.

The struggle to maintain those rights is something that never stops; far-right racists like Farage and Robinson who would remove those rights, are and always will be a threat, as we witnessed here in the UK just a few weeks ago. We need always to be vigilant and combat them when they periodically raise their ugly voices, as they do today. If she were alive, I’m confident Joplin would be outspoken over Black Lives Matter and the reversal of Roe v Wade as she was outspoken about the sexist and hom*ophobic bullying she received as a young woman in Texas.

To be clear, A Night with Janis Joplin is crammed full from start to finish, with high-quality vocal performances and amazing musicianship, and both Cry Baby and Kozmic Blues caused great tears to roll down my face. More so, I believe it succeeds as a testament to the black vocalists who inspired her to such moving and memorable performances. In those respects, I can’t praise it enough. But in the cold light of day, it’s a script with no antagonist and no sense of jeopardy. The discussion of 60s’ sexism and racism are distinctly vanilla if not scant, while queer visibility and the hom*ophobia she suffered (unless I missed something), simply don’t exist in this version of Joplin’s life.

Her family’s desire to remould her memory as a ‘white-picket-fence girl’ and revise her vitriolic history with Port Arthur is well documented. This is a shame because the music of West Side Story, for example, is made so much more powerful, exciting and relevant by the gravitas of social commentary. An updated rewrite exploring the motivational factors behind Joplin’s escape into drink and drug dependency could similarly elevate this otherwise excellent production.

A night with Janis Joplin, the musical - Theatre Review (2024)

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