Christina Bianco – When The Voices In Your Head Are All Part Of The Act.

Coral Drouyn talks to the star Impressionist on the eve of her Australian tour.

One of the problems with having favourite singers is that the cost of seeing them live in concert can break you, it’s so exorbitantly expensive. So when you get a chance to see all your favourite singers channelled through one super talented performer for the cost of just ONE ticket, you’d be crazy not to take it, provided the tickets are not sold out. Of course, that’s not the only reason to see the amazing Christina Bianco - she is a super talented and highly entertaining performer in her own right - but it’s a darn good one.

Bianco has become a You-Tube sensation as well as a multi nominated actress and singer over the past few years. She has stunned audiences on talk shows from Ellen to Queen Latifah. It’s the impersonations she is famous for - everyone from Ariana Grande to Edith Piaf, with the usual suspects like Liza and Bette included for good measure. But there’s much more to Bianco than just the impersonations, great as they are.

“You know,” she tells me, “when I was acting in school plays and musicals, the directors used to tell me I was a quick study and that I took direction well. I would be told something and immediately it would be filed in my memory bank and I could get it out and use it when I needed to. It’s the same way with the impressions. I can hook on to the little idiosyncrasies that make one singer unique.”

I ask if there’s a danger now with so many singers being great musically, but without so much individuality as in the past.

“Absolutely,” she agrees. “The technique of singers is better now, but there’s a danger that there will be an assembly line voice….one voice that all singers use. And then, of course, I’d be out of business.”

Her list of female singers is extensive, but there is one she stays clear of. “I don’t do Tina Turner,” she admits, “because I don’t feel I could ever do her justice; I don’t have that rich rawness that she has. I’m a little obsessive and near enough is never good enough for me.”

I wonder if she wouldn’t consider adding some male singers to her list.

“Funny you should say that,” she chuckles. “I’m a huge fan of Michael Jackson and of Prince, and I am working on both of them. But I have to get them right, do them justice, before they go into the act.”

Not all of her audience realises that Bianco is also an accomplished actor and singer in her own right.

“I love playing a character,” she says, “just immersing myself in someone else for an entire show, not just a few minutes of a song. When I’m learning a script I get to ask myself, what does she like? Who is she? Why does she feel certain things? That’s the actress in me. But then, I also love doing Cabaret, just singing as myself, and even doing the impressions; it’s still me, just me impersonating someone else.”

It isn’t easy to meld two totally different skill sets, but I mention to English dramatist Jim Cartwright’s tour de force The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice, to Christina, and she gets excited like a kid who has just discovered a pony at her birthday party.

“Oh My Gosh, I loved the film so much. Jane Horrocks is just amazing. I was just starting my career when it was released and I watched it over and over. Imagine having a play written especially for you.”

Of course it could just as easily have been written for Christina - after all she is a two time Drama Desk nominee. She tells me that she finally got to see the show in 2012, flying to London and then taking a train to Guildford especially to see it.

“Jim Cartwright himself was directing, and I introduced myself and I…how corny is this…I gave him a CD of my work and I’m pretty sure that I was more excited about the meeting than he was.”

The upshot is, though Christina swears she wasn’t being entrepreneurial, that the play will have a Broadway revival later this, starring you-know-who.

“I didn’t initiate it,” she insists. “The producers approached me, but Jim Cartwright had to approve the casting and I am so thankful that he remembered our meeting and said yes.”

It will be Christina’s first starring role on Broadway. Is that the pinnacle of success?

“Well, yes…and no,” she says honestly. “You can’t ever predict what’s going to happen in this business. I’ve never aspired to be a star, but I do want to have longevity; to still be performing in another 30 years.”

Her own personal idol is not any fleeting chart-topper but Sammy Davis Jnr.

“What a talent,” she enthuses. “That’s my idea of a real star; someone who entertains for decades.”

I mention that I spent my 16^th birthday in 1960 (before Christina was born) with Sammy in Manchester England. The two of us go off on a complete tangent for about twenty minutes and I get to “see” the slightly wacky, wildly enthusiastic and comic side of Christina before we come back to earth with a bump and return to her present show ‘Diva Moments”, where Christina mixes up a bunch of stars with her own natural talent in a unique and endearing way.

“It’s not just hype to say I am thrilled to be doing the show in Sydney and Melbourne,” she says. “I know the shows at The Hayes in Sydney sold out very quickly but I understand the Alex is slightly bigger and when they told me they were adding a second show (Thursday March 9th)  I freaked a little bit. I just hope they sell the tickets.” I mention that I will be there and she responds, “Well if there is just you and me, we can forget the performance and have a drink and chat about Sammy.” Somehow I don’t think there’s much danger of that.

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