Somebody to Love

Somebody to Love is a vibrant and sexy cabaret, starring Musical Theatre performer Tory Kendrick. It has just finished a short season at Connections, performing to a highly enthusiastic, noisy and appreciative audience.

Twenty-one-year-old Tory takes her audience on an exploration of modern dating, which Tory equates to living through the five stages of grief, over and over again.

Looking fabulous in two different sequinned evening dresses - both with “dangerously high thigh splits”, Tory is funny and clever and sings gorgeously, holding her audience with confidence and ease. She is beautifully accompanied by Jackson Harper Griggs on piano and Alex Barker on drums.

Singing through the stages of grief, Tory uses some great choices from the Musical Theatre catalogue including lovely renditions of the title song - “Somebody to Love”, " I Will Survive” and perhaps most unusually “Small Strange Creature” from the locally written hit show, Summer of Our Lives. Many songs are very cleverly parodied including “Somewhere That’s Green” and “No Good Deed”. There is a load of clever references to dating through Covid, and the advantages (or not) of Sugar Daddies.

Tory invites her audience to get involved, by asking them to text her dating disaster stories, some of which were hilarious - and others disturbing - with Tory stretching her comedic delivery to share them with the crowd. There is some lovely audience involvement - including a great duet with Jackson Harper Griggs - and using audience contributions (and voices) to provide lyrics for a hilarious "12 Days of Christmas” send-up entitled, “Seven Days of Quarantine”.

Fabulously sung, warmly performed and just a little naughty, Somebody to Love was a delight to watch.

Kimberley Shaw