By Nick Dent
Jean Paul Gaultier’s Fashion Freak Show ★★★★
Brisbane Festival, South Bank Piazza, until September 15
It begins with a pack of dancing teddy bears and ends with its cast posing near-naked on a stairway to heaven. In between are more corsets, blue-striped tees and bondage masks than you’d think possible.
And before you ask, yes, that conical brassiere made famous by Madonna makes multiple appearances – stage-side ticket holders had better be careful they don’t lose an eye.
Jean Paul Gaultier’s Fashion Freak Show tells the story of the designer’s career through spectacular dance and costumes.Credit: Mark Senior
This is Jean Paul Gaultier’s Fashion Freak Show, created, directed, co-written and designed by French couture’s enfant terrible himself. A 2018 hit at iconic Paris venue the Folies Bergere, it has since played across Europe, Tokyo and now, Brisbane.
This lavish and fast-paced spectacle roughly follows the timeline of Gaultier’s career. It’s not a straight Gaultier biography any more than a custard croquembouche is the biography of a cow – but it’s every bit as spectacular, fluffy and delicious.
The show takes the form of a series of costumed dance sequences combined with pre-filmed footage starring some of JPG’s famous friends such as Catherine Deneuve and Rossy de Palma.
As a child Jean Paul Gaultier dreamed of a Folies Bergere show starring his teddy bear Nana – a dream that seems to have come true. Credit: Mark Senior
Iconic moments like the designer’s first day on the job at Pierre Cardin’s atelier at the age of 18, his first solo show in 1976, and the debut of his kilts inspired by London’s punk movement are recreated with verve and thrilling choreography by Marion Motin.
Among the non-stop eye candy is a routine that visualises Jean Paul’s romance with business partner Francis Menuge as pairs of dancers each joined by one garment – a wonderfully simple expression of amour-through-attire.
A dancer with a blond crew cut does a good job of embodying the designer, but the show’s actual star is French singer Demi Mondaine. Her live renditions of Light My Fire, One Way Or Another and especially My Way (in the style of Vicious, not Sinatra) give a show with prerecorded music – arranged by Nile Rogers, no less – a visceral impact.
Gaultier’s groundbreaking talent for feminine menswear and masculine womenswear is in full flight here. Some 400 outfits are in the show; the program credits five backstage wardrobe staff, and I’m amazed there aren’t more.
Hats off to BrisFest for securing this tour de force – consummately timed to open during the Paris Paralympics too. It’s precisely the kind of wildly entertaining fare that can satisfy a wide audience without alienating the fashionistas.
Mind you, the more you know about Gaultier and his 50-year career the more you’ll love Easter eggs such as cameos by Josephine Baker, Anna Wintour and Karl Lagerfeld.