Following on from Amy Webber’s awarding winning show ‘No Previous Experience’, Wannabe is an autobiographical exploration of her lifelong desire to be famous in the form of a one woman opera -standup – spoken word- pop song.
Webber is extremely warm and welcoming to her audience, immediately putting them at their ease and instantly engaging them with her funny, quirky, humble and open style. From the moment she enters the space in the wonderful Kings Arms, she owns it and shares it in equal measure.
Inspired by a visit home during which her mother ‘sorts out’ some of her childhood memorabilia, Webber uses her box of ‘junk’ – the trinkets, mementos, diaries, letters, poems and songs of her childhood, to shape a hilarious tale of longing, searching and learning that is utterly engaging throughout.
Clearly a creative and talented child and bi-lingual in English and Japanese she uses her knowledge, her operatic and musical training, her experience and her positive and authentic personality to journey with her audience in a way that mixes genres, plays with convention and hits the mark in its commentary and politics.
For me there were so many highlights it is hard to pick the best, but her diary entry as an 11 year old talking about her pet fish sung opera style in Japanese; her song for her retiring Headmaster in which the audience play the various secondary school year groups with genuine enthusiasm; her prototype for a ‘real’ panty liner to be submitted to ‘Always’ must be mentioned. But it is her operatic song ‘Nothing like this has ever happened before’ in which she cites various political targets for challenge which shows the maturity, wit and smartness of this original performer.
Having spent so much of her life trying to be someone she thought she wanted to be, a dreadful, touchingly expressed and deeply personal experience provided a catalyst for her self-realisation that now aged 35 she knows who she is and no longer needs validation from an adoring public and the long line of boys and men she recognises she has sought affirmation from. I guess the irony is, if she continues to produce work like this, the public potentially could adore her and those in the theatre tonight certainly did. Brilliant!
Wannabe will be performed again on Sunday July 13th at 2pm as part of Greater Manchester Fringe Festival with tickets available at https://greatermanchesterfringe.co.uk/
Reviewer: Lou Kershaw
Reviewed: 10rd July 2025
North West End UK Rating:
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