Bloody Ballad of Bette Davis ★★★★

One of the guilty pleasures of Edinburgh is discovering shows that make you think “Wow, that’s niche!” Certainly, looking at our Fringe bingo card, we didn’t have a musical re-imagining that posits Hollywood Grande Dame, Bette Davis, as a practitioner of dark arts, and is using her powers over co-stars Karen Black and Oliver Reed while making the low-budget and little-remembered 1976 horror movie, Burnt Offerings.

And yet here is New York-based Piper Theatre’s Bloody Ballad of Bette Davis!

In real life, thirty years after Bette Davis’ death, the actress’ only biological daughter BD Hyman (yes, the one Bette left nothing to in her will) announced on her Born-Again Christian ministry YouTube channel that her mother was a witch, had witnessed her transform into a demonic creature with claws and asserted that Bette would cast spells upon her enemies. From these improbable claims, John P. McEneny and Rob Parker have woven an unlikely, unpredictable and affectionate musical that explores the cinematic icon in her later years, with her star no longer in the ascendancy.

There is something irrevocably camp about Hyman’s ‘Mommie Occultist’ claims, and this show leans heavily into that vibe. How could you watch the hilarious, infectious opening number Song of B.D. Hyman (featuring lyrics Which Davis or was that Witch Davis) with its surprise inclusion of puppet sex or the 70s-choreography for New Hollywood (a jaunty number spoofing Karen Black’s role in the disaster movie, Airport 75, including the lyrics The Stewardess Is Flying The Plane) and not get a giddy thrill of how tongue-in-cheek this show can be?

The talented cast of five put in an early bid for the Hardest Working Ensemble of the Fringe. They sing, they dance, they play multiple roles and they execute the most demanding physical-theatre moves on a particularly unforgiving, narrow stage. They even manage to pull out a surprisingly convincing slice of Grand Guignol involving transformation, a cockroach and Oliver Reed!

Aaron Novak gives a superbly mercurial Oliver Reed: the lurching, sweaty, lasciviousness slowly gives way to something more vulnerable underneath the boorish surface. While Connor Delves, who The Recs enjoyed two years ago in Starcross’d at Wiltons, gives a wonderfully woozy Karen Black, it’s his beautiful singing voice that shines – and helps anchor other vocal performances in Rob Parker’s melodic, catchy but occasionally challenging score.

In the most daunting role, Annie Meek Montgomery wisely avoids the pitfalls that await portraying such a Hollywood legend. Thankfully, it’s not an impression. Those famous Davis mannerisms would create a barrier to letting the audience see the woman. While her singing voice may not be the strongest, anyone who has heard Ms, Davis’ vocals on the soundtrack of Two’s Company, a musical revue from 1952, will know that isn’t a requirement in playing the great Bette. But what Montgomery does so well is the stillness that draws you in. In the intimacy of the C – Aurora studio, she puts the icon’s emotional life under the microscope and invites you to look closer. And as the show unfolds, through the smallest nuances right in front of you, facially, she inhabits the legend rather impressively. She’s indeed got Bette Davis eyes!

A single misstep comes with how the show briefly – though not briefly enough – portrays Margot Merrill, Bette’s adopted daughter who was brain damaged at the age of three. The director has chosen a literalism whereas something more stylised would be much more acceptable and effective.

The Ballad of Bette Davis throws so much – ageism, the occult, the clash of Old and New Hollywood, motherhood, star power, Nazi persecution in Poland, sexual harassment – into its heady brew, it needs a longer running time for all of these to land. Tonally, the show is rather uneven but somehow, perhaps by its sheer breathless verve, remains an trip enjoyable nonetheless. To paraphrase, fasten your seat belts, it may be a bumpy night!

But there is something so warmhearted about the show and with the cast giving it their all, you can’t help let it cast a spell over you. Whether she was a witch or not, the Bloody Ballad of Bette Davis certainly conjures up some theatrical magic.