Award-winning impressionist Jess Robinson is coming to Oxfordshire this month with Elton Reimagined. Her Edinburgh Festival Fringe show from last year sees Jess channel the voices of some of pop’s greatest divas (think Judy, Britney, Shakira etc etc) to pay homage to Elton John’s back catalogue.
Even if you haven’t already caught her on shows such as The Last Leg or Dead Ringers, perhaps you heard Jess’s impressions in the latest series of Spitting Image, or listened to her podcast, Stars In Your Ears with Jess Robinson, which earned the title of Best Entertainment Podcast at the British Podcast Awards in 2021. She played the title role in Jim Cartwright’s The Rise and Fall of Little Voice at Stratford-upon-Avon in 2003 and on a later tour in 2012, and she has also guested on tours with The Guilty Feminist and Leigh Francis. As a voice artist, Jess has brought characters to life for Aardman animations, Sky, BBC, DreamWorks, Netflix, Disney Channel, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, and more.
What can audiences expect from your show?
They can expect to be wrapped up in a bubble of joy. To escape all of the stuff that's going on in the outside world, and just be held in some fabulous music, great voices, big laughs, touching moments, and leave with their faces aching from smiling. That's what I want.
In the past, I have always tried to make a show come across as edgy or young or cool, or for TV producers to see me in a certain way. I've often tried to second guess what would work, or what the audience would want to see, what would get people talking, or what would make me more successful. This is the first show I've done where I have approached it purely from a place of fun and joy and playing, and when I took that pressure off myself to appear a certain way and was just open with it, I think it's become my most successful and satisfying show. It's had the best reviews as well, because I think people are just really happy to be there.
How did you decide which voice to use for each song?
It became clear really early that actually I wasn't in charge. For example, I really wanted Judy Garland to do Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, but her voice did not suit it, and Kate Bush’s did. It was just so obvious. As soon as I found the voice paired with the song, it was almost like a religious experience: ‘the girls’ tell me who's doing what, rather than the other way around.
Honestly, they come through! I'm not Derek Akora, but that is a theme in the show, where I imagine that these girls are all living in my head, and they're an extension of who I am – like Elton’s costumes are to him. They're not masks, but just bits of my character and personality, like pieces of a puzzle plopping in. Very weird, and a very satisfying and odd way to make a show. I've never done it before, but it was great fun.
Why Elton?
I wanted to find one artist and look at their back catalogue. I was thinking about Lady Gaga, and Adele – and maybe I will go to their songs one day – but I actually thought it would be fun to find an artist who is male, because I can't do any male impressions… apart from Joe Pasquale.
Elton is so prolific, and the thing that I really love about him is his music has almost soundtracked my entire life. When I was born, I'm Still Standing [was in the charts] and he has stayed current, collaborating with Britney Spears, Dua Lipa, Chappell Roan. I really love the fact that he's so supportive of young musicians and artists coming up.
He's a huge character, and there's a huge amount of love for him so, cynically, I hoped it would bring people in. But also I just have so much love for him: Elton's really worth celebrating. And his songs really stand up to being turned upside down and pulled around and reinterpreted, because they're so brilliant, so cleverly written. Also, I have a lot of LGBTQ+ fans, and why not Judy Garland singing Elton? It couldn't get camper,
Does singing these male-authored songs in a range of female voices reinterpret the music in any way?
It has very much reinterpreted, for example, Candle in the Wind. Before I tried it, I thought Marilyn Monroe is going to sing this, but it didn't work. And then I thought, Amy Winehouse, but it felt too mawkish. It was Billie Eilish that came and we've mashed it up with What Was I Made For, from the Barbie movie. It makes it so poignant and feeds into that theme of being used and just being a commodity.
Is Elton aware of it?
I'm desperate to get him along. I did a show in Barbados recently, and somebody [who was there] plays tennis with David Furnish, so you never know.
I would love him to come and see it. I think he would love it.
What's your favourite Elton John song?
All of them. They're like my children.
No, it depends on what I'm in the mood for but doing Barbra Streisand singing I'm Still Standing and Kate Bush doing Goodbye Yellow Brick Road with all the dancing is really great.
Do you have your own singing voice still?
I do… I do Your Song in my own singing voice, and then all ‘the girls’ come in and join me.
When I started imitating and learned how to do impressions, I lost my singing voice and then I found it again. And then it went again after my dad died, I couldn't sing for a little while but managed to get it back. It was very sad but it's back now, and that's what he would want.
Sorry, can I just rewind a sec… ‘learned to do impressions’? Is there, like, a Saturday class you can go to?
I got into impressions by telling a huge fib and saying that I could do them because there the role of Little Voice was coming up. It’s such a great show, and I wanted to not go back to my day job so I lied and said, ‘I can do impressions, can I audition?’ They said, ‘Yes, you've got five days’. I went to my grandma's house, and she helped me learn how to do Marlene Dietrich (she was German, so she helped me with the accent). And then I was practicing doing Marilyn Monroe, Shirley Bassey, Judy Garland for [my grandma’s] bridge friends, who were basically a million years old and there the first time all of these amazing divas of the silver screen were around. So they helped me, and I got the part.
Then I found out that somebody in the show knew the producer of Dead Ringers, and again, I lied and said, I'm brilliant at speaking impressions. Can I audition? And so I just learned. Now, when a new impression is coming up, for example Raye, I just listen to her over and over and over again. Look at her on YouTube, sometimes in slow motion a bit, really listen, make notes and something just… downloads.
So, looking ahead, what are your plans?
I've got a TED Talk [in Manchester in September], I've got a book tour. I'm going back to Edinburgh with the Elton show and so many people love all versions of the songs that we're recording an album onto vinyl.
I want to also move into keynote speaking and do more talks and coaching, helping other people find their own voices.
Jess Robinson will be bringing Elton Reimagined to the Chipping Norton Theatre on Saturday 13 June. For further information and to book tickets, visit jessrobinson.co.uk.
