Pop singer Pixie Lott has taken to the West End stage as iconic Hollywood actress Marilyn Monroe in Who Killed Marilyn, a new conspiracy theory play at the Emerald Theatre on the Embankment in London.
The production, written by American playwright Sharleen Cooper Cohen and directed by Philip Wm. McKinley, received a two out of five stars rating from reviewer Patrick Marmion, who described the show as having all the drama of a Wikipedia entry.
Marmion wrote that Lott is a ringer when pulling on the blonde wig, pearl necklace, white dress and red lipstick. He noted that the world has never lacked Monroe impersonators, ranging from cabaret acts and singing telegrams to Madonna's Material Girl music video.
Conspiracy Theories and CIA Allegations
The 140-minute play rejects the official version that Monroe died of a tragic drug overdose in 1962. Cohen argues instead that Monroe was murdered because she knew too much following an affair with President John F. Kennedy, and later with his brother Bobby Kennedy.
According to the play, FBI Chief J. Edgar Hoover used the Mob and the cover of Monroe's pill addiction to ensure she was killed. Cohen alleges that Hollywood, the Press, the CIA, and Hoover were all involved, later covering up the murder by knocking off JFK, Bobby Kennedy, and others.
Despite what Marmion called febrile fiction, he credited Lott with making a good fist of her role in McKinley's zestless production. However, he noted she overuses her breathy, rising intonation famous from films such as Some Like It Hot, and depends heavily on flirtatiously running hands down her thighs while bending her legs and winking.
West End Staging and Venue History
Marmion observed that such moves reinforce the Marilyn myth rather than getting behind the mask. Throughout the performance, Lott talks the audience through Monroe's lively celebrity sex life as if from beyond the grave, culminating in a psychological epiphany with her psychiatrist.
Marmion wrote that her impersonation becomes increasingly emotionally charged towards the climax of the show. However, the venue itself, a former cabaret club renamed the Emerald Theatre on the Embankment in London's West End, was described by Marmion as tarted up like a high-end brothel.
He concluded that the setting is hardly suitable for a serious reappraisal of deep state cover-ups and stereotypes, noting the performance is much more likely to sauce up whatever audience members already believe.
