Celebrity impersonator Bonnie Kilroe plans to take her take on Miley Cyrus鈥檚 Wrecking Ball to the fourth wall at the Jasper Legion July 22.
The Vancouver native has earned a stable of national and international awards for her one-woman impersonation-based shows, which range from entire productions dedicated to one star, like Patsy Cline or Cher, to expansive expositions including 20 or more different personas.
Her most recent additions include Lady Gaga, and Miley Cyrus interacting with a yoga ball instead of the wrecking variety as depicted in her monster hit.
鈥淓ven the Cher show has three costume changes in it,鈥� said Kilroe, who is staging her Divas and Patsy Cline shows at Legions in the region including Valemount and Cochrane later this month. 鈥淲e play the 鈥榃onder Woman鈥� theme while I鈥檓 changing into that black one-piece and sometimes it鈥檚 not enough time. It depends on how sweaty I am.鈥�
The Divas: Vegas meets Vaudeville show, which features about 22 different stars, is what you can expect in Jasper. Also, be prepared for some top tier audience participation. There will be volunteers - Sharon Osbourne needs an Ozzy, for example, and of course, no Cher is complete without a Sonny.
鈥淭here is no fourth wall in my show,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 super-high energy with tons of audience participation.鈥�
Other legends expected to 鈥渁ppear鈥� in Jasper include Marilyn Monroe, Bette Midler and Liza Minelli.
Kilroe swings back and forth between straight-ahead tribute performances for some stars and campier, more comedic presentations for others.
鈥淭he basis of the whole thing is entertainment, laughing,鈥� she said. 鈥淚鈥檓 not taking myself too seriously, so I鈥檓 not one of those uptight tribute artists.鈥�
Kilroe said her career as a caricature of pop鈥檚 elite has its roots in the musical telegrams she delivered as a younger performer, then years of dinner theatre into the mid-90s. It was there that each cast member was expected to bust out one good celebrity impression per night.
鈥淧atsy Cline was sort of my first character, I do a whole show with her, then I did Barbra Streisand, then Dolly Parton,鈥� Kilroe recalls. 鈥淚 got an opportunity to go on a cruise ship and I thought 鈥業 want to do my own show,鈥� so I threw it together really badly with tapes and terrible wigs, I mean like 11 different cassettes that had to be rewound every night, right? It was really coarse and raw, but that got the ball rolling.鈥�
She returned to the cruise junket later with a much more refined show, eight-piece orchestra and all. When she stepped on to dry land for good in 2007, she expanded the cast of characters, dropped the band in favour of a track-based system and never looked back.
鈥淚 love doing this road trip,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 went to Jasper for the first time two years ago. We were driving through with the band to a show in Edmonton and we had to come through Jasper. I had tears in my eyes, it was so amazing, but we couldn鈥檛 pull over anywhere because we had to get back, someone had another gig.
鈥淏ut I thought 鈥業 am definitely coming back,鈥� so I did the Patsy Cline show last year. There was a problem with the tickets, though, so it was a pretty small crowd. This year, this is a big-ass show and I want to make sure there are lots of people there. Doing this show, for me, is like running a marathon.鈥�
The show is set for 8 p.m. at the Legion. Tickets are $26.87 including the service fee and are available online through www.brownpapertickets.ca.
Craig Gilbert
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