Divet Show: The Greatest Divas
Venue: Assembly George Square
Marko Vainio and his drag dancers, Jero Mäkeläinen and Henri Sarajärvi, bring Divet Show: The Greatest Divas to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The show is a rapid-fire tour through countless divas from the music world delivered in a high-energy style.
Marko Vainio star of Finland’s Got Talent and his two supporting dancers take us through a lip-sync tour of some of the music world’s biggest divas. Cher, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Liza Minnelli and countless others make up some of the esteemed divas that Marko and friends share with us.
The Divet Show is impressive in its fast-paced energy with over thirty divas being portrayed in the space of sixty minutes. That’s around two minutes per diva and costume changes and adjustments to make-up need to be factored into the mix. It is therefore an undeniable achievement that Marko, Jero and Henri craft a show that never stops – there is someone on stage throughout the whole runtime entertaining us with a high-energy performance.
The joy of Divet Show is its short attention grabbing bursts of performance. Energy levels are kept sky high with the cast launching into diva after diva with impressive detail. Costumes and make-up are accurate and convincing given the speed of the transformations – iconic diva outfits are recreated such as Cher’s mythic priestess outfit and Shirley Bassey’s gold flowing cape dress. There is an outstanding level of craftsmanship in Divet Show. It is also highly amusing to watch wigs and costumes frantically thrown about behind the stage’s black curtain – like bullets being fired in a drag war.
Praise should also go to the musical selections with every lip-sync track standing as an out and out classic – that means there is plenty of sing along potential in Divet Show for those that are willing. Marko, Jero and Henri have a natural and warm interaction with the audience – genuinely bowled over by the appreciation given to them by the audience. They are likeable performers with a good sense of humour – as showcased in their high camp exaggerated performances and in self-deprecating humour such as Marko noting he was so proud he could share with his father that he had been to Edinburgh University.
Divet Show: The Greatest Divas is rapid-fire, high energy drag crafted with an impressive attention to detail. An undeniable feel-good experience, Divet Show is a camp treat.