cabaret: keira daley - ladynerd

Keira Daley is a nerd... in fact, she's a LadyNerd, and proud of it.

Emerging onto a stage covered in Tetris pieces in glasses and an anorak, she looks every inch the stereotypical nerd (from the waist up anyway), but those props are discarded... because a nerd is not about how you look, it's about having a brain that gets obsessed with things.

Things like apostrophes being in the wrong place, numbers, being right (and yes, I would rather be right than be happy) and researching stuff so that you can pretend you knew about it all along.

I have no qualms about admitting to my own nerdness, and quite a lot of Daley's show hit the mark with me. Between references to Sonic and Mario, the number song from Sesame Street (yes, that one), Daria and Team America, there was a lot that made me laugh.

There was also quite a bit of stuff about LadyNerds from history that I didn't know... Marie Curie, Hedy Lamarr, Bette Claire Graham (the inventor of Liquid Paper), Ada Lovelace. I actually learned quite a bit of nerd history that I wasn't aware of... or I'm more aware of it now than I was before the show.

I'm also terrified of using an incorrect word or putting an apostrophe in the wrong place just in case Daley reads this and judges me.

The songs seemed to either be ones that I wasn't aware of, or existing songs with new lyrics... and I'll admit that I did tend to prefer the songs I recognised. But Daley has a great voice as well as great comic timing.

There were a few spots where the show dipped a little... at least one of the pre-recorded "filler" pieces went on a little bit long... and the song in the Ada Lovelace section felt a little too serious/sombre for the overall bubbly nature of the show.

And I did find myself getting distracted occasionally by Daley's very pretty (and incredibly talented) musical director/accompanist, Mark Chamberlain. But you have to be impressed with anyone who can play two pianos at the same time.

But just remember that you don't have to be a nerd to enjoy LadyNerd... although it probably helps...

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