Meow Meow’s The Red Shoes (Belvoir) ★★★★

Created by Meow Meow. Belvoir. 4 Oct – 9 Nov, 2025.

Welcome to the Art-Pop-pocalypse. Cabaret sensation Meow Meow has set up camp on Belvoir’s main stage, desperately fighting the creative inertia of nihilism and the defeatism (or is it de-feet-ism – sorry, bad pun!) of modern life. Forget Hans Christian Andersen – this is Meow Meow’s The Red Shoes.

Sitting on top of a pile of discarded trash (or the set of Cats — you be the judge), our junkyard showgirl has questions about Hans Christian Andersen’s The Red Shoes, and demands to speak to the author. His dark fairy tale of a poor girl who loves her new red shoes so much that she becomes cursed to dance in agony for all eternity doesn’t quite hold up against her textual analysis.

Meow Meow mixes her ditzy-diva-chic with existential questions that would make Samuel Beckett storm off, perplexed. Why does a performer need to begin the show again? What kind of infernal Groundhog Day is she stuck in? Must she dance forever? Maybe dancing isn’t the punishment — maybe it’s the cure for the world’s woes.

The Red Shoes has always had a grip on the creative imagination. It doesn’t hurt to be a bit familiar with the original story, or the fantastic 1948 Powell & Pressburger film, or the 1993 Kate Bush album, or the 2016 Matthew Bourne ballet – you get my point.

But if you’re like Val from 1975’s A Chorus Line (“Let’s get one thing straight. I never heard of ‘The Red Shoes’, I never saw ‘The Red Shoes’… I don’t give a shit about ‘The Red Shoes’”) — it’s not too bad. This theatrical cabaret is non-linear at best. There are tangents and surprises aplenty — from the failure of communism to the state of Amazon deliveries.

The show features songs from Radiohead, Fiona Apple and Amanda Palmer (some nice Generation X highlights in the soundtrack), plus originals, performed with the help of the multi-tasking musical trio Jethro Woodward, Mark Jones and Dan Witton, and brilliant co-star Kanen Breen. This is a trip into the metaphysical musings of one of our great performers as she wrestles with the questions we are all facing.

After taking us on a romp through the wasteland of late-stage capitalism, climate collapse and political decay, Meow Meow offers a cure for our despair, transforming the tale into one of romance and compassion. It’s a full emotional journey in 75 minutes. You’ll leave the theatre with a warm smile on your face.

If that sounds too highbrow for you, don’t worry — it’s also very silly and self-aware. She is the kind of cabaret artist who blends art, history and philosophy with songs and slapstick. I’ve not seen her onstage in almost a decade when she was doing Shakespeare and musicals in London. (Trivia: Meow Meow was a lead in Emma Rice’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, which was also the West End debut of a young Cynthia Erivo.) It’s great to get a pure hit of Meow Meow again.

If you’ve not experienced Meow Meow’s work before, get ready for a wild, often absurd, sometimes discombobulating journey through a creative brain trying to understand the modern world. It’s not conventional and it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but I think it’s utterly wonderful — and it had me singing this song all the way home…

FYI – this song is not in the show.