This production is a touring version of a show that's been bouncing around various fringe festivals and smaller venues for about a decade, originally as "Margaret Fulton: Queen of the Dessert" back in 2012 with a cast of three - I honestly think keeping a title like that would have given better hints at the level of sophistication this show is going for, covering about 50 years of the life of Australia's queen of cookbooks in 80 odd minutes, with songs dedicated to things like Pressure Cookers, Jam and Bobby Limb as the plot rolls through her rise to success while surviving various husband's misdemenours, with advice from her mum and an old friend along the way. Writer Doug Macleod has a history largely in TV Sketch comedy like "The Comedy Company", "Fast Forward" and "Full Frontal" and composer Yuri Worontshak has similarly been providing music for movies and TV shows associated with those teams for a while, and this is pretty much right in their field - not-too-demanding, not-too challenging, material which rises or falls on the strength of its performers, being elevated by a Magda Szubanski, a Gina Riley, a Jane Turner or a Marg Downey.
Judy Hainsworth is a solid lead as Margaret, suitably natty in various conservative outfits with a powerful singing voice and a firm no-nonsense demeanour. Zoe Harlen as freewheeling friend Bea really doesn't get quite enough of an arc but manages to impress every time she shows up with her breezy manner, and Jessica Kate Ryan provides wide sage advice as Margaret's mum, mostly in ghostly form. The other three supporting cast roar through various roles as supporters, backupdancers, husbands, swinging Londoners and interlopers with speed and charm.
This is really middling material done by a reasonable cast, and honestly the reason I was seeing this is because I needed a fourth show in a subscription. But I've seen worse bonus-shows-to-fill-up-a-subscription at the Q before and this is a reasonably appealing undemanding night out.
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