Prinnie Stevens headlines Fringe World 2024 Aces at The Maj season with cabaret show Lady Sings the Blues

Prinnie Stevens describes her cabaret show Lady Sings the Blues as the ultimate conversation starter and is eager to initiate the dialogue at her first Fringe World when headlining Aces at The Maj, an air-conditioned, tent-free zone of nine award-winning shows performed Downstairs at The Maj. Reminiscent in style of a 1920s speakeasy performance, Stevens’ show welcomes the yesteryear charm of the venue at His Majesty’s Theatre. “It showcases the history of all these women where I do 100 years of music and songs and stories, so I call it from Billie to Beyonce,” Stevens shares from her home in Sydney. “Performing this show is the gift that keeps on giving. As tired and worn out by the horrific stories as I am by the end, it’s what all these women have been through that enables us to do what we do today. “It is taxing, but it’s far more rewarding and going out into the audiences after, that’s the real payoff of when people tell me what music has changed them or what women I missed, they love to tell me that, which does open up to volume two that we’re sure to bring back next time.” Lady Sings the Blues features all the women Stevens has been inspired by musically, and she admits owning a bookcase of biographies where she has connected with the stories and anecdotes of the singers, from Etta James and Ella Fitzgerald to Whitney Houston. “I think why the show’s been so successful is because I chose not to have a co-writer or a co-director, because I felt like, growing up, you didn’t see many black or brown stories told by black or brown people,” the Polynesian RnB soul singer and mother of two says. “I thought it was important for people to hear an unfiltered story straight from my heart, or from my mouth, to the audience. It was definitely a gamble and I didn’t know how it would go, but we’re three years in now, so I think we’re OK.” A born singer, dancer and actor, Stevens started her career in musical theatre, where at age 17 she understudied Mimi in the Australian production of Rent: The Musical, being played by Christine Anu at the time and also featuring Rodger Corser and Natalie Bassingthwaighte. She would later add shows including Hair, Thriller Live and The Bodyguard to her musical theatre resume. Not feeling ready to front as a lead singer quite yet, it was while doing backing vocals for Guy Sebastian when a role in musical Oh What A Night! introduced her to castmate Kathy Sledge — of Sister Sledge fame — who took Stevens under her wing back to the US, where she joined Sledge’s daughter and nieces in a second-generation Sister Sledge girl group for five years. “I was going into rooms and meeting people with her, as a woman of colour who changed the face of music,” Stevens recounts. “Meeting people like Mary J. Blige, Patti LaBelle, Chaka Khan and Gladys Knight with her was an incredible experience. “It changed me as a person and as a singer and as a performer. Then after I came back, that’s when I chose to do The Voice Australia (2012), where I battled my best friend Mahalia Barnes, and everything kind of changed from then and has been non-stop ever since, which is scarily over 10 years ago now.” Eventually, Stevens would discover cabaret, an amalgamation of all the genres that she loves to perform. “The talking, the singing, the dancing, the acting,” she says. “Yeah, it’s my happy place.” Prinnie Stevens Presents: Lady Sings the Blues is at Aces at The Maj, Downstairs at The Maj, His Majesty’s Theatre, January 31 to February 3. Tickets at fringeworld.com.au.