This Friday the totally gorgeous and totally groovy Miss Hope Springs begins a series of performances in different venues of her festive special Christmas A Gogo with a show at the Two Brewers. Dave Cross had a chin wag with Miss Springs to find out what we can expect in this new show that is based on her long-lost legendary TV special.
Hello Miss Springs, are you getting into the festive mood?
I’m always in the festive mood. It’s hard keeping it from bursting forth at the most inappropriate times. I once spontaneously shouted ‘Jingle Bells’ at a funeral in July, so I’m thrilled when the actual season comes around. People are always complaining about it starting too soon… Baubles, I say, the sooner the better!
Can you talk us through Christmas in the Springs household?
Well, it’s less of a household more of a campervanhold, living as I do with my husband Irving and his close pal hairdresser Carlos in one in Dungeness. Carlos is so creative – he loves to cook, so he does the honours on Christmas Day. We are vegan so it’s Tofurky all the way. He comes up with the most fabulous stuffings. Irving says he’s quite the expert in that department. We can’t all fit round the built-in campervan dining table, so the boys have theirs and I eat mine up in the top bunk. I have found Brussels sprouts in my bedding months later – handy if you wake up peckish.
We are sure you’ve been a very good girl, is there something special you want from Santa this year?
I want Donald Trump impeached. I want to rescue Melania, she always looks like she could do with a good cry but the Botox won’t let her. I want a campervan of my own – a girl needs a little privacy now and then. Oh and to have BBC’s Petroc Trelawny stripped, dipped in chocolate and brought to my dressing room.
We are very excited about your Christmas A Gogo shows, can you tell us about the original ‘lost’ 1971 TV special?
It was a spectacular spectacular and today considered an unaired classic. Harry Belafonte was my very special guest and Mama Cass and Shari Lewis and Lambchop. Princess Margaret was desperate to be in it, but I found her manner unfortunate. Nice enough girl but three sheets to the wind most of the time, bless her. And there was really no room in the show for a slow strip to ‘No One Loves a Fairy When She’s Forty’.
How has the TV show translated into a live event?
There’s only so far you can go recreating a television extravaganza with the 70-piece Hull Philharmonia, the Lionel Blair Dancers, a herd of elephants performing Swan Lake in tutus, and the Twister Sisters (a contortionist act from the Ukraine) into a one-woman show at a piano with a bit of fake snow and a glockenspiel. But I hope my enthusiasm and sheer star quality will have the audiences baffled into thinking the production values are a bit more high end. I can recommend taking LSD an hour before to get the full experience.
What are your favourite festive songs in the show?
All of my songs are original and self penned. There’s sassy, Santa is a Woman; sexy, Christmas Calypso; hauntingly beautiful, Paper Snow; the hysterical with Christmas A Gogo and many more, but they are all my babies. I love the old traditional Christmas songs but I think people also want to hear new catchy toe-tapping festive numbers that capture the spirit of the season but are new to the ear and the heart. Someone recently said my Christmas album is the only one you’ll really ever need.
You are performing the show at a number of venues, can you talk us through the dates?
I’m in the lovely big cabaret room at the back of the Two Brewers in Clapham at 8pm on Friday (8 Dec). Then the lovely little theatre in the Museum of Comedy in Bloomsbury near Tottenham Court Road. Michael McIntyre played there a couple of weeks ago, so I’m treading in his tiny footprints.
And we hear there’s something special planned in-between Christmas and New year?
Oh yes! The fabulous Rula Lenska is appearing in my show as my very special guest. She’s literally the only person in show business with a deeper voice than mine, and longer legs, dammit! She is joining me for a few numbers at Live at Zedel in Piccadilly from 28 to 30 December. The 28th show is already sold out and tickets limited now for the 29th…
And do you have a festive message for Boyz readers?
I’d like to take this opportunity to wish everyone reading this a very merry Christmas and the happiest of New Years. Or should I say Hope-iest?! Geddit? Never mind…
Details of all shows and tickets from misshopesprings.com
The Two Brewers, 114 Clapham High Street, SW4.
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