Carlotta
Jessica Marais captures the spirit of a pioneering showgirl, despite a casting choice upstaging the drama in ABC1's telemovie.
- Published by David Knox
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There’s something strangely alluring about an Australian drag queen.
While gender-illusionists go to great lengths to look as feminine as they possibly can, somehow a voice from hell -in all its colloquial strine- contradicts it entirely.
But a transexxual is no part-time glamour act. It’s a lifestyle many strive to live without attention. Carlotta, who was born as Richard Byron, had a foot in both worlds -performing with the drag queens of Kings Cross’ Les Girls and yearning for acceptance as a fully-fledged woman.
Telemovies aside, she remains a pioneering figure of Sydney’s GLBTI community, defiant in the spotlight for her views, humour, performance and transgender identity. She was one of the first in Australia to undergo a sex-change operation in the early 1970s, when such was not only controversial, but life-threatening. Still performing and adding glamour wherever she goes, she remains a community survivor.
ABC’s telemovie Carlotta, which acknowledges some story adjustment for dramatic effect, focusses on her early career from boy to woman and comes with Carlotta‘s own blessing, credited in the crew as ‘National Treasure.’
Kai Lewins plays young Richard, an effeminate boy mimicking his mother’s (Anita Hegh) faded cabaret dreams in the 1950s. But his stepfather suppresses his natural flair for flamboyance and Richard secretly dons his mother’s accessories and make-up until he is admonished.
When next we see Richard as a young man it is Jessica Marais in male drag, affecting a deep voice. Working in the showrooms of a Sydney department store he finds outspoken and happier young men less afraid to escape into a frock, or even full wig and make up. Encouraged by Danny aka ‘Ava’ (Eamon Farren) and Christopher (Socratis Otto), Richard experiments with such finesse that his colleagues dub him ‘Carol.’ It’s the beginning of a new and liberating life.
Before long Carol finds herself in the world of Kings Cross showgirls, where Sydney drag queens lip-sync tunes by Nina Simone. Carol looks better than all of them, but it is her gift of the gab with hecklers that lands her a role as a ‘big mouth brunette’ compere and her stage name of Carlotta.
Yet for all her success Carol yearned for full acceptance as a post-operative transgender, a move at first rejected by doctors and before later attracting press.
She would also begin relationships with Lance (Damian de Montemas) and Peter (Ryan Johnson), but acceptance from her mother was less forthcoming.
Briefly included in the personal drama of Carlotta are the emergence of gay politics, most notably when Les Girls is raided by police. An opportunity to make more of the very first Mardi Gras protest is overlooked (there’s a potential telemovie in the making). Sadly, her role in Number 96 is also off the table (perhaps for reasons of copyright?) and it ends before the letters HI and V impacted an entire community.
Jessica Marais steps up in the role of Carol Lee, but while she gets marks for effort, it’s difficult to see beyond the star-casting here. Having a female playing transgender side by side with men in drag really only exacerbates the differences. Ironically, she looks most in drag when she is supposed to be out of it, as young Richard. Despite Marais giving it her all, I found it hard not to view this as back to front…
The supporting cast here -they are nearly all supporting- are more successful. Eamon Farren sparkles as Danny / Ava, while Caroline O’Connor as showgirl director Sheila and Paul Capsis as support Stefan are utterly wonderful. Socratis Otto and Genevieve Lemon also impress. Alex Dimitriadis, as one of the ‘straight’ men who woos the showgirls, is rather under-utilised.
There is also not enough made of the gender operation itself, which is completed in a handful of scenes leaving questions of expense, pain, time and self-doubts aside. It did not match the life-threatening messages that preceded it.
While this is no warts and all tale, Carlotta does manage to see its subject lead with her best foot forward. Director Sam Lang and writer David Hannam have delivered a flattering, razzamatazz vehicle that is faithful to the spirit of Carol Lee. This production by Story Ark acknowledges social changes of a most liberating 1970s.
It’s easy to sit back and gaze at the beauty of Jessica Marais in this broadly entertaining bio-pic, but we should never overlook there are others who have lived the real thing and have the lifelines to prove it.
Carlotta airs 8:30pm Thursday on ABC1.
12 Responses
The point I think was to show she was a woman and I think it was an amazing performance Jess was amazing you come across as supportive yet unfortunately the usual overtones of bias.
I agree, the Les Girls were too manly especially Andrew Lees who played ”Peggy”, gorgeous looking guy buy as a girl he looked like a man in drag.
Jessica Marais did a fabulous job, however, the casting was all wrong. Agree with David that Jessica looked more in drag as a male. There’s plenty of male actors who could have nailed the role.
The general consensus among former Les Girls and those who frequented Les Girls is that Jessica Marais did a good job playing Carlotta, but they were very disappointed with the blokes in drag who portrayed the other Les Girls. Most of them were also unimpressed with the costumes.
Well, that was the worst crime against drama the ABC has committed in a long while. It’s 2014 fellas, and a transgender character alone isn’t enough to sustain a movie. There has to be as story worth telling too. But Carlotta had nothing interesting or new to say. The script was abysmal, both in terms of clunky, clumsy plotting and laugh-out-loud bad dialogue. And Jessica Marais was not convincing, not even fleetingly, as either a young man or a man in drag. Oh, and David Jones called – they want the wig she wore as a boy back for their spring window display.
Carlotta was beautiful.
Carlotta is insisting that no male or transsexual was feminine enough to play her. Yes she was and is feminine, but not so feminine that you couldn’t still tell she was born male.
Good informative review, David. Jessica Marais pretty much kills it for me, even if she has Carlotta’s support.
I cannot, for the life of me, fathom why they decided to cast a rather feminine woman in the role instead of a bloke (not necessarily trans). I would’ve expected this cop-out if it was going to be shopped around to Seven and Nine but I understand that this was an ABC commission. Poor form IMO.
After watching the Ad for this, I felt the same way David. While Jessica is really talented, maybe she’s just a bit too beautiful to play this role. Maybe the gender differences wouldn’t have been so obvious, if they’d have cast a more masculine looking woman?
I really hope that this is good & I know that Carlotta herself championed Jessica for the role but I really do not see why they cast a female in the role.
I have met Carlotta & she is the most extraordinarily generous person you could meet. Lets hope that this element comes across.
David I think you’re right but sad you have to state the bleeding obvious. What were they thinking? Casting one of Australia’s most gorgeous young actresses as Carlotta, a boy who wants to be a girl. I would have thought it rather undermines both the personal and political struggle which lies at the heart of this drama.
It’s worth reading the profile of Carlotta in the SMH Good Weekend. As it points out, Carol/Carlotta has re-invented herself in more ways than one, telling wildly varying versions of her story at different times to different people. The TV movie should either be taken with many grains of salt, or viewed as mostly fictional.
I was really looking forward to this show, but after seeing some of the previews, still shots, and now reading this review, I am less enthusiastic. I will still watch it, but I know that I will be disappointed.
Great review, David. Perhaps I should have read it after the program airs, but I was keen to see what you thought. I really liked Jessica’s work in Rafters but having grown up with Carlotta awareness, I just can’t get past the casting. Jessica is so beautiful, so quintessentially female, and there is that Carlotta voice to capture. But it seems there are lots of elements to embrace with this telemovie, so will be as open as possible. Apropos transexuals, really enjoying the work of Socratis Otto in Wentworth.