Review: DAGMARR’S DIMANCHE, Crazy Coqs

Hersh Dagmarr, a self-confessed vampire, takes to the stage at Crazy Coqs and absorbs his audience, but never with ill intent. The vampire persona is more act than menace: charming, simple, and clever, with the potential to be owned more fully.

What might have been darkness is instead overthrown with wholesome charm, as a genuine connection is built. Dagmarr’s heyday sits in the cabarets of early 20th-century Berlin and Paris, and his world is steeped in that glamour and desire, timeless as the vampire he embodies.

There is no doubt he possesses a wonderful voice, one that finds more strength as the night goes on, feasting on classics from years gone by and others only just in the distance. French favourites from Piaf sit alongside cleverly adapted Kylie Minogue, all with a dash of Dietrich’s languid attitude. Nostalgia meets reinvention, reverent yet mischievous, distilled through Dagmarr’s singular lens. Hollaender’s ‘Black Market’ suits him perfectly, while Kylie’s ‘In Your Eyes’ is nicely reimagined.

The structure, however, is less certain. At times the flow falters, transitions feel untidy, and momentum is lost. Guest artist Enrico Touché, billed as magician but performed more in the spirit of clowning, leans into this lack of polish. His fumbling illusions provide comedy - hopefully knowingly.

Still, there is something undeniably captivating about the evening. The setting of Crazy Coqs, with its intimacy and art-deco shimmer, works in Dagmarr’s favour: his cabaret thrives on proximity and playful asides drawing people in as much as his singing.

Dagmarr’s Dimanche may not yet be seamless, but it offers flashes of wit, charm, and theatrical imagination. For now, it remains a show of promise, carried by a performer whose voice and presence keep the audience firmly under his spell.

*** Three stars

Reviewed by: Stephanie Osztreicher