A one-woman show about forgotten Victorian music hall star Nelly Power, Marie Lloyd Stole My Life, is to appear at Buxton Fringe for the first time.
Lottie Walker, artistic director of Blue Fire Theatre Company which she set up in 2017, has been touring her one-woman show since 2019.
J J Leppink’s Marie Lloyd Stole My Life features Nelly Power, a real-life, trailblazing, 19th century performer and male impersonator who struck an early blow for women’s rights by headlining at all the major theatres.
Walker said, “Nelly’s life was its own mini-Victorian melodrama—much more dramatic offstage than on. It’s the story of how Marie Lloyd, the Queen of the Music Hall, came to fame at poor Nelly’s expense.
“Marie Lloyd Stole My Life tells the unglamorous side of showbusiness in Victorian London through the subversive lens of music hall.”
Walker and her musical director and pianist James Hall will take Marie Lloyd Stole My Life to the Pump Rooms, Buxton at 7PM on Wednesday 23 and Sunday 27 July.