The Lady Killers wow New Plymouth crowd on opening night of Divas tour

The Lady Killers are touring New Zealand on their Divas tour.

For almost two decades, singers Suzanne Lynch, Jackie Clarke and Tina Cross have performed as The Lady Killers at charity events and concerts across New Zealand, always attracting big crowds ready to sing and dance along.

No surprise then that New Plymouth’s TSB Showplace theatre was packed on Friday night when for the first night of their latest New Zealand tour, Divas.

Judging from the audience reaction and the energy in the room all night, it’s safe to say the The Lady Killers are still killing it.

Technically, it wasn’t a full The Lady Killers lineup on Friday night, as Clarke told the audience after the opening song.

“You may have noticed that isn’t Tina there,” she said pointing to Sharon Emirali, who had stepped in to fill the spot after Tina had come down with Covid just before the tour started.

Stepping into the shoes of one of New Zealand’s most famous, and popular, singers is a challenge, especially when that means sharing the stage with two more of New Zealand’s top female vocalists, but Emirali didn’t miss a beat all night.

Whether it was providing backing vocals for one of the others on stage, or leading the song herself, Emirali was a joy to watch and listen to, with particular highlights being the medley of Whitney Houston songs she launched into.

When Suzanne Lynch performed Dusty Springfield’s Son of a Preacher Man it felt as though Springfield herself was in the room, and the same was true of her version of Adele’s Someone Like You. In fact, every hit that Lynch sang hit the spot, with her incredible ability to somehow channel the original artist while at the same time making the song her own.

Clarke was, as always, the consummate performer, never letting anything faze her, from the late addition of Emirali to the line up, to a small pause in the musical part of the show when some drums needing fixing. While the team worked on fixing the drums, Clarke casually chatted with the audience so comfortably, you would think it was scripted. As part of this off-script section, she shared an impression of Dame Kiri Te Kanawa with the audience, which was both incredibly funny (due to the background story she had told regarding some insects at an outdoor show) and incredibly tuneful.

Listening to Clarke talk, it’s easy to remember she is well-known as a comedian, and deservedly so, but the real magic happens when she sings. As she moves from opera to jazz, Te Kanawa to Nina Simone, not to mention a rendition of a Kate Bush song that left the audience in awe, her voice dances across the range of notes seemingly effortlessly.

During the show, Clarke talked about the songs being their way of paying tribute to the wāhine toa of music, and the song selection along with the beauty with which they were each performed, certainly achieved that, as well as reminding the audience that they were themselves, in the presence of three wāhine toa of Aotearoa New Zealand music.

Ilona Hanne is a Taranaki-based journalist and news director who covers breaking and community news from across the lower North Island. She has worked for NZME since 2011.