“Is this a dagger which I see before me?” There were a few who wished it was, when Kylie’s sister, the pop princess Dannii Minogue, took to the Fringe as Lady Macbeth.
The year was 1999, the venue the Botanical Gardens and the show Theatrum Botanicum’s Journey to Macbeth. This wasn’t quite Shakespeare as Shakespeare wrote it, but a kitsch musical version in which Duncan became a 1970s Mafia boss, more Al Pacino than Al Capone, and his kingdom was populated by scores of girning extras who looked as though they’d just robbed a fancy dress shop.
Clothes played a large part in the marketing around this show. The nearest thing Minogue had to a co-star was her dress, a bottle green, PVC-bodiced number designed by the model Jodie Kidd. You would have thought from the awed tones in which this item was discussed that Edinburgh had never seen PVC before.
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It got better notices than she did. “Dannii can’t help her squeaky voice or her one grim facial expression. Assets include a tiny waist and reasonable legs dutifully exposed ... But let’s get real. This is a demanding tragic role, not an image-enhancing opportunity,” the Daily Mail miaowed.
“The problem,” said Scotland on Sunday, “is that, whether grabbing Macbeth’s crotch or eating an apple, the effect is more comic than erotic, a teen magazine idea of a woman’s wiles.” So no West End transfer then? For The Independent’s critic, the wound was still raw three years later. Lamenting how many “stinkers” you have to sit through to find a good show, she declared: “Dannii Minogue in Macbeth has to be my personal low.” The rumour is that next year Judi Dench will headline T in the Park with a set of pre-teen pop standards. Now that I’d like to see.