The musical ‘Malle Babbe’ about the life of Rob de Nijs will not be sweet anywhere

“You spent a lifetime together,” the character Rob de Nijs will hear in Malle Babbe, The musical that is about him. The career of the interpreter of hits as Banger Hart and Sunday Kent ups and downs, but this criticism mainly refers to his turbulent love life. De Nijs shared the bed with countless women, the performance says, married someone out of pity, dived between the sheets with his copywriter.

In the new production, written by Dick van den Heuvel (The Hospita, Tina, was signed Annie MG Schmidt), De Nijs’s current wife wants to get to know his past. The old singer is in a wheelchair and can do little more. Wife Jet wants to experience his young years, the success, the highlights, but she also appears to be curious about those other women, her predecessors, and wants to find out if she is the Nijs’ great love.

Romance

In the musical, the life of the 82-year-old singer, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease and has not occurred for a few years, is designed as an eccentric circus act, complete with a speaking master (a nice Bart van Veldhoven) who through the audience through The scenes guides. Within the yellow-red tent cloth everything is possible: the Nijs just gets out of his wheelchair, travels back through time, all the way to his youth and the start of his career, past musical successes and wild nights. Two characters from his hits, Silly babbe and Sister Ursula (Great roles by Sanne Franssen and Renée de Gruijl) play the women in his life.

René van Kooten plays De Nijs as a charming-ambitious man; Rather a romantic goodbag than the slanting marching out of the hills text. In the scenes with partner Jet (Lottie Hellingman) the fire splashes. Vocal they form a top duo: there are beautiful duets and convincing solos. Opponent Hellingman also stands her ground. As Jet, she supports her person in need of help, but she also chooses her own path. On stage is the bond between the singer and his wife Romantiek in his purest form. The chemistry between the two actors is particularly convincing.

Silly babbe Turns out to be a story about the different forms that love can take: from care to lust, and everything in between. Silly babbe Get control of Carline Brouwer, nowhere sweet. Between the moments of the past there are always the circus scenes with acrobats, a knife throw act and even an elephant, which is simply stamped from the real life of the Nijs.

The circuss setting is a find that also holds in terms of content, because it results from the career of De Nijs: he performed at Circus Boltini in the sixties. Sometimes the colorful entertainment distracts from the further story, but it gives the scenes a pleasant, imaginative dimension. With his brutal interventions, the speaking master keeps the canal in it and he brings humor between relational tensions and struggles.

Fresh music

Is musical Silly babbe A hit. The Nijs songs are intertwined by the story: they draw the history or determine the atmosphere in love scenes. There are beautiful edits of hits (with arrangements by composer Jeroen Sleyfer), such as a nice up -tempo version of The rhythm of the rain, In which, among other things, the sound of tap dance was braided by the original parties. The musicians, who are sitting in a stands around the playing field, play a crucial role in the show. They step in scenes and always play fresh and pointed, so that even destroyed hits sound fresh.

In Silly babbe happens a lot in every scene, sometimes perhaps too much, but in general the mix of theatrical and autobiographical elements works well. The musical is an ode full of fantasy, perhaps most of love in all its facets.

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