THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF NINA SIMONE

2017 marks the sixty years after Nina Simone first recorded ‘My Baby Just Cares For Me’ during a mammoth 13-hour recording session at New York’s Bethlehem records, the acclaimed one-woman show ‘The Other Woman – The Life and Music of Nina Simone’.

Devised and performed by former Girl Overboard frontwoman Lisa Schouw, The Other Woman weaves together Simone’s best-loved songs and shines a new light on the legendary singer’s celebrated but troubled life.  Extraordinarily talented yet frustrated by a classical music scene unable to see past racial prejudice, Simone’s passion, grit and unsurpassed originality saw her become a legend in the eyes – and hearts – of jazz and blues audiences.

But success cost Simone dearly: abusive relationships, financial loss, tempestuous outbursts, fickle audiences and illness. 

Schouw, together with Musical Director Peter Bailey, lovingly unwraps the layers to reveal Simone’s finest and darkest hours.  They capture and offer a new take on Simone’s feisty spirit, vulnerable heart, and hypnotic stage presence.

Expect to hear classics such as My Baby Just Cares For Me, House of the Rising Sun, I Loves You Porgy and Four Women. And expect to come away from The Other Woman with knowing and feeling things about Simone that you may never have known or felt before.

Premiering at Bar Me’s Kabaret Voltaire, The Other Woman sold out performances at the 2004 Adelaide Cabaret Festival and the Sydney Opera House Studio in 2005.  Twelve years later, Schouw and Bailey revive this original and enchanting show in conjunction with the 60th anniversary of the first recording of My Baby Just Cares for Me.

High praise for The Other Woman and Lisa Schouw

“Fans of Nina Simone – and everyone else – should let Lisa Schouw put her spell on them.  The songs and stories are lovingly and seamlessly integrated, and, just as Simone herself will not soon be forgotten, nor will Schouw’s sumptuously-rich voice.” Sydney Morning Herald

“…the highly expressive range and style is not easy to carry off, but Schouw slips into the role effortlessly, adding dramatic interpretations of her own.” The Adelaide Advertiser

“In a voice like dark chocolate, she wrapped vulnerability around a core of steel, her performance culminating in the bitterness, resilience and tragedy of the title song” Sydney Morning Herald