Queenie van de Zandt in BLUE: The Songs Of Joni Mitchell

Written by Queenie van de Zandt & Max Lambert

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Joni Mitchell's landmark album BLUE, renowned cabaret chanteuse Queenie van de Zandt, brings the Helpmann Award nominated BLUE: The Songs of Joni Mitchell around Australian in 2022. 

BLUE: The Songs of Joni Mitchell is not just a celebration of an iconic album, it's also a love letter from a fan to her (s)hero - a thank you card from one melancholy mother to another.

"For years I wanted to write a show based on Joni's music – but I could never quite work out how to do it, without it being just a tribute show, which felt too pedestrian for her artistry", explains Queenie. "And then in 2017, I gave birth to my daughter and was reminded of how Joni was forced to give her daughter up for adoption, the pain of which led her to create the BLUE album. And suddenly I found my way into writing this show, interweaving the mother, the music, and the melancholy that is Joni Mitchell".

Renaissance woman, painter and poet, Joni Mitchell created a soundtrack for baby-boomers in the Woodstock generation and then found a whole new younger audience who love her music through hearing it in films such as Love Actually.

Over the past 30+ years, Queenie van de Zandt has become one of the country's best musical theatre and cabaret performers, celebrated for her artful storytelling and soulful, emotive vocals, with 19 major award nominations, winning 6 times.

In BLUE: The Songs of Joni Mitchell, along with musical director Mark Jones and a live band, Queenie explores her love of all the things that make Joni such a unique and timeless artist. Affectionately reinterpreting Mitchell's music she reveals the intimate stories behind some of the Blue album's most haunting songs, such as A Case of You, River and Little Green as well as celebrating her greatest hits such as Big Yellow Taxi and Both Sides Now.

Presented by Neil Gooding Productions and Amazon Woman Enterprises, BLUE: The Songs of Joni Mitchell is as exquisite a biography as you're likely to hear, a beguiling night of melancholic songs, poetic storytelling, and haunting vocals, in a perfect, intimate setting.

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TO ENQUIRE ABOUT BOOKING
BLUE: The Songs of Joni Mitchell

PLEASE CONTACT
NEIL GOODING PRODUCTIONS
neil@goodingproductions.com

AWARDS

Best Cabaret Performance & Best Cabaret
Winner - 2018 Broadway World - Sydney Awards

Lee Young Glug Award for the Most Outstanding Cabaret Performance
Winner - 2018 Glug Awards - Sydney

Best Cabaret Production
Nominee - 2018 Sydney Theatre Awards

Best Cabaret Performer 

Nominee - 2018 Helpmann Awards 

REVIEWS

Van de Zandt and Lambert have crafted a gently melancholic, poetic show that can speak to anyone regardless of whether you know the material, but fans of Mitchell's music will find it particularly appealing.★★★★
- Jo Litson, Limelight

There are plenty of tribute cabarets, but Blue is set apart by the great skill with which van de Zandt and her co-writer and musical director Max Lambert have interwoven some of Mitchell's best-known music with stories from significant chapters of the singer's life. Van de Zandt narrates Mitchell's story as if she lived it herself, while voiceovers of significant "characters" from Mitchell's life offer slightly different perspectives on events as they unfold. ★★★★
- Ben Neutze, Daily Review

"...the exceptional, vocal powerhouse that is Queenie van de Zandt...uses her thrilling voice and soaring range to explore the music of Joni Mitchell..."

Kate Herbert, Herald Sun

"Queenie van de Zandt...summoned her muse to perfection, with awe-inspiring soul and emotion, in song."
Cameron Woodhead, Sydney Morning Herald

"a stunning evocative show...a highlight of the Queensland Cabaret Festival"
MustDoBrisbane.com

"The audience was enraptured and shouting for more... This is a wonderful celebration of Joni Mitchell and the emotional connections we form with music that is borne out of emotion. It deserves to be a huge success. ★★★★☆"
Scenestr.com.au

"...perfect for ardent fans of Joni and for the novice"
The Creative Issue

"Queenie van de Zandt performed as exquisite a biography as you're likely to hear. Near aural perfection... It's a well-written show... Queenie distilled Joni Mitchell's life, liaisons, and art, into a tincture of love and grace...extraordinary and emotional... Queenie does a magnificent job"
Australian Arts Review

"★★★★☆ A beguiling night of melancholic songs, poetic storytelling and haunting vocals...perfect intimate setting...incredible empathy and emotion...all beautifully sung with a lovely subtle restraint. Best of all are deeply felt, exquisitely performed renditions of Case of You and Both Sides Now....Lambert provides wonderfully sensitive accompaniment on the piano... In another stand­out moment van de Zandt sings For Free acapella. Van de Zandt and Lambert have crafted a gently melancholic, poetic show that can speak to anyone regardless of whether you know the material, but fans of Mitchell's music will find it particularly appealing."
Jo Litson, Limelight Magazine

Queenie van de Zandt