REVIEW: Les Femmes - The West End Electric

Les Femmes

Venue: The West End Electric, Brisbane

Cast: Emma Mylott, Jacinta Gulisano, and Kirrah Amosa

Date attended: 27 September 2026

Photography: Leslie Liu Photography (select images)

Somewhere between Prince, Hall & Oates, Queen, Usher, the Bee Gees, AC/DC, and John Farnham, I began to suspect that the ladies of Les Femmes had somehow infiltrated my music library. By the time Disco Inferno (my all-time fave disco jam) turned up, I was sure of it!

Les Femmes flips the script by giving songs made famous by male artists to the dynamic trio of Emma Mylott, Jacinta Gulisano, and Kirrah Amosa. These powerhouse singers have soul in their voices, riffs for days, and zero plans to let the audience sit still through two acts. The songs weave through tales about the men in our lives: lovers, dads, best buddies, players, charmers, and those mythical “good guys”. It’s a mix of cabaret, concert, game night, and a playlist so well-curated it could win a Grammy for Best Compilation.

The pace is a huge part of the fun. Les Femmes rarely lets one song settle for long, instead chopping favourites into a live megamix where one groove slips into another before you’ve even finished getting excited about the first. It’s a musical buffet where Frankie Valli rubs shoulders with Al Green, the Bee Gees, Cy Grant, and a whole bunch more, while the evening kicks off with the epic SMASH version of That’s Life. I recognised it immediately, which made me far too pleased with myself. I love a musical lucky dip!

All three women are stars, and nobody gets permanently assigned to “backup singer while the diva has her spotlight moment”. Leads are constantly passed around. One voice takes the melody, the other two slide underneath it, and moments later they’ve switched places again. The harmonies are immaculate, but the trio never blends into one indistinguishable sound. Each singer brings her own colour, and the arrangements are clever enough to showcase that. For example, Emma takes charge of the a cappella ending of Queen’s Somebody to Love, which blew my mind. Across the night, individual lines keep opening into melismas, riffs, and bits of vocal showing-off. I support the showing-off. If you can sing like this, please do!

The dad section may be the most accurate musical representation of opening someone’s glovebox and discovering every CD their father has owned since approximately 1978. My Girl, American Pie, Your Song, and Piano Man, of course. You cannot build a dad playlist and escape Billy Joel. The women perch on stools while the songs bleed into each other, turning it into another jackpot of recognition without slowing the night down for a string of earnest ballads.

There are, however, plenty of men here who are very much not anybody’s father. The sexier R&B material wakes up a whole different part of my memory. Pony, Versace on the Floor, Sexual Healing, I’ll Make Love to You, and Usher’s Yeah! take me directly back to my clubbing days. The old-school soul and funk material suits these singers’ voices ridiculously well too. James Brown, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, and Stevie Wonder tumble through the mix, providing plenty of rhythmic bite and several opportunities for the trio to riff well beyond what is strictly necessary. Again: I support this behaviour.

And praise be, DISCO ARRIVES. September appears among playlist dedicated to the “good guys” out there. The Bee Gees receive plenty of attention, and eventually Disco Inferno enters the building. At this point, Les Femmes may as well have been built specifically to shut me up by giving me everything I want. Disco, funk, old-school R&B, retro pop, and a run through Australian classics including INXS, AC/DC, John Farnham, Daryl Braithwaite, and good old Eagle Rock.

Some of these songs I have never heard performed live outside of an occasional tribute act or my ex’s stupid cover band. The music could carry the evening by itself, but Mylott, Gulisano, and Amosa don’t spend two hours planted behind microphones looking reverently into the middle distance. I love the amount of choreography woven through the songs: synchronised movement, mic-stand work, and strutting to keep the performance visually active without turning every medley into a dance routine.

They also use The West End Electric venue beautifully. The venue’s smaller circular platform brings the singers right into the audience, which suits a cabaret this playful. Visually, the giant glowing circles and retro bulbs already make the room look halfway between a disco special and an old television variety show. The masculine chic costumes continue the joke: think dress shirts, suit pants bedazzled with sequins, strappy heels, and a halter top made from silk neckties. With all that tailoring, spunk, and their trio power, I’m getting some serious Josie and the Pussycats vibes.

The cabaret portions stop the barrage of songs from turning into one very long playlist. Men in the audience are interviewed and sorted into three categories: players, charmers, or good guys. The crowd gets to judge their answers, and stickers are handed out accordingly (which is now their permanent legal classification). Celebrity Tinder has everyone yelling opinions about famous men, while the guy-best-friend discussion produces MY beautifully blunt conclusion that yes, women can have a male best friend, provided he’s gay...

Because the trio keeps moving into the theatre rather than staying safely onstage, the audience interaction has some genuine unpredictability to it. Any man within microphone range suddenly looks slightly less comfortable than he did five minutes earlier. Excellent.

Abundance is basically the middle name of Les Femmes. The entire night zooms through decades like a musical rollercoaster. I walked away with three new girl crushes, a playlist of songs forcibly reinstalled in my brain, and an overwhelming desire to hit the clubs once more. If Charlie’s Angels ever want to start a cover band, I’ve already found their audition tape!

I’d absolutely recommend this one to anyone craving a night of favourites first made famous by men, then reworked, revved up, and sung within an inch of their lives by three seriously impressive divas. You will not be disappointed.