Alt-cabaret stars The Tiger Lillies head From the Circus to the Cemetery at New Theatre Royal, Portsmouth | Interview

Over the past three decades the ‘alternative cabaret’ trio have released a dizzying number of albums.

As bass player Adrian Stout puts it: ‘I think we're nearly up to 50 albums by now – we've definitely gone past 40 – but who’s counting?’

They are currently on a UK tour, From the Circus to the Cemetery, to mark the release of their first ‘best of’ album, The Worst of The Tiger Lillies.

​’It will probably end up being in multiple volumes, but we thought we'd start with the most popular and well-known song!’ says Adrian.

As well as ‘regular’ albums, the three-piece – completed by founder vocalist/accordion player Martyn Jacques and drummer Budi Butenop – have been involved in creating scores for numerous theatre shows, including Shockheaded Peter, which ended up with a West End run and a brace of Olivier Awards. It was the show which put them on the map.

‘When we were first approached to do it, we were playing pubs in Islington,’ recalls Adrian. ‘The producer of the show saw us and he was the one who suggested we get involved, once we started doing that we definitely started moving into bigger venues and theatres.

‘If you're doing 12 shows a week in the West End and playing in theatres all over the world, you certainly got expanded options. It really lifted us up and enabled us to keep going until, well, today!

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‘It's hard to get an audience when you're doing something slightly unusual, so putting it in the context of a theatre show made it much more accessible.’

They’ve since gone on to do shows based on works by Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe, Coleridge, Hans Christian Andersen, and HP Lovecraft among others.

‘Quite often when we do theatre shows they're based on some sort of literary source, and that's how we get into it. A director will say we're doing a show on this... and then we get stuck into it. Then Martin goes off and writes 30 or 40 songs!’

They’re hoping to revive their acclaimed Hamlet, but the original cast are rather busy these days. One of the actors show, Zlatko Burić, has recently been in Triangle of Sadness which won the Palm D'or at Cannes in 2022.

‘He's playing the Russian oligarch guy who gets drunk with Woody Harrelson. Hopefully his schedule might allow us to do the show again.

‘And the guy who plays Hamlet has just won the Danish version of Dancing With The Stars, so they're all quite well known and respected.

‘We've done that in China, Argentina, Chile, here, Denmark, Germany and a few Shakespeare festivals. The last time was out in Romania. People seem to really like the mix of the actors and the music – it's not so heavy on the text, it's more visual and musical.

‘But the scholars who've seen it have been quite positive – it's not trying to slavishly recreate a classical performance, it contrasts quite well with the more serious, academic stuff. But Shakespeare is supposed to be entertaining – people are supposed to enjoy seeing these stories told. We try to make it an entertaining telling of the story!

Given the speed of their output, it’s not surprising to hear that the plans for the tour are not what they once were.

‘It's changed a bit since we first conceived it – we thought it would be a greatest hits thing, we'd take something from all of the catalogue, play the songs people like which fans know, and then play some more obscure songs.

‘It's a stage concert with three people on stage changing between instruments – Martin, the singer plays accordion mostly, but also plays a bit of ukulele and a bit of piano. I mostly play double bass, but I also play the musical saw, the theremin, acoustic guitar, the drummer has various percussion objects too.

‘But then in the last couple of weeks we've just finished an album on Ukraine and the war. So Martin felt it was the right thing to do to introduce a few of those songs into the set, and it's important to talk about that.’

Indeed, the band are intending to play shows in the war-torn country this July.

‘We’re trying to make a compromise between the older songs people will know and some new songs which we think are good and on a subject which should be discussed.’

Even when dealing with something as horrific as the war, the songs are still laced with their trademark pitch-black humour.

‘You can't just be dark and bleak the whole time, there are elements of humour in it. The new album has songs about Putin, trying to spear the megalomania – there's one song called We'll Be So Happy When You Die, which is a singalong, so we get everyone involved!’

The Tiger Lillies play at The New Theatre Royal, Portsmouth on Friday, June 9. Tickets £26.50. Go to newtheatreroyal.com.