Pop Tart

What if we told you that all pop princesses are not the same? Sure, you might scoff at first; but then perhaps you have yet to meet the inimitable Lulu McClatchy and her vociferous and legendarily crude alter-ego, SuperGirly.

SuperGirly's shtick is part-satire, part-drag cabaret, part-pop wannabe. “All through the ages of pop music, there's been a 'new someone',” McClatchy begins. “Y'know, we had the Spice Girls and then we had Britney and now we have Miley. So there's always plenty of material. I mean, now there's Lorde and she's already made it into my show.”

Far from being a cynic looking simply to take the piss, McClatchy is a not-so-closet fan. “I don't think there's as much bubblegum-pop these days. Y'know, people are very critical if they're not good singers; and you can't mime anymore and they're writing their own songs now. They seem to have to have talent these days.”

SuperGirly therefore, is no mere mimic. She takes the songs and rewords them, often making them about the princess (or prince) in question. Of course, this does not prevent her from being rude, crude and viciously funny. Says McClatchy of her alter-ego, “SuperGirly is pretty different to me because most of the stuff that she would say and do I would never. I use the costume and the high heels as a mask to let me say all the things I would never say … She's basically a pathological liar and also very immature, so her cruelty is more out of jealousy than maliciousness. She wants to be a pop star and so she just pretends that she knows them all.”

Even though she predates social media by a decade, SuperGirly belongs to the celebrity-obsessed generation that hangs on the minutiae. “I think that's because of Twitter and Facebook and all that,” McClatchy argues. “People can follow their lives more closely and, y'know, sometimes they do reply and you might think, 'Ooh, they're my friend,' but really they're not.”

For McClatchy, Return Of The Pop Princess represents something of a reunion with her creation. Since returning from UK stardom to the relative quiet of motherhood in suburban Melbourne in 2003 she has appeared on screen in Neighbours and Bogan Pride and on stage in shows like Fat Pig. However, she is now ready to dust of SuperGirly frocks and tackle the world of pop tarts once more. “I've got a guy [Lyall Brooks] in it from a theatre background and he's co-directing, so there's a new set of eyes on it this time.” But rest assured, some things about SuperGirly will never change: “There will be plenty of crudeness, don't worry!”