Your Sunday afternoon zen: Elise McCann sings “I Can’t Make You Love Me”

A Sunday afternoon in late winter really calls for a torch song, so don’t worry: today I have got you covered. If you don’t already know this performer: meet Elise McCann.

She’s playing Miss Honey in Matida the Musical, which is currently in previews, and opens this Thursday at Sydney’s Lyric Theatre.

You might have spotted her in these shows: Mamma Mia, South Pacific and Doctor Zhivago. If you’re in Melbourne, you’ll remember her from Victorian Opera’s Into the Woods; if you’re in Sydney, perhaps you’ll remember Falsettos at the Eternity Playhouse.

Elise recently toured her one-woman show Everybody Loves Lucy on the cabaret circuit. A loving tribute to Lucille Ball, pioneer of the modern sitcom and women in television, the show was a slapstick, bittersweet delight.

Reviewing the show last year, I said “McCann has excellent timing, comic and otherwise, but here it’s the comic timing that’s most impressive. She seems to have a sense of space in her body; her carefully-flung arms and expressive face are studied and expert, but feel spontaneous; to generate a perfectly controlled silliness is difficult, and McCann does it with ease.”

But she also has tremendous warmth as a performer, something we’re sure to see a lot of as she plays the kind Miss Honey – but which you can also see in the video below, from Light the Night 2012.

Happy Sunday.