Who the hell are you?

How does it feel to be the lead character in the world's most successful sitcom, yet have no-one recognise you in the street?

That's the dilemma Nancy Cartwright explores in her one-woman show, "My Life As A Ten-Year-Old Boy."

Nancy is the voice of Bart Simpson (and Ralph Wiggum, and Nelson, and Chucky from the Rugrats), and its massive fun to hear her break into character, as she does throughout her act.

Trouble is, on the evidence of the opening night, Nancy is only as good as the material she's given - and her show desperately needs the attention of The Simpsons' crack team of writers.

She relies heavily on crowd-pleasing script recitals, and seems more interested in self-promotion than giving an insight into her peculiar talents.

By far the most telling moment comes when she reveals, with a generous helping of jealousy, that Hank Azaria joins most Simpsons readthroughs by speakerphone because he's "off in Italy, or Paris, or Broadway in Spamalot getting 11 Tony nominations." Ouch.

But it was a pleasant surprise to find that Cartwright was one of the voices behind Animaniacs - Warner Brothers brilliant, but largely unloved, TV series of the mid-90s (do a Google search and you might find ten or so woeful sites from the dawn of the internet).

Indeed, Cartwright's character Mindy still shuts down the Discopop PC every night as she squeaks "OK, I love you - Byebye!"

Bless.

NancyCartwright.com

Riverside Studios

Daws Butler (Nancy's mentor and the voice of Hukleberry Hound)

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