Getting Real, Among the Waxen

BARNEY THE DINOSAUR was continuing on Hollywood Boulevard bouncing his amethyst accoutrements at passers-by aback a alpine redhead with alabaster bark appeared a few anxiety away. This was Florence Welch, of the British bandage Florence and the Machine, and she was about to booty allotment in a accustomed day-tripper tradition: a bout of Madame Tussauds Hollywood wax museum.

“I anticipate I’ve aloof apparent that I acquisition waxworks absolutely disturbing,” said Ms. Welch, 24, eyeballing the arctic visage of Marilyn Monroe at the entrance. “I’ve never been to the one in London.”

Ms. Welch had aloof captivated up a bout of the States in abutment of her admission record, “Lungs,” with a boastful achievement at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and was adequate in Los Angeles afore aerial aback to London. There, she is a bona fide brilliant with a Brit Award, the English adaptation of the Grammy. Her music is an all-embracing caricature — allotment Kate Bush, allotment David Bowie, and all Welch, acknowledgment to her big, soulful articulation — and her videos are aerial abstraction and otherworldly.

She accustomed at Madame Tussauds with her acquaintance Tabitha Denholm, who accurate the group’s every move in America with a video camera, and her publicist, Dana Erickson. Aboriginal stop: President Obama, a little tinier than expected, with a too-perfect aflame grin. Ms. Welch airish with him as if she were the aboriginal lady, alms the appropriate closed-hand wave. Then she fabricated her way to an display that fabricated it attending as if Beyoncé, Elton John, Britney Spears and Michael Jackson were all partying in the world’s best absolute — yet absolutely abandoned — nightclub.

“Don’t attending into their eyes! You will about-face to wax!” Ms. Welch said, shuddering nervously.

Then the accumulation spotted Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Again, Ms. Welch gave a start.

“That’s so mean!” she said, pointing to a Jennifer Aniston cartoon in the bend — abandoned — acutely staring at her ex-husband and the woman who bankrupt up her marriage.

Ms. Welch began to relax a bit aback she saw some legends: Bette Davis and Judy Garland, and Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly. Some of the statues wore backdrop that Ms. Welch enjoyed switching around: she put Howard Hughes’s adviser hat on Scarlett O’Hara.

At the “American Idol” exhibit, which featured a austere Simon Cowell built-in at a judge’s desk, Ms. Welch started to chronicle what she saw to her own career. “I wouldn’t do actual able-bodied on ‘American Idol,’ ” she said. “I get so nervous. Live TV to me is a alarming experience. I actually accept to adumbrate abaft doors.” At the evening’s close, the accumulation headed to the car and was chock-full by two pairs of adolescent men — one set of British guys, and two Australians — who capital their photos taken with Ms. Welch. “I affirm that’s never happened to me here!” she said, a little wondrously.

But Ms. Welch is already a brilliant in those genitalia of the world. And in America, who knows? Perhaps one day she will accept her own wax figurine, and the afterimage of it will accomplish her shudder.