Kings Head Theatre Pub 8 March – 2 April. Reviewed by Claire Roderick
Oh dear.
There are some good thing in this show, but they are scattered about between long periods of indescribable nonsense. I really wanted to like it, but found myself just waiting for the whole mess to end. And then, the last 20 minutes were great!
With book and lyrics by John Myatt, music by Simon Arrowsmith, and directed by Dan Phillips, the plot (if you can call it that) involves Vee and Della rehearsing for their show when they are interrupted by bar owner Dan and barboy Jay. A chair has been delivered from Dan’s ex and he goes into meltdown and, after lots of histrionics and faffing about, ends up strangling Jay. THAT’S where the show comes to life. Jay’s corpse stands up and begins a wonderfully bitter and twisted cabaret act as we are all now inside Dan’s head for the vital 8 seconds between Jay’s life and death. The songs now all have coherence and the interaction between the cast and the audience is brilliant. Why oh why couldn’t they have killed Jay in the first five minutes?
Yes, there were some funny lines and decent physical comedy –especially from Valerie Cutko as Vee, prowling around the stage like the lovechild of Patsy from Ab Fab and Jack Skellington. The cast all have great voices, and Daisy Amphlett (also musical director) truly shines in her multi instrumental duel with Jay (Daniel Cech-Lucas). Ralph Bogard is wasted as Dan – just wandering around with weepy eyes in a vile purple paisley dressing gown until the last section, where he gets to let rip and strut his fantastic stuff.
There is a germ of a good idea here, but as it is, this show was not for me.