Arts Theatre, London – booking until 29 September 2024
Reviewed by Claire Roderick
5*****
The Choir of Man continues its joyous run in the West End as an exciting new cast takes over the barstools, ensuring the fun isn’t stopping any time soon.
With a functioning bar on stage to serve preshow beers (and some during the performance if you are lucky), The Arts Theatre is the perfect venue to turn into The Jungle pub, with its wonky, sometimes sticky, flooring and ancient seats always giving charming giant pub theatre vibes. The concept is simple – 9 men singing in a pub with monologues in between each musical number. But the song choices (from Adele and Sia to Queen via the Red Hot Chili Peppers) and Ben Norris’s writing gives the show a huge heart. Perfectly capturing the camaraderie, earned trust, honesty and occasional idiocy of a group of male friends, the show touches on loss, relationships, men’s mental health and community with Sam Ebenezer’s poet linking songs and introducing the pub’s regulars with heartfelt and funny words. Celebrating the community and shelter of pubs and mourning the loss of those amazing places where 90-year-olds and teenagers mix and share shaggy dog stories with a bar food menu that runs to peanuts and crisps, the audience cannot help but be caught up in the sense of belonging and togetherness emanating from the stage.
The cast all play instruments throughout the show, accompanying the amazing band above the bar – Jacob Evans, Jack Hartigan, Darius Luke Thompson and Sam Tookey. Everyone onstage is introduced as stereotypes: the Beast, the Bore, the Handyman, but each has a musical number to shine and let their character break through. The section about what home means to different people gives Ebenezer a chance to introduce each cast member by name and share a little something about their lives and manages to be melancholy and uplifting at the same time. Jack Blume’s musical arrangements are phenomenal, and Freddie Huddleston’s choreography is still seamless. The cast’s voices are all gorgeous, and blend beautifully. Welsh wonder Sam Ebenezer takes over as Poet after a fantastic run as swing, while Adam Bayjou (the Hard Man), Michele Maria Benvenuto (Maestro), Ben Goffe (Handyman), Luke Conner Hall (Romantic) and Mark Irwin (Barman) continue to amaze in roles that they have made their own. Olugbenga Adelekan (Bore), Rob Godfrey (Beast) and Sam Pope (Joker) join the cast and are the perfect fit, clowning around as if they have been in the roles for years. The Choir of Man family has strength in depth, and the company swings are incredibly talented. On gala night, Seán Keany played the Hardman brilliantly (he also impressed as a hilarious Poet a few weeks ago), and if you ever get the chance to see Niall Woodson, Richard Lock and Alex James Ellison, you are in for a treat. Whoever is performing, the camaraderie and joy that fills the auditorium makes for an unforgettable show.