The Other Palace – until 5th January 2019
Reviewed by Claire Roderick
3***
Patrick Barlow’s The Messiah is over 30 years old and is starting to feel a little creaky. There are moments of hilarity, but sadly they can’t make up for the hit and miss (mostly miss) material. Cut the show by at least half an hour and it could be wonderful, but in its current state it’s flat rather than festive.
Hugh Dennis plays Maurice Rose, founder of his own acting company, and John Marquez plays Ronald Bream, the other company member. Maurice is the old comedy staple of a pompous man with an inflated ego but very little skill or talent. His play and his attitude towards it are reminiscent of Ernie Wise and his “plays what I wrote”, and Barlow has slipped in lots of bad grammar just like Ernie’s. Rose is as bad an organiser as Captain Mainwaring, and acts like a petty tyrant when the audience doesn’t behave. Barlow has added a voyage of self-discovery for the character, who appears to have jumped into every self-help fad available rather than actually face his shortcomings. This is the main problem with the play – Rose’s po-faced conviction and Barlow’s determination to show that the play doesn’t mock the Nativity, or the men performing it, mean that there is a lot of cringe-worthy filler in between the jokes. If you can remember Frank Spencer’s Nativity efforts, then Raymond will seem very familiar – an accident-prone man-child with whimsical speech patterns.
The jokes are a mixed bunch. There’s a huge reliance on John Marquez’s physical comedy chutzpah, and the mis-pronunciations and spoonerisms wear a bit thin. But amongst the polite tittering are a few laugh out loud moments that spark the show back to life. The birth of Jesus, complete with midwife is a hoot, and the pantomime of the 3 kings trying to navigate their imaginary camels around the spinning stage is superbly silly.
Lesley Garret plays Mrs Fflyte, the guest soprano roped in to sing during the show. This, again, is hit and miss, with a fantastic dance and backing singing from the two men being a highlight, but most of the time, the actors and audience are watching her and waiting for her to finish. Which is a shame as her voice is still amazing.
There are moments that almost hit the heights of Eric and Ernie and Pete and Dud, but sadly not enough. The Messiah just doesn’t seem to know exactly what it’s aiming to be. Worth a look to see the stars hit a few moments of comedy gold.