[Title of show], is a lovely follow-your-dream story, with a lewd, crude script, an American accent and big sprinkling (unsurprisingly) of gay. Good mix in my books, although the name [title of show] is truly terrible (had to get that off my chest).
The confusing and perhaps brilliant thing about this musical, is that it is its own narrative. Hunter Bell and Jeff Bowen essentially wrote a diarised version of them trying to write a musical, and hey presto- we have [title of show]’s script. When I originally heard this, my thoughts were that this just sounds like lazy unimaginative writing. I was wrong. The script is rather good actually, and the songs are awesome. I mean seriously, a musical that has songs like “die vampire die” and “monkeys and playbills”, word mash ups the likes of ‘procrasterbation’ and enough ‘f-bombs’ to rival a rap song is always going to be a favourite isn’t it? The writers of this little gem should be crowned comedy genius- I want to invite these guys to a dinner party for puns galore. Some of the shows puns probably a bit rude to be written down by me, but I think you get the gist.
The props and layout are so basic that at first you wonder how this is going to work, but in seamless sitcom-scenes style, this musical tells a heart-warming story with the script even making fun of itself, the low maintenance stage setting and its minimal cast. This show is different to the “classics” of musical theatre that’s for sure. With no glitzy outfits, or lighting, [Title of show] is musical with a cast of four characters, two boys, two girls. That, and with its UK premiere playing at a small above-pub theatre, if it hadn’t worked it could have been really awkward. However it did work, and with a room full of receptive audience, I think it’s fair to say that the cast committed and performed brilliantly. This is typically when I say which of the actors I thought was particularly excellent, but in honesty these guys were all marvellous. The bonds in the cast were so strong, half the time I felt I was watching the real Jeff, Hunter & co in action.
So as you see, I liked it. Even if a musical’s not your thing- the high levels of smut and humour will be. Although what you are doing at a small independent theatre in Clapham watching a musical, if you don’t like them, I don’t know. The Landor Theatre is intimate to say the least, but with this being my first visit, I was impressed with both the venue and the pub the downstairs. Everyone rates a decent pub.
