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Zipp!
by Lizzie Loveridge
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If you don't like any particular musical, don't worry. Another will be along in a minute.
-- Gyles Brandreth |
Gyles Brandreth, J C Johnson, Amanda Symons and Andrew C Wadsworth (Photo: Sheila Burnett)
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Fresh from where it was voted the most popular show by audiences at the 2002 Edinburgh Festival, comes Zipp! "Jack of all Trades" and ex-Conservative Member of Parliament, Gyles Brandreth's compressed compilation of the musical equivalent of one liners from famous and not so famous musicals. When I was a child, they used to sing medleys on television, maybe half a dozen songs run together, segueing seamlessly one into another. What Brandreth has compiled here is an extension of that idea in a claim to cover 100 musicals in 90 minutes, including the complete works of Andrew Lloyd Webber in sixty seconds.
I enjoyed Zipp! as a light piece of frothy entertainment, plenty of corny jokes and self deprecating humour to speed along the evening. The opening which covers sixteen opening numbers in two minutes gives you the flavour, a switch from the prison worksong opening of Les Misérables to "Hey Ho, Hey Ho It's Off To Work We Go" from Snow White to the openings of Cabaret and Man of La Mancha. The ground rules are no films, only staged musicals allowed. Apparently there has been a staged version of Snow White.
There are theatrical in jokes for the cognoscenti and not so cognoscenti, "Due to the continued indisposition of Miss Martine McCutcheon . . . ", the notoriously flaky star of Trevor Nunn's My Fair Lady, and Brandreth introduces his own leading lady, C J Johnson. The humour is of the ilk of the Cambridge Footlights revues of the 1960s which started the careers of among others, Dudley Moore, Peter Cook, John Cleese and Alan Bennett. I liked the invitation for our mobile (cell) phones to go off during the performance to give the performers a welcome break! Lionel Bart's Oliver! is given a reworking as being by Bart Simpson. "I Remember It Well" from Gigi is reinvented as a love song between two gay men.
While Brandreth describes his own singing voice as a cross between that of Rex Harrison and Kermit the Frog, he is thankfully supported by four very fine singers. Andrew C Wadsworth is a past winner of the Olivier award for Best Actor in a Musical for Petruchio/Fred in Kiss Me Kate and I would have loved to hear more of his splendid voice. CJ Johnson, a relatively new graduate, brims with confidence, fine voice and sex appeal while Amanda Symons belts out the red hot Momma numbers. Stuart Barr plays the piano and also takes centre stage for a few notes.
The major part of the evening has an electronic news ticker giving the year and the title of the musical the song is from, but slightly delayed so that quiz buffs have time to guess first. The props are cheap, cut out von Trapp children to bulk out snatches from The Sound of Music, a split costume for Brandreth to double as Mame and Hello Dolly, and an Eastern type shrine with candles and flowers to the Guru (and owner of the Duchess Theatre) Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Zipp! is ideal for those of a short attention span, low brow musical taste and reduced expectations of a theatrical night out in London. Zipp! is not something you can get your teeth into but a frivolity. I'm not suggesting that you should part with hard earned cash to see Zipp!, but if you are given a ticket or a discount, "Go!" Oh, and a word of warning, Gyles Brandreth in a gold posing pouch as Frank'nFurter from The Rocky Horror Picture Show is as terrifyingly repulsive as anything you could hope to see on the London stage.
| Zipp!
Written and devised by Gyles Brandeth Directed by Carol Todd With: Gyles Brandreth, J C Johnson, Amanda Symons, Andrew C Wadsworth and Stuart Barr Designer: Simon Scullion Lighting Designer: Douglas Kuhrt Musical Direction: Stuart Barr Sound: Ian Horrocks-Taylor Running time: Ninety minutes with no interval Box Office: 0870 890 1103 Booking to 26th July 2003 Website: www.zipptherevue.co.uk Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge based on 5th February 2003 Performance at the Duchess Theatre, Catherine Street London WC2 (Tube Station: Charing Cross/Covent Garden) |
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6, 500 Comparative Phrases including 800 Shakespearean Metaphors by CurtainUp's editor.
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