BWW Reviews: RAINER HERSCH'S VICTOR BORGE, Jermyn Street Theatre, March 8 2012

Prompted by reviews that compared his act to Victor Borge’s, Rainer Hersch did the google thing and became fascinated by the musician-comedian. Eleven years on from discovering the Dane, Hersch “becomes” Borge in this respectful and funny tribute. One slightly fears for where Mr Hersch might be come 2023!

To anyone under the age of fifty, Victor Borge might just lurk in the memory as an elderly gent who would occasionally turn up on the Royal Variety Performance or Parkinson and tell laconic stories at the piano, interspersed with some set-piece comedy routines and snatches of classical music (sometimes played “upside-down”). But that act – hugely successful as it was – hid the extraordinary backstory of the man born Børge Rosenbaum, who fled the Nazi occupation of Denmark just in time to pitch in New York with $17 in his pocket and not a word of English. That was August 1940. Having learned English by watching movies all day on 42^nd Street parroting Humphrey Bogart and Clark Gable, he caught a lucky break, showed a bit of chutzpah and found himself on the wireless. Incredibly, he was Best New Radio Performer of the Year 1942 and on his way to renown as the highest paid entertainer in the world.

Hersch tells us of Borge’s life, sometimes adopting the accent and mannerism of the man, sometimes through recreating his comic routines (“Phonetic punctuation” and “Inflationary language” are pulled off with aplomb) and sometimes by narrating what was happening to Borge at key moments. There’s room too for some lovely work at the piano and a few gags of Hersch’s own, before we’re sent off into the night with a Subterranean Homesick Blues-style set of lyrics cards for an Italian aria, cards unlikely to find favour at La Scala .

If this all sounds a bit messy, it’s because it is a bit messy, but Hersch’s charm and the strength of his subject carries the day. The show was over all too quickly for me – I wanted more about Borge, more comic set-pieces, more music and more stand-up. But, as an old cabaret hand like Borge knew, if you can leave ‘em wanting more, they’re gonna come back. I look forward to seeing what Hersch does next to follow poignant, witty, entertaining show.               

Rainer Hersch’s Victor Borge continues at the Jermyn Street Theatre until 31 March.