BWW Reviews: BETWIXT, Trafalgar Studios 2, July 28 2011

I don't mind admitting it - there was a time when I just didn't like musical theatre because it was too silly, too light, too, well, childish. Of course, the older one gets, the more one cherishes the silly, the light and the, if not childish, then innocent fun to be had in an often all too serious world of responsibilities and disappointments. Thirty years on, I like musical theatre for all the same reasons that I disliked it as SERIOUS YOUNG MAN.

And musical theatre doesn't come much sillier nor lighter than Ian McFarlane's Betwixt (at Trafalgar Studios 2 until 20 August 2011) and it's all the better for it. The plot - such as it is - involves a New Yorker with writer's block, a very camp actor, a fading heartthrob, a pregnant princess living in a parallel world, a disembodied head, a wicked enchantress, some nympho nymphs and, and... well - you get the picture. Through all these shenanigans, one can discern the very understated message (and believe me, it's the only thing that's understated in this show) that cynicism cannot triumph over love and innocence - a kind of "All you need is Love" forty years on.

But back to the silliness - Benedict Salter (Bailey) provides an excellent foil for the antics of a sexy sassy sixty-something Ellen Greene as the evil Enchantress (with a nod towards Fenella Fielding in her vocal stylings and look), Peter Duncan (yes - that Peter Duncan) as the ageing Lothario, Ashleigh Gray as the love interest (think Madeline Kahn in Blazing Saddles) and a show-stealing Steven Webb, all acerbic asides, as the flamboyant actor slightly in love with Bailey, but mainly in love with himself. There's lots of singing and dancing that might not be as slick as you would find at a Bill Kenwright show, but it all adds to the fun and builds a lovely rapport between the audience and the cast in this compact space, ideal suited to broad comedy of this kind.

Ian McFarlane was just 22 when he debuted this show in 2008 and he has reworked some of it for this run, adding songs, but the writing is still a little ragged at The Edges, although really, who cares? The laughs keep coming, we root for the goodies and we hiss at the baddies and, come the end of this fairytale (partly) of New York, they all live happily ever after. In a week of news that varied from the gloomy to the horrific, it's exactly what I needed, and you might find that it does the power of good to you too!

 

 

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