I'm a big fan of the Above the Stag Theatre, the UK's only venue dedicated to in-house productions of plays and musicals aimed at the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. It regularly premiers fascinating, provocative and skillful drama for this demographic from around the world, I've written and directed there myself, hope to again and you may recall my recent enthusiasm for their production that explored homophobia in Iran.The venue is the rather brilliant brain child of artistic director Peter Bull who finances all the arty stuff, not through public funding but by also regularly programming crowd pleasing, homoerotic comedy.
On the eve of this year’s Gay Pride, true to form, the venue launched their "summer panto" as Bull describes it. He certainly knows his audience and the show's so popular at the box office that it's now extended its run.
This is not a particularly demanding clientèle, it didn't matter to them that the sound system was so wonky the performers couldn't be heard during most of the songs and that what we could hear was often painfully out of tune, presumably because the cast had insufficient fold back (the means by which singers hear what the audience do) So if it didn't bother the venues regular audience who still bayed in delight like seals thrown fish, at every innuendo, let's not allow it to bother us.
In fact they get two shows bolted, Frankenstein like, together.
Firstly there's a gentle comedy about an odd ball group of amateur strippers based on the tried and tested formula of hits like THE FULL MONTY and STEPPING OUT. As you'd expect we meet a bimbo pretty boy, a closeted professional and a pro stripper but amongst the more formulaic writing there's a really interesting relationship between an idealistic Eastern European immigrant and the victim of a suffocating relationship, a strand which would make a great show in its own right and which is serviced by GET 'EM OFF's only attempt at a sophisticated musical theatre number with psychological motivation, in which, cleverly, a young man despairs of finding real love by listing every phoney cliché you've ever heard in the lyrics of a ballade.
Secondly there's the other numbers, which are plot stoppers rather than show stoppers, mostly about the delights of stripping. You could lift them out and make a pretty serviceable comedy review show without any detrimental effect on the play.
The play and cabaret elements combined make for a long sweaty evening finally climaxing in the brief moment of full frontal nudity the audience were howling for. They roared their approval.
The production is blessed with a set by the venue's ever ingenious designer David Shields and the cast are all adorable in stock character roles led by Dereck Walker as their manager who, once he stopped tunelessly screaming his head off in a brave but doomed attempt to make up for the deficient sound system, was a lot of fun; especially in a drag persona based on national TV sitcom treasure, Su Pollard. She's a regular at the venue so I'm sure she'll have a great time along with the rest of the high spirited audience, enjoying this rough and ready fun show.
How do you assign a star rating to a production that achieves four star audience appreciation with two star artistry? Let's meet in the middle and call it a big three star hit!
What do you get when you combine six insanely talented singers with a world class beatboxer? Gobsmacked! This show marks the future of a capella and opens it up to a whole new audience.