BETWIXT! is mindless fun

THEATRE: Trafalgar Studios, London

DATE: 26-08-2011

TIME: 19:45

WITH: Benedict Salter, Steven Webb, Lizzie Roper, Ashleigh Gray, Rob Wilshaw, Will Hawksworth, Peter Duncan, Alyssa Nicol, Kelly Chinery

DITRECTOR: Ian McFarlane

“Betwixt!” is really the Ian McFarlane show. The man wrote the book, music, lyrics, and directed this musical, which was a hit on the fringe a couple of years ago. Even though the story has a convoluted plot and the score is rather unremarkable, the show itself is infectiously silly. The inventive staging in a tiny space and a sensational cast ensure that one is constantly entertained.

The story starts in New York and centres on Bailey (Benedict Salter), an author with writer’s block, and his new, very out there roommate Cooper (Steven Webb). Soon this ‘odd couple’ enters a a parallel fairytale universe, through a Narnia-like door, and go on an absurd Oz-like adventure to get back home. The journey of course solidifies the duo’s friendship and Bailey finds love along the way in the form of a woman’s head encased in a box (which has written ‘what happens in Narnia stays in Narnia’ on it). The woman, sensationally played by Ashleigh Gray, talks in a thick Bavarian accent and their ‘mating dance’ is silly beyond believe.

 Steven Webb, Benedict Salter & Ashleigh Gray

The actors are so close to the audience that at times it seems they will fall into the laps of the first row audience. Benedict Salter makes for a wonderfully geeky leading man and is wittily described in the piece as a ‘skinny ginger with a pencil’. If only his singing was a bit more assured. Steven Webb (The History Boys) as the gay Cooper has no singing problems or any other for that matter. He is the comic life of the party, talks at breakneck speed, and even has a hilarious ‘Roxie Hart’ (Chicago) moment. Equally game is Lizzie Roper, who took over from Ellen Greene (Little Shop of Horrors) when the show was extended, and has fun with a trio a nasty fairy tale characters. Indicative of the humor of the show is when Roper is asked why she talks ‘with a bad American accent’ and she replies in deadpan manner: ‘Maybe I was written that way’.

 Steven Webb as Cooper

The ensemble, which includes Rob Wilshaw, Will Hawksworth (also a great mute girl), Alyssa Nicol and Kelly Chinery, is pretty terrific and represent an infinite chorus line in various guises. It is also surprising that they are able to perform Grace Harrington’s choreography as well as they do in such a tiny space.

McFarlane has fun with referencing time travel movies like Back to the Future and The Terminator and other pop culture references like Ally McBeal and Barbra Streisand in Yentl. If only his songs were of that witty level. Still, I was send into the night with a big smile on my face. Betwixt! is mindless entertainment that reminded me of Judy Garland singing ‘forget your troubles come on get happy’.

 

 Ellen Greene & Benedict Salter