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‘WOW’ A Magical Variety Experience
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
Produced by Paul Stone
Sunday 24th September 2006
Reveiwed by Kevin Gallagher
Just
sitting in the likes of the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane in itself creates the
ambiance of an old time variety show before the curtain is even raised.
After the opening overture of the ‘Ian Mac Big Band’ and the ‘Sophistication
Dancers’ performing a Moulin Rouge type set, Charlie Frye & Co. was introduced.
Like most of the acts, Charlie is in great demand and it is easy to see why. He
romped through a highly energetic and entertaining juggling act with some
excellent sight gags and comic sequences and got the theatre buzzing after an
excellent start.
Pilou, who recently won the Grande Prix at FISM was next with a street urchin
character manipulative act featuring predominantly cards, and apples (balls). It
was a tough spot for him, being much lower energy than the previous act, which
he suffered slightly for but it was a very enjoyable performance.
Mac King was exactly the Mac as known showing in the most demonstrable way that
you can have an audience eating out of your hand with the simplest of card and
rope tricks. He recovered (as always!) from a number of spectator mishaps and
finished with his hallmark vanishing head in a paper bag and left to much
laughter and applause.
‘Soul Mystique’ are a quick change act from Australia and will never be able to
escape comparison to David and Dania who have stamped their mark so firmly.
Nonetheless, it is an excellent act featuring much Latin American style music
and dance with some stunning costume changes. The final costume change was once
again, pure David and Dania but in the ‘real World’ where this comparison would
never arise, I have no doubts that they will enjoy enormous success.
Paul Zerdin, who used to have a very high profile in the UK as a ventriloquist
was next with an entertaining dummy act followed by his use of a member of the
audience as a ‘living dummy’. He finished by leaving his dummy alone in a
diminished spot-light where it unexpectedly came to life being somehow
controlled remotely. This was a great spot that added to the variety.
To close the first half, ‘The Overtures’, played through a medley of 60s music.
The fact that they were selected to play at Elton John’s wedding speaks volumes
about their musical ability and all five members had the chance to show their
individual skills.
After another set from the band, ‘String Fever’ were a string quartet with a
difference. In six minutes or so, they gave us the ‘brief history of music’
giving a quick enthusiastic taste of music through the ages, much of which was
never intended for a string quartet (and indeed, beyond the range of it) but it
was very well received.
Another return of the ‘Sophistication Dancers’ with a ‘Can Can’ type sequence
led to the introduction of Jeff Hobson. Jeff did his ‘card-in-mouth’ and ‘egg
bag’ as known and it was as phenomenal as ever.
James Dimmare was next up with his doves (and budgie) and canes act. This
classical magic act fited perfectly into the bill showing yet another facet of
magic at its best.
Wolfgang has a unique acrobatic act where he gyrates around inside an eight foot
diameter circular frame and comes straight from Cirque Du Soleil. I have seen
this before in a large open space but I was interested to see how he would
perform on a relatively small raked stage which dropped into an orchestra pit.
Though slightly compromised by these confines, he did his great original act,
once again adding to the fantastic variety.
Next to the stage was Derren Brown who started with his ‘which hand is the coin
in’ (except that it was a banknote). This played well but is a little difficult
to watch with conviction as a magician. He closed with ‘magic square’ which
suffered slightly from an error resulting in his psychic persona suddenly quite
clearly doing lots of arithmetic as he altered the numbers around.
Wally Eastwood was another juggler spinning clubs at the most phenomenal rate,
juggling hats and finally, performing his hallmark ‘playing a keyboard on the
floor be juggling balls on it’. For me personally, he quite rightly closed with
his combination of extraordinary skill and strong endearment.
Before being re-intoduced to the entire cast, Janina Sweetenham dressed in
Britannic costume sang ‘Land of hope and glory’ offering everyone the chance to
wave their Union Jacks (supplied together with a high quality programme) and
join in.
All in all, a superb night out. It was more than a six hour return journey for
me to get to see it but I would do it again without a thought. Wow!!
© Kevin Gallagher, September 2006.