Stage: This is the greatest show

Ball & Boe
For Fourteen Nights Only
director Tom Parry
with Adam Riches, John Kearns
Soho Theatre, London • 10.Dec.24-4.Jan.25 ★★★★

Pretty much the perfect fringe show, this pastiche comedy has a freewheeling sense of carefully controlled chaos that is thoroughly winning, largely because it's also hilarious. Adam Riches and John Kearns are veteran comics, and yet here they are playing Michael Ball and Alfie Boe, as if they are rehearsing for their next big tour together. In between a number of big-energy songs, they play games with each other and the audience, read fan mail and clash egos. And one of them loathes Michael Bublé. 

Strictly speaking, Riches and Kearns are not singers, which is a large part of the joke, but they're not deliberately bad either, making up for any lack of talent with sheer gusto. They also don't really bother to do impersonations, and the show doesn't hinge on having prior knowledge about Ball and Boe. While fans will no doubt catch more references, the patter offers the context needed to make the gags land. Meanwhile, both performers create proper characters on stage, with Riches' blithely louche and insensitive Ball as the perfect foil for Kearns' intentional and more openly emotive Boe.

All of this is held together by a vague plot that circles around broad-appeal entertainers who sing cover versions so they can keep everyone happy. Ball is fine with this, as it feeds his desire to be loved, while Boe would really like to sing an original song for a change. But this might jeopardise the brand sponsorship deal Ball has set up. These jokes are very funny, and they're also knowing criticisms of an industry that uses and discards performers without a thought. And the songs are fabulous.

So there's rather a lot more going on here than just watching, as they describe themselves, "naughty little schoolboys in their 50s". While we laugh at the general silliness that runs all the way through the show, and we sigh at some of the more moving aspects to this friendship, there are also things that provoke serious thought. This is a sparky and sharply well-assembled one-hour show, expertly played by two actors who work so well together that the audience is likely to become die-hard groupies.

For details, SOHO THEATRE >

photo by Matt Stronge • 12.Dec.24

Critical Week: Nose to nose

I've had a line-up of events and stage shows this week, rather than movies, which makes a very nice change. I only saw three films: The Call of the Wild is based on the Jack London novel about a dog's adventure in the Yukon, with a human cast including Harrison Ford, Omar Sy (pictured) and Dan Stevens. There is no dog cast, as that's Terry Notary in digital motion capture. The film is a lovely adventure but you can always tell that it's not a real dog.

There are actual horses in Dream Horse, based on the true story of a syndicate in a small Welsh village that raised a thoroughbred champion against the odds. Toni Collete leads an eclectic cast in an earthy, crowd-pleasing charmer. And Rosamund Pike stars as Marie Curie in the biopic Radioactive, which recounts the earth-changing scientist's life with some ambitious but distracting flourishes. And because I had the time, I revisited Parasite in a cinema packed-out with a paying audience, and loved it all over again. I originally saw it at a small press screening in September.

Outside the cinema I had the fringe theatre play Undetectable at the Kings Head (already reviewed) and the extremely starry press night for Message in a Bottle (review incoming), a thrilling dance performance staged to Sting's memorable songs and pointedly themed around the refugee experience. There was also a lively launch event for the new production of the Hairspray musical, which opens in April at the Coliseum starring Michael Ball and Paul Merton. I attended the Critics' Circle National Dance Awards, which was a terrific ceremony packed with luminaries from the dance world, including Cats star Francesca Hayward, who was named Best Female Dancer for her work with the Royal Ballet. And finally, the British Film Institute hosted the launch of the 34th edition of BFI Flare, London's LGBTIQ+ film festival, another lineup of great cinema that runs 18-29 March at BFI Southbank. The event included the lively annual launch party, complete with a seriously yummy cake designed to match the festival artwork (see below). This is my 22nd year covering this festival.

There's a bit more stage to come this week too, plus press screenings of The Invisible Man with Elisabeth Moss, Colour Out of Place with Nicolas Cage, Villain with Craig Fairbrass, Scott Graham's drama Run, the noir thriller Blood on Her Name and the romcom Straight Up.

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It’s the annual #BFIFlare cake! A particularly delicious one, I should add. Tonight’s was the programme launch for the festival’s 34th year.

A post shared by Rich Jack Cline (@ukcline) on Feb 18, 2020 at 2:53pm PST