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