This show from the small Beanspillers company is a world premiere. All their shows are.
Image © Nick Rutter Photography
‘Beanspillers’ because they begin by asking their audience to spill the beans on any piece of salacious gossip they might want to share, and then to base an entirely new musical on one of them, made up on the spot.
This leads to an hour of musical mayhem, accompanied by their keyboard player, involving unrequited love between police officers in police cars, mass murder on the streets of Bath, Cardiff, Birmingham and elsewhere, and much more – leading to a satisfying denouement where everyone lives happily ever after.
The singing is tuneful (mostly), often in rhyme, and the plot is nonsensical but performed with supreme confidence (mostly) by the very small cast, constantly switching hats and characters. Is it funny? Yes, it is.
The asides to the audience, the devising of ever more ludicrous plot twists, and the preposterous songs never fail to have the audience in stitches.
But the highlight, really, is their crazed demonstration of what they consider to be 80s dance moves. What that has to do with the rest of the plot you do not need to know.
All in all a joyous show of improv talent – and there will be another world premiere next time they perform.
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Reviewer: John Christopher Wood | Star rating: ****
