Idiots Assemble - Spitting Image the Musical
Tonight, back with Meetup (unusually these days) - and indeed, back with Up in the Cheap Seats, who were off to Idiots Assemble - Spitting Image the Musical, at the Phoenix. Cheapest tickets, when I looked, were with SFF - as advertised by one of the group. And so it was that I ended up practically onstage - for £15. Mind you, anyone who had booked in the Grand Circle had an upgrade - they closed that level entirely.
There was talk of food/drink beforehand, and a few of us apparently interested, but no word on what people were actually doing.. so I took myself off, back to the Dean Swift, to check they were still good. I didn't fancy their mains - but they have an extensive range of tapas, a couple of which I had: garlic mushrooms and ham croquettes. Which were lovely - there wasn't much to the croquettes, mind - just four pieces, each sitting on a bed of sauce - but the mushrooms were plentiful. And with a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc (they also have Chilean), and 80s music on the soundtrack - I was well satisfied. Plus some of the friendliest staff you'll find anywhere..
My bus left me short! I decided I might as well walk the rest of the way - and lo, it rained on me. At least we didn't have to climb all the way to the grand Circle to meet the others - as they'd closed it, we were on the Dress Circle level instead. Getting a drink, I asked whether I could take it in, and was told yes - although I was asked whether I was in the front row (bear in mind, she thought I was in the Dress Circle). It's to do with people leaving it on the ledge, you see. Anyway, she gave me mine in a glass made of glass - which I actually finished before I went in. Although I got another at the interval, which I took in - not that the ushers took a blind bit of notice. If you had wanted help, you might have had trouble getting it, they were so deep in conversation with each other.. as it was, I went in the wrong end, came out, and went in the other way, without them batting an eyelid. Glasses of wine were neither here nor there..
Pictures of the puppets abound, in the bar and along the stairs:
And, although I was in Row A, I wasn't in the front row. Not quite:
(Those caricatures keep being redrawn, as the curtain is down - it's quite interesting.)
Ah, where to start with this show?! It's marvellous. It's hilarious. It's beautifully staged - handlers racing around to bring the puppets to life - some are facemasks, some small models: some half-bodies, their handlers wearing the bottom half of the outfit. The basic story is that the King is about to be crowned - but the fabric of the nation (literally a pair of underpants) is in a parlous state, and technically, no king can be crowned until the fabric of the nation is repaired. So - who you gonna call? Tom Cruise! who assembles a crack team (the "Magnificent Seven") to save the nation..
Meantime, you have Harry and Meghan watching from the sidelines - and on the other side of the stage, the Chinese Premier is joined by a miniscule Putin: who leaves his box to star in a terrific sequence set in Ukraine. And this all happens before the Tories arrive, en masse..
It's riotous - and as it zips from scene to scene, character to character, it's hard to pick a favourite. Me, I loved Suella Braverman - a kind of ghostly character, as per The Ring or The Grudge (with the long black hair and the long white dress), her starring moment comes in a reworking of Thriller - so, at the chorus, instead of singing about "the Thriller", they're singing about "Suella".. with a chorus of zombie refugees in the background, and Suella swooping through the air. Priceless. I'd love to say more, but don't want to give too much away.
Very highly recommended - runs till the 26th.
Afterwards, I heard nothing about anyone going for a drink - so off I went home.
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