Meow Meow in Apocalypse Meow – Crisis is Born; Spymonkey’s Toby Park in Mrs Hudson’s Christmas Corker; and the Ungewinster in The Night Before Winterval
Earlier in the month I did a wee preview for the Evening Standard of half a dozen London Christmas cabaret shows, then followed it up with reviews of three of them in the same paper. If you missed the reviews, here they are – you can still catch all three shows.
First up was Mrs Hudson’s Christmas Corker at Wilton’s Music Hall, a kind of tongue-in-cheek panto written by Bob and Barry Cryer and starring Spymonkey. The review begins:
With its raucous mix of story, comedy, song, dance, satire and banter between stage and audience, panto is the last mainstream outlet for the British music-hall tradition. The only problem is that it has to be kept family-friendly. Well, that’s not a concern for Mrs Hudson’s Christmas Corker…
Read the whole article here. Show runs until December 31.
Then came The Night Before Winterval, a relishably grotesque take on the season from Dusty Limits, David Hoyle, Fancy Chance, Tom Baker, the Ungewinster and Kalki Hula Girl, running in the Roundhouse’s studio space. The review begins:
The Night Before Winterval is the theatrical equivalent of sticking two fingers up at all things complacently warm and fuzzy this yuletide season. A festive refuseniks’ jamboree, it has been put together by some of the alternative cabaret scene’s top talents…
Read the whole article here. Show runs until December 20.
Lastly, Meow Meow: Apocalypse Meow – Crisis Is Born, the latest show from the brilliant chanteuse-comic-vocational calamity, running at the Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room. The review begins:
If your Christmas season sometimes feels like a frenzied attempt to turn on the razzle-dazzle while you’re actually playing catch-up, feeling inadequate and self-medicating like crazy, spare a thought for Meow Meow — that’s her whole year…
Read the whole article here. Show runs until December 29.
