fringe: another night at the musicals

First there was A Night At The Musicals (and again in 2018 to be honest)... this year Le Gateau Chocolat and Johnny Woo return with the very imaginatively titled Another Night At The Musicals.

And as before, the duo proudly proclaim the show to be the place "musical theatre goes to die". And if by die they mean put on a lot of sequins and leotards and have a very good time, then, yes, I totally agree.

The line up is (mostly) new this time around... but I mean you wouldn't throw out Summer Loving from Grease.

But otherwise, this time around Cabaret, Cats, Gypsy, Les Miserables, The Little Mermaid, Grease, Xanadu, Rocky Horror and The Sound of Music all get the Chocolat and Woo treatment.

Johnny did a fantastic version of my favourite Disney villain song, Poor Unfortunate Souls (complete with quick change dress), followed by Chocolat murdering (in the best possible way) Part of Your World as the most fabulous mermaid ever (the DRESS... and the crab bra!). Though, between you and me, one of these days I really want to hear Chocolat demolish Ursula's song, but he was pretty fantastic as Ariel.

Also amazing is his outfit for the Xanadu number, this big pink fluffy tulle coat that is so very extra and so very Le Gateau.

I'm not sure if this is something I just noticed for this new show, but other than the beginning and the end of the show, this is much more of a "hand off" show, where one of them takes centre stage while the other goes off for presumably the next quick change before they swap out. Which isn't a criticism, it's just something that felt more noticeable this time around than previously. And both the beginning and end of the show are awesome, especially that the "singalongability" of the show ramps up as it goes along (honestly though, they had me at Little Mermaid), culminating in The Sound of Music (how the fuck do I know all the damn words to both Do Re Me and So Long Farewell... I mean I know why, but I really shouldn't still know them), followed by the Grease Summer Loving finale.

As I've mentioned on previous occasions, I adore any and all moments when Chocolat goes for "comedy non-vocals warbling" instead of song lyrics... LOVE! IT!

It's camp, it's ridiculous, it's hilarious, it's gorgeous, it's a good old sing along with songs you know. It's always worth the price of admission. Go see them.

yani's rating: 5 unicorn string guitars out of 5