1 March 2025
Last night I raced (literally, on my bike) to catch one of the final performances of One Man Musical at the Underbelly Boulevard in Soho, I was even prepared to be up high in the rafters on a standing ticket because the show is a sell out success. I hated it.
I think I tittered twice and spent the rest of the 75-minute running time absolutely bewildered at the accolades trailing in its wake from the Fringe to the West End.
Supposedly an hysterically funny riff on the life of Andrew Lloyd Webber – “Is this a legal minefield? Yes, it is!” I found it musically tone deaf and comically witless.
Actor and comedian George Fouracres plays ALW in a brisk run through the key events of his life, with the only truly funny moment the arrival of Tim Rice, “tall and blond, he looked like a rock god, I looked like a rock collector”, portrayed on stage by a bag of basmati rice.
Lauded at the Fringe as one of the comedy hits of the year, I’m afraid to say that in London’s West End (albeit in a back alley among the pornographers of Soho) the Emperor was found to be as naked as the day he was born.
