Live at Zedel, Brasserie Zedel, London – until 17 April 2018
This perceptive and entertaining show celebrates the highs and lows of being a musical theatre performer through the songs of Alexander S Bermange.
For anyone who has even remotely considered that performing in a musical is their absolute dream – you might want to pop along to see this hilarious and insightful (if slightly exaggerated) show about how to land that leading role – particularly through all the hardships along the way.
Featuring the music and lyrics by Alexander S Bermange, the show takes audiences on a journey through a musical theatre performer’s potential career from landing that first audition and rejection all the way through to becoming a complete diva on the stage.
The songs are all sharply written, perhaps not adding an awful lot of depth to what most musical theatre audiences and those who wish to be in a musical already know, but are still perceptive in the points that they make – which is down to the fantastic performances of those on stage.
Particular highlights from the show include the way in which Suzie Mathers uses her bubbly personality to great effect in numbers such as ‘I Love to Sing’ and ‘Guest Spot’, while Oliver Savile really captures the frustration of being an actor who ends up being typecast and wants to be taken as a serious actor rather than just appearing in musicals when singing ‘A Serious Actor. Liam Tamne also really highlights what it is like to be an understudy and waiting for your moment to shine in ‘Standing By’ with hilarious effect.
Unfortunately though there are some weaker elements to the show. Diana Vickers, while clearly having a fantastic voice is just lacking in the charm that the rest of the performers have to really be convincing when singing her numbers such as ‘My Leading Man’. The other issue is with a couple of the songs including ‘It’s Lovely Being a Luvvie’ and ‘You Can’t End the Show Without an Encore’ – which although pokes gentle fun don’t add anything to the show that hasn’t already been heard and feel a bit like fillers.
I Wish My Life Were Like a Musical is a fun and entertaining show and is perceptive in the hard work and dedication needed to succeed in musical theatre but can at times feel as though it is trying slightly too hard to be amusing. But it is still worth a watch for those wanting to break into musical theatre.
I Wish My Life Were Like a Musical continues to perform at Live at Zedel until the 17th April. For more information visit: https://www.brasseriezedel.com/live-at-zedel/i-wish-my-life
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