Review: Thespians, at HOME, Manchester

It's interesting that we have two pieces running in the same city, at the same time, which deal with similar ideas. While Something Rotten enters its final week in Manchester, so does another new musical, ending its tour here. 

Just down the road from Deansgate, at HOME, Mischief Theatre are holding their first ever foray into musical theatre, following their very successful X Goes Wrong series. 

This is not The Musical That Goes Wrong (though I am sure that will be in their future)

Instead, we are taken to Ancient Greece for an original story: Thespains! A drought is ravaging the country, and a deadly prayer for rain competition is set up by The Tyrant (yes, that is their name), where the punishment for not winning is death (spoofing The Hunger Games and Eurovision at once). Forced to compete, the citizens on the tiny island of Ikaria head off to Athens; and in the process, create acting. 

Sounds similar to Something Rotten doesn't it? But rather than creating the worlds first musical, we have a take on the birth of theatre itself. The concept certainly sounded exciting, as did Mischief dipping their toes into writing a musical. 

As you would expect from Mischief Theatre, it is silly, and also camp

Writers, Mischief collaborator Ed Zanders and co-founder Jonathan Sayer, have created a passion project which certainly brings in the laughs - as you would expect from Mischief Theatre. However, quite a lot of the lines and songs fall flat, using a lot of tropes we have seen before, as well as every kind of Greek-related pun imaginable. Some of them (looking at the Medea references) are a lot more cheeky and less kid-friendly than others, but the pun is a term of humour that I feel works best when added infrequently, and had me really missing the classic Mischief slapstick. 

In addition, there's nods and winks to the audience through two characters who are Thespians' take on The Muses from Hercules. But in both the book and acting, there also seems to be nods and winks to the parody genre. 

The reason I bring this up is that director Robyn Grant also co-created and directed Unfortunate: The Untold Story of Ursula the Sea Witch; and this makes even more sense in that some of the cast starred in Unfortunate previously, as well as other shows created by Fat Rascal (no longer in business, and do not know what they are called now, but they were the production company behind Unfortunate). 

What I am leading to, is that Thespians does not feel like a Mischief Theatre show

And whilst I understand that the hype was on, and there must be so much pressure on it to be as amazing a first musical as their Goes Wrong series has been, going into a show expecting it to hold the same magic as their previous work and instead it feeling like something else was disappointing. It has in fact taken me a while to figure out why I felt the theatre feeling, "Well I laughed and it was funny but..." 

It is, in essence, the same as holding a Disney movie marathon, and going from the classics of the Renaissance (something like Beauty & the Beast), into Chicken Little. 

Another link to make to Something Rotten, in this is case negatively, was because, again, of the use of AI on stage

Though less obvious than Something Rotten, there are props being used that look as if generative AI had been used in creating them. I already got on my soap box in my Something Rotten piece, so I will try and not do so again, but it does worry much that it is being slipped in so casually, and not always called out when it should be. 

I am sure that the Mercury Theatre in Colchester (where this show was created and premiered), have the artistry to be able to make such art human made. Ok, think I have said enough about that. 

You'll be happy to hear though that this is the worst bits out of the way

My favourite thing about the show has to be the talent on stage, especially Claire Marie-Hall (Operation Mincemeat) as Poly, Thespis' sister. She has a fantastic voice, and plays not only the voice of reason, but also the heart and glue of the group; as well as being incredibly smart. Marc Pickering (The Sorcerer's Apprentice) was a very Inbetweeners take on an Adonis, and brought many a laugh. Especially with the, shall we say, the fruit dropping, was very funny indeed. 

I must also mention that we had two covers on, and need to especially congratulate Josh Patel-Foster in his debut performance as The Tyrant; another very and over the top character, perhaps the best suited to the kind of production Thespians actually is, despite having to get to the second act for their best material.

So far this year, I would say Thespians is the one I have felt most disappointed by

You may be thinking that I have been pretty negative, and yes, I am. But I know that the more audiences a show has, the more chance it has to improve. This was likely the reason why Thespians did a short country-wide run. I hope Mischief then gets to gather itself and regroup, because while I think it by no means perfect, there is a lot of improvement to be had. 

In a way, Mischief are Thespis himself post-contest. However, the show is not over yet.