Review by Steve Bennett

Well, it's enthusiastic, energetic and feels like a traditional two-man Fringe revue played by Tony Soprano and Gary Lineker's clean-cut, dark-haired, younger brother.

It is a comedy about two writers, Chris Parr and Ashley Frieze, who decide to create a musical but become trapped by an ancient Japanese curse which means they have 60 minutes to complete it or be damned for all time. Sounds reasonable in context and the plot works.

They try to do for musicals what Scream did for horror films: revealing plot cliches with songs like If Your Mother Is A Prostitute, She Doesn't Last The Show".

The acting is broad, too broad in fact for a small Fringe venue. If this play were an e-mail, it would be written in capital letters.

The music styles are impressively wide but unsettling: a Noel Coward pastiche here, a Lloyd Webber clone there, some Lionel Bart jollity hither and a James Bond style song thither. An impressive spread of composing styles for a CV sampler, but not so good for the thematic unity of a musical.

The Musical! Is a creditable first draft - good enough for the Fringe on a rainy afternoon but in need of three or four re-writes to get further. While both creators may have the potential to write a great fourth or fifth musical (this is their second collboration) neither seems likely to develop enough to make it as singer/actor.

So my advice is to keep writing, but change the cast next time.

Review date: 1 Jan 2006
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett