Review of the positive-thinking cabaret show at Soho Theatre

It has the sense of something you might stumble across after midnight in one of the outer fields at Glastonbury. One man with glitter beard and dressed in pimped-up priest’s clothes – The RaveRend – holds forth as his soberly-dressed sidekick, Trev, lays down the sick loops to draw a crowd seeking a dance.

But House Of Life has higher aspirations than mere quirky, buoyant spectacle, and ends up lying somewhere between cabaret and group therapy, between a killer club night and the origins of a cult. 

This camp church is where you come when life gives you shit, The RaveRend asserts, setting up his quasi-religious celebration of self-worth that owes more than a nod to gospel evangelicals.

His eight-step guide to happiness involves joyous calls and responses to a pounding funky bassline, from soul-lifting affirmations to purging all that which makes his congregation angry. We look our friends and strangers dead in the eye as we make them feel worthy, using the mantras The RaveRend (aka Ben Welch) has taught us.

On one hand, the show relies almost on Pavlovian crowd-pleasing tricks. But the one thing about those is that they do please the crowd, and most everyone buys in. Welch is a charismatic leader, a gutsy singer and hugely generous with the audience he sometimes clambers into. He genuinely makes everyone feel valued, and while there’s a lot of crowd work – some of which inspire adeptly improvised songs – he never pushes anyone into anything they’d rather not do.

Having fun is the first and only commandment – save for a sobering interlude towards the end which is either a welcome bit of heft to counter the relentless upbeat exuberance, or an unwelcome gear shift to show faux depth. But House Of Life has the ability to dissolve cynicism, and it’s taken in the sincere, warm-hearted spirit that’s been established.

The repetition in the songs makes them real earworms, there are some nice visual jokes, a ridiculous chicken-based premise, and sudden, very temporary, drops in energy elicit reflex laughs, Meanwhile Trev (Lawrence Cole) is the best deadpan sidekick since Les ever cowered from Vic Reeves’s chives.

It’s hard to envisage anyone leaving House Of Life  – which has landed in Soho Theatre after a couple of  acclaimed Edinburgh seasons as part of a ‘world tour’ – without a spring in their step and a lightness in their heart. It’s cheaper than therapy, and a truckload more fun, too.

• House of Life is at Soho Theatre until Saturday; Brixton House from July 2 to 4; Wilton’s Music Hall on July 10 and Park Theatre on July 18 to 19, all in London, followed by dates in New York.

Review date: 29 May 2025
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett