Review > Musicals and Opera review: Fat Club: The Musical | Gingers the Musical | A-Team - The Musical
The cast of A-Team The Musical
THE Musical Theatre Matters (MTM) awards were established in 2007, with the goal of raising the profile of musicals at the Fringe, and this year’s winners are due to be announced at 7pm tonight at the George Square Theatre. As the title implies, however, there is still a certain stigma attached to musical theatre; that there are still some people who would argue that in fact it doesn’t matter very much at all.
FAT CLUB: THE MUSICAL
C (VENUE 34)
* * *
GINGERS! THE MUSICAL
MUSICAL THEATRE @ GEORGE SQUARE (VENUE 37)
* *
A-TEAM – THE MUSICAL
* *
GILDED BALLOON TEVIOT (VENUE 14)
Of course, musicals deserve to be taken just as seriously as any other art form, and there are plenty of companies on the Fringe this year putting on all-singing, all-dancing extravaganzas of the highest quality imaginable – if you don’t believe me, check out Barbershopera II at the Pleasance Dome (nominated for the MTM Best Lyrics award). Unfortunately, however, there are still a few productions which conspire to give the genre a bad name.
Fat Club: The Musical isn’t one of these – it’s a mostly enjoyable romp about a group of slimmers who find friendship, and in some cases romance, at a weekly Fat Club meeting led by an unpleasant body fascist called Bonnie (Judie Mathews on excellent, bitchy form). Most of the songs sound like Meatloaf B-sides, but on the whole they’re well executed. Where the show really falls down is in its annoying lack of internal logic. One minute reluctant slimmer Jessica (Stephanie Mott) is belting out the show’s standout song, a sassy celebration of the fuller figure entitled Fat & Sexy, the next minute the cast are congratulating neglected housewife Sarah’s decision to open a fitness club. The show seems to conclude that being fit and being fat are both fine – a rather confusing message, and also a bit of a cop-out.
But at least Fat Club has a plot; Gingers! The Musical is held together by the thinnest of narrative threads. Eight redheads show up for a “Ginger Retreat” in the hope of making friends with people of the same hair colour. Then, one by one, they briefly explain why they’ve come and sing songs about the (usually disastrous) impact their hair colour has had on their lives.
The implication that red hair is some sort of social handicap isn’t just borderline offensive, it’s also completely untrue – as evidenced by the ginger “wall of fame” that greets audiences at the entrance to the theatre. So although the cast give slick, spirited performances, they are unable to dispel the feeling that this entire production is built on a flimsy, nonsensical premise.
By rights, A-Team – The Musical should have been an absolute blast, but somehow writer Gareth Kane’s pet project fails to hit the spot. The performance I saw suffered from some technical gremlins early on, but even on a night when everything goes according to plan, I can’t imagine this feeling like anything other than a big fat disappointment. One by one potential laughs are set up and then squandered: the bit where the bad guys pick on Murdoch’s imaginary dog? Could be funny, but isn’t. The bit where the rest of the team drug BA Baracus to get him on a plane? Should be funny, but isn’t. In fact, although Vincent Jerome is the spitting image of BA he is almost entirely wasted – all he really gets to do is say “jibber-jabber” a couple of times and beat up some henchmen.
Somewhere in among all this mess, it’s just possible to see a decent show trying to get out – the judges of the MTM Awards clearly think so, because A-Team – The Musical has been shortlisted for the Best Book gong. There’s certainly a whole generation of A-Team fans out there who would pay good money to see a scaled-up version, but it will need a substantial rewrite – and some intensive singing lessons for certain members of the cast.
Fat Club until 31 August, today 2:40pm; Gingers! until 31 August, tomorrow 11:15am; A-Team until 31 August, today 5:30pm
