There’s something joyfully escapist about many a musical theatre show tune. Even when the musical from which it springs has deeper, more troubling meanings, as with Cabaret and its themes of complicity with a rise in fascism, we can choose not to sit in our room but instead to hear the music play.
Escapism is the word in Le Gateau Chocolat’s latest show, Musicals Mayhem, which is an hour of traipsing through many standards. On a stage adorned by numerous sequinned gowns, the bearded diva performs a variety of standards. Often, the songs are delivered without irony, but Chocolat works best when providing a little extra spin on each number. And so, when delivering a typically heartfelt rendition of Follies’ Losing My Mind, the contemplative mood takes a quick break for a dance number performed to the Pet Shop Boys/Liza Minnelli version. The Little Mermaid’s Part of Your World is supplemented by machines blowing bubbles across the whole stage.
Le Gateau Chocolat’s delivery and vocal range allow for some further redefinition, such as amplifying the torch song qualities of Abba’s The Winner Takes It All or delivering Walking in the Air from The Snowman (which is musically adjacent at most, but we’ll allow it) in a deep bass rather than the boyish treble with which we associate it.
At times, the prerecorded backing fails to support the onstage diva’s live choices, proving too loud for quiet moments and vice versa, and occasional lighting choices keep the singer in the dark both literally and figuratively. But in a show with minimal banter between numbers, much gets packed in with minimal cruft. Even the singer’s frequent costume changes can’t disrupt the flow – and that certainly helps with extended sequences such as a cat-themed medley, where One by One and The Circle of Life from The Lion King top and tail The Lion Sleeps Tonight, Memory and Eye of the Tiger.
It’s all delivered with bucketloads of gusto and charisma that often feels more like a late-night revelry than the early-evening experience it is. That’s especially true for the show’s final “audience singalong” sequence, which leans on some of the biggest numbers from Grease. There’s something fundamentally great about the communal activity of singing songs about teenage love (as performed originally by thirtysomethings) that’s hard to deny.
With a running time of just an hour, we re-enter the real world with the rest of the evening still ahead. The chaotic world of Le Gateau Chocolat cannot keep 2024 at bay for long, but it does remind us of the opportunity that musical theatre gives us. Whenever we feel afraid, we hold our heads erect and whistle a happy show tune so no one will suspect we’re afraid. Musicals may be mayhem – but they can also be magical.
Continues until 11 January 2025
