Book, Music and Lyrics: Nicola & Rosie Dempsey
Director: Georgie Staight
Andrew Lloyd Webber may be an influential force in West End theatre but now thanks to Flo & Joan ,a.k.a. Nicola & Rosie Dempsey, he is also the toast of off-West End as well thanks to their One Man Musical which arrives at the Underbelly Boulevard after runs at the Soho Theatre and Edinburgh Fringe. A skewering 70-minute satire from the perspective of the man himself, Flo & Joan’s version of the ‘musicool’ impresario could not be less impressed with a tiny venue and a show that lacks the three key characteristics of his success – “spectacle, money and Michael Ball.”
This enjoyably surreal biographical musical is a deep dive into Lloyd Webber’s early successes and much of it is built around George Fouracres’ consuming central performance that manages to be equal parts fascinating, hilarious, bizarre and narcissistic, mixing physical humour with musical theatre-based wordplay and throw-away lines that have the audience roaring. In many ways, Fouracres’ exaggerated embodiment of Lord Lloyd Webber is bigger than the material, nimbly able to improvise around minor hiccups and unscripted interactions with the audience.
The One Man Musical itself is almost secondary, a chronological run through his privileged childhood and theatre games, partnership with Tim Rice (here for budget reasons cast as an actual bag of rice) and multiple marriages as Lloyd Webber becomes the musical legend we know today. And there are plenty of sharp lines as he attempts to bring “Conservatism back to the arts” and, in a line that takes a moment to travel round the audience, claims his run of hits with Rice made them the “Lennon and McCartney of songwriting.”
There is no shortage of gags and affection for the composer; the songs are a clever reflection of the character study and Fouracres’ charisma cannot be contained by what this version of Lloyd Webber might consider a modest venue. But there is less mileage in some of the jokes which appear too frequently on repeat, including a jibe about the location of the theatre in a saucy bit of Soho which is certainly far more pedestrian in its contemporary form opposite the Co-op and close to a genteel looking independent bakery.
Similarly, the driver for the show, the idea that Lloyd Webber is frustrated by his lack of hits since the 80s amounts to very little and even though the denouement references its own decision to skip over 38 years since The Phantom of the Opera, it still does actually skip over those 38 years where surely there is plenty of comedy to mine. And in his quest to be “hip”, the show glosses over the presence of edgy director Jamie Lloyd who has certainly put his restyling of Lloyd Webber’s work back at the top of the awards agenda in recent years.
Nonetheless, One Man Musical is designed to give the audience a good time and with laughs coming pretty frequently, it does just that, supporting his claim “I am the mandrew”, and you will certainly leave having become a “fandrew.”
Runs until 2 March 2025