Writers: Jodie Prenger and Bobby Delaney
Director: Alex Jackson
The Christmas shows at The Other Palace are now a firm tradition. Camp, silly and punching above their weight, the Studio’s seasonal adult musicals are simultaneously ribald and sweet. This year’s offering, a parody of yuletide favourite Home Alone, doesn’t quite reach the dizzy heights that of 2022’s Ghosted: Another F***ing Christmas Carol, but there is still plenty to enjoy, and the cast works even harder than Santa.
Eight-year-old Kevin will be left alone at Christmas; we all know that, but it seems an age before his parents and brother forget him in their rush to catch a plane to Paris. But rather than focus on Kevin’s battle with the burglars that come to his house, Jodie Prenger and Bobby Delaney’s show is more interested in his parents.
Although based in Illinois, Kate is an American who seems to have been raised in Essex. Allie Dart’s accent is to be heard to be believed. Her husband Peter, played with gusto by Jack North, only has his fingertips in the closet: he has a predilection for the tightest, skimpiest Speedos and watches hardcore gay porn in the basement. Kate is blind to the fact that her husband plays for the other team, and the actors mine every joke they can from such a comical set-up.
You may presume there’s not much adult humour to be found in a story that revolves around an 8-year-old boy, but Prenger and Delaney give it a good bash as long as you acknowledge that it is the actor performing a striptease rather than his character. Elliott Evans, who has the best voice of the evening, adapts well to the dangerous ground that this skit enters.
Unfortunately, some of the other material isn’t so daring. When Dart and North swap their roles for the inept robbers, the show drags, and not even Dale White’s tight choreography can save these parts. Steph Asamoah’s Buzz, Kevin’s roid-fuelled elder brother, isn’t that funny either, but her Francois is a delight.
With some original-sounding songs and others, rewrites of The Ronettes Christmas catalogue, the show is always good-hearted, although the Katie Price jokes seem a little mean. However, there’s a sense that the two-hour show is a little too formulaic with its asides to the audience about budgets and props and the inevitable corpsing. Still, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and Homo Alone is certainly better than being home alone on the nights before Christmas.
Runs until 5 January 2025
