Six Chick Flicks – Leicester Square Theatre, London

Directors: K. K. Apple, Kerry Ipema, and T. J. Dawe

Six Chick Flicks is slick and quick. Two experienced actors from the New York improv scene (Kerry Ipema and K.K.Apple) bring their immaculately crafted take on films that were largely directed by men but intended for women, to the little Leicester Square Theatre. Titanic, Beaches, Legally Blonde, all get a merciless going over, identifying plot points that defy logic and responses by female characters that seem to be taken out of a book no woman has ever read. It’s very funny, very well staged, and very dependent for its humour on an intimate acquaintance with all those movies. Seeing Titanic once, 20-odd years ago, is not sufficient; the audience has to know the movie well. And really, the audience has to like all the movies that get (forgive the expression) guyed.

This isn’t a problem for the overwhelming majority of the audience. Recognition laughs are non-stop, with howls of delight when the zingers land. The satire is cheerfully received, the films are shredded, and there is every possibility that lots of the audience will then go home and rewatch their well-loved copy of Legally Blonde, completely indifferent to the implausibility of a high-profile case being fronted by a first-year law student.

The bits involve stylish but rudimentary costume elements, taken from a well-secreted on-stage stash, an industrial quantity of mugging to pencil in character types, and some surprisingly elegant dancing. K.K. Apple is a choreographer as well as a stand-up, and that aspect of the show is extremely well crafted and very well executed. The other surprise is a pause in the funnies to deliver an impassioned and persuasive argument about the destruction of women’s reproductive rights in the USA. It comes in the middle of a skit on Dirty Dancing, a film which gets off very lightly – Patrick Swayze seems to be something of a cult favourite, perhaps because he was a really good dancer, and the articulated themes in the film, of class conflict and female empowerment, get a thumbs up from actors and audience.

Ipema and Apple are very fine performers that it would be a treat to watch in a more hard-hitting piece of theatre. They have chosen to lampoon some pretty easy targets, and they have the satirical chops to skewer less sedentary ducks, but they are good fun, good value, and on point for an audience that loves a chick flick while recognising the limitations of the genre. No one is putting these Babies in a corner.

Runs until 13 April 2024 and continues to tour. Returns to Leicester Square Theatre 25-29 June 2024