The Simple Life and Death – Pleasance Theatre, London

Writers: Shane ShayShay Konno & Fizz Sinclair

Nicole Richie is murdered in a reunion special of The Simple Life, and Paris Hilton must uncover the culprit while simultaneously asserting her own innocence. Though a criminal investigation is an elevated task from the various internships she and Richie had taken on the original show, Hilton remains her utterly blonde, nepo-baby self – The Simple Life and Death is thus the murder-speckled drag parody of the century.

This production is a treasure trove for the chronically online, saturated with the Y2K nostalgia that propels much of popular culture wittily interspersed with references as recent as the 2024 Wicked Movie press tour. The impressions Fizz Sinclair musters of Jennifer Coolidge embroiled in a queer interspecies love affair (Cheryl Cole commanding the stage as though it were the X-Factor as she pursues collaborations with Britain’s favourite bakery chain; and a Caitlin Jenner much funnier than the one we’re left) with in reality are so convincing even as their narratives go in these bizarre directions. It captures the strangeness of celebrity of the early 2000s, where a rapidly evolving media landscape meant the rise of stars who commanded a cult of personality. To not only play such characters but satirise them requires a sizeable amount of personality, which the two leads possess in spades.

They’re so funny they make themselves laugh, Fizz Sinclair chuckling on the ground even as she’s supposed to be dead. This doesn’t read as a bug of the show but a hilarious feature – a natural progression of the campiness of the whole production. And Shane ShayShay Konno does well to bring the audience into its role as the live studio audience of the reunion taping – should you watch the show yourself, prepare to be called and commented upon as her character struts across the venue. They bring the larger-than-life feeling of being in a drag show into the world of theatre, creating an experience that feels immersive, unpredictable, and utterly joyous.

Read a little more deeply, the production is also a meditation on the substance of celebrity and lack thereof. Commercials interrupt The Simple Life: Live Reunion Special, all for products Hilton herself has created as the show’s chief financial supporter. They’re all exceptionally terrible products, including perfume so pungent it will bleach any clothing items it comes into contact with and hair products that leave hair in a dandruffed-mess, and it is by buying into that celebrity where key moments of conflict arise throughout the show. Each celebrity depicted has their own unique relationships to fame, ranging from desperation to light-hearted embracing of their iconic careers, and humour is found at the heart of each of them.

Runs until 7 December 2024