REVIEW: Fool Proof - The Theatre, Students' Union Building, Manchester.

Manchester Musical Revue (MMR for short!), an offshoot of The University of Manchester Musical Theatre Society (UMMTS) performed their self-written comedy revue 'Fool Proof' at the newly refurbished Council Chambers in the Manchester Students' Union building on Oxford Road, which has now been upgraded to and renamed unimaginatively, 'Theatre'!

However that was the only thing which was unimaginative about this evening. During this hour-long non-stop cabaret revue we were introduced to 7 arch villains, who sit around a table playing cards and boasting about their exploits, whilst a further villain acts as an MC to introduce them all to us one by one. They are bored of waiting for orders and want to go out and start murdering people - or whatever it is they do for kicks! When their two inept and drunken agents do finally arrive back, it's totally unclear whose side they are on and who is working for who, and so it's payback time and the comedy ending is totally justified.

Yes it's not much of a plot-line, I'll grant you - but that wasn't the aim of the show. What this flimsy storyline did do however was knit the well-chosen songs together and give reign to these 8 talented performers to unleash their inhibitions and become almost caricatures of cartoon-style evil-doers. I say 'almost' because they never did become completely mono-dimensional thankfully. All of them knew exactly how far they could push their silliness before it became a cardboard cut-out. All were fantastic, and managed to be rounded characters despite the silliness of the premise, and it was a wonderfully entertaining and rather camp, but tastefully so, show. Director James Ward-Mallinson obviously knew his cast well and could trust them with these OTT characters, which all worked excellently with each other.

Each of the 8 villains was given a solo song, as I said, all excellently chosen, showcasing their voices superbly. Starting with the MC singing about villains, to an ensemble piece from 'Beauty And The Beast', 'Kill The Beast' - excellently executed (pun intended!), through 'Broadway Baby', 'T-T-T-Touch Me', 'I Am The Greatest Star', an hilarious re-working of 'Edelweiss', to the incredible rendition of 'Being Alive'.  I think my favourite song of the evening though came from again, a slight bastardising of the original, so instead of 'Suddenly Seymour' from 'Little Shop Of Horrors' it became a gay love duet between the two most unlikely of the 8 to find happiness together!

The pace was slick, the idea fun, the costumes ridiculous (in a positive sense of the word), and the mood high. Not only that but there was a live 12-piece band - yes, that's right TWELVE piece band! And under Daniele Anderle's direction they sounded utterly superb - I could easily have listened to them playing big band and show tunes all night!

The one thing that did let the side down just a little was the lighting. There were times when cast were semi or unlit - [Broadway Baby number and the band assassin especially], but at other times too, the lighting could have been a little more focused. I liked the idea of the 'James Bond' opening sequence circle of light on the back wall.. but that idea was never developed sadly... no James Bond music was played and n-one made anything of it, and so it seemed unnecessary.

Thank you Esme Wade, Harry Newman-Walley, Megan Shone, Carol-Ann McConnellogue, Flo Crompton, Kiera Battersby, Hugh Summers, and Scarlett Gorman for putting a huge smile on my face and sending me home humming songs and thinking silly things!! I can't wait to come back to see Chicago in December!

Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 16/11/18