Stage: The Good, The Bad and The Bloody Brilliant

The Spaghetti Western Orchestra returns with a hilarious musical tribute to Ennio Morricone & Sergio Leone

You only need to hear three haunting notes and not only do you know the tune but you cannot resist joining in. You know the tune, the genre and even the composer and that is because the works of Morricone are iconic, he even manages to make whistling cool. But the joy of the Spaghetti Western Orchestra is that they deliver the themes in a hilarious and compelling way. The five Australian cast members are extremely talented performers both musically and comedically.

The show is a high charged romp through the genre and the works are delivered in an utterly authentic form; not only do they sound like the film soundtracks, but on top of this they have fun, peppering the evening with sound effects and visual gags that have the audience rocking in their seats with laughter. They even manage to get the most resistant audience members to join in and sing along.

With over 100 instruments between them, some clearly home-made, and a battery of sound effects, the cast deliver the best known scores and a few interesting additions. They each play a clichéd Western role, although there is no plot, just a sequence of grunts and whoops and the occasional walk about the stage.

It would be good without the great staging but with it it makes for some really theatrical entertainment that simply flies by and has the audience hollerin’ for more. Yee ha!

The Spaghetti Western Orchestra, Theatre Royal Brighton, Tuesday
7 February, 7.45pm, £25/20, box office 08448 717 650,
www.atgtickets.com/theatre-royal-brighton