‏Southern Fail The Musical

‏‏Coming with a Treason Show pedigree expectations were already high. Quite rightly so, for many years now the local satirical sketch company has been entertaining audiences with their razor sharp wit and clever reworking of popular songs. This time Mark Brailsford, Annnie Harris and Javier Rasero deliver a searingly poignant attack on the disaster that is Southern Rail. Whether you agree or disagree with the unions, the situation is appalling and this trio of talent, working with a script by Simon Levenson, dig deep into the issues and haul them onto the scaffold of political humour.
It’s a musical, a tag that as a musical lover often fills me with dread, but here there is a real commitment to getting the songs, by which I mean songs with rewritten lyrics, absolutely right, good voices, good backing, good harmonies and even choreography! Above all though I admire the fact that they are meticulous in their rendering of new lyrics, lyrics that scan exactly as the original – there’s no lazy ram-raiding of new words into the tune whether they fit or rhyme, not here. This along with fine performances makes the show, a tidy hour and something long (with a few unavoidable delays and cancellations), a brilliant evening of sharp edged comedy in the truly British satirical vein.

‏Sallis Benney Theatre, 25 June 2017
Rating:
‏Andrew Kay