Last nights show at the Shaw Theatre was a triumphant revival of the 80’s musical by Janet Hood and Bill Russell ‘Elegies For Angels, Punks and Raging Queens’. 

It’s an easy show to watch but a difficult one to review as any show basing itself wholly on the human costs of the HIV virus and being watched by a cynical faggot worn down to cold sterile ennui by the relentless onslaught of HIV is gonna be a challenge.

Did I like it? Yes, I loved it!  Did it move me? Thank fucking god it did!

As one of the singers sang “My Brother Lived In San Francisco”  I felt my eyes fill up and allowed the luxury of fresh tears to spill down my cheeks, without shame but with joy at the music and the actors and the song. I felt a huge smile grow at the same time and realised that I wasn’t too cynical to enjoy a show about AIDS or so battered as to not let this show touch me. 

I’m a hard critical nut to crack (although I did once weep at a Cheryl Baker musical but I suspect that was a combination of toothache and a seriously bad come-down) anyway, the young, energetic and engaging cast of this revival, breath real life into their dead characters and bring the wretched moments of their deaths to such vivid life that you want to hug them.

Each different monologue is written from the perspective of characters who've died from AIDS. With a simple pared down staging & some effective rainbow hued lighting from Joe Hornsby, and each different character, stepping up, spot lit and delivering their own ‘Elegy’ in a free form verse style that was a cross between Dr Seuss and Edgar A. Poe (it worked!) this is an easy show on the ears and eyes.

Some of the stories are sad, some brilliant, others bitter, some inspire and soon they all combine so that all human life is here; in this death and this I suspect is the point of this show.

I never saw the original and worried that a revival might not work, but the essence of this show – That Hope is as Cheap as Despair – is as valid today as it was during the hell days of the Aids pandemic.  There’s no approval sought in this show and along with some brand new added material from Bill Russell this allows each of the actors to bring a different angle to their slot.

It’s like a master class in ‘facing the end’. It’s damn funny too and some of the biggest laughs come in the second half in a story about a South African women who loses her husband, life and has to give away her babies, any musical that can combine heartbreaking stories with belly laughs has got my vote!
Book yourself a ticket now before you read to the end.

photo: Marilyn Kingwill

The characters continue to step up, one by one through out the show and I worried I might get bored of it, but was transfixed by each very different short piece.

The singers appear frequently to punctuate this procession of the dead and bear witness with the songs to the feelings of the families, friends and lovers left behind. It’s a clever and familiar refrain and works well aided by the vocal talents of the four singers, including Miquel Brown and Jonathan Hellyer aka DE Experience, who’s solos, duets and quartets gave these songs their all and the triumphant and spectacularly surprising finale was a joy to behold.

With simple musical backing from a trio of Harp, Piano and Cello, which were perhaps slightly too far back on stage to really enjoy, this musical is a surprising positive production with a serious side. 

It’s a joy to go out, be moved and leave clapping  with a smile on my face. Well done to the director John-Jackson Almond and his musical director Michael Roulston.

Oh, one small niggle. At the start of the performance a ‘proclamation’ from the Terrance Higgins Trust was read out to us all and very nice it was too. One wondered, when this is a charity fundraiser for them, why no senior person from the THT could be bothered to come along and read it out themselves each night, after all their head quarters are only a few minutes walk down the road. It was the only sore point of the night and shamed the Grand THT Duchess’s of Grays Inn Road.

Book now for this delightful, moving and evocative musical before it sells out!

Shaw Theatre
100-110 Euston Rd
London
10 - 28 August 2010 
Tuesday to Saturday at 7.45pm  Saturday Matinees at 4.30pm

More info on the cast, show and to book tickets here: