With all the current sexual kerfuffle at the BBC, the musical comedy Tickle might just hit a topical sweet spot.
Callum and Chris are bored and out of work young guys and as they sing to us: “it’s a crappy town we live in and it eats away your soul”. Callum needs money to look after his grandma; Chris is at a loss what to do, having failed to get into uni.
Enter Davina Diamond, front woman for a business that pays well… Really really well. She signs the boys up to be contestants online in an international tickling contest – yes really. They’ll be stripped down to skimpy shorts but as she sings to them and us: “it’s not the least bit gay”. We don’t believe it of course, but they do. One added complication: Callum is in love with Chris – but Chris is straight and unaware of the sexual conflicts gong on inside his friend.
Making up the comic quartet is proprietress of Tickle Enterprises, Tina Tickle – a cross between Cruella De Ville and the Bride of Frankenstein, and played deliciously by Dereck Walker. She sashays, she’s hot and she tells us “it takes two to tickle”.
And so the fun begins in what they describe as “gymnastics with rules”. But this is a show full of diversions, so we get a wonderfully camp duet from Tina and Davina extolling the virtues of show-makers Rodgers and Hammerstein, in a strict tango tht burns the floor.
So all’s well, until Callum tries to kiss a naked Chris in the shower. Oops! But when Chris tries to leave the act, Davina waves the solid contract and Tina threatens revenge. When the boys expose the barely disguised porn business to the tabloids, it’s time for an act of either retribution or conciliation.
As it’s a musical comedy, with more than a touch of fantasy, all’s well that ends well, and we get a gorgeous finale of the quartet, the boys in skimpy gold briefs, with large pink feather fans, and Tina and Davina belting out the joyous ”what the fuck would Julie Andrew’s do?”. What’s not to like?
Lauren Wood is wonderfully evil as the leather-clad Davina. David Heal is a brooding buff boy as Chris, and Owen Dennis is good as an embarrassed gay boy who can’t get his desires fulfilled.
The music romps along with the silly plot, ably directed by Aaron Clingham and Richard Lambert’s lighting gives us a big feel in this tiny studio theatre space at London’s Drayton Arms. Richard has also produced the show in a season of four queer-themed shows through his company Lambco Productions.
All four Lambco productions are now headed for Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where the boys will get their kit off in this show and another aptly called Boys In the Buff.
Ticket information for this week at Drayton Arms and all August at Edinburgh Festival Fringe
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