LUCY AND FRIENDS at the Soho Theatre

★★★★★

“You will leave gasping for air, and an urgent desire to wash your hands.”

Lucy McCormick returns to the Soho Theatre with another outrageous, audacious, and electrifying show that keeps the audience on the edge of their seats, and with an umbrella to hand.

Is it cabaret? Is it comedy? Is it a comment on the precarious basis of artistic endeavour in 2024’s Britain? Is it, McCormick asks whilst downing a bottle of red wine, art? The answer to all of these has to be emphatically yes.

If you have come to McCormick through her galvanising performance in Emma Rice’s Wuthering Heights, or as part of the RSC’s Cowbois ensemble, you may have a shock. McCormick’s shows are loosely based on cabarets in that they contain several semi-distinct performances. She sings and dances to a professional level. There is often a throughline: previous shows have looked at women through history, and the New Testament. But then she will dial the subversive elements to eleven.

While the audience is still filing in for this show, McCormick can be seen dashing around them, dressed as a Christmas tree, handing out props to select audience members. You’re left darting your eyes between her and the stage, set up in classic cabaret style. There’s a glitter curtain backdrop, fairy lights framing that, and metal rigging surround it all like a proscenium arch. Centre stage is a pole. So far, so conventional, so Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club.

“Though some performances push the boundaries of what’s acceptable in theatres, underpinning them all is McCormick’s phenomenal talent”

Then the lights go down, McCormick takes a microphone, and immediately upends multiple theatrical conventions, taking the audience on an emotional rollercoaster. The concept behind Lucy and Friends is that having developed much of this material in the aftermath of the pandemic, there was not enough funding to support other performers. This is therefore McCormick’s first solo show, and she needs help from the audience to be her friends, community, and fellow performers.

It is hard to describe much else that happens without ruining the jokes that emerge from the unwinding of set ups. In brief then, highlights included the act with the pole, a reinterpretation of Norah Jones’ “Don’t Know Why”, a cat impression, and a reminder of 2016’s viral Bottle Flipping craze.

Though some performances push the boundaries of what’s acceptable in theatres, underpinning them all is McCormick’s phenomenal talent. Even the most absurd situations, that have the audience somewhere between being in stitches and shock, she is utterly in control of both herself and them. Her voice is strong, tackling big songs that juxtapose what else is happening visually. Audience members who are called upon to participate are at her beck and call. It is worth saying there is a sizable amount of nudity and sexual content, so maybe not worth seeing with family… unless you are the audience member designated to play McCormick’s mother.

Another audience member is assigned to be a critic, and McCormick narrates her own review for them, much more articulately than I have managed here. However for all the concept, callbacks and motifs, Lucy and Friends is still desperately funny. You will leave gasping for air, and an urgent desire to wash your hands.

LUCY AND FRIENDS at the Soho Theatre

Reviewed on 29th February 2024

by Rosie Thomas

Photography by Jonny Ruff

Previously reviewed at this venue:

WISH YOU WEREN’T HERE | ★★★ | February 2024

REPARATIONS | ★★★ | February 2024

SELF-RAISING | ★★★★★ | February 2024

FLIP! | ★★★★ | November 2023

BOY PARTS | ★★★★ | October 2023

BROWN BOYS SWIM | ★★★½ | October 2023

STRATEGIC LOVE PLAY | ★★★★★ | September 2023

KATE | ★★★★★ | September 2023

EVE: ALL ABOUT HER | ★★★★★ | August 2023

STRING V SPITTA | ★★★★ | August 2023

BLOODY ELLE | ★★★★★ | July 2023

PETER SMITH’S DIANA | ★ | July 2023

LUCY AND FRIENDS

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GWYNETH GOES SKIING at the Pleasance Theatre

★★★

“it is hard to parody something that is so absurd in the first place”

One fateful day in 2016, award-winning actress and Goop-founding entrepreneur Gwyneth Paltrow and retired optometrist Terry Sanderson collided on a ski slope at Utah’s Deer Valley Resort. Three years later, Sanderson filed a lawsuit against Paltrow for the sum of $3,000,000 (ultimately reduced tenfold). In early 2023, the trial kicked off with Sanderson claiming broken bones and life-changing injuries whilst Paltrow lamented a loss of “half a day of skiing” and countersued for $1.

The trial immediately became an iconic pop culture moment and featured many notable moments – from starstruck lawyers to questions about what Taylor Swift is really like. It thus seems only natural that camp-obsessed Linus Karp and Joseph Martin – together, Awkward Productions and fresh from the hilarious Princess Di in Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story – would turn the court case into the cabaret-drag musical Gwyneth Goes Skiing.

The absurdity of the whole affair is made clear before the show even starts. Screens to the side of the stage invite us to take part in a ‘Celebrity Lawsuit Name Generator’ and songs about falling or colliding with the occasional ‘ski’ dubbed over their choruses.

Unfortunately, this is one of the few times where the technology of the show was reliable – mic packs failed, screens had no signal, and the cast were forced to improvise when no lines appear for their participating audience members. Shout out to the two Stage Managers – Lauren Lambert-Moore and Ella Kennedy – for handling these problems so well. Their apparent boredom at the proceedings only added to the hilarity and stupidity of it all.

Karp plays a soft-spoken and self-obsessed Paltrow whilst Martin is Sanderson, an exceedingly awkward old man who leads a miserable life in stark context to his lawsuit rival. The pair – as expected – have great chemistry and are clearly having a lot of fun on stage. The rest of our colourful characters are made up of the audience themselves who are selected as they take their seats. The audience as a whole also has a significant role to play at the end of the show as they vote via QR code on whether Paltrow is Gwinnocent or Gwuilty.

“a fun show, and the pop culture references are rife.”

The main issue in this production is its pacing. The show drags – it is far longer than it ever needed to be. There is some expectation in drag circles that the overly camp will also be a bit rubbish featuring poor props and an ill-rehearsed cast. This, however, only works when the performance is also exceptionally funny which Gwyneth Goes Skiing is unfortunately not.

The audience must endure monumental amounts of filler. We meet The Deer of Deer Valley (a painted cardboard structure), Mrs Rabbit and Mr Squirrel (both puppets) on the slopes. The court scene eventually enters a montage sequence of key moments but not before near 30-minutes of inane chatter. The characters speak slowly – Paltrow understandably so – but it takes all the zing out of all the delivery. There are funny moments – joyously, Paltrow’s daughter Apple is played by an apple – but the largest laughs came from the show going wrong and even from the witty retorts of the participating audience.

The songs are originals by Leland – American songwriter of RuPaul’s Drag Race fame – and they are…OK. The best song is incidentally also the only one that is sung live by Martin via an appropriately absurd puppet of Sanderson’s attorney Kristin Vanorman. It is a shame that Karp and Martin opted for a lip-synced musical – especially as the voices do not match the gentle Swedish tones or gruff brutish voice of their respective characters.

The staging is fine. The revolve is used well to simulate skiing and the court scenes of the second half have a nice aesthetic to them. The audience is treated to recreations of Paltrow’s court-side outfits though Karp’s wig should really be the thing on trial here.

Gwyneth Goes Skiing is a fun show, and the pop culture references are rife. However, Karp and Martin don’t quite capture the camp of the original trial and it is hard to parody something that is so absurd in the first place. This is unfortunately not the duo’s strongest show.

LUCY AND FRIENDS at the Soho Theatre

★★★★★

“You will leave gasping for air, and an urgent desire to wash your hands.”

“Though some performances push the boundaries of what’s acceptable in theatres, underpinning them all is McCormick’s phenomenal talent”

LUCY AND FRIENDS at the Soho Theatre

Reviewed on 29th February 2024

by Rosie Thomas

Photography by Jonny Ruff

Previously reviewed at this venue:

LUCY AND FRIENDS

LUCY AND FRIENDS

GWYNETH GOES SKIING at the Pleasance Theatre

★★★

“it is hard to parody something that is so absurd in the first place”

“a fun show, and the pop culture references are rife.”

GWYNETH GOES SKIING at the Pleasance Theatre

Reviewed on 7th February 2024

by Flora Doble

Photography by Jonny Ruff

Previously reviewed at this venue:

GWYNETH GOES SKIING

GWYNETH GOES SKIING