Give us your fucking money!

The latest in a (very) occasional series of musical reviews...

Just For One Day : The Old Vic

A random last minute choice because I had to go into the office (which is all of five minutes walk from this theatre), the seats were cheap and I have a lot of fond memories of Live Aid so I thought it would be interesting to see how much of it chimed.  I would say that my expectations weren't massively high - a cheesy night out with some decent songs was about as good as I thought I was going to get (and I heard someone in the foyer say "I've checked the program - I don't recognise any of them", so I wasn't alone!).

So it's an interesting stage set-up to start with, but the minute the house lights go down, the stage lights physically go up and completely disappear, revealing a much more standard configuration - and our cast on stage who mostly introduce themselves as someone who was there on "that day" (13 July 1985) for a variety of different reasons.  We then go back to the first BBC report from Ethiopia as watched by Bob Geldof and follow the story forward in time through Band Aid and on to Live Aid using the various characters as a vehicle for the story.

And you know what?  It's not bad at all!  Yes, it's a jukebox musical and it has the advantage of a huge number of songs to choose from, but they choose well and have some interestingly different arrangements (there's a particularly nice African-ish version of Bob Dylan's "A Hard Rain").  It's also, to my surprise, considerably funnier than I was expecting with some decent laughs scattered throughout the show and it also includes some of my main memories from the day - Charles & Di, Phil Collins on Concorde, Paul McCartney's mic failing and, of course, "give us your fucking money"!

It's a reasonably large cast (25-ish?) with a band also present on stage and they all make a very decent sound - there were some great voices up there and whilst their acting is not required to be at Shakespearean level, it's perfectly passable.  Abiona Omonua and Jack Shalloo (a very passable Midge Ure) stand out for me and Craige Els has a pivotal role as Bob Geldof and he carries it well, although more in mannerisms than accent.   Hope Kenna is also great as young Suzanne, representing the excited teenager that some of us were at the time and Julie Atherton is also most amusing as Maggie Thatcher - the "rap battle" she has with Bob Geldof is really well done.

I did have one major complaint though - my seat was indeed very cheap (£13) but it was INCREDIBLY uncomfortable and had a seriously restricted view of the stage, particularly if I didn't fancy seriously restricting someone else's view.  Fortunately, because it was a musical I was able to enjoy it aurally and I didn't really get the impression the missing visual elements were ruining things for me.  But under most other circumstances, said £13 seat would be worthless - a fact I should remember but undoubtedly won't.

I do have a vaguely amusing story for you though - before the performance I went to the bar (which is one of the better theatre bars out there) and asked what crips they had.  The answer came back "Cheese and onion, salt and vinegar, slightly salted (slightly quirky, I thought) and (quite obviously) mushroom and garlic".  What?!?  Absolutely normal, absolutely normal, absolutely normal and a flavour no-one has ever heard of - well, there’s only one I’m going for there even if I was pretty sure I won’t like them.  And when I asked for them the barman laughed and an obvious regular at the bar said “I’ve never been brave enough”.  But despite it being one of the hardest packet of crisps I've ever tried to open, they weren’t disgusting.  I can assure you, however, they weren't great...

Back to the show, I'd say my overall verdict is "decent" - it is pretty cheesy but it's bearably so and it has a good nostalgia element to it (which was totally the reason I went) whilst still maintaining enough originality (which was the reason I didn't leave - and the seat made that option quite appealing).  The audience definitely skewed on the older side which didn't surprise me in the slightest because I suspect there's not so much to attract those who didn't live through it but if you're included in that demographic then this might be of interest - and there are certainly worse jukebox musicals out there that you waste your time on.

The Book Of Mormon
Standing At The Sky's Edge