Despite a fun-sounding premise, A Race of Robots unfortunately does not live up to its name. Clearly attempting to parody old sci-fi B-Movies, the word ‘parody’ falls by the wayside fairly quickly and all we’re left with is a B-Movie. A B-Movie with some songs.
When the robot itself sings, it’s like a battery assault on our eardrums
A Race of Robots tells the story of two friends who discover a robot abandoned on a beach by some aliens in the 50s. They take it to an old mad scientist for some reason, who promptly tries to take over the world. There is also a rival scientist, a husband and the return of the alien! Honestly, the plot isn’t particularly thrilling. It also plays out exactly as you think it will. There is limited self-awareness about this but it happens all too infrequently.
Occasionally the script appears to remember it’s a musical and about five songs are shoe-horned in throughout the forty-five minutes. When the robot itself sings, it’s like a battery assault on our eardrums but the rest of the cast actually sing fairly well, if a little out-of-time here and there. The songs themselves however are fairly uninspired. It feels like the show is only including them to justify the title of ‘musical’.
The cast do try their best and manage to get a fair amount of laughs here and there. A moment where a cliff is blown up is quite amusing. If this show were on in the late evening, perhaps with a drunk audience, it might be more recommendable. As it stands, even though it might qualify as harmless fun to some, it’s probably not worth your time.
