Budding musical thespians aim to be what is called a ‘triple-threat’, developing extreme talent in the three areas of musical theatre - acting, singing and dancing. Generally individuals have a particular strength in one of these three key areas. It is clear that the strength of the two young guys in this particular musical endeavour is acting, and one can’t help but think they should have just stuck to that.
Midge the Musical follows the story of a young orphan, Midge, who goes to live with his crazy uncle Clive, who has invented a bunch of highly plagiarised items and objects, all of which he unsurprisingly cannot get patents for. It is revealed that he has built a spaceship made out of junk, while secretly imitating a sinister old man and making another orphan girl, June, dig a hole to the centre of the earth and fill it with barrels of gunpowder disguised as semolina. Midge discovers his plan, but by then has already been taken by Clive to the Moon. It all sounds thoroughly bizarre but is not to be taken seriously, which is emphasised by the actor’s frolicking stage antics. One of the most memorable concepts was Midge’s fear of anything related to Ancient Rome as his parents were killed while driving along a Roman Road. This brought about thee best moment of the piece with a very clever climax to the running joke.
While the lyrics were excellent and packed full of puns, the execution of the songs was poor. Neither of the boys had a great voice, although this was remedied by the fact that they didn’t take themselves too seriously and it did seem on occasion that they were mocking the classic musical, with elongated money notes and ridiculous riffs that went down well with the crowd. The acting, however, was very good, a fact that was somewhat spoiled by the lack of stage lighting, meaning the boys were in the dark if they strayed too far from the front of the stage.
If you accept the fact that the two men in this two-man musical aren’t the best singers in the world, then this show is a pun-riddled, wordplay-filled if slightly predictable hour of light-hearted sci-fi fun. If you like the sound of the finale, “You Are the Semolina of my Soul,” then it would be worth seeing this wacky musical. It’s free, after all.
