Post Popular is Lucy McCormick's attempt to follow-up her fantastic and hugely popular show Triple Threat. To keep things very simple, where that show looked at religion this show looks at famous women of history, as McCormick goes on a whistle-stop tour starting from herself, then moving on to Eve (of Adam & Eve), herself, Boudica, herself, Florence Nightingale, herself, and so on. The narcissistic nature of the show is very much character work from Lucy McCormick, a talented performer who deserves her success, but one can't help thinking upon seeing it that McCormick seems to have enjoyed making Post Popular more than the audience are supposed to enjoy watching it.
Undoubtedly one to watch, just maybe when she comes back with a show more worthy.
The show is touted by critics and audiences alike as tasteless. It is bookended by crude acts involving genetalia and the act that closes out the show takes a sudden sharp left turn towards brilliance not seen before it, but with those two exceptions everything else that occurs in Post Popular seems remarkably toothless. If it were occuring at a regional theatre matinee it may raise the eyebrows it expects but clambering over audience members and yelling in their faces is, by this point, practically passe. The 'interval' in the middle of the show, wherein Lucy sits and tosses off a few half-jokes about random items she's purchased in Tesco, feels less earned and more placed to stretch out the runtime. Numerous jokes throughout the show stretch a good ten or twenty seconds passed their natural expiration, seemingly relying on a shock factor that for many audience members isn't there.
Throughout the show McCormick impresses simply through her talent. She is an extraordinarily-talented singer and an even better dancer, accompanied by two backing performers she choreographs a series of electrifying dance routines. These are never long enough though, and before the audience knows it she's back to squirting ketchup all over her neck again for what feels like at least two full minutes. Lucy McCormick has shown in the past that she's capable of combining this genuine talent with genuine shocking performance art to create some of the finest moments of any given Fringe festival. She is undoubtedly one to watch, just maybe when she comes back with a show more worthy of her own prodigal talents.
