If you like fast-paced political satire, polished with a high degree of musical theatre and jazz hands, this is the show for you! As to be expected from the team at NewsRevue, The Brexorcist neither fails to deliver nor scrimps on pomp and circumstance.
Fast-paced political satire, polished with a high degree of musical theatre and jazz hands
All four players show a high degree of skill in their repertoire. Brett Sinclair steals the show as Melania Trump. Maya-Nika Bewley presents a pitch-perfect Theresa May, with physicality, mannerisms and facial expression inducing much laughter from the audience. Her solo song On My Own brought the house down. Althea Burey is strong across the board, with her Boris Johnson voice and mannerisms down to a tee. Her Nicola Sturgeon Scottish Independence monologue proved a real hit, Scottish accent included. Christian James’s ‘beige’ Corbyn also hit the spot.
Musical director Andrew Linnie holds the show together from his keyboard, providing entertaining and apt musical accompaniment both alongside and between sketches. He takes us through musical genres from rap to Hair, the Spice Girls to Les Mis.
The show opens with an all singing, all dancing Spice Girls soundtrack synopsis of the current state of British politics and environmental catastrophe, pining for the perceived ‘good old days’ of the nineties.
Gems include: a John Bercow Mastermind sketch, singing avocados, a Harry and Meghan mortgage interview, a song about corporation tax avoidance. Other topics covered include les gilets jaunes, gender in the comedy writer’s room, teen knife crime, Extinction Rebellion and our plastic-choked oceans. A reference to how Edinburgh Fringe flyerers could be utilised for a ‘useul’ purpose brought the house down.
Don’t miss the HM Government satire of song Every Breath You Take, reappropriated to inform users of online pornography about the obligatory identity declaration. Sinclair and James’s moon duet took levels of slapstick clowning from the sublime to the ridiculous, with the pair’s obvious enjoyment at their clowning around creating an infectious roll of laughter, around the full house of the Underbelly. A Les Miserables themed Brexit countdown finale climaxed with Burey killing it as Bo-Jo, singing a subverted Master of the House.
The Brexorcist will leave a fiendishly funny glint in your eye, accompanied with laughter-muscle strain in your belly. Catch NewsRevue now, before they exit the stratosphere.
