THE DANNY CROWE SHOW by David Farr. Bush Theatre to 10 November
London
THE DANNY CROWE SHOW
by David Farr
Bush Theatre To 10 November 2001
Runs 2hr 10min One interval
TICKETS 020 7610 4224
Review Vera Lustig 19 October
Puerile comedy about people trying to inveigle their way into confessional TV show.
The media circus has moved on. Canny publicist Max Clifford is a more fitting target for satire than daytime TV's evergreen Kilroy formula. Kiss-and-tell clients occupy primetime. Still, there's some dramatic mileage in confessional TV, with its commodification of misery, its exploitation of the walking wounded.
So I squeezed into the Bush for Dominic Hill's production in eager anticipation. I noted from the programme that the eponymous TV host does not appear; how daringly oblique, I thought. Appreciatively, I contemplated the set, a dingy corridor where the hopefuls wait to present the 'unique selling-point' that would catapult them to London and 15-minute celebrity: 'My Sister is My Mother'; 'The Obese Twins'.
Soon, though, the words 'rush' and 'fools' formed in my head – a reaction not to the first candidate (a pneumatic girl whose breast implantation had been terminated midway), but to the strained comic dialogue and messy plot.
A young no-hoper, Peter, announces he has just killed his father – shades of Playboy of the Western World. The scene shifts to Peter's home, which he and his perky friend Tiffany have transformed into a chamber of horrors to hoodwink Danny Crowe's talent scouts. The pair frantically rehearse their 'Gothic domestic tragedy': they are siblings, their father a satanist. Snag is, Peter's father is alive and well. Tony Turner, all bewildered, shuffling kindness, shines.
Clare Holman, in holey sweater and threadbare role, as an earnest, burnt-out Danny Crowe researcher, does not fare so well. The character seems to have wandered in from some sub-David Hare play. Five years ago Holman was a sympathetic, deliciously comic Honey in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Not only is Danny Crowe a wasted opportunity; it also squanders talent.
Lynette: Selina Chilton
Tiffany: Lisa Ellis
Miles: Tom Goodman-Hill
Magda: Clare Holman
Peter: Mark Rice-Oxley
Roger: Tony Turner
Director: Dominic Hill
Designer: Tom Piper
Lighting: Mark Doubleday
Sound: Paul Bull
Fight director: Jonathan Waller
2001-10-23 10:20:46