A recording of McQueen from the St James Theatre as was, now The Other Palace, doesn’t change my mind about a show that others seemed to like a lot more
“What is it about men with watching eyes Alexander?”
I hadn’t clocked that there was a recording of McQueen: The Story of a Fashion Visionary floating around the ether, a sign perhaps how much I wanted to even think of such a thing. I saw the show twice – once in its original incarnation and then again at its West End transfer – and neither time did James Phillips’ play strike me as being much cop. But clearly there was enough of a push behind it to engineer the transfer and also make a professional recording so I thought why not, in the spirit of Advent let’s give it another go. I really shouldn’t have.
John Caird’s production is style over substance because Phillips provides him with none. And since we’re at the St James, we’re put through the rather wooden performance of Glee alumna Dianna Agron who can’t elevate such poor material in the way that Stephen Wight’s Lee is fitfully more able to. The prancing models schtick wears thin very quickly but in lieu of character development, narrative arcs, plot progression or psychological insight, there’s little else to do. Unless you’re a masochist, I’d avoid giving this a watch (bah humbug!).
