Craig Methven – There Ought To Be Clowns

“We’re all fucked, so just enjoy the sea air”

Beach Comet have clearly found their niche in creating spoof B-movie musicals and so Apocalypse Cruise Ship Love Affair now tracks the same path that its older sibling Vampire Hospital Waiting Room did last year, in following up a successful Edinburgh run with a short London residency at the Above the Arts Theatre. And just like its forerunner, it is hugely daft and hugely enjoyable – the perfect tonic as the nights close in and the clocks roll back.

The plot – insofar as such mundane things are relevant – involves the deranged Captain Bleufonde’s determination to resurrect his dead lover by steering his cruise ship into the eye of a devastating storm, plus cruise rep Hanks Leeroys’ struggles to abide by his rule to never fall in love with a passenger upon meeting nun Evie. But what makes Apocalypse Cruise Ship… really fly (or sail, whatever) is the sharpness of its comedy. Continue reading “Review: Apocalypse Cruise Ship Love Affair, Above the Arts”

“Do you want to know what Old Kent Road smells like?”

Beach Comet’s Edinburgh hit Vampire Hospital Waiting Room has transferred to the sweatbox Above the Arts Theatre for a short but sweet run and still has a bit of that festival mindset about it, not least in a starting time of 10pm. But Theo McCabe and Craig Methven’s comedy musical is worth extending your bedtime for and if you choose use the time before to take a glass or two, then all to the good.

Not that I’m advocating drinking before the show but rather that it is so gloriously daft, that lowered inhibitions can only help your enjoyment of the evening. Describing itself as a comedy B-musical, it’s an hour of low budget but high octane entertainment, loopy characters like the vampire-obsessed Dr Bloom and the comatose Artie, charmingly silly songs like ‘Let’s Put The Fun in Funeral’, and no end of cracking comic dialogue. Continue reading “Review: Vampire Hospital Waiting Room, Above the Arts”