Theatre / Reviews
Review: Notting Hell: The Greatest Story in the Underworld, The Wardrobe Theatre – ‘Consistently funny, heartfelt, and packed full of gleefully ridiculous invention’
There may possibly be just a small number of us who, over the years, might like to have seen Hugh Grant and all his works consigned to a floppy, foppish mumbling seventh circle of fire and brimstone. And in Notting Hell – a glorious mash up of the sickly-sweet 1999 film starring the aforesaid Hugh and Hollywood royalty Julia Roberts, infused with the sulphuric influence of Goethe, Ken Russell and Denis Wheatley among others, our wishes may just have come true.
From the makers of absurdist hybrid theatre that has included the wonderful Moulin Scrooge and The Good, The Bad and The Coyote Ugly comes this hilarious and increasingly surreal spoof of the Richard Curtis movie, plus a wicked pulling apart of the leading lady’s devilish backstory.
Did the superstar who meets the bumbling bookshop owner really sell her soul to Beelzebub in order that she transform from high school nerd to global legend? In this version, that’s exactly what happens and as the play unfolds we begin to understand the very real price she has paid for this trade-off.
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Instead of the cream of the silver screen we get legendary singer Lexie Chase (Esther Myers) wandering into the bijou bookshop and running into confirmed singleton Julian (Tom England), a not-even-thinly disguised version of Grant’s William Thacker. The diffident Englishness is played solely for laughs, and yet there is still that misplaced sympathy for the man who just can’t say the ‘L’ word without tripping all over his tongue.
Julian is ably partnered with Prick (Toby George) who takes on the rough-round-the-edges housemate that Rhys Ifans pretty much stole the show with in 1999. Julian and Prick are both conflicted when Lexie enters their lives, but it is Prick whose communication with the Devil (a truly excellent turn from Adiza Shardow) sets in motion the events which see the Princess of Darkness attempt to hold Lexie to the bargain she signed.
To say more about the details of this deal would be a spoiler. However, we can be sure that the roots of it lie in the bullying of bespectacled, teenage Lexie who didn’t naturally seek fame but was lured into it for reasons of validation, and the chance to meet the man of her dreams. It is this latter quest that is so problematic; however, after the season in hell which constitutes the best part of Act II, we witness the redemption and joy of all involved – and even the devil gets a hefty portion of love action to boot.
Like all the best spoofs, Notting Hell works because there is genuine affection beneath the irreverence. Richard Curtis’s world is gleefully dismembered, stitched together with occult horror, pop culture and pantomime, then sent shambling back onto the stage as something ridiculous and unexpectedly heartfelt.
Director Helena Seneca and company never allow the pace to slacken, piling visual gags, theatrical sleight of hand and increasingly unhinged comic invention on top of one another until the whole thing threatens to collapse into infernal chaos.
It doesn’t. Instead, it lands with surprising warmth, proving that even in a universe populated by demons, Faustian contracts and Hugh Grant impersonators, love really can conquer all. Hell, it turns out, has rarely been so much fun.
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Notting Hell: The Greatest Love Story in the Underworld is at The Wardrobe Theatre on July 14-August 8 at 7.30pm, with additional 2pm matinee shows on Friday and Saturday (no shows Sunday or Monday). Tickets are available at thewardrobetheatre.com.
All photos: Jack Offord
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