The Messiah

The Messiah review

This is a comical, side splittingly hilarious production. You don’t leave the theatre with any new looks into life or spectacular moments to think about but I came out recharged, happy, and with a sore stomach and cheeks from laughing and laughing so hard.

The Messiah, written by Patrick Barlow, with additional material by John Ramm, Julian Hough and Jude Kelly. Directed by Tom Gutteridge, The Messiah is a retelling of the Nativity story according to Desmond (Max Gillies) and his unlucky helper Raymond Box (David Lee Smith). Rosemary Barr as the opera singer Mrs. Flowers completes the group to make a trio.

This is light, clean humor. The slapstick comedy works better in real life than on TV because you have the extra advantage of audience reaction and participation. “What do you think we are a statistic?” This is the line that gave some of the funniest viewer’s participation moments. We were invited to participate by murmuring at Rome, hah-ing at Caesar, and shouting at the census. It turned into chaos filled uproar match that went into fits of laughter and a huge round of applause before interval from the crowd. If audience participation scares you don’t let it. This is all inclusive and no one gets picked on. All the classic slapstick and ridiculous situation are there. Raymond has a problem saying big words, whilst Desmond is constantly correcting and breaking out of character to talk to the audience and Raymond.

The set designed by Bryan Woltjen is mismatch of pieces that look exactly like Desmond made them. i.e., fake and appropriate to break. Max Gillies suited Desmond perfectly. A character so sure in himself and his abilities with the English display on top, Gillies has perfect comic timing. He sparked with life and it was obvious he was enjoying himself. His facial expressions alone are a thrill