Guy Mart - a new musical
Waterloo East Theatre • 2nd Nov - 12th Nov
I first saw Guy Mart at the Kings Head Theatre back in July, and I remember feeling it was a little unfair to review it less than 24 hours after seeing the rather lavish and star-studded press night for A Strange Loop at the Barbican Theatre. Both were musicals, and both more than earned their place in the canon of new queer theatre, but that’s about where the similarity ends. That being said, and despite it’s resources clearly being just a fraction of those enjoyed by A Strange Loop, Guy Mart was living proof of the old adage, ‘it’s not what you’ve got, it’s what you do with it that counts’, and on a relatively spartan stage at the Kings Head theatre, George Lacey (book and lyrics) and Richard Seaman (music) managed to create a thoroughly entertaining show, with great songs and an intriguing concept.
Now, 5 months later, it’s back at a brand new venue (Waterloo East Theatre), and with a new actor joining the four-strong cast. In the opening number we are invited to ‘Grab a basket, grab a trolly, browse the supermarket, and come get your jollies!’, it soon becoming clear that Guy Mart is the manifestation of a digital dating app made physical, (er…you know what I mean) where, instead of scrolling through profiles in a virtual space, customers are invited to browse the aisles of the store, ‘shopping’ for the real guys found on the shelves there. Run by Alfie (Jack Jacobs) and Freddie (Nick Sedgwick) what starts off being played for camp laughs, (the lyrics and script being littered with double entendres), eventually gives way to altogether darker dystopian undertones, (or should that be ‘gaystopian’), as a mirror is held up to the rather less appealing aspects of gay dating as, whilst Guy Mart is the place for gay men to shop, it soon becomes apparent that once they start they just can’t stop!
Despite this status of the men, who surrender themselves to be ‘stock’, being reduced to little more than a sellable commodity, (sound familiar?), one new arrival, Matt (Daniel Walford doing a great job taking over from Finn Whelan in the role), puts himself on the Guy Mart shelves with the best intentions to find Mr. Right, but when he is brought back for not ‘performing as expected’, customer services are contacted, and just as Matt is returned to the shelves after several such encounters he has a chance run in with Joe (Viktor Andonov), with who he just might have found his perfect match… the question being, has he now become damaged goods due to his previous unfulfilling encounters.
This production certainly manages to punch above its weight, and at their best, some of the songs are not so dissimilar in style of those once performed by the much missed Victoria Wood, albeit with the ‘camp-o-meter’ dialled up beyond 100. Whilst the vocals occasionally battle with the musical soundtrack, the fact that the score has been pre-recorded actually works to Guy Mart’s favour for the most part, giving a much richer, fully mixed musical bed on top of which the actors can sing live. Confidently directed by one half of the creative team, George Lacey, the impressive lighting (Katie Harrison) is also one of this limited staging’s strengths, and helps elevate the already catchy tunes to new levels. Some of the bigger ballads might be just beyond the vocal reach of a couple of the cast, but on the whole Guy Mart won this reviewer over, the well cast Jacobs and Walford delivering performances that are a joy to watch.
The question is will Matt be able to forget the failures of the past and allow himself to meet the man of his dreams… you’ll have to take a trip down the aisles of Guy Mart to find out.
★★★★
review: Simon J. Webb
photographs: Tough Nut Theatre