We’ve Got Each Other at The Vaults, London and Touring.
Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩
Delicately positioning his especially purchased IKEA angle-poise lamp, leafing gingerly through his script and staring wide eyed at the audience, like a rabbit caught in spotlights – if only this production could have afforded them – Paul O’Donnell initially cuts a somewhat forlorn figure.
Fronting his self-created one-man show that’s obviously stripped down to the creative bone, he seems genuinely unsure just where the evening is going. Ditto the audience. “My aspirations are a little limited,” he confesses early on.
Sixty minutes later, he cuts a joyous, triumphant
figure, revelling in the impressive execution of this bizarre, occasionally
hilarious and highly entertaining camp and obscure homage to rock legends, Bon
Jovi.
Following a sell-out Edinburgh Festival Fringe
run at the Pleasance prior to a few nights at London’s Vaults, We’ve
Got Each Other embarks on a UK tour and regional audiences are in
for a treat.
As an antidote to over-lavish, jukebox
musicals, you can’t get much more extreme than this. It all relies on his
ability as the fabulous fantasist he clearly is, to transport the audience
across to East Manhattan and envelope themselves in the tragic love story of
Tommy and Gina. The backing soundtrack, of course, features classic snippets
from Bon Jovi hits and eventually it all gels impressively. The ‘Livin’ On a
Prayer’ iconic introduction is just one segment used to great effect.
Along the journey, there are tinges of sadness,
great comic asides and even a scathing comment on the average West End
audience’s interval experience, delivered by O’Donnell from the shadows during
the mock interlude.
At one point, he apologises: “You haven’t come
here to get depressed, there’s plenty of other shows at The Vaults for that.”
This is a performer with a sharp sense of comedy, great timing and a few
opinions to air about the drama industry.
It takes a while, but by the 40-minute
stage, this production has really grown on you. Having set up a frenetic,
ludicrous dancing stand-off between the good guy and the bad guys, he calmly
says: “Of course, dockers love to tap dance!” It’s a killer of a line and the
show never looks back from that moment.
“There is something rather magical
about spending two hours in a room lost in a fantastical large-scale
musical, and I was curious to see if I could capture this experience in my
own small-scale work,” states O’Donnell.
The consensus of opinion from The Vaults’ audience was a resounding yes. His unique execution, ‘walking a creative tightrope’ execution and barbed comments won’t be to everyone’s taste, but as rock legend Jon Bon Jovi sings: “It’s My Life.”
I can’t see him changing his creative approach – it would be a shame if he did.
Derek Smith
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