Mario: A Super Musical – Cockpit Theatre

Mario: A Super Musical at the Cockpit Theatre as part of the Camden Fringe Festival, London.

Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Since 1981, Mario has one of the most recognisable characters in the world. Everyone has seen his enthusiastic, moustachioed face as he bounces over pipes and monsters on his Sisyphean quest to keep Princess Peach safe from the clutches of the evil Bowser. Many of us have even spent an embarrassing number of hours pushing our thumbs to the verge of permanent injury aiding him on these adventures. Yet nobody knows a whole lot about who this character really is. He is given little dialogue; he is a not so much a character as our human window into a strange video game world. In other words: he is not an obvious candidate for a musical.

So, how did bookwriter/lyricist Jim Burrows and composer Winston Eade solve a problem like Mario? Ingeniously, they shifted the spotlight onto the secondary characters, those less ballyhooed but no less wacky supplementary denizens of the Mushroom Kingdom. After all, only the most boring people choose to drive a go-kart, hit a golf ball, or bounce on Goombas as Mario when such delightful creatures as Yoshi, Toad, Donkey Kong and Bowser exist. Sure, these characters were never particularly three-dimensional either – even when the series itself took that leap itself in Super Mario 64 – but somehow it feels more acceptable to pad out their stories in a way that felt deeply wrong for the titular plumber in the 1993 Super Mario Bros. film flop.

Mario: A Super Musical’s cast of six, its one act running time, and its non-Nintendo-backed fringe theatre budget do not allow for the entire four-decade old Mario universe to appear, but Burrows has certainly packed a lot in. When first conceived in 2015, it was apparently a much more expansive and unwieldy show, but director/dramaturg Ellie Coote has worked wonders in helping tone it down to a superbly fun single act of joy.

The plot bears some resemblance to 2005’s Super Princess Peach for Nintendo DS: upon realising that her plumber hero has gone missing, the leader of the Mushroom Kingdom must reverse her usual “damsel in distress” role and head off on an adventure to save the day.

Jessica Lim is superb in her performance as the princess, bringing a practical grit that is missing from the underwritten 8-bit portrayal, as well as admirable singing and comedy chops. Peach convinces Mario’s cowardly brother Luigi (played with the most Scottish Italian accent you will ever hear by the fantastic Billie Kerr) to join her, as well as the layabout dinosaur Yoshi (James Hastings) and loyal yet eternally patronised royal aide Toad (Sam McCallum). This pair prove to be dependable sources of huge laughs, and very much keep the fun alive throughout the show.

But of course, it is the villains who make the Mario universe memorable, and the dream team of Caitlin Swanton and Kieran E. Sims absolutely shine in their task of representing the darker side of the Mushroom Kingdom. Swanton plays Kammy – a magical turtle monster, second in command of the evil Koopa army – as a sometimes scary, sometimes sultry cross between the Emcee from Cabaret and Willy Wonka’s evil twin. She absolutely owns the stage in her every appearance, deigning only to share it with Sims’ most wicked King Koopa: Bowser himself – another masterclass in musical comedy villainy.

Through the magic of doubling roles, we are also treated to two more incredibly popular characters from the franchise, from opposite ends of Mario’s existence. Midway through their adventure, Peach and the gang encounter Billie Kerr’s ethereal, divine, stoned Rosalina – based on the star princess from the Super Mario Galaxy series. They also come across Mario’s first ever antagonist, Donkey Kong: a stunning second tour de force performance in one show from Sims. Without wanting to give any spoilers, there is a scene featuring Toad, Yoshi and Donkey Kong that manages to be hilarious, heart-warming and heart-breaking simultaneously in a way that shouldn’t be possible given the ridiculousness of what we are watching. Stunning.

The fact that the show is not an official product of the strictly family-friendly Nintendo Company gives Mario: A Super Musical the freedom to be cheeky, and often downright dirty. Despite feeling nervous for the parents of the few very young children in the audience, this is a wonderful thing. Most of the sold-out crowd at the Cockpit Theatre were in their twenties and thirties – the perfect age for filthy and hilarious comedy about what they held dear in their childhoods. There are buckets of great in-jokes about gaming for the fans – and I’m sure many more that I did not pick up on – but these are balanced perfectly with broader humour. It is a night of non-stop laughter, even for the Sega fans.

The one negative with this not being a Nintendo property, is that the Mario series’ iconic music could not be used. Fortunately, Winston Eade’s score is brimming with catchy hooks, and his 8-bit style arrangements are charmingly reminiscent of those retro NES, SNES and Game Boy soundscapes. The songs themselves – featuring vocal arrangements by musical director Laurence Stannard – are quality pieces of musical theatre writing, with beautiful piano ballads and characterful villain songs that would not feel out of place in any major West End auditorium. There is even the now obligatory hip-hop number, which Kerr tackles with impressive skill. Between this and her smooth riffs elsewhere in the show, she truly makes her “player 2 characters” stand out as fan favourites among this audience.

The Cockpit Theatre’s playing area is well-utilised and littered with props – literally ‘littered’ given that the majority are made of old cardboard boxes, but that is one of the joys of fringe theatre! Choreographer Laura Dawn Pyatt has given this show the dynamism of a real Mario game. When characters aren’t travelling or dancing, they are engaged in slow motion, anime-inspired fight choreography. All very impressive given the small scale and small budget.

Things aren’t perfect of course: this is low budget fringe theatre. Sound levels are a bit wonky in places and perhaps with a slightly longer running time, the meta (verging on profound) ending could have been given more in the way of setup, but those niggles are minor: this show is super. Simply boundless fun. Hopefully the team will stage more performances soon so more people get a chance to experience it. Mario: A Super Musical works fantastically well as a small, fringe production, and if the extremely litigious Nintendo keep their distance, it is easy to see it doing well in larger spaces too. Either way, there is a bright future ahead for this gem. Let’s-a go!

Ian Bowkett