Comparing Notes: Oscar Conlon-Morrey with Edward Seckerson at Crazy Coqs, London.
Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
There cannot be a better way of spending a Sunday afternoon than in the company of the outrageously talented Oscar Conlon-Morrey which is what those lucky enough to be at the Crazy Coqs did for the latest in famed music critic Edward Seckerson’s series of conversation-and-song sessions with personalities of the West End stage.
And “personality” is what larger-than-life Conlon-Morrey most definitely has. To paraphrase football manager Brian Clough’s immortal quote, this unique entertainer may not be the funniest man on the planet but he’s in the top one!
At the moment Conlon-Morrey is playing ten different comic roles eight shows a week in Only Fools and Horses The Musical at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket and Seckerson jokingly suggested they get him to do every part and save money. A sample of one of them, the dating agency character, followed and kept us in stitches just like everything else he does.
Yet it is only four years since he graduated from Mountview and wowed almost everybody at the Sondheim Society’s Student Performer of the Year competition at the Noel Coward Theatre.
A riotous performance as the faux-Italian barber Pirelli in ‘The Contest’ from Sweeney Todd had the audience cheering wildly that day. However, the panel of judges, which Seckerson chaired, somehow found two to beat him but SSS patron Julia McKenzie was so impressed she donated a £250 consolation prize out of her own pocket.
Seckerson himself immediately saw this flamboyant OTT character as a breath of fresh air with something very special to offer and so it has proved, Conlon-Morrey attracting an ever-increasing audience, and when his long run in Only Fools and Horses was rudely interrupted by Covid, he used that break to win more fans with wickedly funny videos on social media that brought much-needed cheer to a nation at rock bottom.
He didn’t reprise ‘The Contest’ at the Crazy Coqs but was every bit as hilarious as King George III, complete with royal-red crown and cape, in his own version of ‘I’ll Be Back’ from Hamilton and a whirlwind, speeded-up ‘A Very Model of A Modern Major-General’ from Pirates of Penzance while gulping down the entire bottle of what purported to be Merlot between stanzas of that Gilbert and Sullivan classic.
We weren’t officially told it was blackcurrant cordial but that was the best guess given his subsequent mastery of even the trickiest of lyrics.
It is important to stress that Conlon-Morrey is much, much more than just a lovably camp buffoon. This is a man with a powerful, passionate tenor which gets right to the heart of great numbers like ‘Losing My Mind’ from Follies and ‘I Am What I Am’ from La Cage Aux Folles.
Born in Doncaster and spending his early years in Newark – he recalled playing Oliver Twist when he was ten – his entry into showbusiness came via the am-dram route. Initially turned down by RADA and Guildhall as “not quite ready” but more probably “because I was long-haired and pompous”, he went off to run his grandmother’s antiques shop in Limoges.
Finally getting into Mountview College in North London, he was lucky enough to have “Uncle” Jason Carr, the award-winning composer and pianist, as mentor and near-neighbour.
It was the ebullient Carr who accompanied him so beautifully at Crazy Coqs, his long, thrilling ‘Warsaw Concerto’ piano solo giving the audience a much-needed laughter break before they completely burst their sides.
Yet there is a serious side to Conlon-Morrey. Deeply concerned about the future of theatre and the arts, he feels people are shouting louder to show they care rather than doing anything about the problems created by the pandemic.
What next, we wonder, for this man of many parts. His own future at least looks assured. The only way for Conlon-Morrey is up.
Jeremy Chapman
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