I Wish My Life Were Like A Musical – Live at Zédel

I Wish My Life Were Like A Musical at Live at Zédel, London.

Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

One of the summer residencies at Live at Zédel, comic songwriter Alexander S. Bermange’s 17-song musical revue I Wish My Life Were Like A Musical returns fresh from its successful run at the same venue in April of this year.

With an almost entirely new all-star cast, together with a different director and staging, the current production far surpasses even its earlier iteration. And with two new songs, another appearing unabridged, three others enriched with added harmonies, a differently ordered set list, and fresh interlinking dialogue, it is almost a new show in itself.

I Wish My Life Were Like A Musical offers light-hearted reflection on the multi-faceted world of professional musical theatre, exposing many of its less than glamorous aspects and poking fun at the genre’s idiosyncratic features from the glitzy opening number to the compulsory encore.

While the laughs come thick and fast, there is clearly more than a flicker of truth behind many of the show’s revelatory anecdotes, and one is therefore led to wonder whether its subject matter might not have struck the occasional chord with its highly experienced company of leading West End performers (and possibly with audience members as well).

Suzie Mathers, to my mind the standout performer in the inaugural production, is the sole returning member of the cast, and continues to sparkle in some of Bermange’s wittiest songs, drawing out every last ounce of comedy in ‘Guest Spot’, ‘I Love to Sing’ and ‘The Diva’s in the House’.

Completing the strikingly evenly-matched line-up are Madalena Alberto, delivering a performance admirably sincere and showy in equal measure; Cedric Neal, who is blessed with a remarkable ability to captivate the audience through his engaging storytelling; and Lucas Rush, who ably tackles some of Bermange’s most demanding numbers including ‘The Key Problems’, characterised by its wide leaps and complex musical transitions.

Familiar to many internationally from performances of his songs on BBC Radio, Bermange also has a string of musicals to his name, and I Wish My Life Were Like A Musical is a natural development from the earlier one-man shows of his witty ditties sung by the multi-talented composer himself at the piano, which increasingly incorporated guest-spots for West End stars.

Displaying a kaleidoscopic knowledge of musical theatre, Bermange ingeniously inserts multiple quotations from many of the best-known shows into several of his numbers, some easily recognisable but others much more subtle, such as those in the new song ‘A Step Too Far’, concerning a calamitous choreographic routine but at the same time a musical tribute to celebrated song-and-dance numbers.

The other newly added song, ‘The Kiss’, sees Alberto and Neal tell the story of two performers cast as romantic leads but who do not seem to get along offstage – complete with an unforeseen twist that has become something of a trademark of Bermange’s comic numbers.

As pianist, musical director and co-arranger, Bermange himself excels throughout the evening’s performance, although I did feel the loss of his solo song, ‘Stuck in the Ensemble’, which is one of those excised since the spring to make room for new material.

Derek Bond’s direction injects much welcome pizazz into the show, including a greater number of choreographed routines relative to its earlier iteration while continuing to make judicious use of the full space available in the intimate setting of Live at Zédel.

With its tales of catastrophic auditions, ridiculous performance rituals, and obsessive fans, I Wish My Life Were Like A Musical offers a delightfully whimsical take on the musical theatre industry, imparting all the things you ever wanted to know but were too afraid to ask.

Christopher Wiley