The Sam Neill Experience – 2 Northdown, London.
Star rating: two stars ★ ★ ✩ ✩ ✩
Showcasing as part of the Camden Fringe Festival, The Sam Neill Experience is a sort of amalgam of shows like A Little Shop of Horrors, Urinetown and even hints of Stephen Sondheim’s Anyone Can Whistle.
It’s a tale of Sam Neill, a famous actor, here played by a woman (Naomi Gray) who comes to Boogieville to reconquer Hollywood but is now expected to be able to dance. The surreal happenings at the conurbation of Boogieville involve a dancing mayor called the Disco Doctor and various other characters, dogs that don’t pooh and a ban on pinot noir wine which makes the inhabitants invisible.
We get a lesbian relationship for the love interest with the best singing of the evening from Vanessa Mayfield as Jane. Victoria Howell as The Disco Doctor has a patter song about poohing dogs. Sadly, it lacks the satirical edge of musicals like those aforementioned, or a John Waters film.
There are some enjoyable songs though. And a gruesome but funny scene where dead dogs get eaten. However, it often veers towards pantomime. A better part of the props and costume budget seems to have gone on the sparkly dog that…but that would be a spoiler!
Authors Gregory Akerman and Ian Bowkett are to be congratulated on their efforts to get their show on stage, with minimal resources, and the actors for their valiant attempts to make sense of it all, but sadly it fails to hang together.
Leon Ferguson
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