Alexander S Bermange
Seabright Productions
Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester
July 2-6, 2024: 1 hr 15 mins
I Wish My Life Were Like a Musical started at the Edinburgh Fringe, and it’s good that creator Alexander S Bermange and director Matthew Parker’s show is still essentially the same: a small-scale, one-act revue packed with witty songs that tell you everything about the business of musicals.
The show has won award nominations and great reviews, and deservedly so. All it needs is a stage, a piano and four brilliant performers. Since much of the theme is the trials and tribulations of getting to be successful, they have to be top talent.
Luke Harley, Sev Keoshgerian (who was in last year’s Fringe production), Jessi O’Donnell and Julie Yammanee (also in the Fringe version) are just that. They take us through the vicissitudes of would-be stage stars: the ordeals of auditioning; the horrors of over-complicated dance routines and too little time to learn them; the desperation to get at least to cover a role, and the disappointment when you never have the chance to go on – and of course the starry-eyed idealism of the title song.
There are theatrical monsters, too: the hypochondriac who’s always asking for special remedies and special treatment; the soloist with big ideas, who still can’t sing in tune; the bit-part player who is longing to “truly perform”; the diva who has always to be centre-stage and hog the limelight, and the tribulations of getting into a slobbery kiss with someone you can’t stand.
Audiences don’t escape, either: super-fans in their own costumes, American theatre geeks ticking off their bucket lists in the West End, obsessives who see everything dozens of times over… and the real weirdos, who include drama critics pretending they’re above just enjoying a show.
There’s also a (very truthful) song about the times aspiring performers ask whether they should give up, with the feeling that they’ll be letting down the families who have sacrificed for them, and the teachers who have believed in them; that happens, too.
There may well yet be a temptation to big it up into something more lavish, with an interval and longer running time, in larger venues. I’m glad I have seen its original format – an intimate, funny, sentimental and fundamentally honest glimpse of reality behind the footlights.
If you love musicals, you’ll love this show. There are allusions and pastiches of hit song styles, and yet Bermange is constantly inventive and a real tunesmith in his own right. And it’s been a sell-out everywhere so far. It’s been to Liverpool, but this tour’s only northern venue is this one, so grab it if you can.
More info and tickets here
