Fringe Theatre

Ushers: The Front of House Musical

Momentum at St Stephen’s

Carmody Wilson

THREE Stars

The theatre world is ripe for lampooning, and this opportunity has been plucked many times by the likes of playwright Michael Frayn (Noises Off!), filmmaker Kenneth Branagh (A Midwinter’s Tale) and countless others. But what about the real behind-the scenes? No, not the bickering of actors, the stresses of the stage manager, the drama of the costumer, or the very real and not at all to be sniffed at crises of the critics? Piercing the witches’ veil, Ushers goes deeper, looking at the inner lives and outer dramas of the front-of-house staff, who are, of course, all wannabe actors.

There are a lot of inside jokes, and they are mostly very funny. A certain two theatre impresarios are conjoined to hilarious effect. There’s a love story, there’s a villain, and there’s a bombshell superfan character whose real-life equivalent is camped outside the Barbican in London right now. The singing is stunning, but strangely, over-serious. There’s a lot more turmoil than there is laughter in this play, and it suffers from “every character must have her/his song” syndrome. And here the over-seriousness, though played broadly, tips the show from being something truly memorable into just quite good.

Runs to August 30