After Wednesday’s draconian cuts to the arts budget, we could all use a spot of light relief.
The exuberant international stars of last year’s award-winning entertainment La Clique are not the sorts to be down in the dumps for long, which is why their sparkling new show, celebrating the ongoing revival of the variety/cabaret genre, is just the thing to combat the gloom.
La Soirée, housed in a luxuriant mirrored, wooden, South Bank big top bedecked with crystal and leadlight, is the perfect offering for the forthcoming festive season. The audience is out to have a good time, and a good time is what the likes of sword-swallowing Miss Behave and multi-hula-hooping Marawa provide.
Gentlemen may be disappointed by a lack of nipple-tassels on display — the emphasis isn’t on burlesque — but there’s plenty of toned male flesh for ladies to admire, particularly from David O’Mer, who performs bathtub-based acrobatics in wet jeans.
A couple of turns — the programme varies slightly from night to night — fall a little flat, but overall the standard is terrifically high. Much as I admired seeing double-jointed contortionist Captain Frodo squeeze himself through the 10-inch frame of a tennis racket, I drew the line at watching him voluntarily dislocate an elbow.
My favourite act came courtesy of the bowler-hatted, pinstripe-suited English Gents, whose gymnastic agility saw one standing, unsupported, on top of the other’s head, like a two-man totem pole. The duo’s individual numbers, one of which has Hamish McCann swinging horizontally around a lamp post in a style of which Gene Kelly could only have dreamed, were equally impressive.
"Whose legs are those?" is not a question one often asks in the theatre. The friend I took, elated by this joyous Soirée, shrugged happily.
"I think I’ve lost my grip on reality,", she beamed.
Until January 30. Box Office: 0843 221 0999. www.la-soiree.com
La Soiree
Magic Mirrors, The South Bank Big Top
behind the National Theatre, South Bank, SE1 8XX
