A Review of The Mollys’ Bush! The Musical

There are some staples of Oxford Drama and one of them is undoubtedly The Mollys production company and all that it represents. We are talking about good entertainment value and always a laugh. It is so easy to get caught up in a desire for theatre to be high art, to be deep and serious and technical; but sometimes it should be just to opposite. Sometimes it should be written and performed simply for the fun of it. After all, theatre is an entertainment industry at the end of the day. With this in mind, I braced myself for their new production to be fun, attending with no other expectation.

To say that I was pleasantly surprised would be an understatement. Here we had a musical which, certainly, fully embraced the tongue in cheek moments but also something that was undeniably well put together. The writing was snappy and witty, channelling tried and tested cliches into the scenes while allowing room for the actors to breathe and develop their own adlibbed jokes. There was a feel of drama class improvisation to some of the moments, but this is far from an insult. Rather, it was due to an unselfconsciousness to the silliness on display. Every member of the team had embraced the level of humour and there were only a couple of moments when the cracks began to show on stage.

One of the most notable elements of the performance was without a doubt the choreography. Rebecca Harper’s wonderful dance numbers blended simple and humorous movement with the storytelling in order to create pieces which were slick and perfectly executed. Every one of these actors was clearly committed to making the show a success, from Freddie Houlahan’s gay Cheney to Josh Bruton’s evil mastermind Gore to Vivi Li’s not quite leading man Bush. Each character was distinct and fully embodied, the actors embracing their roles with a thoroughness that suggested they were having a great time. Comedy is a skill aside from traditional acting and one that all of these performers clearly possessed. If I were required to pick a standout performance I suspect it would have to be Bruton, whose sneer felt as perfect for his scenes as the black chair and stroking of an animal – this was a villain cliche to a tee.

I will be the first to admit that this show surprised me in every way. It was a wonderfully brought to life by the cast, each of them bringing their unique talents to the roles with enthusiasm and skill. Vincent Chen’s musical may not have been committed to historical accuracy, but it was committed to humour, fun and ample references to culture and cultural moments. Littered with laugh out loud moments, this was still a show that took itself seriously enough to do a good job. Was this the sort of thing I would seek out independently to watch? Personally, no. Was this the sort of show that I could see having a life at Fringe? Absolutely! Watching the final night of the short run did not feel like the end, but rather the end of the first chapter in this musical’s journey. I guess we’ll have to wait to find out when the next chapter will be, but for now colour me impressed.