“They didn’t think I existed…which was my greatest trick by the way”
The veneer was plush and the lights orange, the same set up as CabaHooray before it. It’s amazing how much like hell cabaret can seem.
How Satan Got His Groove Back is about the dark prince having essentially a midlife crisis. Being immortal and already in possession of 6 mistresses, a snappy outfit and Snoop Dogg’s phone number, it’s no ordinary midlife (my money would have been on a hernia from too much good times). Satan, with loyal minion Asmodeus, goes on a road trip and on the way has many wild adventures and meets many kooky folks whom he changes and who change him etc etc. Hilarity ensures.
HSGHGB is an ensemble comedy play. Tricky, but it worked. Tricky, because unlike a stand-up show it cannot adequately be tried and tested in drips and drabs, it has to be at least as funny as its neighbors in a specifically funny festival, it needs a good space and your full attention and it needs be a consistent product or it’s toast.
Did it achieve this? Actually, yes. Some stunt.
For starters, any good ensemble play needs a good ensemble, and Satan has the cream of the western crop. Jeff Hewitt is the Great Tempter himself, John Robertson embodies a right hand right wing demon (the role he was spawned to play), Natalie Lewis is a Christian rocker, Michael Burke is largely just a Christian, Laura Davis plays the papa of all Christians, and the irreplaceable Werzal plays ‘every single character from The Bill’. Bingo Bango play….themselves, as does Louisa Maree Fitzhardinge (aka queen of the prostitutes), Mike G is ruining Sabrina the Teenage Witch and James DeLeo is just ruined.
And it’s an odd show too. Segmented essentially, but with a definite narrative arc (I suppose like a League of Gentleman third season episode, it was in parts as dank and culture savvy). Part pantomime, part character pieces, part film festival, part legitimate musical, part illegitimate party entertainment, part robot thanks to God (you really have to see it), part arsehole thanks to Asmodeus.
I could see it being staged by a year 10 drama class. That’s a compliment, by the way, not many plays could survive the transition. There’s always snags though, and as usual these are personal qualms. Like Cabahooray staged earlier in the same venue, there were parts played straight I didn’t like including a nice-enough but gear-shifting version of Depeche Mode. There was a climax on a crossroads that was either very symbolic (cross = Christ? crossroad = decision?) or just wantonly specific. Was Cockney the guardian angels true form, only everyone else seemed to change (and Satan become Filipino)?
But these are the tiniest of flotsam in an otherwise pristine sea. It was pretty good, in parts pretty god-damm good, so provided the local and topical references can be altered along the way if this sideshow of sin slithers into your town I suggest you be tempted.