“Witty lyrics and outstanding performances – it’s not possible to be bored by this show”
BY JENNIFER KENNEDY
After a day of depressing office politics while on the nine-to-five hamster wheel, I’m most certainly in agreement with the sentiment of this show…
A song and a dance would have made the two hour finance meeting I’d just left marginally more interesting. Jazz hands from Accounts Manager Joan may well have held our attention more effectively than the 90 slide PowerPoint presentation we instead endured.
Standing in the queue gave me the opportunity to admire the iconic 19th Century landmark which served as the venue, the McEwan Hall. There was also the anticipatory buzz that always accompanies a popular event in the Fringe…
The West End Wilma Award and the Broadway World Award nomination for Alexander S. Bermange’s show are well deserved. There’s a lot to enjoy as the lives and careers of musical theatre performers are explored. In themselves the soaring ballads then the more bouncy numbers are enough to entertain – add in the witty lyrics and the outstanding performances and it is not possible to be bored.
Bermange sought accounts from many of his performer friends of their most memorable (and funniest) real life experiences and they play out in his sardonic lyrics. I watched the wide-eyed and innocent students, the brattish diva’s and the bitter has-beens tell their story and experience bitter backstabbing. And I reflected that perhaps the challenges, pitfalls and opportunities are pretty much the same wherever you work.
So even if you don’t work in the theatre you will identify with the issues – and if you do, there are some great in-jokes to enjoy.
An incredible cast with stellar CV’s give a hysterical and heart-warming performance.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
For tickets, visit tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/I-wish-my-life-were-a-musical
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