Magic Goes Wrong Festival Theatre Edinburgh 13th April 2022 Review
Magic Goes Wrong is at The Festival Theatre Edinburgh this week (Wed 13 Apr to Sat 16 Apr), and although it is nice to see the return of Mischief Theatre to the live stage after too long an absence over the past few years, this show really should have been called Magic Goes Wrong, Goes Wrong.
On paper, the merging of talents between the often razor sharp script and comedy timing of Mischief Theatre and the undoubtable talents of top magicians/illusionists, Penn & Teller should have created a very special show that highlighted the best of both, and that is what I was expecting. Sadly for me, what I got was neither of these things.
What has gone wrong here? I don’t know to be honest, there are so many negatives here for me, but it is maybe fairer to start with the positives. Magic Goes Wrong has without a doubt the largest and probably the most expensive looking stage set that I have seen Mischief Theatre work with, and it is an impressive backdrop for our magicians – Compere/Magician (Sophisticato - Tom Hill), German magic duo (Spitzmau /Bar - Jocelyn Prah & Chloe Tannenbaum ), Mentalist (Mind Mangler - Rory Fairbairn), Dangerous trick man (The Blade - Kiefer Moriarty), Magicians’ accomplice (Eugenia - Valerie Cutko) and audience “volunteer” (Mickey – Daniel Anthony). Our Mischief team have also obviously worked very closely with their stage illusionist mentors to make some of these tricks look far easier than they actually are to perform. There are of course more than a few of the “magical stage standards” here, but that is OK as Penn & Teller are also creating a homage here to the many great on-stage magicians/illusionist of the past and a few of their very special friends.
The negatives, well there are many, but top of the list for me is that although our comedy team make some of the magic tricks are deceptively impressive, so much of that Mischief comedy magic and timing that I have come to expect and love in earlier shows was simply not here on stage for me tonight. Instead what I got was a very thin story that the show was built around, and comedy and punch lines that all too often felt weak and laboured.
For me, nothing illustrates the weakness of the comedy more than our German sister double act. Sorry, Mischief Theatre, but I had hoped that finding humour in long worn out national stereotypes was behind us all and the days of relying on a fake accent for a few laughs was something the writers should have simply been above, as from earlier shows, they certainly have no need to go down this road for comedy material.
All of the time I watched this show, I was never really sure where it was going. Once you strip out the magic tricks (and I don’t know why, but I expected a lot more magic tricks to be here, lots of smaller ones, not just the big one) there is a comedy script that seems to be struggling at times to fill out the running time of this stage show. Maybe part of the reason this show is misfiring with me so often is that it must be so hard for any comedy company (no matter with whom they are working) to do something new with comedy magic as there are so many other performers who have been there over the years, including of course Tommy Cooper. Was there enough untouched material left out there for something truly original to come out of this show? Judging from tonight, obviously for me, that answer is a no.
To balance this review out a little, I have to say that some children around me in the theatre, and one in a row in front of me, were finding this show hilarious and at times it had a lot of that feel of pantomime (and I don’t mean that in a bad way). Perhaps unintentionally, a great children’s show has been produced here - who knows.
There is also a certain irony in a "Magic Goes Wrong" show being performed in The Festival Theatre, on the site of the former Empire Theatre Palace where the famous illusionist, The Great Lafeyette on Tuesday 9 May 1911 had his own "Magic Goes Wrong" resulting in the theatre being burnt to the gound with the loss of 11 lives, including his own.
Review by Tom King (c) 2022
www.artsreviewsedinburgh,com
On paper, the merging of talents between the often razor sharp script and comedy timing of Mischief Theatre and the undoubtable talents of top magicians/illusionists, Penn & Teller should have created a very special show that highlighted the best of both, and that is what I was expecting. Sadly for me, what I got was neither of these things.
What has gone wrong here? I don’t know to be honest, there are so many negatives here for me, but it is maybe fairer to start with the positives. Magic Goes Wrong has without a doubt the largest and probably the most expensive looking stage set that I have seen Mischief Theatre work with, and it is an impressive backdrop for our magicians – Compere/Magician (Sophisticato - Tom Hill), German magic duo (Spitzmau /Bar - Jocelyn Prah & Chloe Tannenbaum ), Mentalist (Mind Mangler - Rory Fairbairn), Dangerous trick man (The Blade - Kiefer Moriarty), Magicians’ accomplice (Eugenia - Valerie Cutko) and audience “volunteer” (Mickey – Daniel Anthony). Our Mischief team have also obviously worked very closely with their stage illusionist mentors to make some of these tricks look far easier than they actually are to perform. There are of course more than a few of the “magical stage standards” here, but that is OK as Penn & Teller are also creating a homage here to the many great on-stage magicians/illusionist of the past and a few of their very special friends.
The negatives, well there are many, but top of the list for me is that although our comedy team make some of the magic tricks are deceptively impressive, so much of that Mischief comedy magic and timing that I have come to expect and love in earlier shows was simply not here on stage for me tonight. Instead what I got was a very thin story that the show was built around, and comedy and punch lines that all too often felt weak and laboured.
For me, nothing illustrates the weakness of the comedy more than our German sister double act. Sorry, Mischief Theatre, but I had hoped that finding humour in long worn out national stereotypes was behind us all and the days of relying on a fake accent for a few laughs was something the writers should have simply been above, as from earlier shows, they certainly have no need to go down this road for comedy material.
All of the time I watched this show, I was never really sure where it was going. Once you strip out the magic tricks (and I don’t know why, but I expected a lot more magic tricks to be here, lots of smaller ones, not just the big one) there is a comedy script that seems to be struggling at times to fill out the running time of this stage show. Maybe part of the reason this show is misfiring with me so often is that it must be so hard for any comedy company (no matter with whom they are working) to do something new with comedy magic as there are so many other performers who have been there over the years, including of course Tommy Cooper. Was there enough untouched material left out there for something truly original to come out of this show? Judging from tonight, obviously for me, that answer is a no.
To balance this review out a little, I have to say that some children around me in the theatre, and one in a row in front of me, were finding this show hilarious and at times it had a lot of that feel of pantomime (and I don’t mean that in a bad way). Perhaps unintentionally, a great children’s show has been produced here - who knows.
There is also a certain irony in a "Magic Goes Wrong" show being performed in The Festival Theatre, on the site of the former Empire Theatre Palace where the famous illusionist, The Great Lafeyette on Tuesday 9 May 1911 had his own "Magic Goes Wrong" resulting in the theatre being burnt to the gound with the loss of 11 lives, including his own.
Review by Tom King (c) 2022
www.artsreviewsedinburgh,com