The Frogs
Review by Sam
⭐⭐
One of Sondheim's lesser-known musical comedies jumps into Southwark Playhouse Borough for a revival which is billed as an adaptation by Burt Shevelove, and ‘even more freely adapted’ by Nathan Lane.
Suffering from the weight of political unrest, Dionysos (the god of drama) travels to the underworld with his servant Xanthias in the hope of bringing back a great playwright who can restore civilisation through the power of art. This quirky and mad musical becomes even more bizarre, when along the way they encounter a chorus of singing frogs, a literary showdown between Bernard Shaw and William Shakespeare and enough fourth wall breaking humour to make Deadpool (the god of humour) jealous!
Kevin McHale makes his UK stage debut in a role that leans heavily into his comedic timing and self-aware performance. The updated script and references to its star casting make for fun and wit, as the show revels in poking fun at the “off west end” nature of the production. Dan Buckley leads the piece alongside McHale, with an all-encompassing performance that is highly exaggerated and joyous. However, it is Carl Patrick who steals the show with his over exaggerated comedic performance that deservedly gets the biggest of laughs. Whilst there are many jokes, excellent choreography and great performances, unfortunately not every joke manages to find its landing (or lillypad if you will).
There is a lot to enjoy and revel in, however there are sadly many moments which are met by silence due to a combination of line delivery, occasional pauses between dialogue, and ultimately the strength of the material itself. The show feels prolonged and drawn out to fill the 'traditional' musical run time and suffers because of this. Significant cuts to the source material should have been made to strengthen the piece, but in its current iteration I was sadly left feeling that the show wasn't quite as ribbeting as I'd hoped.
Despite the show not landing for me, longtime Sondheim fans that have been keen to see a production of The Frogs won’t be disappointed by this camp, amusing and wittily modernised revival.