George Glass Comedy. Gluttony - The Speakeasy. 16 Feb 2018
Falsely advertised as a musical, this workshopped idea has only reached the madcap band play-act stage for George Glass Comedy (GGC) to test on an unsuspecting Fringe audience.
Scientology The Musical is brought to you by the same folk who delivered that excellent and sad indictment, Abbott The Musical, to the Adelaide Festival in 2015, which did very much resemble a musical, in that instance, three-quarters of the way there.
Having said I feel I've been had, there is much to admire in this nascent comedy show. The cult of Scientology, and its enigmatic founder, L. Ron Hubbard, are ripe targets for satire. It's easy to ridicule Dianetics and pooh-pooh it as science fiction, until GGC do a word association game in comparative religion studies, "Q: Slavery and incest (Note: I think they meant paedophilia). A: Christianity." There is much to laugh at and some of the songs are witty in places.
Dressed in creased pseudo-Navy uniforms harking back to Hubbard's dubious career as a US Navy ship commander on the home front in the Pacific itching for action, GGC swung between banter, original satirical songs, and goofy physical comedy, and provided a metaphor for the secret knowledge of Dianetics with the rabbit of Alice in Wonderland.
Nicholas Conway, who played with aplomb the eponymous Tony Abbott in the aforementioned earlier work, played something like the eponymous Gilligan of the famous TV island. Drummer Henry Gazzola played nothing but drums, even refusing to don the requisite Navy duds; it was like he was in another show. Daniel Murnane showed up late for work and did what he had to do. Alister McMichael was less than fetching in a dress while Braden Hamilton was left with the task of explaining everything. They are all exceptionally ordinary musicians.
But wait, there's more. The stage area was too small, and the noise from even more boisterous shows in nearby tents was odiously overwhelming at times. Director Lisa Harper had a lot to answer for. The action was haphazard, the costumes were sloppy, and the sound was fuzzy and indistinct - I could not make out much from Conway's closing two songs. At least I think it was the equipment.
Maybe I got it wrong. Go see the show and audit it yourself; hook it up to the electropsychometer.
David Grybowski
2.5 stars
When: 16 Feb to 4 Mar
Where: Gluttony - The Speakeasy
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
