Scotch? - Houdini's Greatest Escape review

 DISCLAIMER: IN ORDER TO TRY TO GET THE REVIEW OUT BEFORE THE SHOW LEFT THE THEATRE, THIS BIT (UNTIL I MENTION) WAS WRITTEN BEFORE I SAW THE SHOW. IF I DIDN’T MANAGE I APOLOGISE, BUT YOU SHOULD STILL BE ABLE TO SEE THE SHOW AS THE LICHFIELD RUN WAS NEAR THE START OF THE TOUR.

As you may already know, I have already seen two plays by New Old Friends, Crimes on Centre Court and A Christmas Getaway, both at The Lichfield Garrick. Of these, I only wrote a review of ACG (Acronyms FTW!) I also mentioned my intention to see NOF’s newest play, Houdini’s Greatest Escape. This review is of HGE, and I was lucky enough to see a version of the show with a Q&A after the performance.

I HAVE NOW SEEN THE SHOW

Longtime readers (hello all one of you) will know that my reviews often include quite a lot of spoilers, but it has occurred to me that this post might get a little more engagement, so there are two versions of this review – This one, which contains some minor spoilers, but all out of context, and another review which goes into more detail; spoilers aplenty!

So the show opens with a few short magic tricks (I don’t think that’s much of a spoiler, but I won’t reveal which tricks were included) and introduces us to Harry Houdini, his brother Theo and his wife Bess.

One of the amazing things about this show is how historically accurate it is. Like the movie Bill, no it obviously didn’t happen, but there’s no evidence to say that it didn’t (Bill is a movie about William Shakespeare foiling a plot by King Philip II of Spain trying to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I during the seven years of Shakespeare’s life that we know nothing about).

However, unlike Bill, HGE has a lot more accurate history as part of it. Harry, Bess and Theo were all real and did work together and Harry’s real name was indeed Erik Weiss (spellings vary depending on source). Harry and Theo were really Hungarian, and most importantly for the plot, Houdini was devoted to exposing psychics and spiritualists.

However, I can find no evidence of him performing before Edward VII.

As with New Old Friends’ other shows, four actors play a multitude of characters:

Ben Higgins: Harry Houdini

Lydia Piechowiak: Bess Houdini

Kirsty Cox: Ma Barker; Agatha; Officer Dibble; Bartender; Jules/Nellie

Adam Elliott: Theo Hardeen; Newspaper salesman/customers; Fred/Ronnie/The Other Brother Barker; Police Chief Doyle; The Woodsman; Circus Ringmaster

As far as I know, this is the most comprehensive list of their roles on the internet (believe me, I looked), and I’m almost certain that I missed several characters out.

You may notice that two actors play one character each and the other two actors play the bulk of the roles, which is usually the case with New Old Friends’ productions, but usually only one actor has a single role, with three actors playing multiple roles. Why? According to Higgins in the post show Q&A, “budget.”

Whatever the reason, it makes the show very funny in how hectic it is, plus additional seventh wall jokes about “Let’s just say we met offstage.”

Speaking of the Q&A (there’s not much I can say without giving away spoilers), someone asked if there were bits removed, which the cast confirmed there were, including a train chase sequence using puppets which was removed because it wasn’t getting as many laughs as predicted.

Most of the other Q’s were about breaking into the performing arts industry, but my favourite question was about each of their favourite parts, which were:

Ben Higgins – The entire scene with the Huntsman, because Adam’s over-the-top performance is nearly impossible to get through without corpsing.

Lydia Piechowiak – The underwater scene, because it’s visually very funny, but has little to no dialogue in it.

Kirsty Cox – Didn’t want to commit to a moment, but cycles through her favourite character, which is currently (or was yesterday as I write this) Jules and Nellie the fictional elephant.

Adam Elliott –Riding an invisible horse

Anna Eagle, the stage manager who up till that point hadn’t spoken – cueing the bird sound effect and watching how angry Ben (as Harry) gets.

Everyone else might frequently be amazed that there are only four actors, but I find it even more amazing that there is only one crew member, with all the costume changes being performed by the actors themselves.

One question which I would have liked to know but forgot to ask, is whether or not they have understudies, and how they get around missing cast members. However, my question was sort of answered when it turned out that Adam had done the entire show having lost his voice (which must have been difficult bearing in mind the number of accents he utilised!)

So, to avoid spoilers as much as possible, I’ll give you my top 5 favourite bits:

1 – The Voices

Although none of the voices are historically accurate (as a Hungarian, Houdini would not have sounded like he was from Brooklyn), all of the characters have different voices, each more OTT and comical than the last, bringing another level of humour to the show.

Elliott in particular plays three brothers, the Barkers, who are all Eastenders but he makes them sound different (although he helpfully uses a hat and a pair of glasses to help us distinguish them).

2 – The Magic

As you might expect from a show about Houdini, there are several magic tricks, designed by magician Pete Firman. The secrets of these tricks are simple enough to work out, plus most of them are over a century old so they are easy enough to Google, but they were impressive nonetheless and executed perfectly. I didn't see the end of the final trick coming, although I should have.

3 - The Scotch 

On several occasions in the show, a character ordered a glass of whisky, resulting in the following exchange:

Character 1: Could I have a whiskey please?

Character 2: Scotch?

Character 1: (Scottish accent) Could I have a whiskey please?

4 - The Characters 

I already mentioned how each character is given a unique voice, but I didn't mention that most of the characters are OTT and unique in their own way ("If the woman with an elephant on her arm thinks he's weird, how weird can he be?")

5 - The Plot

I'll delve into the plot in more detail on my extended review, but suffice to say, it was an intriguing mystery that kept me guessing almost to the end. 

Houdini's Greatest Escape has now closed at the Lichfield Garrick but the tour continues until May 18, with a subsequent run in London afterwards; buy tickets here