Ben Elton - The Musical
Gilded Balloon Teviot

Eighties lefty comedian Ben Elton was the scurge of the Thatcher government but much like 1.4 million people in the eighties this doesn't work. But that of course is not Ben Elton's fault, but the fault of Welshman Dan Thomas who wrote and stars in this spoof of the comedians shift from cutting edge comedy to becoming one of the things he once despised, a theatrical lovey. Great material for a spoof musical you might think and indeed it would be if the whole endeavour did not descend into a complete shambles which all too often had the audience staring at each other in case they had just missed a joke, they hadn't.

Good ideas start but lead nowhere except the lamest of musical punch-lines which had me at times confused and inevitably disappointed. If singing is not your strongest suit then putting on a spoof musical seems at least misguided and at worst insulting. Yes, there were laughs but unfortunately they were sprinkled rather sparingly and mostly missed the target by the size of Ben Elton's bank account. I don't know much about the background of Dan Thomas but judging by this effort he does not have much of a future in musicals or comedy.

Inconceivable? Yes indeedy.