Review: The Messiah

By Richard Lutz

Britain does Silly really well. Think of Monty Python, The Goon Show and, today, nothing more daft than that tv take on Shakespeare, Upstart Crow.

The Messiah, at The Birmingham Rep, can be added to this list. Two deluded nincompoops hit the road with their own macro-amateur crackpot version of that Christmas mega-bash, The Messiah. Add to the mix opera singer Lesley Garrett (she still has pipes) and you rip up the Yuletide script and just sit back and enjoy the cardboard manger, how Mary used modern breathing techniques to give birth to baby Jesus and the Three Wise Men with (intentionally naff) tea towels and other peculiar thingummies on their heads. You get the idea. 

Hugh Dennis (Outnumbered, Mock The Week) leads the trio through the madcap nonsense. He’s ably supported by henchman John Marquez (Doc Martin). Ms Garrett gamely supports as she is called upon to belt out her arias  to  be continually blindsided by her moronic sidekicks. She even gives it a go with the tea towel schtick and a red beard to join the other Wise Men.

Writer/director Patrick Barlow is no newcomer to Advanced Silliness. His two man National Theatre of Brent did Zulu, The Charge of the Light Brigade and Wagner’s Ring Cycle. He doesn’t miss a  trick here: puns, malapropisms, open eyed slapstick and lamebrain logic far outnumber jokes that fizzle out. 

The Messiah ultimately heads for London…and, hey presto, just in time for Christmas and a West End jammed with pantos. 

It’s on at The Rep until October 27. Tickets