It's the show you've all been waiting for even though you might not have known it. Adam Riches and John Kearns, both Edinburgh Comedy Award winners with decidedly idiosyncratic streaks, have teamed up for this unique tribute to two of the country's finest musical stars, Michael Ball and Alfie Boe. Yes, they really have. The result is an hour of sheer brilliant stupidity.
From the moment they come on in slick tuxedos belting out a show tune as if their lives depended upon it the performers tread a precariously thin line between piss-take and pastiche. Overall this feels affectionate rather than mean. Riches is the older, finger-clicking senior partner Ball with a touch of Vegas about him, Kearns the northern upstart who yearns to do his original songs, like Ernie Wise wanting to do one of the plays what he wrote.
In fact there's more than a hint of Morecambe and Wise and other comedy double acts about this musical twosome. We've seen the complex dynamic of duos played out before – in BBC anthology series Inside No 9, for example, in their episode Bernie Clifton's Dressing Room. Riches and Kearns touch on similar frictions. Will they stick together or will one of them go solo or bag a better offer from Michael Buble?
Beyond the smart outfits there is no real attempt to impersonate the people they are playing. For anyone who saw Emma Sidi's recent show about Labour's former Chief of Staff Sue Gray there is a similar absurdist approach here. An imagined appoximation rather than a Dead Ringers-style Xerox.
Much of the fun comes from watching the bickering banter and knowing genial interplay. Riches demolishes the fourth wall with his snarky asides while there are pleasing echoes of Les Dawson in Kearns' occasional dour delivery and chunky physicality. For anyone familiar with Riches' fondness for gags about Yakult, there is a running gag here about a different pocket-sized product that the duo contractually need to promote to keep the show on the road.
And yes, there are also those songs, even though it's probably fair to say that Riches and Kearns don't quite have the vocal prowess of Ball and Boe. But while they might not be able to hit the high notes in music, they certainly hit them in comedy. A true must-see one-off from two comedy greats.
Soho Theatre until January 7. Tickets here.
Picture: Matt Stronge
*****
