Venue: The Assembly Rooms
Time: 12.00 midday
Price: £9 to £11

 Gyles Brandreth the ex Conservative MP promises you 100 musicals in 90 minutes or your money back, and for once this isn’t a lying politician. Zipp! Is a rollercoaster ride of pure brilliance. The Reduced Shakespeare Company managed great success with its version of lots of The Bard in little time, and I’m sure this is destined for even better things, especially with a West-End run in the pipeline.

The hugely talented cast each with exceptional singing talents managed to make you laugh, clap, tap your foot and wonder what was next during the whole 90 minutes, and not once did you start to get a bit board as you always knew that another musical would be along in a minute!

 Gyles Brandreth has written this well constructed montage of musicals with great care and makes sure you learn of a few new musicals while seeing their take on your favourites. The addition of Big Sister, a neon sign that keeps track of how many musicals are performed adds another extraordinary dimension to the show and keeps you on your toes.

 Gyles has a great rapport with the audience, and is actually a very funny bloke; he creates a great sense of atmosphere and passion towards the performance, especially when clad in suspenders and all during The Rocky Horror Show sequence! Notable other sequences was the brilliantly funny Les Mis collection and the Complete Works Of Andrew Lloyd Webber, twice, once in under 60 seconds…it does have to be seen to be believed.

Andrew C Wandsowrth, Claire-Marie Johnson and Amanda Symonds play their role’s like old pros having a laugh, and their voices are defiantly up to the job. Stuart Barr on piano also is fully involved in the show and is a highly talented musician in his own right, and along with some brilliant chorography and direction you never loose any sense of the fun which Zipp! creates.

You come out smiling, humming about 20 different tunes and knowing you’ve thoroughly enjoyed 90 minutes of entertainment like no other.

4 OUT OF 5

 

!!!!!STOP PRESS!!!!!

Edinburgh Festival Award-winner transfers to West End

Gyles Brandreth ZIPP!s into London in the New Year

Eat your heart out Michael Ball; roll over Sarah Brightman; and make way for Gyles Brandreth (writer, broadcaster, former Tory MP and government whip) as he makes his West End debut as an all-singing, all-dancing fishnet-wearing diva in ZIPP! the sell-out musical revue that was voted by audiences as Most Popular Show at the 2002 Edinburgh Festival.

Following the success of ZIPP!, the critically acclaimed hit of the Edinburgh Festival in August, Gyles Brandreth and his Pocket Musical Theatre Company are bringing their bluffer's guide to musicals to The Duchess Theatre, Catherine Street, London, previewing from 24 January and opening 4 February 2003.

In a non-stop race against the clock, ZIPP! guarantees the audience '100 musicals in 90 minutes or your money back'.

Gyles Brandreth, who devised and wrote the show (and appears in it in a range of guises, from Henry Higgins, Mame and Elvis to Jesus Christ Superstar) said; 'We are the Ryanair of musical theatre. No frills, but incredible value for money. We give you the complete works of Andrew Lloyd-Webber in sixty seconds. We give you the showstoppers without the tedium of the intervening show. And if you don't like one musical, don't worry. Another will be along in just a minute.'

With ZIPP! the Pocket Musical Theatre Company (P.M.T. 'highly talented highly strung') climb aboard an hilarious high-speed musical roller-coaster that does for the world of musical theatre what the Reduced Shakespeare Company did for the works of the Bard. From Floradora, the hit of 1900, to Bombay Dreams and Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang in 2002, ZIPP! covers a century of Broadway and West End musicals every show you'd expect to find and quite a few that time forgot (e.g. Sideshow, the musical about Siamese twins, and Twang!!, Lionel Bart's most celebrated flop.)

Brandreth added; 'The show is changing all the time. We've got several surprises for the West End. As a new musical opens somewhere in the world we check it out to see if it needs to feature in ZIPP! This is an evening for people who love musical theatre. They get to hear all their favourites. It's also an ideal evening for people who hate musical theatre. They can get through 100 shows in one night. They need never go to a musical again.'

The Pocket Musical Theatre Company includes Andrew C Wadsworth (whose West End musical credits include Les Miserables, Sweeney Todd, Guys and Dolls, South Pacific, Oklahoma! and Kiss Me Kate), Amand Symonds (Godspell, One Mo' Time and Stepping Out), newcomer C J Johnson and the Musical Director, Stuart Barr. 

Kate Copstick of The Scotsman said of The Pocket Musical Theatre Company; 'Apart from Gyles (your life is incomplete without delighting in Mr Brandreth's interpretation of Mame and Dolly simultaneously), we have Claire-Marie Johnson, a willowy soubrette with an amazing top end to her voice that only labradors can enjoy, Amanda Symonds, a siren so sassy she makes other red-hot mamas look like popsicles, and the little butterball of musical joy that is Andrew C Wadsworth. Linda Lovelace may have had her clitoris in her throat but Wadsworth's voice is truly orgasmic. Stuart Barr is at the piano and occasionally in a paper bag. I am still looking for my socks, which he blew off with his vocals in Jesus Christ Superstar.'

Zipp! is directed and choreographed by Carole Todd (whose credits include Elvis The Musical and Ferry Cross The Mersey in the West End, UK, Australia and Canada; Me & My Girl, Chicago, Grease and recent concerts for Elaine Paige, Jane McDonald and Gary Wilmot) and the producers are Chris Davis, Laurie Mansfield and Greg Smith for Pocket Music Theatre Co Limited with Rick Senet, in association with Julius Green and Ian Lenegan.

The Producers will be adopting a budget airline ticketing policy for Zipp! bringing with it some great savings for West End Audiences.

Show Title: Zipp! One Hundred Musicals For Less Than The Price Of One.

Venue: The Duchess Theatre, Catherine Street, London WC2

Dates: Previews from 24 January 2003 / Opening Night - 4 February 2003

Show Times:

Mon Sat 8pm

Wed and Sat - 3pm

Opening Night - 7.30pm

Ticket Prices:

Previews: All seats £15 except Friday and Saturday evenings when all tickets

£29.50

From 4 February 2003: £17.50 / £25 / £29.50

Group Rates: 20+ - £17.50 & 8+ - £22.50

Groups Accelerator Rates (book and pay by the 20th January for performances until end March 2003): 20+ - £15 & 8+ - £17.50 (all tickets carry a booking fee)

Box Office: 0870 890 1103 24 hr Credit Card bookings