I love a good spell of blasphemy and with The Heather Brothers who composed the music, wrote the book and the lyrics to Holy Crap you get just that – and it’s 135 minutes of irreverent entertainment. With the help of a very ‘in the moment’ trio of musicians the party is on. Holy Crap is the story of GOD TV which after being a fantastic smash in the States decide to launch the pay per view channel in the UK. It’s a disaster and with the threat of the Mafia closing in due to unpaid bills the Rev. Bobby Del La Ray, played exquisitely by John Addison, decides to revive the channel’s misfortunes by broadcasting porn on it under the disguise that all the stories come from the scriptures.
There is a great comic flow to this musical and at its heart is a glorious send up and satire of the commercialisation of religion and the fanatics that attach themselves to doing the work of the Lord. There is a superb scene where God is shown as a puppet – so the reverse of the situation where it is deemed that we are all God’s puppets makes for a very funny anecdote. The musical is OTT and this can be easily forgiven especially in the scenes that feature broad chaotic comedy in the sending up of the heavy accented Sicilian Godfather style characters. Letitia Hector as Destiny Jackson is an impressive soloist but for natural talent Rachel Marwood as scheming Clarissa LaFayette is in a class of her own, a very gifted comedienne; her stigmata joke is hilarious.
Nuno Queimado who plays Vinnie Minelli, Emma Salvo as the narrator and Victoria, Peter Bindles as Luigi and Van Der Valt and lastly Arvid Larsen as Rex Bedderman flesh out a cast that are simply having a ball. This is witty stuff, where the exploitation and manipulation of the moral majority and the hypocrisy found in the church regardless of faith or the lack of it is given a twist where the dialogue between the musical numbers is as strong as the songs. Pop along an enjoy some sinful pleasure directed with great bravado by a very naughty Benji Sperring.
****
Holy Crap runs to Saturday 8th July at King’s Head Theatre, 115 Upper Street, N1 1QN. Box office 020 7226 8561 www.kingsheadtheatre.com
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