Review: POP OFF, MICHELANGELO!, Underbelly Boulevard
Photo credit: Danny Kaan
Welcome to the Italian renaissance, a time of art, invention and homophobia. Patrols are on the loose to hunt down the gays, led by an evil friar who dreams of becoming the assistant to the pope. Best friends Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, realising that they’re both at risk, decide they’re going to become the greatest artists ever. Can they win the Pope’s favour? Will God forgive them? And, more importantly, will their friendship survive?
This show made its highly successful debut at the Edinburgh Fringe festival last August. Following this, the show then transferred to The Other Palace’s main house in November for another successful run. The current production at Underbelly Boulevard Soho offers a (mostly) brand new cast and an aesthetic revamp.
The new design really sets the tone for how incredibly camp the show is going to be, with its mix of modern pop and renaissance features. The set is simple but really effective, especially with its brightly coloured lighting, and doesn’t underestimate the intellect of the audience to understand what these pieces are supposed to be representing. We particularly like that a lot of the projections in the show are projected onto the cloud above the pillars at the back of the stage space, it definitely creates a feel of a time of higher art and revolutionary discovery. With its omnipresence above the stage, the cloud also gives a sense of reaching for something more intangible, like aspiring to/dreaming of a more understanding and accepting plane of being.
Dylan MarcAurele, who writes the libretto and the music, absolutely knows what he’s doing with this show. The book is really strong, the lyrics are very catchy and the music is fresh and memorable. He is a talented comedian and has mastered the art of surprise with the way the songs suddenly diverge from one train of thought to another. The song ‘Pick Me Girl’ particularly stands out in this sense, starting out as Michelangelo seemingly getting serious, inspirational advice from a higher being to being told ‘don’t be a pick me girl’.
He fully embraces camp stereotypes and unapologetically takes them to a whole new level, which doesn’t take away from the more serious underlying discussion about how to best embrace your true self during a dangerous time of persecution. He lets his characters be perfectly imperfect. We love to see Da Vinci slowly deciding to just be himself even though we worry for his safety and it breaks our heart to watch Michelangelo build an inner wall and battle with his sexuality. The Pope is so self obsessed and materialistic, it is absolutely hilarious, and the friar is so pedantic and so Disney villain-esque that her character highlights how sinisterly crazy and ridiculous homophobia is.
To that end, there couldn’t be a better cast for this production.
Aidan MacColl, who plays Da Vinci, has a huge stage presence and gives his performance an electric energy which is exciting to watch. He portrays his character as someone who is highly intellectual in the most unexpected way and finds it physically impossible to hide who they are, which is a particularly interesting interpretation of this historic figure.
Max Ede has a strong singing voice, especially with his considered tonal variation within the songs. He presents Michelangelo as fundamentally scared to the extent where it comes across as aggressive at times and gradually begins to dominate his life. We find ourselves wanting to give the deeply feeling Michelangelo a hug, and tell him that he’ll find his people and that it gets better even if it doesn’t feel like it will.
Aoife Haakenson has a mind blowing singing voice, and Laura Sillett has mastered the art of portraying the main villain, giving the friar some panto-like flare, which is perfect for this kind of musical comedy.
A bright and loud celebration of self love and queer joy. Camp in the best way; exciting, hilarious and highly entertaining to watch.
***** Five stars
Reviewed by: Megan O’Neill
Pop Off, Michelangelo plays at London’s Underbelly Boulevard until 13 July, with further info here.
