Review: POTTY THE PLANT, Wilton’s Music Hall - Tour
As a group of over-emphatic and excited actors wave to us from the stage of Wilton’s Music Hall, it looks as though we are in for a parody of children’s theatre. The tone soon changes in Potty the Plant, however, and we realise it’s actually a madcap plot involving a hospital with a vampire on the staff, not to mention a talking, singing and even tap-dancing (very briefly, blink and you miss it) plant.
So far, so Little Shop of Horrors; and we did wonder if we were in for a parody of that show, with the puppet of Potty looking very similar to Audrey II, although with button eyes added and less decoration. It wasn’t a parody of LSOH however, which leaves us wondering why the puppet looks so similar, and even sings about being green at one point in a voice not dissimilar to that of Kermit. There is even a voiceover at the beginning in an American accent, which is exactly like the beginning of Little Shop.
There are six in the cast, all playing the staff at Little Boo Boo’s General Hospital (perhaps that name also belonged to an initial conceit of basing the show around a children’s entertainment). The one-hour show includes a lot of songs to a recorded track, all quite similar to each other but usually chirpy, fairly engaging and well delivered. Some characters speak in transatlantic accents and others don’t, for no obvious reason.
The script, however, seems to be trying to be far too many things at once. One minute it’s light and silly and then the next minute, we are supposed to find it uproariously funny that the vampire consultant is actually a paedophile…cue loud laughter from one group of supporters in the audience who found everything absolutely hilarious. The corny sub-panto jokes in the script are not made funnier by frequent swearing. The few gags that do fly are mostly more subtle and meta, a direction in which the show could have gone.
The show has been to Edinburgh twice and will be seen there again this year. At Wilton’s, however, this was just an hour of student humour (someone has ginger hair, how funny) that seems out of place, despite the more than competent cast. Lucy Appleton is an engaging heroine and Joe Winter makes the most of Nurse Dave. Baden Burns creates a convincing character for the plant but then undermines it by appearing with just the head and leaving the rest of the plant in its pot. The whole show could have benefitted from a director who was not part of the trio responsible for all aspects of Potty the Plant.
The programme mentions a possible expansion of the show into a two-hour version. Much better that the creators build on what they have learnt and create a new, revised production. Meanwhile, Potty the Plant can be seen at Gilded Balloon in Edinburgh for most of August, and is likely to feel at home there.
** Two stars
Reviewed by: Chris Abbott
Potty the Plant plays at London’s Wilton’s Music Hall until 28 June, with further info here.
