Shortly into this one-man show, it crossed my mind that possibly the only thing bigger than Jesus is Rick Miller's ego. This is the kind of show that critics often describe as a "tour de force", which is another way of saying that the actor leaps around showing off - sometimes inappropriately. Alas, that is much the case in this piece, which uses the liturgy of the Catholic mass to explore how a small-town Jewish rabbi, who died ignobly and largely in obscurity 2,000 years ago, has become such a phenomenon - with millions worshipping him and wars carried out in his name.
The trouble with Bigger Than Jesus is that it wants to have its cake and eat it too. There is nothing in the show to offend either the most devout Christians or the most rabid non-believer. Or, for that matter, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists. In fact, there is very little that will come as a surprise at all, except possibly the fact that 67% of Americans have absolutely no idea that Jesus was a Jew. Beyond that, Miller offers up well-worn arguments that Jesus's legacy was manipulated by the early Christians to make the story more powerful, and that the Gospels were written between 40 and 70 years after Jesus's death and therefore might be a tad unreliable.
Elsewhere, there is an Andrew Lloyd Webber spoof that goes on almost as long as one of the theatrical knight's actual musicals. There is also a great deal of punning, an unfunny and sentimental sequence about how more prayers are uttered on aeroplanes than in churches, and a Last Supper in which Homer Simpson is cast as Judas and Dorothy and the Tin Man as Mary Magdalene and her pimp. It is all scarily unfunny and smug: if Miller hadn't crucified himself first, I would have offered to do it for him.
· Until August 27. Box office: 0131-623 3030.
