"Remember!" bellows alcoholic children's entertainer Jeremy Lion at the end of his car crash of a gig: "This could be your living room!" You'll thank God it's not. Lion, the bloated, belching alter ego of comedian Justin Edwards, is an Edinburgh festival mainstay now unleashing his woefully misjudged "edu-tainment" on London audiences. In a new development for the character, Edwards has created a comic play in which Lion relocates to rebuild his career after an organ accident incinerated his former pianist.
The result, which revisits a few of Jeremy Lion's classic routines, is as deft and monstrously funny as anything Edwards has done. The first act takes place in Lion's den. Knee-deep in tatty props and handbills, pizza cartons and beer tins, Jeremy is visited by wannabe sidekick Hilary Cox (Gus Brown): eager, teetotal and "clean", says a sceptical Lion. "Like a policeman, or a hearse." (The script is studded with such gems.) Commissioned by the local community centre, the pair have three weeks to create a new calendar-themed kiddies' show, which may or may not feature Lion's well-loved hits Don't Play in the Bins and All the Dogs Are Dead.
In the second act, the duo perform their routine, and ratchet up the hilarity - at least for those of us with strong stomachs. It starts slickly; Hilary has brought a little showbiz sheen to bear. But Lion is soon reverting to type, and to the bottle. First, he's almost fatally miscast as the fitter of two racing pancakes. Then, Lion watches in horror as his Easter bunny prop dispenses chocolate in an extremely inappropriate way.
Around this point, the show ceases to be credible as spoof children's entertainment and becomes something darker: a tragicomic freakshow of alcoholic obliteration. You may laugh a lot at Lion's signature set-piece: a viciously boozy 12 Days of Christmas in which "five go-o-old rings" sounds more like a primal scream with every passing verse. But it could damage your kids for life.
· Until November 11. Box office: 020-7907 7060.
