Mat Fraser is a writer and actor; he is also one of the 450 British babies born in the 1960s to women who had taken Thalidomide, a drug in widespread use for many ailments including the easing of morning sickness. These babies were born with a distinctive limb damage often characterised by flipper-like arms. In Thalidomide!! A Musical, Fraser traces the history of Thalidomide from its discovery in post-war Germany to its present-day use in Brazil for treating leprosy.
Along the way Fraser offers a scenario of cover-ups and cock-ups as pharmaceutical companies suppressed or ignored mounting evidence of the drug's damaging effect. Worn down by years of fighting, the parents of Britain's Thalidomide-affected babies eventually accepted measly compensation offered by Distillers - the firm who marketed the drug in the UK - who insisted the money was not an admission of guilt.
Not surprisingly it is anger that largely fuels Thalidomide!! This is used to terrific effect in sardonic songs such as It's Hard to Hitch Down Life's Highway with No Thumbs, and Monster Babies, a catchy little diatribe that would have warmed William McGonagall's heart with lyrics that go: "Monster babies! Monster babies!/A vision from Hades, worse than rabies."
But if the mixture of fury and bad taste musical is potent stuff, the fluffy romantic comedy element in which the hero Glyn finds true love with Katie, only after he has severed her arms in a drunken car crash and reattached her hands, is never going to get turned into a movie with Hugh Grant and Reese Witherspoon in the leads. I found myself totally confused: surely Fraser doesn't actually believe that the able-bodied can only love on equal terms with the disabled if they have been mutilated at the hands of their object of affection?
There is a similar confusion over the use of Thalidomide as a treatment for leprosy. If it can alleviate symptoms and suffering, that is largely a good thing, although it must obviously be avoided by pregnant women. There are times during the 90 minutes when it seems as if Fraser is suggesting that Thalidomide is evil - he associates the drug with its discoverer, a former Nazi party member, a piece of information that is entirely irrelevant - when of course it is the drug companies who put profit before safety who are evil.
Perhaps if the show was less clumsy in its staging and the writing sharper and funnier, Fraser would get away with these oddities, but this tale of people with short arms is badly in need of more legs.
· Until February 12. Box office: 020-7223 2223. Then touring.
