Vote Dizzy! An Evening with his Royal Hipness Lord Buckley
Soho Theatre, London W1
Hope was still alive for a new Democrat President late last Tuesday night at Soho Theatre. Actor-writer Jake Broder (soon to be seen in Kevin Spacey's Beyond the Sea ) has fashioned a new jazz comedy inspired by the late trum peter Dizzy Gillespie's run in the 1964 primaries.
The show, set in an illegal nightclub, is conceived as a Dizzy for Pres rally, hosted by Lord Buckley, the cult American stand-up who adopted an English aristo persona to deliver his rants.
Buckley raps through his version of Dickens's A Christmas Carol by 'Chazee D' and a spoof of Jonah and the whale (Jesus is 'the Nazz'). The show is part-celebration, part-satire of white artists apeing bebop language to appear cool.
Broder as Buckley (looking like a mini-me Harvey Weinstein) is stunning, while David Tughan acts all the other parts, including a wonderfully demented Lenny Bruce. Sometimes, 'the hip semantic' can be wearing, but such a fresh, original show in the West End must be encouraged.
