Theatre review: Magic Goes Wrong

Taking up half of Mischief Theatre's year-long residency at the Vaudeville Theatre is a return, after an attempt at a slightly more conventionally-structured play in Groan Ups, to the "Goes Wrong" format of their original hits and their current BBC1 show, and a "does what it says on the tin" approach of fitting as many comic disasters as they can into the running time. The usual writing team of Jonathan Sayer, Henry Lewis and Henry Shields are this time joined by Penn & Teller to create their most spectacular show yet - and one where the accidents get grislier than ever before, as Magic Goes Wrong. The format seems to be inspired by the Vegas-style magic shows that have recently been making a return to the West End, whose posters promise a whole team of magicians with superhero-style names. And so Shields' Sophisticato has organised this evening as a charity gala for the victims of disasters in magic, in memory of his father, the original Sophisticato (crushed to death by his own props.)

He'll be recreating some of his father's card tricks and stunts ("Some of his tricks were famous! Others... were infamous! This one... was neither!") along with a number of other acts from around the world.

So Lewis is The Mind Mangler, whose flatmate (understudy Sydney K Smith) keeps turning up in terrible disguises as a stooge, and still can't help him get any of his guesses right; Nancy Zamit and Bryony Corrigan are Bear und Spitzmaus, a German tumbling act who proudly announce one review called them "the biggest car crash I've ever seen." Probably furthest from his usual typecasting is Dave Hearn as The Blade, an American daredevil who rips his way out of countless shirts (and they somehow manage to think of a different visual gag for each time,) before going on to sustain numerous injuries he has to pretend don't hurt.

Mischief continue to be both a joy to watch and an absolute nightmare to review, as it's essentially just a relentless succession of very funny, very silly jokes, and the temptation is just to list all the best ones (like the "In Memoriam" video that features a disproportionate number of tributes to people who died during this show.) There are running jokes and themes, like the charity totaliser which only ever seems to go down, and the cast are generally playing to their established strengths, with Shields' Sophisticato haunted by his bad relationship with his father, and inviting along as the evening's special guest star a lifelong patron of magicians (she snuck David Blaine a Cornish pasty when he was in that box,) Eugenia (Roxy Faridany,) who might actually be his mother. (Given the general silliness it counts as a positively low-key running joke that Sophisticato Sr was never sure who Sophisticato Jr's biological mother was.) Lewis is in his comfort zone as the bombastic mind-reader who's so disliked by the crew they keep sabotaging his teleprompter (even Will Bowen's set seems to have a grudge against him,) while Zamit is a mistress of chaos, and Corrigan one of genuinely painful-looking slapstick.

The involvement of Penn & Teller as well as magic consultant Ben Hart means that there's an added dimension to Adam Meggido's production: Occasionally the magic actually goes right, or even when it goes wrong does so in an unexpected and clever way - the highlight is probably Sophisticato trying to do a card trick against the clock while The Blade is tied up in a water tank, a scene that goes through all kinds of levels of silly and dark humour before ending on a great twist. Magic Goes Wrong goes on that little bit too long and the energy starts to flag, but it's another hit all in all: Mischief's profile is high enough now that you probably know if they're for you or not; if they're not, this won't be the show to change your mind, but if they are they're still on top form.

Magic Goes Wrong by Jonathan Sayer, Henry Lewis, Henry Shields and Penn & Teller is booking until the 31st of May at the Vaudeville Theatre.

Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes including interval.

Photo credit: Robert Day.