*** (3 stars)
“Dripping with Satire! ”
Level Up! Is a new musical by Lucy Watson and Julian Kirk, directed by Patrick Wilson with musical direction from Stamatis Seraphim its story blends the world of virtual reality and gaming with our current reality where political power play is at its most dangerous. It poses the question if life were a game show what would it take to win? Level up explores this in a musical dripping with satire.
Performances from the 6 strong cast are uniformly strong and all cast member vocals are lush and powerful as they deliver a pop infused score with clear skill and personal joy. While the songs are catchy and the use of a computer video wall brings charm there is still some work to be done with the storyline and plot, the plot especially tends to get lost very easily and leaves the audience with a strong sense that this is still very much a work in progress. There is clearly a future head for Level Up.
It does feel like the show is covering perhaps one to many topics across its hour long run time, but this is made up for in its terrific pace and eye-catching performances that are vocally outstanding but as good as the performers are it can get hard to tell what is the true message within the show?
That all being said this is a unique musical geared towards the individuality of its audiences and its going to be interesting to see where the show goes following its festival run.
For now, if you like your musicals with clever lyrics that tackle topical issues and does it with polished performances then you best head for the Big Yin and Level Up for yourself!
Level Up!, Big Yin at Gilded Balloon Patter House, Venue 24, for info go to: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/level-up
ScotsGay Arts 