Underbelly Soho, til 2 March 2025 

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Brilliant comedy duo Flo and Joan make their excellent musical debut.

Though I quite enjoy seeing the variety of stand-up London has to offer (from big-name solo shows to amateur line-ups), I don’t typically tend to review it. I think there’s definitely an artform to comedy, and there are technical elements you can assess – timing, originality, performance, etc. But for me it ultimately boils down to personal taste, much more so than theatre or film. A person’s sense of humour is a pretty individualistic thing, so it’s hard to get 900 words out of: “I guess I just found it funny.”

With that in mind, I wasn’t expecting to write a review of One Man Musical, the latest offering from musical comedy partners Flo and Joan (real names Rosie and Nicola Dempsey). I presumed it was another of their brilliant stand-up sets – or should I say, sit-down sets, with the two often seated while they play and sing. I was surprised and delighted to learn that One Man Musical is instead exactly what it says on the tin – a one-man musical. As I’d been incredibly impressed in the past by Flo and Joan’s clever, intricate lyricism, as well as their comedic instincts, the thought had already crossed my mind that the two would write a great musical (and I’m sure I’m not the only one).

I was doubly surprised to learn the identity of the one man at the centre of the one-man musical: the great Andrew Lloyd Webber himself. Of course, the renowned theatre composer and impresario isn’t actually involved in the production at all; in fact, we are told early on that the show is deliberately not called Andrew Lloyd Webber: The Musical for legal reasons (“because otherwise I might sue myself,” the fictional ALW laments). Rather, this 75-minute send-up of musical theatre features a fictionalised, satirised version of ‘Andy’ narrating his own life story. The show doesn’t pull any punches in portraying Lloyd Webber as a clapped-out, self-indulgent creative whose deluded sense of talent has him reliving his glory years without realising just how far they are behind him. In his own words, Andrew guides us through his childhood eccentricities, first love, famous collaboration with Tim Rice (played with aplomb by an actual bag of rice) and the heights of stardom. 

Odd as this is as a premise for a musical, it works because it’s extremely funny – and gets funnier as it goes along. Flo and Joan’s musical flair shines through in their clever parody of the stereotypical beats of the genre, from the sweet first love song (hysterically reprised for a later love interest), to the rock’n’roll hitting-it-big-song, to the triumphant end number. One Man Musical is directed by Georgie Straight, who previously worked on the brilliantly funny, brilliantly lyricised Operation Mincemeat, so it’s clear there’s a lot of musical and comedic talent behind the scenes here. Featuring a titan of the industry as the main character heightens the pastiche and takes it to a meta level, with Lloyd Webber ripping off his own cliches (three guesses for how he rolls on stage when recounting the Starlight Express years). The man is turned into a truly farcical figure, gurning and preening for the audience – self-obsessed but never self-aware. 

A huge amount of the comedic credit must go to the star of the show, George Fouracres. This is one of the most outstanding musical theatre performances I’ve seen since I’ve been in London. Any one-man show relies on the performer being able to generate every laugh by themselves, and Fouracres’ delivery and mannerisms have the audience captivated and rolling in their seats. He’s not just adept at reading the lines either, but shows his expertise in character work with some wittily improvised crowd interactions. (In fact, perhaps the funniest moments in my performance came when Fouracres’ microphone stopped working, and he had to vamp for five minutes while a tech came out and fixed it.) If that weren’t enough, the man is a true musical theatre talent as well. For Flo and Joan’s clever parody to have its impact, Fouracres needs to be able to reach the musical heights of every one of the songs, and he proves his vocal range is more than up to the task. His voice is beautiful, too – though it’s one of the funniest songs, Fouracres still manages to infuse a sense of tenderness into Sarah, You with the sweetness of his singing. 

One Man Musical started its life as a fringe show (and is still decidedly off the West End at Underbelly), so it certainly doesn’t have the budget or spectacle of one of Sir Andrew’s real-life productions. But Flo and Joan have cleverly built a premise in which the sparse staging is part of the story, and there are plenty of props-based gags that land well (with credit to Isobel Nicolson and Rhys Thomas who round out the backstage crew). Not every joke is a winner, of course, and even with ALW deliberately painted as a pompous ass, sometimes his character is grating. (It is also, when you step outside of it, a rather mean-spirited show in which the man’s childhood quirks, relationships and professional failings are all mined for comedic potential.) On the whole though, it delivers more than enough belly-laughs to carry through the less witty moments. 

Perhaps from a reviewing perspective I should consider One Man Musical to be under the umbrella of stand-up, because essentially my recommendation of it boils down to the fact I found it very, very funny. With two brilliant comedic lyricists, a seasoned West End director and a gifted lead actor steering the ship, this musical lives up to the potential of its talented creators.

Visit the Underbelly Soho website for tickets to One Man Musical.