'Gutted: A Revenger's Musical' at the Riverside Studios

Last night we went to see a preview of a new comedy musical, 'Gutted: A Revenger's Musical' at the Riverside Studios at Hammersmith. It was funny, it was rude, there were lots of laughs, lots of songs, cross-dressing, lots of murders, one failed hat, three very big hats, an expansive shower curtain and, um, more murders. Oh, and Mr Jim Bob from Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine playing three roles, one of which was an ageing pop star looking after his rider of beer bottles very carefully. He had a sparkly jacket and shades so he must be a pop star.

The blurb for the show reads:

Warning: This show does include songs, jokes and people off the telly. Ward and White's Gutted is a new musical about love, murder, revenge and idiots; from the creators of sell-out cult hits Karaoke Circus and Psister Psycho. The cast includes The Penny Dreadfuls, Anna Crilly, Katie Wix, Doc Brown, Colin Hoult and special guests.

I thought it was great fun, opening with The Penny Dreadful trio dressed as grotesque ghosts or zombies that only our heroine can see. They encourage her to murder all the remaining family members of her new husband who, for some reason, murdered her parents 15 years earlier when she was a child, hence the revenge bit in the show. Helen George plays our heroine, Sorrow, merrily singing about killing off the family by sitting on their faces , sawing off heads or stabbing them with garden implements in rather delicate places. Her husband is played by Colin Hoult who packs a great punch as the obnoxious rich toff and he magically reappears as each of his family members when it comes time to kill them. In that respect it's very reminiscent of 'Kind Hearts and Coronets' but oh so much ruder. And with music.

It's only on for a couple of nights at the Riverside, a preview before opening at the Edinburgh Festival on 6 August - if you get the chance you really should see it. It only lasts for 1:40 minutes so there's no interval but it's guaranteed to get you chortling and leaving you wondering why they pronounced semen as 'simin' (to rhyme with 'wimin', obviously) and asking where the nearest Nando's is... amongst other things. It's great fun - go and see it!