WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHERE? Leicester Square Theatre RUNTIME: 60 minutes

WHEN? 7/9/19, closes 7/9/19

STOP PRESS: MUSIK returns to the Leicester Square Theatre 5/2 – 1/3/20. Tickets

‘About me, the critics lied. I ignored them – and survived,’ sang character Billie Trix in song Friendly Fire (see below) played by Frances Barber in ahead-of-its-time 2001 Pet Shop Boys’ musical Closer To Heaven.

• Read on for reasons including how this show needs a longer West End run soon

The anthem of defiance appears both in Closer To Heaven and is the penultimate of 6 songs here during an hour-long monologue with songs.

We saw Closer To Heaven again earlier this year at Above The Stag and it was clear then that nightclub hostess Trix deserved fully her own show.

In opening song Mongrel we learn that she’s approaching 75, never knew her father and was unwanted by her mother. She moves from Berlin to New York and influences Warhol in number Soup.

The songs give a sense of the passage of time with Run Girl Run referencing Vietnam and disco number Ich Bin Musik sashaying straight from the 70s.

Closing song For Every Moment was our Song Of the Month for August and it’s the best thing the Pet Shop Boys have written for a long, long time.

Trix has proved very funny company during this hour with her but in this song she gives us a sense of the hope underpinning her state of independence.

She declares, a little preposterously: ‘I stand at the precipice to a new world, a new beginning. I’ve no idea what lies in store; a small step for me, a giant leap for art. Come back in 10 years, I’ll tell you all about it.’

We’ve had such a good time that we don’t want to wait anywhere near that long. MUSIK deserves a much longer West End run and soon.

• Picture by Murdo Macleod via Facebook courtesy Pet Shop Boys. Tickets
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