By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Friday 29 March 2024, runs through 20 April 2024 RUNTIME: 135 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

Film franchise The Naked Gun is probably the closest touchstone for this 80s, US-set musical co-written by Ben Adams (Eugenius, Turbine Theatre) from A1 and Subwoolfer.

• Read on for reasons including how this spoof comedy music could well arrest you

We’re sitting in the front row at this new venue and breathe a sigh of relief when fellow audience member Ronan, within touching distance of us, becomes the butt of a very funny running joke about racism and is eventually invited onstage to join a cast dance number of which he acquits himself brilliantly and in hilarious fashion.

Adams may have written the music and doesn’t appear here but the 3 leading cast members – Zachary Hunt as our hero diner employee-turned police cop Jimmy Johnson, Nathan Parkinson as police chief Malloy and Tom Roe as cop veteran Harrison – all feature tonight.

Southwark Playhouse is fast becoming a hothouse for new musicals ready to transfer to the West End and Police Cops The Musical could certainly follow in the footsteps of The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button which transfers from here to the Ambassadors in October and is as good as the similar Unfortunate and Cable Street.

Police Cops The Musical opens with scene-setting number The US Eighties and this isn’t a show for those sensitive to the sight of police officers dispatching people with multiple single gunshots which happens throughout.

Another touchstone in terms of humour would be 2004 film Team America: World Police from the South Park and Book Of Mormon creators and if the thought of this makes you smile as much as us then you will enjoy the machine gun-style volley of laugh-out-loud gags that follow.

We meet Hunt’s diner worker Johnson as he struggles to record the venue’s answerphone message and then pursues his dream to become a police cop after his sister is mistakenly gunned down by drug overlord Hernandez at a police parade.

In The Naked Gun star Leslie Nielsen lusted after Priscilla Presley but here Hunt’s Johnson isn’t afraid to whip his top off to reveal his 6-pack abs to subvert any 80s sexist stereotypes that you might have been expecting from a story that draws on the buddy cop genre of material like Lethal Weapon and Miami Vice.

The 5-strong cast plays multiple roles and co-creators Hunt, Parkinson and Roe share the bulk of the laughs but there’s also room from co-stars Melinda Orengo and Natassia Bustamente to shine.

We found the play on the ‘can’ in American in song Americant sidesplitting and if that sounds like the sort of thing you might enjoy, this spoof comedy musical could well arrest you.

• Main picture via Facebook courtesy Southwark Playhouse
• Have you seen a show at Southwark Playhouse before and what did you think of this production? Tickets
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