Review: Succulent Chinese Musical at MC Showroom

Review by Greg Gorton

Australia has a deep and unhealthy love for its criminals. While he might not have the same Hollywood appeal as the vicious Mark Brandon Read, and not be so engrained into our history as Edward Kelly, Jack Karlson will for at least a generation be remembered for one of Australia’s most viewed memes. At Your Service Theatre Company looked at this quintessentially Australian moment and saw, not just a wonderful example of everything right and wrong about our society, but the opportunity to create a very funny musical.

After a much-talked-about debut at the Fringe last year, A Succulent Chinese Musical is back for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Written by Rick Butler and Kate Stewart, this short, punchy show is rough around the edges, but packed to the brim with laughs that come from a place of love for showbusiness, including the showbusiness of simply being alive.

Butler and Stewart take the little information we have about the meme (a criminal arrested while eating at a suburban Chinese restaurant, and the short film of the arrest) and create an original story about how such a person could come to be, what would be the things they cared about, and what would drive them. This company’s Karlson is a kid gaoled the second he became an adult, mentored by a flamboyant con artist, and fallen for a beautiful woman trapped in her life of crime. His story interweaves with the fictional not-yet-a-detective JJ, who faces a corrupt police force and must come to terms with their choices.

The plot is perhaps the weakest point of the show, and to truly enjoy your night you must turn off the little bit of your brain that will care about plot-convenient deaths, “only one spoiled apple”, and just what this Karlson thinks about his children. Clearly, I struggled a little too, but I’m glad I succeeded. Once I turned that part off, I really got to love what is amazing about the writing of this show - it’s so stupid it's brilliant.

The creative premise is simple: Butler and Stewart prove that, with very little base material, you can make a musical, and a fun one, out of anything. Three words from the original video are repeated over a dozen times in five minutes, and never fail to get a laugh. An entire long-running joke based on the pronunciation of “Chow Mein” also somehow becomes enmeshed in the romantic plot of this musical. Most importantly, there is an ongoing structural and visual referencing of the English language’s most beloved musicals. 

This isn’t a show that has anything firm to say about our justice system, the way we romanticise our wrong-doers, or what exactly turns a piece of media into a meme. But it does have fascinating things to say about what we love in musical theatre, our desire for clean endings to stories, and how much the most mature of us will still laugh at the word “penis”.

I have a simple rule when recommending musicals. Do I remember a song to enjoy? For me, who previously had nothing to remember from Hadestown and The Elephant Man, this was “Judo!”, a song I’ll be humming all week as I remember the very enjoyable choreography. There are other songs to love, of course, including “My Fair Confrere”, with Max Newstead channelling a little bit of Nathan Lane in his Rex Harrison impression, and “I’m Under What?” which lets its humour make up for a little less heart.

What makes this writing work more than anything, of course, is the stellar cast. Butler plays Karlson with an odd sense of sincerity, and it is difficult to believe that Stewart hasn’t always been so involved in musical theatre. Melissa Glinn as Constable JJ has a bubbly earnestness that keeps the show light even when the content isn’t at all, Tisha R Kelemen somehow manages to steal the show in multiple separate characters (but mostly their Judo instructor). Sophie Perkins’ Eve might sometimes feel a part of a different show in writing, but her performance is so responsive to the different energies on stage, that somehow it just works.

The choreography and direction of this show may not be the tightest you could experience, but definitely has a strong grasp of what makes for great physical comedy, and how you can use a small, relatively bare, space to your advantage. There are little visual nods to other shows, the video, and even famous artworks, while the “violence” is always treated with complete irreverence. There is no attempt to make anything look “real” because it is established from the start that this is only a meme in musical format.

As far as musicals go, this is a comedy fest/ fringe fest show, and we should be thankful for it having live music at all. Even more grateful I am, then, that Vincent Huynh was in charge of this music as the live keyboardist who doesn’t get to escape being a part of the performance itself.

It’s a rough and ready show, well-written and amazingly performed, but still very low budget and on a stage that requires quick bump-ins and bump outs. Fix in your mind “I want an hour of music and laughs for too little money than it deserves” and you will love A Succulent Chinese Musical. I do hope that in the future there is an evolved version, where more can be spent on lighting, sound, and a little editing. 

Image Supplied