Sex in Suburbia felt a bit limp

London Event Reviews by May B

Claire Sweeney has had a successful career as a TV soap star and on the West End stage, so no surprise that she’s turned her hand to writing.

Sex in Surburbia promised to be a keenly observed comedy – “based on real stories from real women” – of dating and relationships. It was presented in the context of a phone-in radio show with agony aunt Penny Crowe joined by guest presenter Claire Sweeney.

The music while we waited was suitably upbeat. The warm up act – with some risqué innuendos - assumed that the audience was middle-aged women. This was a shame as the majority of those at Richmond Theatre this evening were somewhat younger. But everyone gamely joined in with the prompted participation (although we felt a little awkward about shouting out “we want sex” so early in proceedings) and ignored some of the less tasteful jokes about the audience in nearby Kingston. Then we met Rory who played the camp producer.

Once we were up and running, Claire burst into song with a credible version of “I’m so excited”. Then we embarked on a series of sketches – the sex-obsessed husband larking around with vegetables and the football-obsessed husband steadfastly ignoring the seductive efforts of his wife. A dating sketch included a clichéd caricature of a baseball-capped MMA-mad Essex lad with one of the best lines of the show: “I’ve got things in my fridge that are older than you”. I did enjoy the story of Wednesdays with the cross-dressing husband. Then there was another burst of song with crowd-pleaser track “I’m every woman” with the three characters swishing around in sparkly purple outfits.

I didn’t really know what to make of it. The concept was great and should have been fabulously funny – but it wasn’t. I guess I was expecting sparkling, sophisticated satire and instead found a rather turgid version of middle-aged Liver Birds. It was vaguely amusing rather than funny. Crude and clumsy rather than clever. And the pace was sufficiently slow to allow my companion to dose off. So we didn’t return for the second half.

But I guess if you’d had a few more drinks, were accompanied by a crowd of women of a certain age and determined to have a laugh it would be a raucous evening of entertainment.

http://www.atgtickets.com/shows/sex-and-the-suburbs/richmond-theatre/

Posted Date
May 18, 2015 in London Event Reviews by May B by May B