Wherever ‘Glasvegas’ is, it’s not a place that I am likely to visit again. Set in Glasgow in the Fifties, the show is a mixture of Francie & Josie and John Byrne’s Tutti Frutti, but for me it didn’t work on any level.
Having said that the small audience of mainly teenagers and young adults were whooping it up and laughing at what seemed to me weak material. The actors all are good at posturing and pulling funny faces but that is not sufficient to sustain 75 minutes.
The main man, Mick McMolicate (Jamie Hughes) is played in the style Of Maurice Roeves and is just out the Bar L which for the uninitiated is Glasgow’s Barlinnie prison. Beth Reynolds is very effective as the wumman at the DSS and the other two girls from the backing vocals step forward effectively as Mince the Moll (Ana Richardson) and latterly the singing legend that’s Senga Marenga.
Mick’s 2 marvels are Southside Sam (Joe Hinds) and GBH (Tom Mackey) both gamely try to wring laughs from an easily pleased audience. One member of the audience even joined in encouraging ‘Mick’ to get his top off which added to the feeling that this was not a very demanding show. Stuart Found made the most of his cameo part as a ‘polis’ as did Peter Dewhurst as the income greedy stage coach.
Having accepted that these comments may be personal taste, the lyrics of the song ‘Las Vegas’ would equally apply to ‘Glasvegas’
The lord above made the world for us but the
Devil made Las Vegas-
Oh Las Vegas you be the death of me, city of sin
Oh what a mess I’m in, look what you've done to me
Runs to August 19th, 9.45pm
Tickets £7 (£5 concessions)