Reviews

Lovelace: A Rock Musical

Udderbelly’s Pasture
8-29 August, 22.35

One downside of bringing musicals to the Fringe is that they often need to be harshly edited to fit into the short timeslots. This – I can only assume – is why a production supposedly critically acclaimed in the US, is such a disaster in Scotland.

Linda Lovelace was a porn star, featured in the movie Deep Throat and was abused by her sadistic husband Chuck Traynor. Her complex and tragic life could make for moving theatre. Instead we are subjected to 75 minutes of mindless melodrama with some of the most lazily-written lyrics I have ever been subjected to. ‘Asshole Jew’ rhymed with ‘no rescue’ as deft it gets.

One can’t help but pity the talented cast who have to repeatedly feign fellatio in front of a bemused audience: that is the ones who hadn’t already walked out.