Synopsis Inspired by Siegfried and Roy, the German-born magicians who've been entertaining Las Vegas audiences for more than 30 years. However, whereas Siegfried and Roy have built their act around white Siberian tigers, the Right Size's show is, as the title suggests, built around ducks. In Ducktastic!, world famous illusionist Cornelius Ursula Sassoon who, after an accident with an emu, loses his license to perform in Las Vegas. He teams up with Roy de La Rue, a pet shop proprietor from Portsmouth, to form Sassoon and Roy and put on a new West End show.
The Olivier and Whatsonstage.com Award-winning success of The Play What I Wrote was always going to be a tough act to follow. That blissfully comic meditation of the nature of comic partnerships, inspired by Morecambe and Wise (who were never mentioned by name), proved also to be an infinitely touching series of theatrical in-jokes that sprang from the unique partnership that created the show, Sean Foley and Hamish McColl (aka The Right Size).
After 13 shows together in 13 years, this was the perfect distillation of The Right Size's way of constantly breaching the theatre's fourth wall as they showed a chaotic performance in progress. And into the midst of the self-referential nature of mayhem that resulted, a changing roster of celebrity guests was also pressed into its nightly service.
Now the duo leap onto the performance high-wire again, and go one stage further with Ducktastic. Conceived in part as a tribute to Siegfried and Roy - the famously cheesy Las Vegas magicians who worked with live white tigers until Roy was mauled and nearly killed by one in 2003 - this time The Right Size duly offer a whole menagerie of live (and a few animatronic) animals, plus a full supporting cast of six other actors. Wisely, as the title suggests, they've substituted ducks for man-eating cats. But, if some of us critics were dined on roast duck (care of the show producer) before the show, I'm afraid we were mostly served a turkey thereafter.
It may be as difficult to bite the hand that has literally fed us as to attempt to stomach the sight of a species we have just feasted upon before the axe fell on them. But despite the undoubted affection that McColl and Hamish inspire and the winningly unpredictable ways of the ducks themselves - one of whom was reportedly stolen from the dressing room two nights before the opening night - you can't help feeling wholly unfulfilled.
Goodwill will only go so far, though, and this show requires a lot more of it than I was ultimately willing to allow. Partly, it's a victim of its own excess. I sensed that, given the budget they were clearly afforded, with multiple set and costume changes, McColl and Foley's "rough theatre" magic was suddenly replaced by the kind of stunts that only money can buy. As natural successors to the epic-on-a-shoestring ethos of the National Theatre of Brent, winning this theatrical version of the lottery has stunted their creativity.
Worse, while the feeble plot barely holds together - as Sassoon (McColl), whose former magic partner and wife Judith has left him, conscripts Roy (Foley) from the audience, and a succession of vanishing tricks helplessly draw in other members of the 'audience' - the show becomes over-saturated in bad jokes and worse costumes, that variously turn McColl into something from an Abba band revival and Foley into resembling Woody Allen as a sperm suit from Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask.
McColl's voice, too, is beginning to grate. It seems to be sustained here on single crescendos of rising panic that end in a desperate draw of questioning breath. He's probably wondering not just where the original Daphne the Duck got to, but where the show vanished to along the way.
It seems a pity to review a show on the day it closes but having seen the penultimate night, I felt it deserves comment.
It's amazing how the words "all seats £10" can bring into the theatre a sellout audience of enthusiastic punters who are willing to suspend their £45-a-night principles and actually enjoy something they paid for.
Although Ducktastic is thin on plot, overloaded with cheap gags and laughable illusions, it's full of energy and fun and if you treat it like a pantomime you can see what a damn shame it is that this show won't last through Christmas when it would be a far fresher and more original family option than watching McKellen wring the neck of Widow Twankey.
Sadly, Ducktastic will now give way to a dry old winter's tale of Shakespeare's "comedies" in Cameron's pretentious first season in the newly named Ivor Novello Theatre. Don't think Dear Ivor was much of a one for Shakespeare.
As the cod illusionists, McColl and Foley work harder than any two men on the West End stage, supported by a cast which includes the charming Liz Crowther who must recognise half the jokes from when her Dad used to present Crackerjack.
The duck imagery wears pancake thin, of course, and the participation of the live ducks is really only a sight gag since they do little more than run from one side of the stage to the other.
The staging is heavily dependent on trapdoors, so let's hope they find sufficient touring theatres which can take it, and a price structure that gives them full houses.
- 195.93.21.37)
19 Nov 05
Saw 'Play Wot I wrote' earlier this year and thought the biggest load of unmitigated rubbish I had ever seen - until last week when I saw 'Ducktastic'!
Only went to please friends but tried to give them the benefit of the doubt. Pathetic, unfunny, insulting to the intelligence, complete waste of time and money. Don't blow your £10. Use it to sit in the Gods and see something decent and deserving of being in the West End. Normally feel sympathy for cast in this situation but in this instance I feel far too ripped off to do so. - 194.217.194.138)
10 Nov 05
Well having just sat through this load of rubbish myself, I agree with Theresa, only those with a personal interest could possibly give it more than 1 star. Pathetic jokes, sad little ducks trotting about, bad script. Put your tenner towards something decent, I wouldn't reccomend it if they gave you a tenner! - 62.254.64.17)
04 Nov 05
In answer to Theresa, my review was posted NOT as a member of the cast NOR as an investor. Theresa thinks it's terrible and she's entitled to her opinion. I disagree! I saw it (and shall return) and rated it 4 stars - because it's a fun show - terrific achievement by Sean and Hamish and (sadly since it's been announced today that it's closing in 16 days) here's another reason to go and see it .... the tickets are all £10 each for the rest of the run.
If you like magic (15 stunning illusions), if you like farce & like comedy and like double acts - go and support this great show in the last 16 days. Thanks! - 195.93.21.100)
03 Nov 05
Having seen this utter rubbish, I can only conclude that those giving it more that 1 star are the cast members and investors. For your own sake as well as the reputation of the west end please believe it's absolutely terrible! More HONEST reviews required, please - really, the emperor has no clothes on here! - 82.39.152.104)
03 Nov 05
Did all those people see the same show as me! I thought it was utter rubbish, a total waste of time and money. Purile gibberish. - 62.254.64.17)
31 Oct 05
Loved the show, pure fun for an evening, haven't laughed that much in a long long time. - 62.6.139.13)
30 Oct 05
Me and my friends saw this on Thursday and it was hilarious. Have a drink before and in the interval and you'll relax in to the farcical, jokes-as-old-as-the-hills, slapstick show that it is obviously meant to be. Bravo the cast!! - 82.111.128.3)
29 Oct 05
Saw "DUCKTASTIC" last Wednesday at the matinee and thoroughly enjoyed it. Let's get the very minor negatives out of the way first: the final illusion failed to work (as happened at the critics' preview, according to 'Time Out') and really should be sorted - 'cos when the big illusion just before the walk down doesn't work it's NOT good! Plus the songs are not up to the standard of the rest of the show. You can't hear all the words and I'm sure they're witty and clever, if the rest of the script is anything to go by.
Now to the many positives! This show is a comedy, it's a farce, it's a musical, it's a drama (there are touching moments when the pace slows down to give some contrast to the frenetic atmosphere of the rest of the show) and with 15 major illusions - before your very eyes - it's MAGIC!
Sean Foley (a rubber-limbed Neil Morrissey sound-alike) and Hamish McColl (think Tom Baker meets Rik Mayall) are the two stars of the show who wrote it too: what talent! They have created a wonderful production with great sets (how do they cram all those props into the apparantly bijou Albery Theatre?), great gags, brilliant illusions, funny lines (OK some of them are a bit corny) but it's original, it's unique and must have taken a huge amount of rehearsal to get the show as slick as it is. The supporting actors are great - hats off to them and good luck to the show.
Ignore the writers on this site who have given it 1 or 2 stars - it's a definite 4 for me. Get the songs and the final illusion sorted and it gets an upgrade to 5 *****.
Go see it! - 195.93.21.100)
28 Oct 05
Just a wonderfully silly, whacky,hugely entertaining night out for me and my family. Go see it!!! - 82.111.128.3)
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