Synopsis Monkee Business follows four young lads who, with the help of a few sexy Russian spies, nonsensical nuns and the odd tambourine, unwittingly get caught up in the most madcap adventure even Austin Powers would be proud of. With a hilarious mix of groovy adventure, dreamy romance and zany comedy, Monkee Business is the ultimate feel-good musical featuring hit after hit including I'm a Believer, Last Train to Clarksville, My Boy Lollipop, You Don't Have to Say You Love Me and the smash hit Daydream Believer alongside many, many more iconic songs from the swinging sixties.
It seems like a fantastic idea. A musical built on one of the must influential boy bands in history, The Monkees.
But when put into a context of self-referential nonsense, where you're not too sure whether you are watching a pantomime, a musical or just a bad farce, it is a notion that needs to be taken right back to the drawing board.
Following the award-winning northern launch of Ghost the Musical, the Manchester Gets It First initiative had begun to build itself a respectable reputation. Unfortunately, after its latest addition the standard appears to have slipped.
The choreography is particularly weak, simplicity for once not being the key. Dancers are quite frequently out of time with one another, especially in the final scene of Act One, and they lack the energy that would give the show at least a few extra brownie points. The set, too, is nothing to write home about.
[W@S_IMG]#http://whatsonstage.com/images/MonkeeBusiness_apr2012_360.jpg#360#240#The cast of Monkee Business - the Musical[/W@S_IMG] The singing, however, is strong. The boys playing The Monkees - Stephen Kirwan, Ben Evans, Tom Parsons and Oliver Savile - have certainly built up a very natural rapport that would work well if they weren't having to battle with a truly embarrassing script.
A highlight does come with Roxanne Palmer delivering a highly comedic performance as a stewardess. On the whole - bar moments of embarrassing over-acting - the ensemble do their best with the pitiful material they have been given.
While the idea is there, this is a real let down of a world premiere and needs to be taken back to the rehearsal room if it is to stand any chance of becoming "the business".
Great theatre - people dancing in the aisles. Go and see it. - R Clark
30 Apr 12
Hilarious, clever, intelligent and working on so many levels. The idea of teasing the audience with the 'manufactured' 'real' illusions that were the scourge of the Monkees careers,is a stroke of genius and the four actors had their characters nailed and sorted, which made it even funnier. Nothing short of brilliant! - Xerxes
25 Apr 12
Fabulous show..I loved it. Clever script that hits just the right note of authentic Monkees humour. If you give this one star you're not getting it... - Sheila
22 Apr 12
Went to see it in Glasgow last night and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
Anyone who grew up watching the monkees will get this, the tongue in cheek gags, the minimal sets and the corny script - just like the tv show.
Glasgow - always renowned for being a tough audience - was singing along and off their seats dancing.
- Alan
21 Apr 12
great show, the singers/actors bring off the spirit of monkeedom nicely - some jokes don't work too well but some get the spirit just right and the audience is dancing in the aisles to daydream believer at the end - what more co you want? - Robert Fisk
20 Apr 12
good show, great performances from the actors/singers. Some of the humour needs tightening up but the music has em dancing in the aisles, what more do you want? - Geoffcush
20 Apr 12
Fascinating that the negative comments on this and other sites are mainly from people who say they had free tickets ! Presumably this means they weren't that keen to see the show anyway or they would have bought tickets in advance. In fact I see the longest attack has been posted by the same person under several reviews. I saw Monkee Business last week and thought it was one of the cleverest variations on the jukebox genre I have seen. Mama Mia is mind numbing and Rock You is just a tribute concert with songs linked by unfunny gags. This is original and at the same time true to the old TV show. I would have given the show 4 stars because the set didn't justify the high ticket price but the bad comments here are so dumb I'm giving it 5 to balance it out. - jackie
20 Apr 12
I think the real question here should be about ticket price. Virtually everybody agrees the leads and cast performed great, if you're a Monkees fan you know it was going to be random, tongue in cheek and slapstick, it delivered exactly to expectation. On the ticket price however, how can they possibly equate it to shows such as Les Mis,Phantom etc given the simple set, cast numbers, musicians and all associated costs. They got the show right but the ticket price wrong hence why the Theatre was empty, still my wife and I moved down to front row circle, great view, great night. - Paul Randall
16 Apr 12
We loved the show which was totally true to form of a typical Monkee's plot. That is, totally random with brilliant music! The acting was never good - the plots were always corny. The shows parodied more serious TV programmes produced during the 60s such as Man from UNCLE - the main reason we loved it so much. This may have been lost on some of the audience not familiar with the boys. This show was a great tribute to the band. - Jules
13 Apr 12
Just been to see tonight with my family and mother ranging in ages from 70 down to 6 years old and we all really loved it! Read reviews before we went which were terrible and I really was not looking forward to it - ignore the bad reviews, if you enjoy some slapstick humour and great singing then go for it , my children where delighted it had the song from shrek in it! The advertising for the show was not clear as to whether it was suitable for children and we assumed it was ok when we found a competition to win some tickets for a family, think that with better marketing you could be filling the seats! - The McMullen family
Whatsonstage.com - Discount London theatre tickets, theatre news and reviews, Theatre videos, Theatre discussion, National Theatre Listings. Covering London's West End, all of Theatreland and all UK theatre. The best
for London Theatre Ticket Discounts.
Your Reviews: 
