Luke Milton’sRisky Lunar Love is a wild and wacky
new musical, revived from a 2002 genesis in Perth. It tells a bizarre
tale of competing science-fiction novelists, an alien sex goddess, a
magical tiki, a sodomising pirate ghost, a disappearing pregnancy, a
domineering cripple and a very foul-mouthed duo of a talking rabbit and
bear. With a vivid aesthetic of day-glo ‘50s sci-fi and hula girls
thrown into a blender with a touch of S&M, one thing is for sure –
this show is a veritable feast of eye candy. The real question though,
is whether it is really much of anything else…
Risky Lunar Love strongly disappointed me, to the point
of outright annoyance. On paper, there is a lot to like about this
show: it is a relatively large-scale endeavor with high production
values and buckets of energy, a great cast, good choreography, terrific
costumes and a wonderfully executed design concept. The general premise
is appealing, the retro trash-culture visuals are delightful, the
dialogue is peppered with some good one-liners, the oddball characters
have promise and the zany, raunchy style of humour is the kind of thing
that would usually appeal to me. And yet… the actual way it all comes
together is profoundly ineffective. With so much going for it, this
musical should work, but it really, truly does not. Unfortunately, Risky Lunar Love comes across as a kind of poor man’s Rocky Horror Show with updated levels of taboo and profanity but not one iota of the charm or impact.
Milton’s script is patchy in the extreme, with momentarily
interesting characters being strung along on an almost incomprehensible
storyline that lacks any of the basic narrative qualities required to
hold one’s attention or generate a sense of empathy, dramatic tension
or even consistent comedy. The largely incoherent plot makes major
blunders in affording far too much time to a host of supporting
characters while spending most of the first act ignoring the role which
is ultimately supposed to be the major protagonist, thus requiring (and
failing) to make the audience play catch-up in having any real
emotional investment in the “hero.” Although most of the characters
large and small have initially engaging quirks, virtually all of them
fail to undergo any kind of interesting development and thus in most
cases far overstay their welcome.
This is best exemplified by one of the major roles, that of the egotistical author Kikkoman,
an outrageously overconfident Casanova who bursts onto the stage with
considerable slimy charisma and force of personality. It’s the fact
that he continues on in exactly same manner for so much of the
musical’s duration that what began as an amusingly boorish rogue before
long becomes genuinely boorish, and then really starts to grate by the onset of the second act. Even some of the most enjoyable roles like Bear and Rabbit
are soon revealed to be one-trick ponies that ultimately become
monotonous, despite the best efforts of the talented performers.
Speaking of monotony: for all its torrents of ribaldry, the show is
surprisingly not “edgy” at all, with its incessant plethora of
references to bondage, orgies and other forms of paraphilia somehow
seem ultimately… dare I say adolescent? It all had a kind of sub-South Park
air of notional shock value but without much real point behind it. And
apart from the delightfully retro chorus of fembot-like alien clones,
it wasn’t even mildly titillating.
Undoubtedly though, the cardinal sin of the whole affair is that it is
totally devoid of memorable songs. Quite a few musicals, frankly, have
survived fairly threadbare or naff stories (Sweet Charity comes to mind) due to the saving grace of having what any
halfway-decent musical should include: some catchy songs. Although I
wouldn’t go so far as to say that the musical numbers here are actively
bad, they are certainly nothing more than merely competent. Well
executed, mind you, but just like the rest of the show fundamentally
lacking in substance or flair, even to the extent of light
entertainment. These are unmemorable tunes coupled with repetitive,
obvious lyrics that lack any particular wit or whimsy. The fact that
upon leaving my seat at the show’s end not one single song remained
stuck in my head by the time we reached the carpark pretty much says it
all. In this regard it utterly pales in comparison to other recent
“new” musicals like Keating! or Reefer Madness, where I
left the theatre practically able to sing on cue over fifty percent of
the ingenious songs I’d just heard for the first time.
It is such a shame that this show doesn’t work, as the aforementioned level of talent that has gone into Risky Lunar Love is very high, if not indeed somewhat overqualified. Director John Sheedy and producer Oliver Wenn
have done a good job of producing a technically polished show, but they
must nevertheless be criticised for having mounted a high-level
production of such mediocre material as this. Energetic choreography by
John O’Connell and vibrant costumes and set by Gypsy Taylor make the show a visual treat, and (apart from the egregiously deafening sound levels) the musical direction by Ross Johnston is slick. Amongst a uniformly talented cast particular praise goes to Shannon Dooley, Ivan Donato and Sheridan Harbridge for making the most of their ultimately irretrievable characters.
In the end though, there is no escaping the gravity well of the ominous
black hole which is this decidedly uninspired material. It never rises
to the level of those that have put so much effort into making it fly.
For a show that states its sole intention is to be entertaining, it has
fundamentally failed to manage even this. I wish that it were
otherwise.
504 Producers presents Risky Lunar Love by Luke Milton
Venue: Carriageworks Bay 20 Theatre Dates: 15 September- 4 October Times: Tue - Fri & Sun 8pm, Sat 5pm & 9pm Bookings:www.ticketmaster.com.au or 1300 723 038
I totally agree. High budget, talented cast, great director... supremely disappointing show. I left the theatre feeling deeply unimpressed. I feel the responsibility for this rests squarely on the shoulders of the writer. Immature, smutty, pointless script. Gypsy Taylor's design though was rocking! I thought she had a great costume and set design, gorgeous stuff and I'd love to see more from. Shannon Dooley was a standout for me too - great performer!
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