WHAT do Margaret Thatcher’s spittle, a football mascot-style dog costume and Ketamine have in common? They all feature in the astoundingly brilliant, outrageously funny new stage musical based upon the much-loved 1990s TV sitcom The High Life.
Featuring the original core cast – Alan Cumming, Forbes Masson, Siobhan Redmond and Patrick Ryecart – and written by Cumming, Masson and Johnny McKnight, this touring musical is co-produced by the National Theatre of Scotland and Dundee Rep.
Directed by the Rep’s artistic director, Andrew Panton, this adaptation is gloriously tongue-in-cheek and considerably naughtier than the original BBC2 series.
We have skipped forward more than 30 years, but Sebastian Flight (Cumming), Steve McCracken (Masson) and their redoubtable supervisor Shona “Hitler in tights” Spurtle (Redmond) are still purveying scratch cards to Air Scotia’s passengers.
Needless to say, the hilariously bonkers Captain Hilary Duff (Ryecart) remains the most inadvertently surreal member of the pilots’ union.
The years have not been kind to “Scotland’s premier airline (Scotland’s only airline)”, and Air Scotia is now the subject of a hostile takeover bid. The mega-rich Scottish capitalist Fran Foutar (fae Freuchie) wants to buy the company and – in a pointedly unionist act of vandalism – rename it Air GB!
Thus is the scene set for a musical that transports us from Air Scotia’s Prestwick HQ via a turbulent flight to Hell’s guest house in the mysterious “Lower Largo Triangle” in Fife.
The journey is almost spleen-burstingly funny, whether it’s the ludicrous Air Scotia anthem or the refreshments trolley song (complete with the delightful chorus “You fuc cof, eh?”).
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Fans of the TV show will be glad to see the return of Air Scotia’s canine mascot Shuggy McGurk (the costume for whom, Cumming attests, hasn’t been cleaned since 1995). The writing – which is consistently uproarious across songs and dialogue – makes great play of the passage of time since The High Life was on our television screens.
Younger crew member Kylie (Rachael Kendall Brown) greets her senior colleagues with the deliciously meta line, “morning, legacy cast!”
In the catchy number Where Did The Days Go?, the veteran actors ask the rhetorical question, “Who cares if we look older than we do in the posters?”
There is, in every aspect of this fantastically bold, accomplished production, a recognition of the generations of musical and comic talent who have followed on from the original High Life cast. McKnight, as co-writer, is now the master of the pastiche pantomime (which was championed at Glasgow’s Tron Theatre back in the day by Masson).
Louise McCarthy is a multi-talented, tremendously versatile actor whose comic and musical theatre roles made her a shoo-in for this production. Kyle Gardiner and the members of the talented, youthful ensemble are, likewise, in their natural habitat here.
Their talents are certainly required in Act 2, when the production takes a deliberate nose-dive that leads us, ultimately, to the Dunlivven guest house. To divulge the plot twists in the rollicking script would be a crime worthy of a compulsory two-week stay at the aforementioned B&B.
Suffice it to say that if you crossed the Addams Family with the most kitsch tourist image of Scotland, you might get something approximating the crazy Fifers we encounter in the second half of the show. All of this – from stricken airliner to dodgy hotel – is designed with great chutzpah by Colin Richmond and lit expertly by Grant Anderson.
Emily Jane Boyle’s choreography measures up perfectly to the requirements of the relentlessly over-the-top plot. The score (by Masson and Cumming) is as marvellously memorable as it is diverse (think ceilidh tunes through to West End musicals).
The High Life: The Musical is a gorgeously unrestrained and unfiltered night at the theatre. Book your seat on Air Scotia and definitely buckle up!
Touring until May 23: nationaltheatrescotland.comnationaltheatrescotland.com
