Let’s review.
Review Revue is yet another harebrained scheme from the minds of the wonderful Logan Hunt and Bethany Miller. What presents itself as a normal one-act play turns into something goofier, stranger, and more improvised.
After a brief introduction to the cast and crew, we are informed of the show’s twist; there is a live reviewer in the house and they’ll be providing feedback throughout the night. After an initial go at a messy and chaotic play about a mother and son fighting for their dreams, the reviewer descends, renders their verdict and fucks off back to the seats where they belong. Using the feedback, the performers improvise a new version of the play, with audience assistance in order to satisfy the reviewer’s notes.
Logan Hunt proves himself to be a phenomenal singer, belting solid notes over the notedly loud background music. Opposite him is Bethany Miller who exudes her signature bubbly and aloof style of performance. She’s a darling in the crowd’s eyes.
On the music side is Finn McKinlay and Beans Wright who are insanely talented as always and ever game to switch things up. Requests are thrown at them and they adapt on the fly, changing keys, providing dinosaur voiceovers to very specific standards, and just overall having a wonderful time.
Shows like Review Revue live and die by their execution of the meta aspects of the narrative. With the guiding feedback provided, the duo create a weirder, more chaotic version of the initial play which is clearly not the intended influence of reviewer John Smythe’s notes. As a result, the updated show reflects the way that reviews generally affect the development of shows, that is to say, not that much.
I’m not gonna lie here and act like being a reviewer is some noble profession, or any voice of authority in a field in which peformance is entirely subjective. It’s not. Different reviewers obviously have different goals and whether not we really accomplish them is almost irrelevant the performers whose work we critique.
Review Revue helps me re-align my compass. It cements my own personal goals within this reviewing business as someone who express all the things I like in a play in order to encourage and inspire performers to do more of the thing they love. My opinion doesn’t actually matter. But it can help.
I think this is some of Bethany Miller and Logan Hunt’s best work. It’s a fun meta-commentary on how reviews shape art, and vice versa, while displaying their excellent vocal capabilities.
Have me on as a reviewer next time, it’ll be fun, I promise.
Disclosure: As a somewhat active member of the Wellington performing arts community, I may be quite familiar with a number of the performers in this show. Having said that, I am not a liar, and there is zero bias in my reviews, shut up.
Also, tickets were provided to me for free by the production. Literally changes nothing, though.