Suggs Reviewed
On the Friday 27th January, the Tyne Theatre will be hosting Suggs: My Life Story in Words and Music.
This show has already toured a number of different theatres, aswell as doing a month long residency in the King's Head Theatre in London.
We are very excited for this show, as it offers a rare insight into the life of the Madness front man and all round Musical legend.
Below are a couple of reviews for this excellent show:
The Telegraph:
Suggs has a crack at stand-up? That’s been the arresting suggestion floated ahead of this brief, toe-in-the-water
tour by the Madness front-man - and it sounded eminently plausible. Madness were the music-hall joker in the
pack of Eighties pop - and Suggs could easily, you feel, in another life have been a contender at the Comedy
Store in its riotous early days - what with his cheeky-chappy swagger, beguiling glint of mischief and street-smart
wit and dash. But this isn’t, as it turns out, his belated bid to become Michael McIntyre, or another gagsmith of
that ilk.
Live Suggs is more of “an evening with”, rewinding across the highs and lows of a remarkable life and career,
rather than a do-or-die, keep 'em laughing set. Granted, it’s often very funny, and it’s delivered with a sense of
timing and phrasing that many common-or-garden comics could learn much from, but the best stand-up draws
upon its autobiographical ingredients to give you a distinctive angle on the world; by contrast, “Suggs
Unplugged”, as it were, gives you a heap of anecdotes and reflections about the star before your eyes.
Still, that said, there’s something so grittily involving about the life-story of Graham McPherson, and the way he
made a name for himself against the odds, that ensures this mid-life retrospective transcends its selfpreoccupied
trappings - just as the group’s big-hearted, ska-steeped songs burst out of the down-at-heel,
kitchen-sink confines they so richly detailed to become unofficial national anthems.
Never mind the kitchen-sink - even a table, cupboard, bath and fridge were unaffordable luxuries for Suggs as a
nipper, raised by his chaotic jazz-singer mother in a Clerkenwell flat not big enough to swing a cat in (poignantly,
it’s the death of a beloved moggy, in the wake of his 50th birthday, that sets him off down memory lane).
There are no weepy violins, here, though: strutting and even dancing about the stage in a sharp grey suit, with
those trademark flickknife-fast head-turns and diamond-geezer smiles fully in evidence, Suggs avoids
sentimentality even as he confronts bitter truths about the junkie dad he never knew.
TimeOut Magazine:
'I've just turned fifty, the kids have left home and my cat just died.' Taking up residency at the King's Head Theatre,
Islington, Madness frontman Suggs has embarked on an ambitious attempt to convey 30 years of life experience in a
sprawling, all-encompassing monologue.
It was impossible not to be charmed by this one man show which begins with the morning of his fiftieth birthday. Bringing
elements of physical and musical comedy he takes you from his days skipping school and fighting rival gangs through to
the dizzying heights of his '80s fame.
Then, with the palpable sense of humour and endearing humility he maintains throughout, he delves in to his less
successful show business ventures. This is not a show that merely satisfies the ardent Madness fans - his expert story
telling gives a social-historical insight in to growing up in 1970s London, whisking you from his North London roots to the
Shed End via Soho. Underpinning this autobiographical journey there's the emotionally touching account of the search
for his absent father reaching far beyond a story of just fame and riches.
His musical accompaniment comes in the form of his 'pianist-cum-man servent' who adds a delightful soundtrack with a
few Madness classics and some extra surprises slotted in perfectly. The entire show verges on just the right side of
nostalgia and sentimentality, culminating in a somewhat predictable but wholly welcome finale, which is worth the ticket
price alone.
Published on Thursday 5 January 2012
