Upstaged Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Reviewer: Daniel Shipman
Following their last visit to HOME in 2017, Bourgeois and Maurice (George Heyworth and Liz Morris) return with their first full-length musical. The step up from alternative cabaret duo to full-blown musical theatre could have been a stumbling block, but this pair have nailed it. With its blend of science fiction, myth, sex and a killer soundtrack, this is Rocky Horror for the 21st Century, a camp cult classic in the making.
Split between ancient Mesopotamia and the modern-day, (it makes sense in context, I promise) Insane Animals attempts to get to the heart of what it means to be human and why it feels like we’re all getting it so wrong at the moment. Touching on mortality, civilisation, trans-humanism and the nature of storytelling itself, one might think the evening would feel overladen with weighty ideas. This couldn’t be further from the truth – the show breezes from one hilarious musical number to the next so easily that you don’t realise how much is happening.
The sheer volume of information which is transmitted through the lyrics of ‘Welcome to Today’ left me breathless from watching it, so props to the pair for following it with the rest of the second act without fainting. Unusually for a two-hour-plus musical, there really isn’t a weak number amongst the entire song list, which is a credit to Heyworth and Morris as both writers and performers.
An absurdly talented collection of actor-musicians make up the rest of the cast, with voices which, frankly, would leave most big-budget West End shows in the dust. The set (Michael Hankin) and costumes (Julian Smith) are as glittery and fabulous as you would expect for a show this flamboyant.
This is the show that cements Bourgeois and Maurice as top tier artists, and I cannot wait to see where the drag aliens take us next on their quest to save humanity from itself.
-Daniel Shipman
Insane Animals runs at HOME Manchester until Saturday 14 March 2020.