Review by Steve Bennett

As the senior partner of outrageous musical satirists Topping & Butch, Michael Topping is more at home in the glitzy surrounds of a decadent late-night cabaret club than he is in a function room at 11.45 in the am.

This is a very subdued atmosphere for what should be a gloriously indiscreet romp through the loves – not to mention meaningless shags – of a disarmingly frank old queen.

We do get to that point where he can kiss and tell eventually, but for too long he keeps hidden his biggest asset – his own joyful personality – as we trot through some elegant but restrained musical numbers based around the themes of relationship and romance.

There’s an air of the Noel Coward to it all, and Topping dutifully dons a silk dressing gown to underline the effect. Classy ballads such as My Foolish Heart and Love For Sale are interspersed with more playful renditions, such as a version of The Girl From Ipanema rewritten as The Boy From Brighton, with his tight-fitting trousers attracting all the attention.

The music is interspersed with measured ponderings about such topics as his crushes – from the young David Attenborough to the modern-day David Milliband – enlivened with the occasionally ear-catching turn of phrase. I was particularly taken by the new verb Doctor Whoing, to drub your fingers impatiently making a sound like the theme tune.

But the tone of the show is wryly witty rather than outright funny, raising pleasant smiles – which might, admittedly, be the only possible reaction pre-lunchtime. Yet the show does take off towards the end when Topping opens up a Q&A session. The questions are slow to come, but this is where he shines, taking genuine glee at spilling the beans about ‘gentlemen callers’ of times gone by and bantering charmingly with the audience.

He maybe of advanced years, but he giggles like a child at his own boldness, clasping his hands to his mouth in unaffected comic outrage at the things he comes out with. That combination of reckless candour and guilty reaction is utterly endearing.

For a really enjoyable how we should be seeing much more of him and much less of that inanimate performing partner who’s holding him back – by which I mean the piano, not dear old Butch.

Review date: 20 Aug 2010
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett