Little Johnny's Big Gay Musical

Well, you can't say you've not been warned: Little Johnny's Big Gay Musical is pretty damn gay. Told through original songs as well as snippets of famous musicals, LJBGM ostensibly recounts Johnny's journey from a troubled heterosexual youth to a man finally comfortable with his homosexuality. And it's a journey magnified by the glitz, glam and unabashed campness of musical theatre. "This isn't the Edinburgh Fringe, this is the London Palladium," squeals Johnny McKnight.

Except it quite clearly isn't. This is the Pleasance Dome. And even if it wasn't, Johnny is from Ardrossan, not the West End. But that's exactly where the charm of this production lies. Johnny couldn't be further from the appropriate subject for a glitzy musical. A troubled nobody—a "failure"—from the West of Scotland, Johnny ought to be entirely unremarkable. But as he serenades us step-by-step through his sexual and emotional becoming, adding with each scene an item of clothing—starting with trousers and ending in full DJ with cane and top hat—it's a disparity which ceases to matter. Disarmingly honest, warm and utterly unafraid of melodrama, Johnny grows in stature. He commands sympathy, and fully earns his snazzy suit.

Musically, with vocal help from superb vocalist Natalie Toyne and a band led by Karen MacIver, this is a smart production. There's no absolute show-stoppers, but the tunes are nicely arranged, and sensitive to the traditions and camp idiosyncrasies of Broadway musicals. It's also an incredibly funny production, though one can't help but feel McKnight gets away with some weaker jokes because of his strength and presence as a performer. Nonetheless, here's a new(ish) musical which manages to be thoroughly fun, but is by no means wholly frivolous.