DIVA: Live from Hell! - King's Head Theatre / Edinburgh

I thought this was fabulous in its short run at the Turbine a couple of years ago - Luke Bayer at his best. It got great reviews, if I remember rightly. I'll definitely see it again at the new King's Head.

New trailer
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Looking forward to this in a few weeks. Multi-roling can be so difficult to get right, especially when you're the only person on stage, but Luke Bayer absolutely nailed it in this.

I was lucky enough to attend press night for this last night - and wow! What Luke Bayer does with this is incredible. It's also very, very funny, with a lot of niche musical theatre references. I've seen lots of four and five star reviews today. I hope it doesn't suffer from being slightly off the beaten track - it's definitely worth the trip to Islington (and the theatre really isn't far from Highbury & Islington/Angel stations).

Yes - tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/diva-live-from-hell

Finally managed to catch this tonight and it was worth the wait. Luke does an amazing job in this and it’s a fun 70 minutes.

It really can’t be easy playing to a space that’s maybe 5% full like it was tonight, so hats off to him.

I saw on posters around the theatre that they are offering £10 top price seats this week with a promo code. I didn’t make a note of what it was but I’m sure the box office would share it over a phone call.

Completed a 3 show day with this one man (performing multiple roles) musical, my favourite show of the day by far!

This is a pithy, hilarious, camp, brilliant "All about Eve" parody musical featuring the most accomplished, terrific, delicious, unmissable, humorous performance by Luke Bayer as the out-of-control Theatre "Diva" of the title!

Some spoilers follow. . .

In the title role, Bayer is like a wide-eyed, screechy, cruel, camp, ambitious teen theatre kid with an inner Ms. Trunchbull (he models himself on Joan Crawford lol) that ruthlessly verbally flagellates himself and everyone around him for perceived imperfections.

The uncompromising level of gleeful evil Bayer brings to bear is a wonder in and of itself, but it's his quick-change characterisations of everyone else that makes the whole show so funny, as he jumps from one character to the other.

No character he does is funnier than his own nemesis, "Evan" as opposed to "Eve," who Bayer characterises as both absolutely swaggering but simultaneously utterly noncommittal, a character who has a retreating grunt for every advancing grunt, a shrug behind every statement. Bayer's body language is funnier than his lines, which he slurs and blurs in Evan's big song "Strong," such that its always funnier when you can't hear what he's singing, as his macho inexpressiveness becomes the whole point of his character. At one point, Evan's tongue keeps popping out as if to lick his own words in self-regard, but also to reject any need for intelligibility, his sheer swagger sucking up absolute admiration from all and sundry without regard to what he is saying.

And that's just two characters. Bayer's whimpering best friend, or simpering love interest, or huffing teacher are all superbly rendered.

In one scene, Bayer plays 4 characters sitting next to each other in a cinema and the scene is so bravura that you don't know whether to clap or laugh: you do both lol.

Anyway, if crossing "All About Eve" with a dark camp teen comedy musical one man show appeals to you, this one is done brilliantly. The worst thing about the show is that there are no songs in the last stretch, but it's a small quibble in what was a 4 and a half star marvel for me.

Though I admired Luke Bayer for his performance at 80 minutes or so I found it dragging. I also did not like the ending. They go for a dramatic change of tone that does not fit the rest of the show.

My pre-matinee show was the immersive barefoot (if you don't mind those two things lol) "Viola"s Room" from Punch-drunk, which does morning and early afternoon shows on Saturday, and only lasts one hour. My showtime was 12:40pm, I was out at 1:45pm, I was on the Elizabeth line at 1:50pm and at Park Theatre at 2:30pm for the 3pm matinee. Obviously, if I was going for a 2:30pm matinee somewhere, I would have attended a morning session of "Viola's Room."