REVIEW: THE FROGS, Music & lyrics Stephen Sondheim, at Southwark Playhouse Borough until 28 June 2025
‘Clever fun but too long’ ★★★ ½
Dating, in various forms, from the 405 BC and 1970s this pretty bonkers show tells the story of Dionysus (Dan Buckley – good) and his slave Xanthias (Kevin McHale – fine work) visiting Hades to rescue George Bernard Shaw so that he can save civilisation. As it turns out they meet Shakespeare while they’re there and set up a TV style reality competition. Of course he wins so they take him back to life and leave Shaw behind. The titular frogs, of which Dionysus is terrified, live in the river Styx.
It’s certainly very funny and full of anachronisms which make for good comedy. “We’re in Ancient Greece and the present” McHale tells us at the beginning and that sums it up. There is also a huge amount of self-referential joking about theatre itself which went down very well on press night when the house was full of actors, directors and theatre creatives. It might, however, be a bit esoteric for a mainstream audience on a wet Thursday night.
The writing is brilliant, however. Sondheim, with all that effortless rhyming was probably the best lyricist since WS Gilbert. And the music, played by a five piece band with Ed Zanderson (covering for MD Yshani Perinpanayagam) on keys, purrs along wittily. There are hints of other Sondheim songs and clever references to Shaw, both musical and verbal via Pygmalion/My Fair Lady.
The cast of ten are a talented bunch. It’s effectively a group of accomplished principals who form a well choreographed (Matt Nicolson) ensemble when required rather than an ensemble from which small roles emerge. There is, for example, bravura work from Karl Patrick, first as the laconic Charon bobbing up and down like a jack-in-a-box and treating his passengers to a dead pan cruise-style commentary. Then he is show-stoppingly funny as Pluto’s gatekeeper complete with a speech impediment characterised by perfectly timed sibilance. Bart Lambert, who sings in an attractive rich baritone, delights as the ever serious Shakespeare who expresses every thought in his own words – another bit of quite clever in-joking.
The ensemble, as and when it forms, is neat and vibrant. And the sequence at the end of Act 1 when they become frogs, all wide legs and leaps of both feet is suitably climactic.
Yes, there’s plenty to enjoy here but at over two and a half hours with interval, the show is too long for what it is.
THE FROGS at Southwark Playhouse 23 May - 28 June 2025
Music & lyrics Stephen Sondheim
Loosely Adapted from Aristophanes by Burt Shelgrove and Nathan Lane
BOX OFFICE https://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/productions/the-frogs/
Photos by Pamela Raith
