On the ticket it says hilarious, but how can they know? It’s always been true that what some people find hilarious, other people regard as totally unfunny (in this bracket I would personally put Ricky Gervais and Only Fools and Horses) – and herein lies a problem, as some audience expectations, prior to arrival, may have been set too high.
Don’t get me wrong, “Summer Street – the Hilarious Aussie Soap Opera Musical” is amusing, in some places even funny. A couple of the songs, like “Lucky Plucky Me” and “Don’t Give Up” are quite catchy, and serve well to hark back to the “soap star to pop star” success of both Minogue and Donovan. The cast, Julie Clare, Simon Snashall, Sarah-Louise Young and Myke Cotton, work very hard and, in the limited space of The Blockhouse, a lot is packed in, but something is not quite right as our collective “funny bones” are being tapped rather than walloped.
Now it may be that I’m not really a fan of soaps, especially of the antipodean variety. It may be that the references that obviously stem from the likes of Home and Away and Neighbours are totally lost on me but, if that is the case, why am I not the only one who is wondering when “hilarious” will happen?
The plot seems overly complex as we watch four Aussie soap stars trying to resurrect their careers with a one-off special, where they must play all eight characters. We are also presented with the backstage goings on in the TV studio, so that’s four actors, playing four actors, playing eight characters, with only very minimal costume and scene changes to assist them in this endeavour.
By the end of the 80 minute show most of the pieces that have been blown apart do come back together. A lot of the seemingly random earlier scenes now make sense and the audience reaction is positive, and fairly enthusiastic, but I think that a lot of us want the show to be more than it is.
It is an enjoyable piece, with a talented cast who work their collective socks off but, sadly, the show is a victim of its own publicity hype and, with expectations set unreachably high, Summer Street never quite climbs high enough in the ratings.
*** Three stars