The pleasures of fanny at brick lane music hall

 Brick lane music hall is a real hidden gem: A converted church out in the wilds of dockland close to City Airport that has been remodeled into a stunning early 20^th century style performance space. When I arrived the show was running slightly behind schedule, so I took the opportunity to head to the bar (Reasonably priced with a decent selection) and do a spot of people watching, I was interested to see that several of the crowd had dressed for the occasion in 1940’s/50’s vintage, and from the conversations I overheard it seemed like for a lot of them this was a regular outing and that (perhaps unsurprisingly) This was a venue with something of a cult following.

Eventually we were lead to our tables, I should probably mention that the experience was more than just a theatre show it also included a three course pre show dinner! The food service may have been a little slow but when it arrived it was well worth the wait, tonight’s menu was tomato soup followed by a sumptuous chicken breast wrapped in Palama ham (Although rest assured they do cater to those with dietary requirements and I have it on good authority that the veggie/vegan mushroom tart was also excellent.)  Dessert was a generous portion of melt-in-the-mouth cheese cake.

After the food was cleared away, I took the opportunity to investigate the toilets before the show got started and I’m pleased to report that they were clean, and that there were a decent amount of cubicles so the wait was not too long. So far the evening was off to a great start, and we were ticking all the boxes but then the play began….

The pleasures of Fanny bills it’s self as: An immersive musical murder mystery, bursting with comedy, music and mischievous twists:  In the present day the Silvertown Lovies amateur group (SLAG’s) are attempting to stage an ambitious post war musical ‘The pleasure’s of fanny’ which tells the tale of sweet Fanny Hood a plucky young orphan lass from Yorkshire who arrives in post-war 1940s London with nothing but her hopes, dreams and pet pigeon called Cockie.  While attempting to seek her fortune she meets an array of colourful and chaotic characters who each lead her deeper into the heart of a city full of secrets.

But this show is not quite what it seems. As the SLAGs take to the stage, fiction and reality begin to blur, cues are missed tempers fray  and before long, a shocking murder turns the evening upside down. What begins as a light-hearted musical quickly becomes a riotous whodunnit, where suspicion falls on everyone and nothing is what it seems….

It sounded amazing but in reality I would say ‘The pleasures of Fanny’ could probably best be described as the Temu version of West end mainstay ‘The Play that goes wrong’, there was far too much 4^th wall breaking, every tired theatrical cliche was deployed (Angry director, warring leading ladies, elderly actor who forgets his cues etc)    Every obvious gag was taken and run into the ground (Mic’s being left on back stage is not so funny by the 4^th time.)  There was also far too much shouting, beginning with Jack Pallister’s paisley shirted director who’s default setting was apoplectic, popping up at regular intervals to berate the cast, all of whom then went on to have their own screaming tantrums at various points throughout the show.

Then there was the murder which turned out to be a bit of a non event; there was no mystery, no suspense, and no clues to speak of, a cast member simply dropped dead at the end of act one and the audience were then asked to cast their votes for whodunnit – literally pick a number.

When we returned for the second half the cast seemed to be just as fed up with ‘Fanny’ as we were, so the murderer was quickly revealed and the play was brought to a mercifully swift conclusion. Following this they returned to the stage dressed as pearly kings and queens and gave us a nice rendition of some old ‘cockney knees up’ sing along numbers, to which the audience responded with great gusto!  (I have to say the cast all seemed to be a lot more comfortable performing in this capacity) The final segment was a choreographed mash up of songs from Gilbert and Sulivan’s HMS pinafore, again this was very well executed but the reasoning behind it was a bit vague – If I was being mean I would suggest they were trying to say ‘forget what you saw in act one just focus on how great we are at singing and dancing!’ Just incase there were any casting directors or bitchy reviewers lurking in the crowd!

To summarize I would say Brick lane music hall is well worth the visit, if you don’t already know it put it on your to do list – Just don’t go there for Fanny!