{"id":10114,"date":"2019-06-03T17:54:17","date_gmt":"2019-06-03T17:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/laughfrodisiac.com\/?p=10114"},"modified":"2019-07-03T15:06:08","modified_gmt":"2019-07-03T15:06:08","slug":"rachel-bloom-live-in-london-the-most-hilarious-joyous-loving-show-in-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laughfrodisiac.com\/2019\/06\/03\/rachel-bloom-live-in-london-the-most-hilarious-joyous-loving-show-in-town\/","title":{"rendered":"Rachel Bloom Live in London: The Most Hilarious, Joyous, Loving Show in Town"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last night, Rachel Bloom, creator and star of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend<\/em>, the greatest television musical\/show\/lifeforce\/raison d’etre\/new bar for excellence in any field made her London debut (a phrase about performance firsts that is commonly used in theatre but it sounds like I’m talking about debutantes and I feel like she would love that<\/em>). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bloom is in town for only two performances at the Palladium, an enormous theatre by Oxford Circus where I’ve seen, off the top of my head, both the transfer of the 2015 Broadway revival of The King and I<\/em>, starring Kelli O’Hara, AND Whose Line is it Anyway: Live<\/em>, a forking confusing list of past residents. Since CXG<\/em> said goodbye, Bloom and her incredible cast have done the opposite of what most entertainers do when their jobs end: they’ve doubled down on working hard for their insanely adoring fans, just live instead of on TV. With the post-finale live show (on Netflix for people who don’t know, which like how do you live), sold-out shows at freaking Radio City Musical Hall and more, Bloom and the cast have been performing the genius, hilarious, wonderful songs from the beloved show, proving that they’re somehow even more talented live and that they have the best, most dedicated, most adoring fans ever. Finally, Bloom came to London, but without the rest of the cast. Or so we were told. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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whee! a swing! it’s literal suspension!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

A mostly solo Rachel Bloom show was still a must-see, especially since she was bringing along co-writer and musical genius Adam Schlesinger on the piano (with local musicians on bass and drums) and Emmy-winning choreographer (representing all the show’s deserved Emmy wins) Kat Burns. She promised a few special surprise guests, who I assumed would be British performers, because I like making an ass out of you and me, I guess. I could not have been more wrong or more excited – I literally jumped out of my seat screaming like a forking lunatic fangirl (which I guess this means I am?) when Rachel tried to kill me by bringing out PETE GARDNER and SCOTT MICHAEL FOSTER. The surprise and excitement at either one of them would have been enough to kill me so with both of them I was killed twice which means the murders get negated and I am fine now, if still amped up on adrenaline and dealing with the subsequent nausea that it causes (it’s a true thing; I googled it at 4am). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most incredible part, well besides seeing these performers that I love singing literally my favorite songs, was this audience. Rachel seemed genuinely moved at how devoted this immense crowd of fans was. The cheering was unlike anything I’ve ever heard – louder than any sports game I’ve been to (she did<\/em> say, after making a joke about the big football match over the weekend, “oh no this is my first audience that watches sports!”), louder than any concert, and about 10 times the intensity of a closing night of a Broadway show. Like that last one, this crowd also sang along to every single word, which would normally be annoying for me (and it was a little just because the girls behind me were almost louder than Rachel, which like please no) but for the most part was pretty emotional, for me, for everyone, and clearly for Rachel, who kept pausing to take it all in. The only bad thing about the singing along came when a few people would preempt Rachel’s big moments, but we’ll get to that. Because I can’t focus on literally anything else right now, I’m going to go through night to the best of my ability\/memory and share everything I can – including some videos! I didn’t take any during the first act because it is SO WRONG TO RECORD IN THE THEATRE, but then once I fully accepted that this was totally cool here, I took some videos (still super short ones though because ahhh).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ACT I<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PERIOD SEX<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To open with \u201cPeriod Sex\u201d is a bold move, and I couldn\u2019t\nstop laughing watching the unapprised guards\u2019 faces. They did NOT know what\nthey were in for. On the show, we had only gotten a few lines of this song in\nits various occurrences. But here, oh boy, they went all out writing the rest\nof the song, even including a line about buying new sheets at Primark (to which\nRachel commented, rightly, that Primark sounds like a pregnancy test). Amazing\nstart, jumping right in to the crazy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FEELING KINDA NAUGHTY<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is one of my favorites so I may have started my\nscreaming, which lasted for the next 2 \u00bd hours, at recognizing the opening.\nAlthough nothing beats the image in the show that accompanies the delivery of\n\u201clike that film with Liberace\u201d, it was still the amazing live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WE SHOULD DEFINITELY NOT HAVE SEX RIGHT NOW<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rachel roped Adam into performing Josh\u2019s part from this\nsong, which was hilarious since Adam gives off such a serious vibe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was around this point when Rachel learned the hard way\nthat this country does not do air conditioning. It was super hot in the\ntheatre, and I was sweating sitting in the audience so I can\u2019t imagine how much\nworse it was for Rachel under those stage lights. She started the show wearing\na plaid shirt open over a tank because she said she hadn\u2019t gotten the tank top\ntailored yet, but soon she had to take it off.. She definitely undersold how\nill-fitting the shirt was, as she definitely almost fully popped out of it\nseveral times! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

OMG I THINK I LIKE YOU<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ugh my FAVORITE. It was magical. It was especially funny to\nhear the bridge, just the best bridge ever, about the various forms of\ncontraception including the IUD (\u201cthat can stop the image of YOU AND ME\u201d) since\nshe had just talked about a bad experience she had with the NuvaRing and said\n\u201cDo you guys know what that is? Oh wait you do IUDs here don\u2019t you?\u201d to which\nthe audience shouted \u201cYES\u201d. Rachel said \u201cdoesn\u2019t that hurt??\u201d and again,\neveryone shouted \u201cYESSS\u201d. HILARIOUS. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019M A GOOD PERSON<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was \u2013 we were ALL \u2013 SO happy to hear this song start, since it is one of the classics out of this show (like 131 are all classics and amazing, btw). It was the explicit version \u2013 all of these were the explicit versions \u2013 and while generally the safe-for-TV versions are actually much better (see, e.g., <\/em>\u201cJAP Battle\u201d and \u201cI Give Good Parent\u201d, two of my absolute faves), the differences with this song are few and they\u2019re lateral moves, so it was no big deal. Where in the show Rebecca comes across the guy choking and says “Sorry, so busy!”, here Adam stopped playing and told Rachel that there was a girl in the audience who was terminally ill. He kept talking and Rachel kept saying ‘uh huh’ and it went on and on and was so Voldemort (TERRIBLE, but GREAT) and then she just resumed singing!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a girl in the front row who may have been even more overexcited than I was, because Rachel chose her for the audience participation line, saying she had a bit planned for that pause but just completely skipped it because that girl was so itching to shout \u2018YOU\u2019RE A GOOD PERSON!\u2019 Well, she said great; she was very excited. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

SEXY FRENCH DEPRESSION<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the funniest moments when Rachel introduced this\nsong. Earlier I said the list of past performers at the Palladium is wildly\nvaried, and I hadn\u2019t even mentioned the best one: Judy Garland. It seemed like\nRachel and I were the only people who appreciated this, because she kept trying\nto talk about how amazing it was and the audience didn\u2019t seem to react the way\nshe expected, which she kept talking about. As she sat down on the lip of the\nstage, she said she expected everyone to erupt with recognition that \u201cJudy sat\non the lip of that stage just like that!\u201d That would have already sealed this\nas my favorite intro bit, but then she asked the audience how England\nfeels about France.\nThe crowd erupted in a truly indecipherable way: I heard cheers, boos,\neverything. Rachel said \u201cwhat you guys still aren\u2019t over the 100 Years War?\u201d\nThen, some man (of course it was a man) shouted \u2018BREXIT!\u2019 to which the entire\naudience booed, which was amazing. Rachel was kind of confused until someone\nexplained we were all booing Brexit, not France or her for asking. A\ntotally  hysterical way to lead in a\nhysterical-but-remember-depression-isn\u2019t-hysterical-or-sexy-as-Rachel-reminded-us\nsong, \u201cSexy French Depression\u201d. I only wish she did the original French lyrics\nin the back half; there\u2019s nothing funnier than the rush of French with \u2018John\nWayne Gacy\u2019 stuck in there (but I admit without subtitles it wouldn\u2019t have\nworked). \u201cJe suis garbage\u201d is still the best line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FRIENDTOPIA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

OH MY BIGGEST REGRET IN LIFE. Ugh I am still heartbroken about this. Without Gabrielle Ruiz and Vella Lovell to join Rachel for this song, she asked the audience for volunteers, two people who REALLY know the song, like every word, who could step in and do the respective parts. I SHOULD HAVE JUMPED UP, but I second guessed how well I knew a few of the lyrics so I stayed seated. Then as soon as the two girls got onstage, they were given lyric sheets!! I could have checked the one I was unsure about (Heather is the one who says \u2018take control of the banks\u2019) and then HAD MY LIFE MADE. Oh well, the two volunteers did such a great job being so brave. Kat came onstage to teach them some super quick choreography, which Rachel said was how all her choreography was taught. It also was a great opportunity for Rachel to continue doing terrible accents and talking about the British accent, which she did A LOT. ZIGAZOW! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

WE TAPPED THAT ASS ALL OVER THIS HOUSE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this ridiculous number, Rachel and Kat did the tap\ndancing of Josh and Greg \u2013 but Adam and another musician did the singing. It\nwas funny, and a nice way to show off Kat, but the multiple performer thing\nmade it feel a little off, keeping the hilarious lyrics more in the background.\nStill so fun though. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

IT WAS A SHITSHOW<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rachel sang Greg\u2019s most heartbreaking song, making an\nalready emotional song even more moving. She also shared that, like the\nsituation the song is about, writing the song was a shitshow too because \u2018the\nactor decided to leave us, which was a surprise!\u2019 It was some REAL shade, and\nit made me uncomfortable (and a lot of the audience since a majority of every\ncrowd (in any place or gathering) is a Santino fan). There\u2019s so much about that\nsituation that is the real life version of the gif of Chrissy Tiegen at the\nGolden Globes making cringe-face, and I honestly would rather not know!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This song featured one of the most prominent examples of\nsome extra-annoying audience members who kept preempting some songs\u2019 big\nmoments. Here, famously, Greg runs off before singing the final \u2018shitshow\u2019 \u2013\nRachel and Adam actually explained that there is no final \u2018shitshow\u2019 because\nStandards & Practices would only let them say it twice, but it actually\nhelps with the emotional heft to leave it hanging. But before letting us find\nout whether Rachel would sing it or not, the audience member\/s shouted it out\nthemselves. Rachel made fun of it and we all laughed, but I think she was\nreally annoyed about it. It\u2019s one thing to sing along because we all love it;\nit\u2019s another to literally make it all about you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHAT\u2019LL IT BE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a really lovely twist, they had Adam sing this, one of my favorite Greg songs, with Rachel introducing it as the song that most impressed her from Adam, that the first draft he sent was literally perfect. Adam introduced it by explaining that it\u2019s inspired, as we know, by a singer named William Joel, \u201cwho is a Jewish man but pretends to be Italian.\u201d As someone who is both Jewish and Italian AND whose very first concert was Billy Joel (that\u2019s true), I CACKLED. Adam sang the lyric as “to serve Deb a Grey Goose” instead of “to serve Deb a vodka and cranberry juice”, and he paused the song to explain that Grey Goose was the original lyric, but the lawyers made them change it for the show! Free from the constraints of TV, it’s back to its original form, but I actually prefer the way “vodka and cranberry juice” affects the meter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MATH OF LOVE TRIANGLES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final song before the interval break was the one that\nalmost gave me the big heart attack. Rachel said she needed the help of two\nspecial guests for this one, and out came PETE and SCOTT and I JUMPED up out of\nmy seat and jumped up and down screaming like I have literally never done\nbefore. I was like a contestant pulled from the audience on The Price is Right<\/em>, and in hindsight\nequally embarrassing as they all usually are. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it doesn\u2019t matter how embarrassing I acted because this\nwas the best surprise, especially to use them in a song they originally had no\npart of. They even had the posterboard props of the different triangles. THE\nBEST! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the interval, everyone got even more wasted, buying whole new bottles of wine and ensuring an even rowdier Act 2 crowd, if that was possible. The Palladium toilet situation is not great, and the line for the ladies snaked all the way through that long hallway and into the bar area. (That\u2019s bad.) (Luckily, I know theatres (and talk about them in my regular reviews, ps) and got the seat next to the secret door to the ladies from the stalls \u2013 it actually says Gentlemen above the door but it leads to both. Anyway that\u2019s enough about the toilets.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ACT 2<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

FUCKTON OF CATS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With everyone wasted \u2013 which is something for fans of a show that uses alcoholism as an important plot point (but in the UK we just ignore that alcoholism is real) \u2013 they opened the second act with a song that I don\u2019t love love like the others, but that is so good live, \u201cFuckton of Cats\u201d, with Scott, Pete, and Kat acting as the cat chorus. Hilarious! This act actually featured a lot of the songs I don\u2019t love love (of course still regular love, I love all of them) but that were vastly improved by a live performance. So interesting, like how \u201cSanta Fe\u201d was the best part of the Rent<\/em> movie even though it\u2019s like whatever in the original.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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