No cliche is left unturned in sci-fi musical spoof . . .
THE joys of tinnitus-inducing High School sci-fi musical spoofs are perhaps lost on me — as they were on some of the target audience of young people who left at the interval.
But many more were roused to a standing ovation by this high-decibel, formulaic romp about a teenage American geek of the Eighties whose comic book creations get snapped up by Hollywood.
Ben Adams’s and Chris Wilkins’s plot is so generic it could have been invented on the way back from the pub — as producer Warwick Davis assures us in the programme it was.
Our hero Eugene is a bashful geek oblivious to the devotion of equally bashful girl-geek Janey. But when a talent scout sees his cartoons about superhero Tough Man and Super Hot Lady, Eugene falls into the hands of megalomaniac film director Lex. Eugene duly sees through the sham of tinsel town, searches for the hero inside himself, finds true love and saves the planet. You could write it in your sleep.
But it’s not just the plot that’s predictable pastiche. The music lurches cheerfully from one tribute song to another — just about evading plagiarism. The best is a grand Master Flash-style rap, but we’re also treated to a Celine Dion-style torch song delivered to a wind machine tousling our heroine’s hair. No cliche is left unturned.
But that’s not to say that Ian Talbot doesn’t deliver a lively production. An exuberant young cast competes vigorously with the deafening music thanks to Aaron Renfree’s choreography and Hannah Wolfe’s boob-hugging, muscletoning Lycra costumes.
Ian Hughes is genuinely funny as the Harry Hill-style villain Evil Lord Hector, as is Shaun Dalton with his Arnie impersonation as Tough Man.
Liam Forde and Laura Baldwin are, meanwhile, perfectly likeable as our two love birds.
But to warrant our time and money, Eugenius needs to be more original.