Mellow Brand and a quest for meaning that falls a little flat
Russell Brand Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre ★★★✩✩
ON most nights at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre you can see Jesus Christ Superstar. On Monday Jesus had a night off and Russell Brand returned with his latest show. The coincidence was not lost on the erstwhile stand-up messiah. “The lord is talking to us through signs,” he chuckled as he sat down cross-legged onstage.
It was a shame, then, that the lord did not talk to Brand about his script. His new piece, Brand-emic, was his hot take on the past six months and while it had flashes of the old brilliance, it felt like an early draft, lacking his usual insight and originality.
The framework took us through the predictable bullet points of 2020, from panic buying to Dominic Cummings testing his eyes by looking at castles. It was Brand though that lacked focus, one moment talking about spirituality versus materialism, the next slipping into a cockney
While it had flashes of the old brilliance, it felt like an early draft, lacking his usual insight
reverie about old EastEnders characters.
This was definitely a more mellow Brand with reduced swagger. The mandatory tight black trousers were still present but so were hippyish beads. As anyone who has seen his recent online interviews with assorted sages knows, he is clearly on a quest for meaning. He told the socially distanced audience that he had considered becoming a monk. His monk friends’ response was “they’d rather I didn’t”.
In the set’s defence this was essentially a work-in-progress which could evolve into something. Fans seeking wall-to-wall belly laughs, however, might have been disappointed. There were undeniably hilarious moments, such as his sublimely acted-out account of his young daughter swearing or his driver mistaking the Dalai Lama for someone called “Darrell Lama” yet also some seriously indulgent passages.