London Hippodrome
Conceived by Brett Hayback & David Bates
Reviewed by John Garfield-Roberts
Originally created in 2004 for the Edinburgh festival and performed in the world famous Spiegletent (one of the last Flemish mirror tents in existence.) La Clique is a constant changing line up of some of the worlds best international circus and burlesque performers that you will ever see.
Taking up residency at the London Hippodrome La Clique has brought back Variety to one of London's original variety hot spots, and the design team for this production have gone to work in every aspect of the evening - even entering the foyer your senses are taken on a sensual journey with dimmed lighting, swaths of luxurious dark black and red material and beautifully looking and scented orchids and roses adorn and tantalise and tease your nose.
The performance flows smoothly between acts and most of the action takes place in the small centre stage or Podium with the audience completely in the round. This is a production like no other and its refreshing to see something so different and aimed at an adult audience...something the West End has been missing for quite sometime.
As you would expect with a Variety show, some acts are going to be better than others this is true to form with La Clique from the amazing Water Bath Ariel Acrobatics of and i quote from two ladies sat next to me 'The most beautiful man alive on earth.' (David O'Mer) to the sensational Cabaret Decadanse in which their act using environmentally friendly puppets are combined with themselves and highly energetic choreography that put this duo into a whole new league.
The female contingents form only a small segment of La Clique and bring just the right amount tease for the gents to enjoy and there partners not to feel uncomfortable, even Ursula Martinez's famous hanky routine left the audience in hysterics - combining the fine art of burlesque stripping magic and pure facial comedy to create an act your unlikely to see again in any theatre soon.
Unfortunately the weakest link to this fantastic performance is Mario Queen of the Circus, his leather clad Freddie mercury juggling tribute act, left me feeling cold and embarrassed and just wanting his act to end as soon as possible...if your going to juggle 3 clubs or four balls its important that you are flawless but it seemed that this part of the act wasn't what his focus was on it seemed that he would rather juggle a multitude of four letter words perfectly through his mouth than juggle with his hands.
The stars of this production are The English Gentlemen (even though they are Australian!) who combine sheer physical acrobatics with excellent Physical Theatre performing tricks that you could only wish you could do, but for these two gents you wouldn't be able to tell the strain they are putting their bodies through as its the character that appears to be the number one focus. I'm never going to be able to look at a tennis racket again in the same light after Captain Frodo's ingeniously comic contortionist act. This is an act that with leave you wincing in pain and laughing hysterically and absolutely amazed at what he can do!
La Clique is one of the best shows in town and really does prove that Burlesque and Cirucs isn't dead but is alive and well in the heart of London's West End.
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