[2015112] Grabbin’ a piece

[2015112] Grabbin’ a piece

Mega-Choice @ Producers Warehouse

9:55pm, Wed 4 Mar 2015

Over-ambitious scheduling sees me trying to get from Gluttony to Producers Hotel… in one minute. A piece of piss to run, but in my haste I wind up bumping into someone leaving Producers, with the resulting tumble smashing my pedometer.

(Yeah, I wear a pedometer. Two, actually. Wii Fit U doesn’t play itself, you know. Did you know that unlocking all the outfits requires you to walk over fifteen thousand kilometres?)

So – I enter Producers Warehouse and wait for the short-sprint sweat to start rolling off me, wanting to not sit near the front for that reason. But it’s an uncomfortably single-digit crowd, so I perch myself in the second row, but on the aisle.

Matthew Barker – oft seen performing in early Gravity Boots performances – plays the Devil, resplendent in deep red facepaint and a ferociously tight leotard. The Devil wants to make it big on Broadway, but he’s dismayed by the fact that he’s only a double-threat: his singing is great, he can act just fine, but his dancing is… well, if his stage directions don’t include movement, then he might be able to avoid an incident.

And that’s the core of Grabbin’ a piece – we’re dealing with a emotionally fragile, campily-voiced Devil who has stars in his eyes & fame on his mind, but a deep-seated insecurity… despite still yielding the power of his Lord of Darkness day-job.

Written by James Lloyd-Smith (one of the mighty Gravity Boots), Matthew Barker absolutely nails the balance between insecurity and malevolence of his Devil, and belts out the numerous songs in this mini-musical piece with gusto. It’s a bizarre, camp, and funny performance that manages to provide many genuinely eyebrow-raising WTF moments, whist still delivering a coherent storyline. The only problem: the lack of audience… a fuller house would have seen Barker’s Devil surfing a wave of laughter all the way to Broadway.

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