Whiskey Bars

The Vault    3 @ 21.00 + 4-10, 12-17, 19-25 @ 20.40    Bremner Duthie

For my money, this was a fine solo performance, brave and inventive. I confess I just could not get my ear into the songs as I just wanted more. This may well be my fault and not the shows. I found it all too much on one level. I am looking at this, and writing these notes based on a musical and what musicals must have to offer and should deliver. Whiskey Bars was, for me, an off-stage cabaret or a very gentle homage with interspersed songs to evoke the mood of the piece. I felt I was watching the latter and not the former. If this was the case it was a compelling and boldly-delivered one man show full of energy and impassioned acting. What can I say? Whiskey Bars sits between to two camps of a monologue with songs and a musical with not enough songs. As a monologue with songs it was very well delivered; inhabited by a performer who fully understood the world he was in. And, for a time, we were transported to that world.