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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Mark Fisher

I’ll Be Seeing You review – Simon Russell Beale’s Liberace is a life force too great to be tamed

Simon Russell Beale, in a feathered cape, sings at a glittery piano beside a candle-holding nun
Milking it … Simon Russell Beale as Liberace in I’ll Be Seeing You at Pitlochry Festival theatre. Photograph: Tiu Makkonen

Simon Russell Beale makes his entrance in mid-air, appearing some way above the stage in a heavenly haze of smoke and light. He flashes a voluminous silver cape and spangly waistcoat, his eyes wide and imploring as if he cannot believe it either. It is flashy and flamboyant and it is a problem for Fra Fee.

In this headily meta new play by Martin Sherman, still provocative and unexpected at the age of 87, Fee plays a writer commissioned by Pitlochry Festival theatre to turn out a play about Liberace. The only thing is, he despises everything the American showbiz pianist stands for.

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