This show is not in a swimming pool. An odd thing to say, because of course most shows are not in a swimming pool, but The Frogs set a high bar when it premiered in 1974 by taking place in Yale University Swimming Pool in a production starring Meryl Streep AND Sigourney Weaver. Ridiculous. Other pool-based productions have followed. But not this one. No, this comparatively rare revival of Stephen Sondheim’s hands down weirdest show (just wait until those frogs arrive) is in the pinched space of Southwark Playhouse. Directed with the right mix of skill and silliness by Georgie Rankcom, and boasting a Glee star, it’s full of great moments, but never quite justifies its own point – which is that theatre might change the world.
Thankfully, for those who don’t know the Aristophanes comedy this is based on, the show is a primer as well as the thing itself. So, Dan Buckley’s vain, slightly hapless Dionysos – god of wine, theatre and nice things like that – tells us he is sickened by the state of society and decides to journey to the underworld to bring back a playwright who can change the world for the better. He takes his slave Xanthias with him, with predictably hilarious consequences.
