JFK: The Musical
Z Theatre Company
Venue 45 @ 17:00 7th – 18th (not 13th) £5.00 (£3.50)
***
This is one of many new shows brought to the festival this year by this young group of budding performers, and there’s some strong talent behind this lightweight musical parody. In particular the music and lyrics which prove young Anna Mitchell is a very able musical director and has a great deal to offer in the future.

The action centres around the events leading up to that fateful moment in Dealey Plaza, Dallas on November 22nd 1963. Jessica Clark as Jacqueline Kennedy (and later as the ghost of Marilyn Monroe) shows off her fine vocal skill and notable acting ability as she pleads her husband not to go to Dallas.

There are no plain answers in the depths of this well examined mystery, and Z Theatre Company don’t proclaim to resolve any of these issues, but they adequately sing and dance there way through a number of the more salient points of interest. The tramps observed behind the fence on the grassy knoll, the KGB, Lee Harvey Oswald and the CIA all feature and get their turn at further confusing the issue in this deliberate mystification of the day.

It’s an enjoyable romp, perhaps enjoyed mostly by their fellow members of Z Theatre Company in the audience who make their pleasure well known, almost to the point of distraction. There are a few truly bizarre moments too, it’s always difficult casting a show when there is only one male available – but there is something un-nervingly peculiar about the sight of a girl dressed as Elvis, sporting a huge moustache, an oversized quiffed wig, and conversing in a Russian accent.

by Ian Phillips