A laugh a minute show with a brilliant concept, but which needs greater focus on its core idea to give it a much fuller feel.Summary
Rating
Good
When you’re told you look like an up-and-coming actor when you are just 13, what else can you do but dedicate your life to being her double? OK, there is actually plenty more you should do, but for Cayley Rae her obsession is to team up with the real Anne Hathaway – maybe a starring role alongside her in a Hollywood film, or maybe to just fill in when the real Anne needs a rest.
It’s a wonderful set up as Rae dreams of doing more with her acting career than is on her current CV (playing a dead leg in a car crash). We are whisked through the real Anne Hathaway’s career as Rae charts her own life against it. Film posters are displayed to guide us through Hathaway’s history, which act to both assist those perhaps less familiar with the filmography under scrutiny and give us great reference points as Rae subtly parodies the images.
It’s all extremely funny, the self-depreciation allowing Rae to really ham it up as she tries to convince us of her acting range. There’s no doubting her ability to write a great gag or perform a brilliant parody song and dance routine; her Michael Jackson moment is cleverly crafted into proceedings whilst her singing is… well, amusingly questionable. Equally as amusing are her use of props and wigs that help with her efforts to show just how alike she really is to Hathaway.
However, as funny as it all is, the whole lacks proper cohesion. Even the dream of meeting the real Anne and performing with her seems to drift in and out with too many random moments designed to fit in another gag or song; they are always incredibly funny, but they just don’t quite bind together. It means that the central premise – that here is a woman obsessed and driven to be Anne Hathaway – isn’t convincing enough to persuade us this has been her lifelong purpose. Rae might benefit from stepping back slightly from the need to throw gag after gag into the mix and instead focus on the plot that holds it all together. As those film posters run out, so too does the show’s steam. It also doesn’t help that the performance is presented directly to the audience and so gives the impression that we are being spoken to in real time: this again causes a lack of depth, as if in that 40 minutes she has gone from a strong conviction that Hathaway will come calling to no longer caring and looking at alternatives to progress her rather stalled acting career. Breaking things up into scenes and so giving a feel of time passing could work wonders.
There’s absolutely no doubting Rae’s ability to write great skits and present moments of wonderful parody that really do keep us laughing. She now just needs to find the proper focus to build on those obvious strengths and make a fuller show with a much stronger narrative.
Written by: Cayley Rae
You can read more about this show in our recent interview here.
Becoming Anne plays at Hen and Chickens Theatre until Wednesday 30 July.
