In recent years, Hollywood has been milking the Superhero franchise for all its worth as we’ve had the umpteenth version of Spiderman and all those other Avengers movies. Yes, Superheroes have been done to death in films but not so much in musicals and none come close to the extravaganza that is the quirky new musical Vulvarine.
In this punchy musical comedy, Bryony Buckle (Allie Munro) is ‘astoundingly average’ and an enjoyable evening for her is a night spent alone with her cat. But when she’s injected with a mysterious hormone and struck by lightning, she develops superpowers and becomes the unlikely neighbourhood town hero. Unlike other superheroes, Vulvarine fights gender inequality and any other injustices that she sees.
During the the late-night slot of 22:30, the cast have the relentless energy of an army of Duracell Bunnies. Each actor often takes on multiple roles and even gender swapped ones and there is no weak link. The songs were silly, witty and refreshingly original. With the superhero model, the creators have tapped into a winning formula but they have put enough of their own mark on it so that it feels new.
Think ‘Scott Pilgrim verses the World’ meets ‘My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’ but much better arguably than both of those shows combined. Fat Rascal may just have a big fat hit on their hands.
Vulvarine is running at the Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose on Aug 6-13, 15-26 at the time of writing.
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