Musik
Cahoots Theatre Company presents
MUSIK
DIRECT FROM SELL-OUT RUN AT THE EDINBURGH FESTIVAL
Billie Trix. Icon. Rock star. Screen goddess. Drug addict.
Billie has lived a life of excess and shares it all in her new one-woman show. Her journey takes us from post-war Berlin to the rock arenas of the world, via the Vietnam war, Andy Warhol’s factory, and a year in a Soho Square phone box.
A stunning performance by Frances Barber as Billie Trix with an outrageous script by Jonathan Harvey (Beautiful Thing, Coronation Street) and six original songs by Pet Shop Boys!
Pet Shop Boys said: “When we wrote ‘Closer to Heaven’ almost 20 years ago, we loved the compelling outrageousness of the character Bille Trix as written by Jonathan and performed by Frances Barber. We have all discussed for many years the idea of creating her own one-woman show which would give us the chance to write more songs for her as she looks back on her incredible career. We’re thrilled that this show is finally happening.”
Jonathan Harvey said: “It has been such a treat reconnecting and working with Chris and Neil on this, 20 years after our first foray into musical theatre writing. In ‘MUSIK’ Billie, dried up, drug-addled icon and rock star, tells us about her life and sings her biggest hits. I can’t wait to see Frances Barber inhabit her again as she did so hilariously and so touchingly all those years ago.”
AND THE REVIEWS ARE IN…
★★★★★ Londonist
Whether delivering high-octane disco or a Latin shuffle, the indomitable France Barber performs each Pet Shop Boys number with raddled majesty
Barber is a force of nature. By the time she sings the show’s final number — the gloriously hopeful For Every Moment — it is impossible to imagine any other actor possessing the raw talent and guts required to inhabit this at time grotesque yet iconic comic creation.
https://londonist.com/london/on-stage/musik-leicester-square-theatre-review
★★★★★ London Living Large
Frances Barber is simply incredible.
This is an 'artist' you need to meet and a performance you shouldn't miss
http://www.londonlivinglarge.com/2020/02/musik-leicester-square-theatre-until.html
★★★★★ Boyz
A tour de force from Frances Barber
A potent role that showcases Barber’s amazing skills as a performer; a mesmerising female libertine.
★★★★★ Musical Theatre Review
It’s rude, it’s scatalogical, it’s loud, it’s chaotic. And it’s absolutely hilarious. I loved every minute of it. Frances Barber1 absolutely nails it
You really can’t afford to miss out on Barber’s tour de force performance.
http://musicaltheatrereview.com/musik-leicester-square-theatre/
★★★★★ London Theatre 1
There are good plays; there are inspirational dramas; and there are out-of-body experiences; Musik, the one-person show performed with explosive panache by Frances Barber, falls, very definitely, into the third of these categories.
If you were looking for a definition of how a mind gets blown then it’s right here, right now in this extraordinary show at Leicester Square Theatre
Harvey’s sharp, laugh-a-minute script, Neil Tennant’s enthralling lyrics and Chris Lowe’s exquisite music all depend entirely on delivery. Billy Trix gives us a stand-up routine-on-speed that is forceful, challenging and fully meta-showbiz with a rare spine-tingling intensity. Barber is a phenomenon
★★★★★ UK Theatre Web
Frances Barber's performance is a genuine tour de force and a masterclass in story-telling.
The show is brash and bold but then so is Billie Trix. And the show is brilliant but then so is Frances Barber
https://www.uktw.co.uk/news/Musik/2279.html
★★★★★ The Break A Leggers
A sensationally ludicrous musical autobiography of the fictional icon who unwittingly shaped the world
Frances Barber gives us a masterclass in BECOMING art
★★★★★ The Review Chap
Brilliant, funny, original… Frances Barber gives a masterclass in outrage… Genuinely unmissable!
★★★★1/2 Attitude
The script is one long cocaine-and-Jack-Daniels-fuelled stream of consciousness that Frances Barber puts absolutely everything into. She is simply staggering
★★★★ Queer Guru
Frances Barber’s Billie Trix is a jaded, comic delight,
Barber has precise delivery and extraordinarily good comic timing - she knows just when to let a punchline linger and when to push on like a firework and keep the energy fizzing
★★★★ London Theatre
An outrageous and courageous cabaret - I adored it. It has been directed with a contained sense of glee
A very ripe, clever and frequently hilarious cabaret
Though 'Closer to Heaven' has been twice revisited in London since its original premiere, its more lasting legacy may well turn out to be 'Musik', which could yet rival 'Hedwig and the Angry Inch' as a piece of performance art with a little more development. It currently runs for barely an hour, which leaves you wanting more
Jonathan Harvey's script is an industrial-powered litany of name-dropping, but it is also often very, very funny; and the six Pet Shop Boys songs - four of them new for this show - are a riot of pastiche electronic disco. Barber performs them with a ferocious determination.
★★★★ MonstaGigz
Frances Barber as Billie Trix in ‘MUSIK’ declares, a little preposterously: ‘I stand at the precipice to a new world, a new beginning. I’ve no idea what lies in store; a small step for me, a giant leap for art. Come back in 10 years, I’ll tell you all about it.’ We’ve had such a good time that we don’t want to wait anywhere near that long. MUSIK deserves a much longer West End run and soon”
★★★★ Last Minute Theatre Tickets
Very funny and salacious... Frances Barber plays Billie Trix as a mile a minute, force of nature
★★★★ Theatre Monkey
this is a must
Whisky and drug-fuelled (not heroin, hasn’t touched that since rehearsal) Barber is a tour-de-force
http://www.theatremonkey.com/shows/leicester-square-theatre-main-house/2020-2020/musik
★★★★ Reviewsgate
Filthy, fabulous, funny Frances Barber is in residence to 1 March at Leicester Square Theatre as Billy Trix, the ultimate rock diva, a mix of Marlene, Bette & Madonna. She sings songs tossed off by the Pet Shop Boys & holds the audience in her hands while taking drugs.
★★★★ The Reviews Hub
West End Girl Frances Barber is a magnetic performer... Bille Trix may be the music, but Barber is this show!
the most famous made-up twentieth-century celebrity you’ve never heard of
https://www.thereviewshub.com/musik-leicester-square-theatre-london/
★★★★ Theatre News
An outrageous, side-splitting one-woman show with a stunning performance from Frances Barber who inhabits Billie Trix so well that you are sold from the moment she stumbles onto the stage
http://www.theatre-news.com/review/UK/3913/Theatre/Headline
★★★ The Times
Played with ferocious comic verve by Frances Barber
a camp, sharp-tongued and filthy-mouthed solo turn with a veritable cocaine-blizzard of namedropping, Frances Barber is unassailable
Go to marvel at Billie’s raddled magnificence!
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/musik-review-a-drug-addled-trip-down-false-memory-lane-5008j5lv3
G Scene
An absolute must-see
Harvey’s cleverness, and Frances Barber’s superb performance , in a frenetic staging by director Josh Seymour, is to make us care for this monster – and we do.
https://www.gscene.com/arts/music/review-musik-leicester-square-theatre/
View From The Outside
There is an uninhibited vibrance to Barber’s performance that is pure joy to watch.
Treat yourselves, laughing and music are good for the soul.
https://viewfromtheoutside.blog/2020/02/12/musik-at-the-leicester-square-theatre/
View From The Cheap Seat
Frances Barber gives one of the performances of the year
Ridiculously camp and wild and that is what makes the character of Trix seem so real
A comedy monologue like no other
This is bound to become a classic and much talked about production and performance.
https://viewfromthecheapseat.com/2020/02/13/musik-leicester-square-theatre/
For more information on the show go to :
www.musiktheshow.com
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Venue:
Leicester Square Theatre
6 Leicester Place London WC2H 7BX
Dates:
11 Feb 2020 — 1 Mar 2020
Ticket Price:
Prices start from £22.50
*Booking Fees apply
Performances:
Start times vary per day.
Please click through to booking website for details.
Running Time:
1hr
Age Guidance:
14+
Contains distressing themes, scenes of a sexual nature, strong language/swearing.