Amaze. The Criterion Theatre, Piccadilly Circus, London until 21 November 2024.

3 ☆☆☆. Review: William Russell.

“Amazing but not spell binding.”

There is no denying that at times in this display of magic that Jamie Allan does amazing things – the t shirt, arms bare, routine when he produces packs of cards from nowhere is one such moment. The show is aimed at families. He does lots of sitting down and chatting, small children are brought up on stage, members of the audience invited to provide names of things, including childhood toys,  which he does not get to see, but will subsequently reveal, and there is a routine involving the audience and their smart phones which is quite breathtaking. The problem is Jamie is hard to love and his patter, which is all about how he became a magician and his family, is desperately dull. He comes across, sad to say, as a bit of a creep. It is all handsomely staged, the failure of a trick early on – it involved some sort of computer  wizardry – was unfortunate, but he had enough nous to get over it and move on rapidly to the next thing. Act One was pretty standard stuff and ended with a lady levitating, having a hoop passed round her body to show no wires were attached, and then vanishing in a burst of sparkles, while Allan, who held the hoop, also soared into the flies. It was very well done but is not exactly a new illusion. In the second half that things got more mystifying but the chat about his family got even more tedious. He really needs a better script and to  to work on his stage presence. He might come over better on television but in the theatre he is, except when doing things with his hands and  packs of cards,  almost not there at times But by and large the show does what it says on the title – Amaze. But he does not enchant.

Cast

Jamie Allan – Star.

Natalia Love - Featured Artist.

Richard Ede - Adam Renner – Magic Crew.

Creatives

Jamie Allan & Tommy Bond.

Director – Jonathan Goodwin.

Sebior Creative Designer – Clare Nordbruch.

Creative Consultant – Harry de Cruz.

Set Designer – Damien Stanton.

Illusion Director – Richard Young.