Police Cops Book & Lyrics by Zachary Hunt, Nathan Parkinson & Tom Roe. Music by Ben Adams. Southwark Playhouse, the Large – 77 Newington Causeway, London SE 1 to 14 October, 2023.

5*****: William Russell.

Funny, filthy, lewd and loud this splendid musical sending up all those American police movies from Police Academy to Naked Gun and more relentlessly is performed by a cast of five with boundless energy and amazing versatility. It really is that rare thing – a great night out and one in which book and music work perfectly together, rare in a musical. It could have been rather better served by the Playhouse space – it is a show which demands to be played straight to the entire audience and at both ends of the rows there were four or five seats which did not face the performance area but what was in effect a blank wall. The players were directing themselves straight at the people in front of them so that the people in those “blank” seats did not get the full impact. It is a quibble perhaps but full frontal for all would have made things even better. The plot is actually quite complicated. The invention knows no bound – by the end of act one it did look as if they had done everything they could do and told more good, bad and sometimes old jokes than was reasonable while Zachary Hunt , who has a Bob Hope ski slope nose which enhances his appeal as a hero, had repeatedly taken his shirt off revealing that small he might be but his six pack is large. However they had not run out of road or material by any means. Because it is loud not all the lyrics get across but it hardly matters and after some two hours including the interval there was nothing left to do but stand and applaud them to the rafters.

Cast

The cops

Zachary Hunt.

Nathan Parkinson.

Tom Roe.

Melinda Orengo.

Understudies

Mychele Lebrun.

Ben Lancaster.

Creatives

Co-directors - Zachary Hunt, Nathan Parkinson, Tom Roe.

Choreography – Matt Cole.

Set & Lighting Design – Andrew Exeter.

Sound Design – Charlie Smith.

Costume Supervision – Hanna Jewett.

Musical Direction – Gabriel Chernick.

Fight Direction – Joseph Reed.

Musical Supervision & Orchestrations – Rich Morris.

Production photograph – Pamela Raith.