Mike Stephenson heads down to the 2011 MCA launch party to check out some of the best musical talent to emerge over the past year.
The Musical Comedy Awards are upon us once again. It still astounds me how scarce and underrated this scene is. These people are paragons of live entertainment, angels of apprehension if you will. Musical comedy is like dancing architecture. Except it exists. It is at once as deep as the darkest sky and as charming as the happiest fart. What's not to like? The 2011 awards kick off with a launch party celebrating the cream of last year's custard. It is warm, gooey and delicious, and if it were made into a pie you would splat it into your own face and encourage a loved one to lick it off.
Horse and Louis (pictured) are our new hosts, an inspired choice. Their scattered, playful dialogue makes for a comfortably unpredictable duo, like Ant and Dec but with functioning pituitary glands and discernible skill. Sooz Kempner is back, still re-wording mid-naughties pop songs but she has such a mighty, thrilling voice that you feel only awe and gratitude that she has given it to comedy of all things. Richard Fox is a solid all rounder, with gliding hands and plenty of bitesize songlets, more daring in their topical content than the average bear. Jay Foreman is a delight, with new material as tender and haunting as ever. He always leaves you in the clouds, rather like the young, sober, focused Syd Barrett that never was.
Tom McDonnell is as endearingly spooky as he is colossally tall. His persona is sparse and carefully under-pronounced, but he has some fantastically opaque, chunky song ideas. If the inflamed chimera of comedy and music isn't enough for you, throw in some dancing audience participation and you have DJ Danny, the man who really puts the fun in funny. A posh but impossibly lovable fellow with a magic disco box and a heart of gold. So simple yet so original. Polishing off are Rob Carter, whose mid-line, self-conversing stutters are like the tactile trickle of fine jazz, and Sarah Louise-Young whose sultry French songstress character Le Poul Plombée closes the night with a touch of class and whimsy.
The coming contest clearly has some spectacular footsteps in which to follow, and indeed some stiff competition. No doubt the ante will be upped in accordance. The heats begin on January the 8th. Be there, and see the future stars of a scene that promises to tower over the rest. If you love music and/or comedy, this is for you. If you don't like either, there's something fundamentally wrong with you. This will cure you.
The 2011 MCA heats will take place from January-March 2011 at the Wilmington Arms. For more information on the competition visit: www.musicalcomedy awards.co.uk
Read Mike's review of the 2010 Musical Comedy Awards final
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