Shane Warne - The Musical

Had the pleasure of attending the première of ‘Shane Warne – The Musical’. A quick note on attending premières – if, like me, you have a low tolerance level for air kisses and across the room ‘haven’t seen you in aaages’ looks, premières are not for you.

Not being a huge fan of musical theatre, it was an invitation I accepted with some trepidation. However, I figured if such a ludicrous medium was going to work for anything, it would be the re-telling of the Shane Warne story.

The highlights of the night were those that took the piss out of Warne; his picking up of Simone (resplendent in Foster’s promo gear), his work picking-up in English night clubs and a rather clever dream sequence involving a life size cigarette and Warne losing his hair. These scenes were complete with hilarious lyrics and absurd yet very clever choreography. Amped up shtick was what we needed more of.

The expected SMS scenes were a bit flat, but the most disappointing aspect of the show was its attempts to moralise. Particularly inappropriate was one of the final scenes in which Simone bawls at Shane about all the things he did wrong. Not sure what the purpose of this was. The show also suffered a bit from an identity crisis; at times it wanted to be a rock opera, with the audience confronted by a wall of sound that detracted from any sense of fun that was incorporated into the best bits of the show.

Unsurprisingly, the free-boozed up sycophants that attend these events gave it a standing ovation. The real Shane Warne turned up, which was a bit surreal, but also went to show that Warne’s ego is still big enough not to stop him showing up to a none too subtle piss take of his life.