Review: Salty Brine (Bigmouth Strikes Again) at Soho Theatre

Monday, 4th September 2023 at Soho Theatre, London.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Reviewer: Emma Dorfman

A musician ensemble sparkles in crystal accessories and all-white outfits: a nod, perhaps to David Byrne’s all-metallic grey ensemble in American Utopia? Or maybe, it’s a nod to the world of Xanadu… Salty Brine (Bigmouth Strikes Again) has many creative “nods” in what will evolve into a magical hodge-podge of “Frankensteined” material, which includes The Smiths’ 1986 album, “The Queen is Dead,” the tale of Robert Walton, Victor Frankenstein, and the Monster, sprinklings of slam poetry and brief glimpses of seminal moments in Salty Brine’s valiant search for (I’d refrain from calling it love; it’s not that kind of deep) human connection.

On the whole, the best comparison I could make to the overall genre of the show is something most akin to Jeff Wayne’s musical album, War of the Worlds— a nod to H.G. Wells’ Victorian short story and subsequent radio broadcast… but, in drag.

After a dramatic entrance (which I absolutely liken to when Belle breaks into the Beast’s castle to rescue her father), Salty Brine introduces us to the world of Mary Shelley and the world of Frankenstein. The novel itself is about as multilayered as Salty Brine’s work. Many forget that the real story of Frankenstein is a story within a story- a story told to arctic explorer Robert Walton by a bedraggled, sickly Victor Frankenstein. And though the story is named after the scientist who created the monster, many often mistake Frankenstein for the monster.

But before we move into existential questions about who is the real monster in the novel, let’s take a moment to appreciate the beautiful marriage between form and content exhibited in this production.”To Frankenstein”: it is a verb as well, we’re reminded by Salty. And the art of drag, by itself, is also something of a “Frankenstein”: a slew of genres speaking to one another, often through song, dance, story and (of course) fabulous costume.

As promised, the content jumps around frequently— gracefully, jerkily, sharply— whatever the mood calls for. We move back and forth through The Queen is Dead as we move through the stories of Victor Frankenstein and Mary Shelley and the world of romantics. Though the content of The Smiths and The Romantics are often quite morbid, Salty expertly picks his mood-lightening moments. The most notable instance just has to be when he interrupts “I Know It’s Over” with a very off-the-cuff, “I am really good in bed.”

One minute we’re talking about Mary Shelley’s trouble with conceiving, and the next, we’re in Salty’s New York apartment, considering his own troubles… but with human connection. The Smiths’ poetry saves him: If you’re so funny/then why are you on your own tonight? Yes, you could say that Oh mother/I can feel/the snow falling over my head is not a perfect tonal match to someone’s claim to fame in the bedroom, but the song itself is also all over the place. It’s poetic. It’s Romantic too. And, both statements arrive at similar notions on the dilemma of human connection.

So, for the most part, things fit. And if they don’t just, tangential material (i.e. Rocky Horror Picture Show’s “There’s a Light”) is sewn in to patch up any recognizable holes. However, there are a few small outliers, including a piecemeal rendition of “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” and Tori Amos’ “Precious Things.” I also couldn’t help but notice, at times, the American-ness of the piece. Perhaps I’ve been in the UK a bit too long now because sometimes I forget that a 90-minute piece with just one encore is incredibly short by US standards. And I was pretty delighted to see the mostly British crowd’s initial confusion at that encore. But I could also tell they absolutely didn’t mind.

Salty Brine (Bigmouth Strikes Again) is at Soho Theatre, London until 16th September 2023 – more information and tickets can be found here.