Oil and Whiskey – Old Red Lion Theatre
An award-winning off Broadway country rock musical having just had a run at the Edinburgh fringe and now opening in London sounds promising. Unfortunately, it disappointed on most levels.
The main problem was the venue. The Red Lion’s performance area is small with the audience on two sides. There were 10 artists in this production, including a band with a keyboard, full drum kit and two guitars. There were two backing singers and four other performers. By the time this crowd had been assembled on the performance area, along with their microphones, amplifiers, speakers etc, there was room for very little theatrical activity.
The music and the singing were amplified to an unnecessary degree and was uncomfortably loud, at least for this reviewer, and more seriously the excessively clos...