Review: DAN LEES: THE VINYL COUNTDOWN, Soho Theatre

“Some of you are gonna like it. Some, not so much”

Dan Lees: The Vinyl Countdown has a fascinating concept - Dan Lees, a comedian and musician, has picked several unknown vinyl records from a record shop and is going to recreate them for an audience in “a riotous night of musical mayhem and clowning.” If you had not read the summary of the show beforehand, however, you would have spent the first several minutes wondering exactly what was going on. 

Lees begins the show by peeking out behind the curtain multiple times, emerging only to look at the audience for a few moments before disappearing from view. He then returns several more times, picking up instruments and displaying them to the audience, encouraging them to “ooh” and “ah” with nonverbal hints and clowning before, once again, hiding behind the curtain. Once he begins talking, he starts making the audience choose between two movements he performs, eventually combining them into one song, though the audience has to constantly remind him of the choices made as he tends to forget. 

After this strange beginning, Lees introduces the concept of the show, explaining how he picked up vinyl records by unknown artists and will be recreating both them and their music for the concert. The first album, Tommy Kinsman’s At Your Party, has Lees dressed in a paper crown and holding a giant cigar in his mouth. It is up to the audience to choose what Kinsman’s personality is like and what song he will sing, which ends up being “When the Party Is Over.” Another one included Gerry Monroe’s Bringing the Good Times Back, where audience members asked him to use a high-pitch voice, rhyme every line and have a nervous tic. 

Unfortunately, there were many aspects of the show that did not work, particularly with pacing. It took Lees a very long time to segue to different bits throughout the show, and many of these bits went on for much longer than needed. There were quite a few technical issues throughout the show, including with the musical looping.

One of the main aspects of the show is audience participation. Audience members are encouraged to sing along, but this sometimes goes on for way too long, with some of the songs nearly depending entirely on the audience singing. One particularly strange section included the audience clucking like chickens, changing their accents based on where Lees would say the chicken was from. The audience was a mix of enthusiastic and confused, which led to many moments of awkward laughter and the occasional silence. 

The highlight of the show for me came at the end, when Lees became country singer Willy Longhorn, singing a selection from his album, Mustard or Custard? Yes, Please. Lees puts on a ridiculously exaggerated American country accent and talks like an auctioneer on caffeine, mostly saying nonsense and then ending with a question as if expecting the audience to understand and respond appropriately. One of his songs, “George and the Mighty Dragon,” was hilarious and did a fine job of showing off Lees’ musical and comedic talents - I would have loved to see more songs like this in the show. 

Ultimately, Dan Lees: The Vinyl Countdown has an interesting concept but fails to fully realise it, instead focusing on clowning and audience participation that did not connect to the vinyl record narrative. I would have loved to see more improvised songs that did not depend on audience participation and would enable Lees to display his talents while making an enjoyable and funny show.

Dan Lees: The Vinyl Countdown ran from 23 to 25 November at Soho Theatre.

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