Review: SALTY BRINE: BIGMOUTH STRIKES AGAIN – THE SMITHS SHOW, Soho Theatre

The concept of Salty Brine: Bigmouth Strikes Again – The Smiths Show is quite a fascinating one. The show, created and performed by Salty Brine, merges Mary Shelley’s iconic Frankenstein novel, The Smiths’ The Queen is Dead, and some personal stories of Salty Brine himself. How can something like this possibly work?

Luckily for the audience, Salty Brine knows exactly what he is doing, having performed similar shows as a part of the Living Record Collection, in which he and a band choose an album and combine it with a kind of story or theme. Previous shows include stories based on Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (How Strange It Is) and Queen’s A Night at the Opera (This One Night at the Opera). 

From the second he steps onto the stage, Salty Brine shows off his incredible ability to combine flashy theatricals, dark stories, and some great music into a 90-minute experience. He is clearly very passionate about everything in the show, especially the Romantics, particularly the Shelleys, Lord Byron, and Keats. You could see he spoke with love and admiration when he discussed Mary Shelley and her creation, Frankenstein. 

Along with going into the story of Shelley and the plot of Frankenstein itself, Salty Brine also tells the story of his own life, beginning with a childhood where he struggled to fit in and moving to a young adult life in which he wrote erotic poetry and had big dreams of becoming the most famous poet in the world (and yes, you do get to hear some of this poetry!). The music of The Smiths manages to fit in perfectly with both of these stories, creating a mashup of epic proportions.  

Ultimately, Salty Brine: Bigmouth Strikes Again – The Smiths Show is a beautiful Frankenstein of a show that combines heartbreaking stories of truth and fiction with some truly incredible adaptations of songs. The Living Record Collection is a brilliant concept and I look forward to seeing more of their shows in the future!

Salty Brine: Bigmouth Strikes Again – The Smiths Show runs at the Soho Theatre until 16 September with a running time of 90 minutes.

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