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It’s not Now You See Me: The Musical. Nor is even Now You See Me: The Play. But this spectacular stage adaptation of the hugely successful ‘cool magicians fight crime’ series of films hones in on the thing the people clearly want: illusions. Big ones. And lots of them.
A collaboration between entertainment impresario Simon Painter and Australian musicals guy Tim Lawson, it’s fully official and endorsed by Lionsgate, the studio that makes the films.
What is the Now You See Me stage edition, then? Well basically it’s a slick, bombastic, high-tech magic show that nominally revolves around a live performance by the films’ Four Horsemen, the white collar crime-thwarting posse of magicians whose membership is helpfully ever changing and usually quite a lot more than four. It doesn’t sound like they are likely to solve much actual crime during the course of the show but reviews from its Sydney debut praised it as a slick, slightly silly spectacle that at least made some smart allusions to the film series (even if you probably shouldn’t hold your breath for a Jesse Eisenberg cameo).
Having played Sydney and Singapore, we’re the next stop as it plays a five-week summer stint at the gigantic London Coliseum. It’s pitched a bit younger than the films (again, no crime) so should make for fine summer holiday fodder, being suitable for ages five and above. Casting is TBA, though you’d be pretty gutted if you were one of the magicians in the above poster and then didn’t get cast.
Now You See Me: Live is at the London Coliseum, Jul 31-Sep 6.
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