Liberace Live From Heaven

Written and Directed by Julian Woolford
Performed by Bobby Crush
Leicester Square Theatre

Bobby Crush is Liberace, a decedent performer who has died from Aids and finds himself in a sort of musical limbo, while a group of heavenly angels (who are played by us, the audience) decide his fate as to whether he should go to heaven or hell.

Liberace Live From Heaven is camper than a camp site. Bobby Crush with his horrendous American accent aims to entertain with stories of performances at the Hollywood Bowl and mingling with the stars whilst showing off on his piano playing skills to prove why he was the greatest pianist of his team. While sharing these stories he is interrupted by the voice of God and St Paul, played respectfully (and quite astonishingly) by Stephen Fry and Victoria Wood. These voices provide a vehicle for them to clumsily debate issues such as closeted homosexuality and the contraction of HIV. As if that isn’t awkward enough, topical gags such as discussing Michael Jackson and Jade Goodey’s death are also weaved into the act alongside of carry on moments where a member of the audience assists Liberace with a costume change while the audience are left listening to shrieks of “oh aren’t you a big boy” and “oh it’s not going to fit”.

The one thing that saves this performance from sinking completely into a pit of inane nonsense is Crush’s piano playing. If you can ignore the ridiculous expression on his face for a moment he clearly is a skilled musician as he covers classical, bogey woogey and current pop songs all within the same set and quite impressively at the end asks the audience to shout out songs they’d like to hear and manages to play every one of them.

It is this final performance which quite honestly saved him for eternal damnation in the fiery pits of hell as the majority of the audience voted for him to go to heaven…. Who knows, on another night he might not be quite so lucky.