There’s just still time to catch Derriere On A G String, at the King’s Head, a show that must have a claim to be the funniest movement-based theatre in London, right now.
Derrière on a G String is like The Fast Show on acid and without words (well, not many anyway) with rat-a-tat sketches that create comedy from a myriad of sources from ballet – the Duck Pond riff on Swan Lake and the Buttcracker pas de deux are hilarious) – to gay but macho construction workers, and men reading on the toilet to the uniqueness of choreographed vaping in Every Cloud has a Vaper Hiding! Other memorable sketches
included one about not liking football and The Bloody NHS, being something like an episode of Casualty twinned with a horror movie.
More than twenty such sketches, described in the programme as a ‘collection of moments’, are delivered with perfect timing and quickfire changes by an extraordinary multi-talented cast of just six performers.
This small but perfectly formed ensemble is fronted by Sammy Moore, part of the Some Smith and Moore writing team that created the show. Moore is gifted with one of those elastic faces that are the hallmark of great clowns and performers with a special talent for physical comedy. He is also the most adept at the nonsense language that often accompanies the sketches and I’m of an age where this there was reminiscent of the late,
great Stanley Unwin who made a career out of speaking gobbledygook in his own comedy language of Unwinese!
Credit must also go to director/choreographer Alfred Taylor-Gaunt for a momentum that ensures there is never a dull moment, aided by what has obviously been a close collaboration with the creative team. Emily Bestow has performed wonders with a set design and props that make the most of the small stage. Reuben Speed’s costumes are comical and sexy; and the lighting and sound designs by, respectively, Andrew Ellis and Findlay Clayton provide added excellence.
Each of the six dynamic performers had a character and a descriptive name that carried through the sketches. Moore was Flop; Cam Tweed – a five-time Tap World Champion BTW – was Drip; Ryan Upton was the butch Grunt; and Courtney Cyrus was the quicksilver Twitch. The men also provided the derrières on a G string promised by the title.
As Vinyl, Ena Yamaguchi wore the most audaciously furry merkin (tastefully stitched onto a costume!) and miraculously transformed into an elderly bespectacled woman. Alice O’Brien’s Slosh was a character clearly drawn from observations of that one outrageous good-time girl in every hen party. Her leit motifs throughout the show were drawing crude pictures of male genitalia and giving the come-on to a front-row audience member. If flirting were an Olympic sport, then O’Brien would be my tip for a medal. She was a stand- out talent!
The premise of every sketch in Derriere On A G String is to set an idea to a recording of popular classical music, from Figaro’s aria in The Barber of Seville to the William Tell overture and our familiarity with the tunes somehow brought added emphasis to the knockabout comedy. As with O’Brien’s flirting there is plenty of audience interactions (all in a good way and none too intrusive) and there is an excellent uplifting finale that the audience is positively encouraged to film. Get in there, all you influencers!
Some Smith and Moore claim to make theatre that aims, above all else, to be entertaining and this show definitely knocks that intention out of the park with a heady mix of great comedy, dance and physical theatre performed by a superb group of entertainers. Dance shows can often seem elitist but, most definitely, not this one!
Derriere On A G String is showing until 7th June 2026, tickets available here.
