One Man Musical – Pleasance Courtyard ★★★★

There is something wonderfully cheeky about building an entire musical around a man who has already spent decades building musicals around himself.Created by musical comedy duo Flo & Joan, One Man Musical takes aim at one of British theatre’s most famous figures, presenting a lightly fictionalised version of Andrew Lloyd Webber finally deciding that the greatest story he has yet to tell is his own. What follows is part affectionate parody, part character assassination and part celebration of musical theatre itself. The result is consistently funny and surprisingly sharp beneath its silliness. The show’s cleverest quality is its refusal to settle for a single target. While Lloyd Webber’s ego, privilege and politics repeatedly come under fire, the evening never feels mean-spirited. Instead, the musical operates as an interrogation of power and influence while simultaneously reminding us why figures like Lloyd Webber became so dominant in the first place. For every joke at his expense,…