Wilma’s Rating ****
Ben Vivian Jones brought his new show to London’s Union Theatre for one night of self indulgent comedy about his life and sexploits as a gay man growing up in Wales.
Valley Boy, City Life is brought to life through comedy monologues and song, which had the audience laughing all the way through. Oddly, the crowd were overpowered by the musical director, who seemed to be hearing these jokes for the first time as well.
Being about a gay mans life there were some things I had to go home and google. Those three little words you say to each other when you’re in love, I thought would be ‘I love you’ but apparently, in the gay world it is ‘do me bareback’ something which I understand now to mean something along the lines of being close to each other.
The 90 minute show didn’t drag at all and sporadic use of other performers worked well to break the show up, whilst not detracting from the star of the show. We had the added bonus of Bens mother in the front row which made the jokes funnier as she would chip in to the conversation every now and then.
Valley Boy, City Life felt cut off at the end, with no big finale or conclusion to the story but I guess that’s what happens when you tell a story about the life you are still living!
