Aston Villa got knocked out of the UEFA Champions League this morning, going down 4-5 on aggregate to Paris Saint Germain. Wait, what? Why are you reading about a football score when this should be a review of Reuben Kaye’s latest one-man spectacular, The Party’s Over? Well, simply, Villa came into the second leg match 1-3 down and PSG quickly scored two further goals. So, yes, that means instead of just giving up and ending the quarter finals with their tails well and truly between their legs, the Midlands-based team came from 1-5 down to nearly clinch it by giving their absolute darndest to win.
And this is where Kaye comes in. You may be aware that elsewhere in the city the filthy-mouthed fountain of fury and wisdom is currently starring as Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar, seven shows a week at the Princess Theatre. It’s in Melbourne until June before transferring to Brisbane’s Lyric Theatre.
That would be exhausting enough for most mere mortals. But the superhuman force of deliciously bent nature that is Kaye girds his loins, flashes his pearlies in that familiar, manic open-mouthed grin that Al Hirschfeld would have loved to caricature and rips the stage apart.
With a beautifully amenable and capable back-up band, he delivers a handful of powerful numbers between long slabs of perfectly formed invective and brilliant bile.
His topics range from the different treatment minors may receive from drag queens and the church – with a neat grooming pun thrown in for good measure – to understandable righteous horror at the dark political forces spreading across the globe. And Kaye’s immense skill means he’s still able to stand on a metaphorical soapbox for minutes at a time, before landing the fiercely funny punchline.
Read: Comedy review: Chris Demos: Actually Kinda Hot, The Butterfly Club, MICF 2025
There may be a few gags that we’ve heard before, but surely he’s forgiven for that, considering his (current) day job. There’s just one extra show of The Party’s Over tonight (Wednesday 16 April), but as too much Kaye is never enough, he’s also hosting The Kaye Hole this Friday and Saturday after the curtain falls at the Princess. See what I mean? Utterly indefatigable. Just like the Villa…
Tickets: $54.90
Reuben Kaye: The Party’s Over will be performed at the Comedy Theatre until 16 April 2025 as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
