Review: Jamie Allan's Amaze (Criterion Theatre)

Review by Daz Gale

⭐️⭐️⭐️

There’s nothing like a bit of theatre magic, is there? But what we don’t seem to see too much of in the West End is actual magic. Jamie Allan hopes to change that, becoming only the third UK illusionist in more than 40 years to get an extended solo season in the West End, after Paul Daniels and Derren Brown’s multiple stints. To quote the former, that really is not a lot, so hopes are certainly high for Jamie Allan’s Amaze which transfers to the Criterion Theatre after a London run earlier this year. Would it be able to live up to its title and actually amaze?

Expanded from the version seen at Marylebone Theatre earlier this year, Amaze is rooted in the 1980s as Jamie Allan revisits his childhood and hopes to connect with his audience through nostalgia as he shares his very personal and emotional story. Walking in to the theatre with a TV screen playing adverts from the 1980s and TV theme tunes that will drive you crazy attempting to identify (just me?), as a child of the 80s, I was very much invested in this show before it had even begun, excited to make a connection.

A high tech and glossy introduction sets the bar high with Damien Stanton’s set design replicating Allan’s childhood home, with toys and magic sets adorning the stage. Rather than launch into a trick immediately, Allan spent the first five minutes or so setting the scene, sharing the beginnings of his story and allowing the audience to get to know him. Delivered in a quiet and unassuming way, Allan gave an understated introduction, completely at odds with the level of showman you would come to expect with a show like this –a theme that recurred throughout with a down to Earth approach that, while endearing, sometimes left a few awkward moments and didn’t fill the stage as much as I would hope.

In a show like this, you would hope to see some high calibre tricks, and Jamie Allan more than delivers, impressing with a series of them involving magic, memory… and even maths. It is the card tricks that prove the most impressive – I never thought I’d see the day that a Sting song made something even more exciting, but Allan’s ability to match the lyrics of ‘Shape of My Heart’ to the cards he was picking provided a standout moment. Another highlight comes at the end of act one in a particularly memorable sequence that left me almost expecting him to start singing ‘Defying Gravity’, though this didn’t happen which really did bring me down.

Not every trick landed with the same impact, sadly. Several tricks felt anti-climactic in their nature with the seemingly big reveal of the final trick not blowing my mind as I had hoped. There was a sense of it all being things that had been seen before time and time again with nothing that really made Jamie stand out from his fellow magicians. The exception to this may well have been his signature trick involving “digital art” which he has been seen performing on TV in the past. So it is unfortunate that this trick failed on the night with a tech problem meaning Jamie had to move on after an awkward pause. Given the big build up this trick had got, it proved disappointing as Amaze was lacking in wow moments and this may well have been one of them.

There seemed to be a pacing issue that happened throughout Amaze with tricks either taking too long or the build-up between them slowing momentum substantially. On a show like this, you want to lose all concept of time completely, and the fact I wondered how long the show had been on for and how long was left was not a good sign for it. The show has the right elements to be far greater than it currently is, but I had the sense it hadn’t quite reached its full potential as yet.

Jamie spoke of the two types of people who come to magic shows – dreamers and sceptics, though adding that on this night they were joined by a third group – the critics. I fall into a bit of both main categories – not to sound too much like a poster from The X Files but I want to believe, though a part of my brain will always be trying to work out how it was done. Given the promise of taking you back to your childhood and reinstating your sense of childlike wonder, I was disappointed this didn’t happen fully. There were moments where it came close, but never quite managed to cross over in a way other shows have done for me before.

I mentioned before that Amaze is a deeply personal and emotional show for Jamie. As he shares his story and recounts the memories of his late parents, it is hard not to feel a connection and be, well, amazed, at the outpouring of love he exhibits on that stage. The critic in me can’t help but draw comparisons to Derren Brown’s recent production Showman which offered a similar narrative, but did this a lot better. There are moments in Amaze that feel a bit too obvious in its attempts to manipulate your feelings – with the use of music and visuals to elicit nostalgia not subtle enough to stop you being aware of what it is trying to do. It is this that prevented me from having the pure escapism and believability I wanted from a show like this.

There is plenty to enjoy about Jamie Allan’s Amaze. However, there isn’t much on offer here that hasn’t been seen before and tricks that have been done to a better standard in similar shows. I longed for something different here, and perhaps that was the trick that failed on the night which sadly impacts this review and the rating I can give it – though he did manage to make both Sting and calculators exciting – the talent of which can’t be miscalculated.  While Jamie is a charismatic man, his performance at times felt too small for the West End stage – whether it was a case of opening night nerves or his every day nature, there wasn’t a grandeur or connection I needed from a show that gives itself the bold title of ‘Amaze’. On that front, it didn’t quite deliver. That said, while it didn’t manage to amaze, it still entertains and provided a much needed dose of theatrical magic.

Jamie Allan’s Amaze plays at the Criterion Theatre until November 23rd.

Tickets available here

Photos by Danny Kaan