Review: JEEZUS! (Underbelly Boulevard)

Review by Daz Gale

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London’s Underbelly Boulevard has proven a welcome home for some of this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe highlights to take their first steps into further life and showing audiences in the Capital just what they missed at this year’s festival. The latest show to do this is the critically acclaimed JEEZUS! hitting the stage for 3 nights only, after winning the Edinburgh Untapped Award. Would the second coming of this show be a miraculous resurrection, or would the story be crucified so much, it would leave me feeling cross?

JEEZUS! describes itself as a riotous journey of queer awakening, religious iconoclasm and ecstatic liberation. It follows Jesús, an alter boy preparing for his first communion only to be struck by unexpected feelings for the crucified Christ. On this journey to self discovery, he attempts to find his true self as well as his love for Christ… even if it’s not the kind of love he’s meant to have.

If that sounds ever so slightly blasphemous, that would be a severe understatement. I’m not someone who is prudish in any way or form, but I felt as if this show crossed the line of good taste severely. One scene involving a crucifix being put in a place where no crucifix should ever be put is meant to shock, but the result is not as outlandishly hilarious as they would have hoped. Written by Sergio Antonio Maggiolo and Guido García Lueches, JEEZUS! has some fantastic laugh-out-loud moments, but all too often feels like an extended acting challenge on RuPaul’s Drag Race, and one that could well have the team involved lipsynching for their lives.

More successful are Sergio and Guido as performers themselves. There is a real captivating quality to their performances that shines as they bring their material to life, elevating even the most questionable and incohesive aspects to the story. Such is the nature of their performances and general essence, it is impossible not to fall in love with them as people. That means that even when I didn’t quite gel with the material they were performing, I found that I was unexpectedly still having a great time, thanks to them. This was confirmed during a couple of mishaps during the performance where their improvised comments and reactions provided me with the biggest laughs of the performance and showed that perhaps the script here is holding them back slightly.

Sergio Antonio Maggiolo has a sweet almost innocent quality to him in his characterisation of Jesús - the constant throughout the show, while his co-star takes on multiple other roles, jumping into the audience to admonish certain members, and delivering the best take on Jesus Christ I can safely say I have seen on a London stage this year. Certainly the most memorable! 

Though I had issues with some of the dialogue and overall book, JEEZUS! Comes into its own when it is filled with music. This musical features some ridiculous but ridiculously catchy songs, well-crafted and getting the right balance of humour,. From 'Papi Issues' to 'Love Is A Mortal Sin', they set the tone perfectly and provide the stronger moments of the show.

In a time when society is moving backwards and members of the LGBTQIA+ community are being criticised for being their true selves, shows such as JEEZUS! are not just welcome - they are very much needed. Proudly queer, it is admirable in its attempts to question certain things, even if I didn’t quite enjoy every way they attempted to do it personally. The two creators and stars are clearly talented though, and I am sure we will be seeing a lot more in the future. Given how much others have loved this show, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see another resurrection in the near future as well, but for me personally this wasn’t quite the saviour of musical theatre I was praying for.

JEEZUS! played at Underbelly Boulevard from October 16th - 19th. Go to https://jeezus.uk/play/ to see where it appears next.

Photos by Charlie Flint