John C Reilly, the Oscar-nominated actor known for roles in Chicago and Stan & Ollie, has brought his new stage show Mister Romantic to London’s Soho Theatre Walthamstow. The 90-minute performance features jazz standards, popular songs, and comic verse, with Reilly backed by a four-piece band. The show, which had a dozen US dates, runs for a short week in the capital’s restored music hall venue.
The performance begins with the band playing Tom Waits’ instrumental Just Another Sucker on the Vine before dragging Reilly on stage inside a trunk. Emerging with wild hair, he professes not to know the day, location, or his band, but declares that if just one audience member loves him forever, he won’t have to go back in the box. The seduction continues with Pretend, a Nat King Cole hit from 1953, reworked to honour the audience’s role.
Between songs, Reilly engages in silent clowning reminiscent of his Oliver Hardy in Stan & Ollie. He mimes an invisible cigar, blows smoke rings, and hulas inside them. The tone balances wide-eyed ingenuity and seasoned world-weariness, with the show’s website jokingly listing tour dates back to 1590. Reilly’s innocent air also evokes Buddy the Elf from Step Brothers, co-starring Will Ferrell.
Most songs are performed straight, with the band wearing sombre expressions, but Reilly loosens up on Earl Okin’s My Room, adding lascivious gestures. The show cleaves closely to one register, missing the unvarnished emotion of other Tom Waits tracks from Reilly’s album. Unlike his on-screen duets, such as with Woody Harrelson in A Prairie Home Companion, Mister Romantic sings solo, recruiting the audience as backing singers and riffing with them as he seeks love.
