Edinburgh Fringe Review: Luke Kempner - Gritty Police Drama, A One-Man Musical

Pleasance Courtyard, Upstairs ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

One of the instincts you develop after 40 years on the Edinburgh Fringe is knowing when you’re looking at a hit show - Luke Kempner’s Gritty Police Drama: A One-Man Musical is such production.

Kempner has taken the traditional routine practised by generations of impressionists and reinvented it with the help of everybody’s favourite genre of TV series, the gritty cop show.

There’s been a celebrity murder and Line of Duty’s Ted Hastings has been called in by Police Commissioner Michael McIntyre to solve it. Yes, that Michael McIntyre.

As so begins a high-energy hour of laugh out loud mimicry, wildly improbable story-lining, outrageous gags and some wickedly funny observations about his subjects.

All are delivered with a nod and a wink and the occasional knowing aside by the hard-working Kempner who quickly builds a warmly complicit rapport with his audience.

Romping through everything from Happy Valley to Luther and The Bill, they’re all there, Kempner plays crime show bingo along the way, ticking off familiar tropes as he does - suspect board, flashing lights, hospital visit, red herrings…

The suspects, including King Charles and David Attenborough, add opportunities for him to expand his vocal talents outwith the chosen genre, as does recruiting additional officers to assist in the investigation; enter DCs Louis Theroux, Claudia Winkleman and more.

But let’s not forget, this is a musical and that’s where Kempner reveals a fine singing voice and a brave falsetto.

West End musicals like Wicked, The Greatest Showman and Phantom of the Opera all get the parody treatment with Kempner effortlessly delivering the musical elements to great applause.

Sixty impressions in 60 minutes is what Kempner promises before bouncing from voice to voice in this cleverly constructed piece, and he delivers, not that anyone really cares, there’s so much more to Gritty Police Drama than just sounding like celebrities such as… actually, if you want to discover which character forces Kempner to spend much of the show on his knees, well, Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the wee donkey, you’ll just have to get along to find out.

Hope he’s got knee-pads.

Until Aug 28, 5.30pm

Credit: Líam Rudden Media