★★★

Reviewer - Bronagh

*Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in return for an honest review.

Live To Tell contains references to sexual and mental health challenges.

There is no denying that Madonna is an icon. We all know of Madonna, whether we conjure up an image of her in a leather jacket, with a pixie crop or in a leotard and legwarmers. She has reinvented herself tirelessly over the past four decades and remains symbolic. So how does Madonna and Live to Tell fit together?

Brian is our main character, trying hard to make a Madonna jukebox musical happen, finding comparisons between his life and Madonna’s. He is also untangling living with HIV and everything that comes with it. Medication. Stigma. Thoughts around survival. What do Brian and Madonna have in common? They want to reinvent themselves.

Brian Mullins gives a powerful performance as the leading character, giving both a funny and emotional performance. I found Live to Tell to be an honest take on living with HIV, showing day-to-day life and everything that goes with a diagnosis. This is, of course, undoubtedly helped by the fact there were autobiographical and very personal aspects to the show.

Mullins has the audience hooked from the get-go, with his extremely engaging stage presence. He is a very versatile actor, and Live to Tell allows him to really show off his talent. His ability to switch between comic lines and the more stark and emotional moments is astounding; he is a star.

Dan de la Motte plays not one brilliant part, but several. From Brian’s partner to his agent, to a one night stand, he flips between each part effortlessly. The chemistry between de la Motte and Mullins is ever-present, making each relationship presented to us believable. The worry, the annoyance, the lust.

The staging for Live to Tell is simply stunning and seamlessly creates very different settings, from a 1980s New York nightclub that Madonna herself would have partied at, to the bright, clinical setting of a doctor’s office. Images are projected onto the back wall, showing anything from statistics relating to HIV to a karaoke video to Cherish (which we are encouraged to sing along to – always a winner!)

Although I enjoyed Live to Tell and its story, I couldn’t help but have the recent West End play Cruise in the back of my head; both tell different stories relating to being HIV positive, and both do a brilliant job at doing so. Although I appreciate they are two different stories set in different times – one we are with the character when he is given his diagnosis and his ‘death sentence’, and in one we enter their story on any random day when HIV mediation is thriving - I found Cruise to be slightly more impactful when it came to exploring life being HIV positive.

Maybe not the Madonna jukebox musical we are ever so slightly teased with, Live to Tell is a production worth seeing, whether you are a fan of the Queen of Pop herself or not.

It is currently National HIV Testing Week (6th – 12th February). Check out the Terence Higgins Trust website for more information.

Live To Tell (A Proposal For) The Madonna Jukebox Musical is performing until 18 Feb. Ticket information is available here.