Tomas Clifford Got Stood Up

If Tomas Clifford has as much luck as he has talent, being stood up will be a thing of the past. 

I’m thinking of our other favourite gay cousin, the superbly talented Stephen Sondheim who, on top of his talent, also had the extraordinary good luck to go to summer camp where Tom Lehrer was a counsellor and have, as his best friend’s dad, Oscar Hammerstein, who gave him more training in musical theatre than most composers get in a lifetime. 

Musical theatre is an enduring art form that captivates generation after generation; sung stories somehow have a capacity to enter more deeply into our minds and hearts. 

Melbourne can now see a rising new multi-talent in this field. After earlier success at Perth’s Fringe World and Perth Comedy Festival, Fringe Melbourne is staging the original autobiographical comedy cabaret Tomas Clifford Got Stood Up.

This is Clifford’s show - he has composed and arranged the score, is the lyricist and the director, as well as the lead performer.  Though he is supported by an accomplished six-piece band (drums, keys, saxophone, guitar, bass, trumpet) and three stylish vocalists. The lighting too is fun and energetic and adds colour and pace of the performance. 

Clifford uses a fateful night in his orientation claiming and dating history when he is stood up, to weave a sad but funny and insightful story that everyone who has ever been a little bit different can relate to. It’s embarrassing, sometimes excruciating, sometimes hopeless, but ultimately touching and hopeful. It is, after all, the search for love. 

From the moment Clifford takes the stage in his impossible platform heels, he takes the room. It’s a polished performance from someone with clear star quality. Initially there’s a hint of another favourite gay cousin Peter Allen, but as we get to know Tomas through his story, his music, his fabulous face and body mobility and his precision timing, the revelations of the faux bro commands a focus on only Clifford’s singular presence. 

The score ranges from a Tomas solo on keyboard to the full tight band and back up voices, with infectious jazzy rhythms, smooth and sultry brass and rocking harmonies. Clifford’s tenor is well suited to musical theatre effortlessly moving from narrative to song with wonderful phrasing.

The lyrics are witty and sometimes poignant. It’s worth catching every clever, funny and affecting word so performance spaces with good acoustics and strong audio design that improve audibility are really important for this show. 

Audiences will be lucky to have seen this first Tomas Clifford Got Stood Up which reaffirms the power of musical theatre to tell essential truths about life. But the show could well be expanded to a full musical theatre piece with two or three more solo pieces that build out further insights by the narrator. 

Having gone on a date to meet someone, but instead met himself, Tomas Clifford ultimately realises his luck.  But what else might he learn about life, love and sexuality? Might there be even Higher Stakes?

Reviewed by Susanne Dahn

Images by Maedforu (Andrea Mae)