Celebrity Autobiography

The big names starring in Celebrity Autobiography are clearly drawing in the crowds, scoring it a full house on its first night. It holds up to ridicule the incredibly banal things Sylvester Stallone and a host of other celebrities believe to be worth sharing with their readers—the contents of their fridges or the intimate details of Katie Price’s hair removal routine—producing a show that is remarkably economical with .

It is at its best when the actors bounce off each other – the less well-known performers really shining in their Katie and Peter autobiography reading duet.

Though actually reading from autobiographies on stage gives the show a level of authenticity – they "did not make this stuff up" – this also acts as a barrier between the audience and the performer: something comedy can’t afford to employ. In this respect the staging of the show could have been more creative, sitting in the University’s Reid Concert Hall it could have been mistaken for a student production. This is not to say that the performances were on this level, however. Masterful command of innuendo was employed at the expense of Tiger Woods and Ugly Betty star, Michael Urie, was energetic and impressively varied in his character repertoire.

An initial concept flaw is perhaps what makes this distinctly American comedy good rather than great, however. Those interested in work that satirises celebrity are generally not that interested in celebrities – at least not to the same extent that the culture that produced it is.