Simon

...I never saw the show when performed at Østre Gasværk. But know people who have. And they say it is one of the best shows they have ever seen. And those who have seen both the show and the DVD says the show is the better. For those who doesn't know anything about the DVD I can only say that it is just the show filmed in Østre Gasværk, with live audience.

I myself saw it for the first time on DVD, and just seeing it there was a very unique experience.

The show is about controversial travel agent Simon Spies. He lived a life filled with drugs, alcohol, women and strange ideas. We are introduced to him as he and his followers land at Entebbe Airport in Uganda, at the time of the famous hijacking of an Israeli airplane in 1976, in the very same Airport. And here we are introduced to his staff, friends(like just as controversial politician Mogens Glistrup) and his Morgenbollepiger(translated to something like Morning Humpinggirls), and his way of living with his personal "doctor" making sure Simon never had a dull moment.

The strength of the show is, besides the great subject that Simon was, the cast. Performing as Simon, is Anders "Anden" Mathesen, a talented comedian, specializing in character-comedy. His performs is charming, exciting and very lively. Being dressed in a huge fake belly and a just as large beard, Mathesen manages to perform through the make up and use all his talents. He got the right devilish smirk and the same dirty smile that gives just the right impression of Simon. Other cast members include the brothers Søren and Morten Hauch-Fausbøll, playing Mogens Glistrup and Simons "life"-doctor Jan Schmidt, both playing the parts very well, and all people knows Glistrup and they can all see the Søren delivers an incredible performance, even the really Glistrup enjoyed his performance. Morgenbollepigerne are played by women who all had hits in the seventies, playing what in reality was very young girls. Which makes the experience very humorous in more than just the dialogue.

The set is built as a DC-9-plane, with real plane-tires. The whole show takes place in front of the plan and to some extent on one of the wings. And therefor props are used within this context and are brought in by luggage-vehicles and those movable stair-thingies.

The show was very well choreographed. For a few minutes the whole showed is, by the orders of Simon, played in reverse, and therefor acted backwards in the show. The movements as well as the live songs are therefor in reverse, and although being introduced as a funny example of how Simon wanted to control the world, one sits admiring the movements of the actors. As Glistrup and Simon plays table tennis, we also get to see everything in slow motion, and then they make an live-Matrix-scene, where we change point of view to see the game from above. It is very impressive.

The songs are mixture of a few original(I think) and songs from the period in which we are supposed to be. And are used in various ways, both as background music, parts of the dialogue, making time for costume changes and as entertainment, as the former mentioned reverse scene.

For the DVD they have made a few changes, all being in the way they cut the scenes and introduce visual effects that are only the DVD. It is a very well made DVD, exploring the potential of a filmed show's new possibilities when adding visual effects. But still it is far from overdone.

It is all in all a great show and highly entertaining. Recommended for all people!

9/10

I'm not into theater; I can see why this would be considered a great play. And I don't know Spies much at all, and this is made for those who know a ton about him; many followed his sordid, and very public, life. I suppose I will start with the positives. The acting, when not over the top, is impressive. I understand that Anden does perfect as Simon. There is at least one good impression of a famous person(the only one I knew well enough to judge how much the guy looks and sounds like him). The music, when not performed in the annoying and silly voices that roughly half the characters have(or that one song where the poor pronunciation of English is distracting), is marvelous, nearly all magnificent choices(if they don't necessarily make complete sense). I think there are some original pieces, well, lyrics, anyway. It is notable and commands respect that, in spite of the real dude being surrounded by young girls, the director insistently cast middle-aged women in those roles. However, I can't claim that this made me laugh even once. I knew not to expect Matthesen's stand-up schtick(meanwhile, he works that psycho eye-blink thing into every part he has, doesn't he?), so I didn't. That isn't it. I simply don't find any of the jokes(with one possible exception) to be funny. And the man that is the subject of this was a jerk, a child in a grown-ups body, who would do despicable things for attention and *because he could*. And as you can probably figure out, it is *immensely* irritating to watch that. This is also noisy at times. It is cool how you don't at any point know what to expect, I guess. And this is well-edited; it was without a doubt unique to experience this live. There is explicitly sexual material, strong language and detailed drug use in this. It is *not* for everyone. The DVD contains an informative director's commentary, a behind the scenes featurette that isn't bad, an interesting interview with Cederholm, three and a half minutes of archive footage of the airline magnate himself, still photos and a quiz that I, for obvious reasons, haven't tried. I recommend this to those who can imagine getting into it. Well-produced, shocking and not mainstream. 7/10