With his slender frame, stony face and sad eyes, James Dangerfield captures Buster Keaton’s innocence and melancholy to a tee through a series of seven intricately constructed songs which chronicle his rise from childhood sidekick in his parents’ vaudeville act to the creator of what Orson Welles called “the greatest comedy ever made”.
That film being The General which was poorly received by critics and audiences. And as a result led to Keaton losing creative control to MGM. Which is where we find ourselves at the beginning of Dangerfield’s self-penned one-man musical which gives voice to the silent showman whose nickname Buster was ascribed to him by none other than Harry Houdini. A man who knew a thing or two about falls!
“You don’t always have to speak to be heard,” he says in a rare snatch of dialogue. An instruction which Dangerfield follows to the letter as he compliments his sweet singing voice with loose-limbed clowning and sketch re-enactments. All of which are a joy to watch – though for those towards the rear of the aptly-named Cellar at the Pleasance Courtyard, also difficult to watch. For on several occasions the action was delivered out of view from a crouched or supine position.
A minor flaw in an otherwise slick and tender production. The highlight for me being the final musical number about taking the knocks and absorbing the shocks and getting back up again. A fitting description of his on- and off-screen exploits, and a timeless lesson in life, crystallised in his most famous silent film stunt in Steamboat Bull, Jr. when he literally brings the house down.
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