With 984k followers on Instagram and 1.4m followers on TikTok to boot, Stage Door Johnny brings to the stage the story of how he fell into the world of social media influencing with the show, Accidental Influencer.
A chronological journey through recent, and less recent, events in his life, Johnny has assembled the text rather seamlessly, with a great overarching structure, comedy aplenty, which always keeps the audience yearning for more, and the implementation of a few tangents, thought to be throwaway, only to be surprisingly referenced later on. The heartfelt message which emerges at the piece’s conclusion feels fitting and one of the best usages of this technique. It is a pertinent one which we can all hold in our hearts, and the way it cyclically links the whole show back together is remarkable.
Johnny’s TikToks and various images are shown on a projector screen behind Johnny, which is a great asset of the play. The majority of jokes are funny and well-constructed, although the joke which reveals Johnny’s ADHD diagnosis has the potential to inadvertently feed into the stigma around this condition, which some audience members may have. The core of it is hilarious and a little reworking of it could make it faultless.
An excellent acting turn is given by Johnny, always engaging, in a way that makes the audience feel that he is our friend and we’re being told a story around a table, no element of performance about it at all, which makes the environment feel very comforting. Towards the beginning of the play, his delivery feels slightly fast-paced, which makes it more difficult to keep up, but this improves and his vocal and physical conveyance overall is brilliant.
Accidental Influencer is a hugely enjoyable time at the theatre, featuring an outstanding piece of writing. This play’s foundations are extremely strong and only need a little bit more tightening to fully excel!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐ (4*)
Gifted tickets in return for an honest review
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