Review: Michelle Brasier: Legacy

One evening in 2022, on an otherwise normal trip to the cinema, Michelle Brasier received an envelope with her name on it containing £10.50 and no explanation. What for others might be a strange quirk in a day quickly forgotten, in Brasier’s hands becomes both a mystery to be solved and a springboard for explorations of parallel lives not lived and futures not yet decided. 

Across an animated hour of musical comedy, Brasier ranges between the mundane and the existential (with a touch of the visceral, one recurring anecdote involving a particularly painful-sounding ailment). The story is delivered with such energy that the eminently likable Brasier is almost breathless at points, punctuating the plot with observations about generational differences, tales of failed theatre auditions, and well-crafted musical interludes. Partner and guitarist Tim Lancaster ably takes on several characters to great effect, a foil to Brasier’s absorbing brand of fervent narration. 

The profundity of Brasier’s message sneaks up from the outside while the audience remain riveted by the central mystery. Ultimately both are pulled off to a satisfying conclusion, leaving no doubt that for all the paths not taken and parallel lives not lived, Brasier, commanding a stage and captivating an audience, has ended up exactly where she ought to be.