A Face in the Crowd at Young Vic: Elvis Costello musical hits a dud note

How do you satirise populism, a system that seems beyond satire, that exists on a plane divorced from embarrassment, where no gaffe is too big or lie too outrageous? A Face in the Crowd just sort of muddles through, referencing events without dissecting them, pointing out problems but offering no hints at a solution.

It’s a shame because a new musical with tunes and lyrics by rock ‘n’ roll legend Elvis Costello sounds almost too good to be true (Elvis Costello!). But while his contributions are occasionally inspired, the production as a whole is anaemic, its themes spread too thinly, tugging on myriad ropes but never pulling down any icons.

Based on the 1957 film of the same name, it opens with principled young reporter Marcia Jeffries (Anoushka Lucas), who has fled the big city to front a morning radio show in Arkansas, her goal being to put “real people” on the air. 

She appears to strike gold when she meets a charming drunk in the local jailhouse, a hobo with a heart of gold she christens Lonesome Rhodes (Ramin Karimloo).

Part aimless drifter, part embodiment of the all-American psyche, Lonesome sees a meteoric rise from radio to the new medium of television, saying what every rootin’ tootin’ Southerner has been thinking all along. 

The first half sees Lonesome rebelling against the media execs who want him to sell mattresses and pep pills, while a cute will-they-won’t-they romance plays out between him and Marcia. But he’s soon popping his own pills, drinking his own Kool-Aid, and even pursuing political power himself.

Donald Trump is clearly the play’s primary target but Lonesome is a loose stand-in for everyone from Ronald Reagan to Joe Rogan and Elvis Presley, a one-size-fits-all black mirror version of the American Dream.

There are some pleasant numbers in the book – not least the title song, which is reinterpreted throughout – and both Lucas and Karimloo expertly deliver whenever called upon. But these aren’t tunes you’ll be tapping your foot to after you leave the theatre. 

It starts to drag long before the final act, and seems unsure how to tie up its tangle of themes, even offering up the deeply dissatisfying “perhaps we’re all to blame?”.

With an elevator pitch this snappy and a such a fearsome surfeit of talent, A Face in the Crowd should have been far better.