The last time a jazz band appeared at the Soho Theatre, they were passengers in Cybill Shepherd's car crash of a show, so the sight of three hep cats on piano, bass and drums prompted anxious flashbacks.
But misgivings soon evaporated with the effervescent entrance of the "High Sahib of Hipsters", legendary Fifties stand-up Lord Buckley, recreated by Jake Broder with finger-popping pizzazz.
Vote Dizzy! is a fizzy cocktail of tribute and satire. The title comes from the setting of an imagined rally for trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie's genuine 1964 Presidential bid - as unlikely as Malcolm McLaren's brief tilt at London Mayor.
With the run-up to next week's US elections currently in the news, there's a contemporary frisson, too. Gillespie's jobs-fortheboys manifesto meant giving Miles Davis a job after renaming the White House, the Blues House.
Buckley's turbo-charged banter is as sharp as his tuxedo. Like a proto-rapper he translates familiar stories into "hip semantic". The tale of Scrooge "by Chazzy D" becomes a breezy bebop fable, while Jonah and the Whale takes on a modern David versus Goliath resonance. The updated Gettysburg Address is less effective, but his jive-talking Jesus - "The Naz" - definitely hits the spot.
Allowing Broder to take wellearned breaks, David Tughan chips in as a buttoned-down anchorman, dripping cheesy charm. He also does a quick change into a half-cocked Lenny Bruce, trotting out one of his most familiar libertarian riffs about the fact that sexual pornography is banned, while violence confronts us whenever we open a magazine.
Serious sidebars occasionally puncture the laughs, most keenly during a reworked version of Georgia On My Mind, where the spectre of lynch mobs hangs heavy over the sweet serenade. But ultimately the emphasis is on fun. Dizzy never did get elected, but this political party certainly romps home on a different kind of swing-o-meter.
Until 6 November. Information: 0870 429 6883.
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