To be totally clear: Now You See Me Live is a stage-magic spectacular that has little to do with the Jesse Eisenberg-fronted film trilogy of the same name. That is to say, there’s no plot here and if the various participating magicians are using it as a front for fighting capitalism via the medium of high-concept heists, then they’re keeping quiet about it.
Nonetheless, the producers of this Australia-originating international touring show have paid for the IP and it’s not a bad investment. After all, the films did in their own absurd way make magicians look cool. If there’s genuinely almost no allusion to the source material beyond a heist-themed mind reading trick at the start, then the grungy, black-wearing aesthetic and branding of the core performers – that’s Enzo Weyne, Andrew Basso, Gabriella Lester and Matthew Pomeroy – as ‘the Horsemen’ serves to give it a more focussed, less cheesy vibe than some of these multi-magician West End spectaculars.
In a way I don’t have a huge amount more to add, other than to note that while the individual names are subsumed by the concept, these are some top-class performers. At best, the magic on display here is jaw-dropping. I would say there are three tricks that are astonishing, none of which I should really spoil, plus there’s a tribute to Harry Houdini from Basso that is utterly nerve-wracking to look at but I think it’s probably fine to divulge that he doesn’t drown trying to pick the locks of his watery prison (or he didn’t on press night anyway). The next stop on its leisurely jaunt around the world is a few months in Las Vegas, which surely says a lot about the general level of performance.
Obviously it ebbs and flows. Some tricks are less spectacular than others. It’s a bit all over the place tonally thanks to a breathless intro from recent Britain’s Got Talent contestant Rafferty Cooper that’s fine but doesn’t gel with the slick international vibes that come after. A couple of slightly mawkish ‘magic changed my life’ moments feel antithetical to the source material’s cynicism. And the bombastic, repetitive music is annoying. But really I’m splitting hairs: you’re not paying for Chekhov, nor are you paying for a new stage adventure from the movie characters: you’re paying to have your mind blown by some top flight magicians and in that respect Now You See Me Live delivers.
