This show is not what you think it is. By which I mean it’s absolutely everything you think it is: one super-talented Die Hard fan recreating the action blockbuster with a genuine affection you can almost reach out and touch.
But it’s so much more than that.
Yippee Ki Yay starts, like the movie, on a plane where New York cop John McClane is landing in LA on Christmas Eve to see his estranged family. Richard Marsh adopts Bruce Willis’ world-weary drawl as he learns about making fists with your toes, meets Argyle, and arrives at his wife’s office in Nakatomi Plaza with its odd building choices. You know, the indoor waterfall they did finish, and the 10 floors above it they didn’t.
If you like Die Hard you’ll love this. Marsh easily switches characters, giving each one a clear identity. He makes use of space, and the few props he has add to the playfulness of the performance.
He’s willing to break the fourth wall (notably to talk about carrying a giant blood-stained teddy bear through an airport) and doesn’t hold back as John McClane’s physical condition deteriorates through the story. His scene-stealing Hans Gruber (again, true to the movie) gets most of the best lines, 80s references pop up frequently, and the audience becomes more and more invested as the stage starts to feel like Nakatomi Plaza.
I haven’t even mentioned that Marsh is a talented poet, and this entire recreation is told in rhyme, with some startlingly clever and very funny wordplay.
But it’s so much more than just Die Hard.
Through the show Marsh weaves his own story, elevating the night with an unexpected emotional heft. To say any more would spoil it. This is Die Hard as you know it, and then some. Don’t miss it.
5 out of 5 stars
Main Theatre at Adelaide College of the Arts
Until March 10
