“I’ll Be Seeing You”: Simon Russell Beale dazzles as Liberace in Pitlochry — critics give it four stars

“I’ll Be Seeing You”, the new meta-theatrical play about the life of the legendary pianist Liberace, has enchanted British critics in the first weeks of its run. The show, playing at Scotland’s Pitlochry Festival Theatre, received four stars from the review in West End Best Friend, which called it “another extraordinary success for Pitlochry Festival Theatre”.

At the centre of the production is Simon Russell Beale, one of the biggest names of the British stage, who plays Liberace with enthusiasm and sparkle, enchanting the audience with extravagant costumes and iconic musical numbers, as West End Best Friend writes. But, as the review stresses, beneath the glitter of the façade there is a clear acidity.

The story is deeply meta-theatrical: the writer at the centre of the play — played by Fra Fee — says from the start that he hates Liberace, but has taken it on for money to write the show, wanting to focus the story on the famous libel lawsuit against the Daily Mirror newspaper in 1959, where Liberace swore under oath that he was not homosexual and won damages. Unfortunately for the writer, Liberace himself — “dressed in rhinestones and feathers” — appears with strong opinions on this angle and intervenes in his consciousness, breaking the fourth wall.

The most surprising element of the production is the play’s author: Martin Sherman, at the age of 87, makes his professional acting debut in this show — a role the review describes as “small, but completely key”, without revealing details so as not to spoil the surprise. The direction is entrusted to Alan Cumming, Pitlochry’s artistic director, together with Ben Occhipinti, while Tim Hatley’s set design alternates between a simple room for the writer and “spectacular moments of sparkle” for Liberace. The cast also includes Anne Lacey, Adam Kashmiry and Ali Watt.

In the end, according to West End Best Friend, the show is “a powerful piece of writing, which captures the betrayal that many gay men felt at Liberace’s denial of his sexuality, and confronts the man with his lies” — a bittersweet story that leaves the audience feeling pity for both Liberace and the writer. The show runs at Pitlochry Festival Theatre until 11 October.