HOT STUFF

HOT STUFF

Cut to the Chase at the Queen's Theatre Hornchurch

26.05.2015

for The Public Reviews

This shameless cult musical is nearly a quarter of a century old now; the story it recycles has its origins in medieval Germany.

But it's set very firmly in the suburban 1970s, with music all the way from Donna Summer to Johnny Rotten. More tongue-in-cheek campery, wit and wisdom than your average juke box musical, given a storming performance by Cut to the Chase, the Queen's own company – heavily augmented for the occasion.

No fewer than twelve actor/musicians, led, as is customary, by an outrageous drag queen. In the wonderful home-made-in-Hornchurch tradition of the Queen's, they've come up with Lady Felicia, dear friend and distant cousin of Hornchurch favourite Fred Broom. More grab-a-granny than disco diva, she does time the carry-on comedy wickedly well, sells a series of sassy songs, and comes on in an impressive collection of flamboyant frocks, reflecting the genre of the musical numbers: a country music momma, the Iron Lady, a naughty nun in a Sister Act moment for the wedding.

Everyone else gets to dress up, too, with more changes than cruise ship chorus boys, from the beige polyester of domesticity to glam rock, ballroom, punk and lounge. One spectacular quick change – from supermarket to sequinned ball gowns – deserved its round of stunned applause.

Our Faustian hero is Joe Soap, the excellent Matthew Quinn, who handles the styles and the story with confident ease. He's tempted by Felicia's Lucy Fur [no subtlety tonight] to leave his ballroom partner and fiancée [Sarah Mahony] for the sinful charms of Miss Hot Stuff herself [Hollie Cassar]. Straight out of university, Cameron Jones makes a suave and slightly creepy narrator, mouthpiece for Satan, the “dark puppet-master”. Between the five of them, they carry most of the numbers, backed by a superb ensemble quartet, including choreographer Valentina Dolci, guitar, bass and drums. The keyboards and, memorably, a saxophone solo, are played by whoever happens to be available – really virtuosic versatility.

The tunes are a nostalgia-fest for the older audience – Nobody Does It Better, My Way [Sid Vicious version], Stand By Your Man, Wuthering Heights and Welcome Home. The title number, too, of course, and dozens more, including a clever TESCO parody of the old Ottowan hit DISCO. And culminating in that empty anthem We Are The Champions.

All done with a polished professionalism - “Jimmy Filth”'s God Save The Queen is preceded by a totally tasteless Peters and Lee [Jones and Felicia] and followed by three chaps in tuxes backing Miss Hot Stuff channelling Carly Simon. This kind of gentle send-up will only work if, as here, it's rooted in affection and secure performance technique.

As ever, the gorgeous costumes and the scarlet and black set [banks of speakers and dazzling lights] are all done in house.

The show is directed by Matt Devitt with Julian Littman looking after the music – Queen's regulars both – and manages to combine a high-energy clap-along night out with a morality musical cabaret. A potent mix, deservedly cheered to the rafters by the audience on opening night.

production photo: Mark Sepple

this piece first appeared on The Public Reviews

THE ELEPHANT MAN

THE ELEPHANT MAN

Cut to the Chase at the Queen's Theatre Hornchurch

22.04.2015
for The Public Reviews

Cut to the Chase – versatile multi-talented actor/musicians - back on top form in this brilliant revival of Pomerance's powerful drama, directed by Simon Jessop, combining spectacular theatricality with intimate exchanges.

This is outstanding work by any standards. Difficult to remember, sometimes, that this is a small regional repertory company. Strong concept, marvellous music, the director's vision and amazing acting all ensure a memorable two hours in the theatre. The story is that of Joseph Merrick, whose increasing deformity makes him an object of curiosity, at first in country fairs, and later in London society.

Mark Walters' stunning set, with its sloping circle surrounded by gauze curtains and its scaffolding galleries on either side, recalls a music hall or a place of worship. We're in the world of the circus and the freak show – that “vast revolving show which never seems to end”. Footlights around the ring; suspended above, with ropes and pulleys, the tin bath and other accoutrements.

Into this arena come the Victorian characters of the drama. Treves, the physician – a scientist in an age of science - who will rescue and then befriend the Elephant Man. He's played with quiet authority, and later with moving misgivings, by Fred Broom. Carr Gomm, chairman of the London Hospital, a striking giant projected image at first, sees the welcome return to these boards of Stuart Organ, while Ross, who will exploit Merrick's appearance for profit is played with superlative style by James Earl Adair. Joanna Hickman stands out in an impressive double role – the legendary actress Madge Kendal, carefully rehearsing her greeting, and the all-important cellist.

Merrick himself, his appearance suggested first by a battered hat and sacking mask, is given a magnificent performance by Tom Cornish, who miraculously assumes the deformed shape as it is described to us. He brings out the intelligence and sensitivity of this tortured soul, especially in the more intimate scenes, with Mrs Kendal, for instance, or with Treves, tenderly sponging him down in that tin bath.

Music [Steven Markwick] plays a key role in this production, from the whirling carousel of the introduction to live accompaniment – Treves on violin amongst others – songs and found percussion on chains and metal poles.

So many heart-stopping moments: the French song as the rain pours down on Merrick and his keeper. Romeo and Juliet unravelled. The entrance of the freak show cart, chickens cooped on the roof, through light and fog in a vision worthy of Fellini. Treves' dream, in which, in shadow-play, the roles are reversed and Merrick presents his flawed saviour as a medical specimen, his own words twisted and distorted. And at the end, his model of St Philip's completed, the Elephant Man can take up his bed, offer the comfort of pillows to the souls around him, before his agonising death. Moving images play across his tortured body as we hear Gomm's account of his life, and Merrick's own poem, and light streams forth from the tiny windows of the church.

this piece first appeared on The Public Reviews

BOEING! BOEING!

BOEING! BOEING!

Cut to the Chase at the Queen's Theatre Hornchurch

12.03.2015

for The Public Reviews

Back in the Swinging Sixties, this groovy French farce – kilometres away from Feydeau – was a hit not only at home on the boulevards, but in Beverley Cross's English version, on Shaftesbury Avenue and Broadway.

Cut to the Chase have a formidable track record in classic farce, and this naughty-but-nice door-slammer is done with some style by a talented and energetic acting company.

Fred Broom, who delighted audiences in last year's Lend Me A Tenor in this house, is perhaps an unlikely Lothario. His Parisian polygamist, running his love life with his little black book and his airline timetable, is a bit of a slow burn, but by the time things hot up in Act Two his verge-of-a-panic-attack antics keep the audience amused. A nice contrast with the much more manic approach of his old friend from Aix, done with a Scottish burr and excellent, athletic physical comedy by Tom Cornish. Dropping his trousers, deftly catching the fainting domestic, finally getting his own Air Caledonia flight bag.

Megan Leigh Mason makes the most of Bertha, the bonne a tout faire who faithfully changes the photographs and the menu to match the mistress of the moment. Her long-suffering cynicism is very well caught­ - “I'm a cheerful soul at heart” - and she gets some of the best laughs with her impeccably timed delivery.

The colour coded trolley dollies are Sarah Mahony's voluptuous Alitalia, Ellie Rose Boswell's brassy TWA – those eyelashes – and Joanna Hickman's lively, madly romantic Lufthansa, who must have picked up her cut-glass vowels at a very posh finishing school indeed.

The Sixties – when Orly was still Paris's main airport – are strongly evoked in Norman Coates' marvellous set, with its abstract works of art and its seven doors, including a pink bistro-style door for Bertha's kitchen. Before the show, a video collage – Johnny Halliday, cute cartoon girls on the doors – and a soundtrack of Gallic pop, including the Gainsbourg hit Laisse Tomber Les Filles – Give The Girls A Rest – advice that the exhausted Bernard finally seems to take to heart … The French connection is less evident elsewhere, though, with little attempt at Parisian chic or charm.

Two welcome bonuses: Bertha's cleverly choreographed scene change in Act One, and a production number curtain call for the hard-working sextet.

production photograph: Mark Sepple

this piece first appeared on The Public Reviews

DEADLY MURDER

DEADLY MURDER

Cut to the Chase at the Queen's Theatre Hornchurch

02.02.2015

for The Public Reviews

Not to be confused with Murder by Death, or Death by Fatal Murder, or even Murdered to Death.

This is the three-hander by Manhattan playwright David Foley, also known as If/Then or Deadly Game, in which a jewellery designer to the rich and famous foolishly invites a handsome young waiter up to her stylish Soho loft apartment.

Between curtain-up and climax there are enough twists, bluffs and blind alleys to satisfy the most demanding aficionado of the genre [think Sleuth or Deathtrap], all played with polished flair by the Cut to the Chase company, directed by Hornchurch associate Simon Jessop.

Jessop himself has a Hitchcock moment as the voice of radio DJ Jesse Redmayne, but the only familiar face on stage belongs to Sam Pay, giving a strong, credible performance as the increasingly desperate security man Ted.

The central role of Camille Dargus is played by Lucy Benjamin. As the night wears on, and the stakes are raised in the “games that bind us”, she grows weary and haggard before our eyes – a great performance, even though the hysterics, and the wise-cracks even at the most critical moments, outweigh the tender, touching moments like the emotionally charged lines about the Emerald Star.

Tom Cornish is Billy, the waiter who dreams of fame and riches. Not as young, or as handsome, as the text suggests, he is nonetheless a powerful, menacing figure, cleverly messing with the mind of his victim.

During the course of the night, power shifts, secrets are revealed and a life is lost before the enigmatic ending, when reality is left behind, the plot is twisted one last time and the curtain falls on a question mark.

To say more would be to spoil the fun. There are too many improbables, too much melodrama for a really first class psychological thriller, but it's done here with such style that it hardly seems to matter. The setting, the music, the sound effects – the voices amplified for immediacy, as in a film – all add to the atmosphere. The party – where Camille meets Billy – is evoked with smoke, bubbles and a mirror ball. The aquarium glows blood red as things take an unpleasantly gory turn – and the fish get a well-deserved curtain call of their own.

Rodney Ford's superbly realised apartment has bare brick, arches and windows, leather and chrome furniture, with the kitchen glimpsed off-stage. It's used effectively for the action – some impressively convincing violence – as well as for the intimate moments.

“This is not Greek tragedy, Camille.” “This is not a Quentin Tarantino movie.” Indeed not, though we have a hint of incest, a Pulp Fiction poster prominently placed, and a props list that includes a large suitcase, plastic bags and a meat cleaver …

this piece first appeared on The Public Reviews

THINGS TO COME - DEADLY MURDER

Lucy Benjamin in Deadly Murder at the Queen's

The Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch has revealed that Lucy Benjamin is to star in its first production of 2015, Deadly Murder, running from 30 January – 21 February.

Audiences will know Benjamin from her five years in EastEnders, where she played Lisa Fowler. More recently, she has appeared in TV’s The Detectorists, Holby City and Kingdom, the feature film Not Alone and on stage, the national tour of Hairspray. 

She takes the leading role of Camille Dargus in David Foley’s thriller Deadly Murder. She appears alongside the Queen’s cut to the chase... repertory company member Sam Pay (playing Ted), who audiences will know from the Queen’s recent hits Godspell, The Great Gatsby and Sleeping Beauty; as well as new cut to the chase... member Tom Oliver Cornish (playing Billy), whose recent credits include The Country Girl (Apollo, London/UK tour).

Deadly Murder is directed by cut to the chase stalwart Simon Jessop, who directed the Queen’s production of The Great Gatsby last summer [one of my picks of 2014] and co-directed Deathtrap the previous autumn. Mr Jessop is currently entertaining full houses as the pantomime Dame, Nurse Nellie.

Camille Dargus [Benjamin] a wealthy jewellery designer is taken hostage in her opulent Manhattan penthouse by Billy [Cornish], a handsome young waiter she picked up at a society party.  There’s more to Billy than meets the eye, however, and Camille summons her security guard Ted to get him out. But suddenly, she finds herself held hostage by a man who seems frighteningly familiar with the past she has struggled to forget...

Deadly Murder runs at the Queen’s Theatre, Billet Lane, Hornchurch, from 30 January - 21 February. Tickets cost £16.50 - £26.50. Audiences can save money by joining the Queen’s jump the Q scheme and watch all four cut to the chase… shows this season – Deadly Murder, Boeing Boeing, Elephant Man and Hot Stuff – from just £12.50 each.

When buying a jump the Q, customers have the choice between the flexibility and extra benefits of a WEEKENDER Season Ticket and the super value of a SAVER Season Ticket:

WEEKENDER £64 – Any night of the week for just £16 eachSAVER £50 - Monday – Thursday, previews and matinees only for just £12.50 each

Call the Box Office on 01708 443333 or book online at www.queens-theatre.co.uk

SLEEPING BEAUTY

SLEEPING BEAUTY

Cut to the Chase at the Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch

01.12.2014

for The Public Reviews

No end of fun in Hullabaloonia, the setting for this year's spectacular Sleeping Beauty.

Nicholas Pegg's script sticks close to tradition, the jokes and routines are familiar friends, but it's all done with such style and energy that everyone, from the tiniest to the most jaded, is royally entertained.

As we've come to expect, the show is visually stunning - everything designed by Mark Walters: the palace and the title gauze glitter like an illuminated manuscript – the sparkling colours echoed in the glowing swords and flashing fans in the stalls. The frocks, too, are outstanding: not just Nelly's outrageous creations – a nursemaid's titfer, a rampant squirrel, Gaga mirrorballs – but the fairies' wings and the king's uniform. Even the excellent children's chorus get several changes, including toadstool sprites and purple for the wedding walkdown.

The set includes a pneumatic red dragon, a lovely revolving turret for the spindle scene, and a forest of thorns ingeniously sprouting from nowhere. The bedroom scene, complete with moose, ghost, candlesticks and chamberpots, is a triumph of physical gags, carefully orchestrated for maximum comic effect.

The cast, directed by Matt Devitt, bring enthusiasm, and occasional in-jokes, to the familiar story. Rachel Dawson makes a charming young Aurora; Thomas Sutcliffe is her [elegantly dressed] humble kitchen boy Clutterbuck, a dashing, thigh-slapping hero with dimples and a Colgate smile. Their love is thwarted by her dad, King Ethelbert the Unsteady – a fussy, flatulent Fred Broom.

Only fitting that most of the hard work – warming the audience, dusting off old gags – should fall to Sam Pay's Silly Billy, a superbly likeable pantomime performance. And Claire Storey's Carabosse, a cynical American with a touch of Joan Crawford, makes an excellent foil for Megan Leigh Mason's pretty, vivacious Primrose.

Simon Jessop's Dame is bold and brash – much fun is had at the expense of Brad in row D - “hours of humiliation” for him, the climax his conducting of the audience in this year's Panto Song – Meghan Trainor's All About That Bass.

All the other music is fresh from the pen of MD Carol Sloman; this year's vocal gems include a quest anthem to end Act One, Fire in My Shoes for Tom, and a great duet Let's Make Sweet Music for the King and the Dame.

Like the music, the costumes and the set are all made in house. That's what makes the Queen's seasonal offering stand out; it's the Cut to the Chase company letting their hair down over Christmas, in a show that is entirely created on site. A local show, for a loyal audience, but with production values unmatched on the region's repertory stages.

production photograph by Mark Sepple

this piece first appeared on The Public Reviews

LEND ME A TENOR

LEND ME A TENOR

Cut To the Chase at the Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch

06.10.14

Mary Redman joined the Press Bench for the red-carpet gala opening ...

Ken Ludwig, the writer with “Showbiz in the Blood”, created this popular spoof that premièred on Broadway in 1989. It's a thoroughbred farce with plenty of extracts from grand opera as Tito Merelli, an over-pampered Italian tenor, tries to avoid an unwanted singing engagement in a luxury hotel, his fiery wife and three enthusiastic female fans.

The first star on stage is Mark Walters' colourful and gilded to within an inch of its life French Baroque hotel suite set, against which the women's mouthwateringly delicate, embroidered glitzy frocks (all made in house), emphasise their every movement.

And there's plenty of movement on stage since Director Matt Devitt has gone for oodles of energy and pace, all punctuated by satisfyingly noisy slamming of the many doors. As all good farces should have.

Fred Broom is a chunky, self-absorbed Pavarotti-style tenor with sharp comedy skills and a fabulous singing voice. Greg Last as the trainee hotel manager is equally gifted with a superb voice, even picking up a perfect a cappella cue. His love interest is the attractive daughter of the opera manager played by the beautiful and very human Sarah Scowen but they don't get together until much later as she's busy chasing Tito.

As Tito's luscious Italian wife Sarah Mahoney makes the most of this showy role while Georgina Field's ripe Julia would welcome Tito to her bed and Christine Holman's Diana is a zany platinum blonde.

Two more masters of physical, verbal, dancing and singing comedy masters are Sean Needham's Saunders whose temper is tested by all the things that go wrong around him and the rapturously silly Steve Simmonds as the Bellhop providing comic relief for the comedy all around him.

Such fun, and thoroughly entertaining, the show runs until October 25. Beg, borrow or steal a ticket!

and I penned this for The Public Reviews

Cut to the Chase on cracking form in this riotously funny revival of Ken Ludwig's back stage farce.

But as the stunning set by Mark Walters and the Queen's workshop reveals, we're not in the wings, or the green room, but a shamelessly tasteless suite – blue and pink, dripping with gilt moulding – of a hotel in 1930s Cleveland, Ohio.

Not much of a view from the big window, but lots of identical, stoutly built doors for the manic comings and goings which give the show its energy and its panache.

The suite is reserved for Il Stupendo, Italian opera star Tito Merelli, slated to give his Otello at the opera house next door.

But he is late, tired, briefly dead and then locked out and on the loose. The intrigue involves jealousy, unrequited love and mistaken identity, as doormat factotum Max blacks up for an unexpected début on the lyric stage. Fortunately, or un-, Tito always travels with two costumes in his baggage …

Think Comedy of Errors with Moors for Dromios, Noises Off with two tenors for three burglars.

Joining a fantastic company of Cut to the Chase regulars is Fred Broom, who makes a wickedly comic Tito, relishing every moment as lover, luvvie and hen-pecked husband. Signora Merelli is played by Sarah Mahony, perfectly pitching the accent and the outrage.

Seasoned farceur Sean Needham is the harassed General Manager Henry Saunders – some marvellous physical moments, and he “loses it” with some style when his gala seems doomed; there follows a beautifully played duologue in which he persuades young Max to step in …

Max – frustrated opera singer and fan of Merelli – is Greg Last, following his impressive lounge singer with an equally brilliant opera star, saving the day for Saunders, stealing the show and getting his girl with a final phrase – Vien Venere Splende – from Otello's big love duet. The singing is superb too – the showpiece Verdi duet is wonderfully done by Broom and Last, and even the bellhop – a cheeky camp cameo from Steve Simmonds – gives us a snatch of his Barber.

Georgina Field – elegant in her thirties gown, as are all the ladies – is the birdlike grande dame Chair of the Guild, who can't wait to meet Tito, an infatuation shared with Sarah Scowen's Maggie and Christine Holman's seductive soprano Diana. Satisfaction all round, we hope, as the action climaxes with ingenuous double entendre, Max pops his cork and there's a beautifully choreographed double coupling.

Typical of Matt Devitt's impeccably paced production, crammed with delicious moments: the bath bubbles, the photos, and the chase music rustled up by room service...

this piece first appeared on The Public Reviews

production photograph: Mark Sepple

GUNMETAL BLUES

GUNMETAL BLUES

Cut to the Chase at the Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch

04.09.2014

for The Public Reviews

This cute, clever little musical is enjoying its European première right here in Hornchurch, and it could hardly have wished for a more stylish staging.

Like Dennis Potter's Singing Detective, it pays affectionate tribute to the film noir world of private dicks and dumb blondes, all lovingly recreated in this Cut to the Chase production.

The story is a familiar one: Sam Galahad, “a two-bit keyhole peeper”, battles crooked cops and heavy hoods to track down the killer of magnate Adrian Wasp, and his own long-lost love.

It's told by faded cabaret singer Buddy Toupée, in the shadowy world of the Red Eye Lounge, with Galahad's office and other locations suggested by impressive visuals stage left.

There are references to the originals, and sneaky snippets - “just the facts, ma'am” “here's looking at you” - peppered throughout, as well as some ripe pastiche - “trailing perfume like a whispered prayer”. The programme gives us a helpful run-down on the genre. The lyrics – in the Blonde Song, for instance – are often witty and slick: Bartok/bar-talk. The music is used as punctuation, or under dialogue, as well as in the dozen or more numbers that adorn this two-hour show, until our anti-hero finally plays the tape and takes the rap. None of it memorable, though Mansion Hill and the Childhood Days trio were polished, and the Don't Know What I Expected motif survives the parking-lot test – still humming it as we drove away. “Jenny”, the most obviously sondheimlich of the songs, is a lovely, lush mirror-ball flashback to Galahad's old flame of ten years ago.

The performances are pretty near perfection: Greg Last, MD for the show, has a ball as virtuoso manqué Buddy, surely the part he was born to play. The commercial for his cassette compilation – gloriously reprised as telephone hold musak – is priceless.

Sean Needham triumphs as Galahad, the voice and the character nailed absolutely. And Sarah Scowen plays all the blondes in this twisted tale, gloriously guying the genre, in particular as chanteuse Carol Indigo, “the one, the only, the tipsy”, belting out her big number. Mr Last is at the keyboard throughout, Scowen plays trumpet, and Needham gives us a mean harmonica obbligato in the title number. The piece is often performed with just three, but here two more excellent actors – Simon Jessop and Steve Simmonds - take turns on drum and trumpet, as well as assuming stock characters like underworld hoodlums Joe Paisley and his sidekick Rocco.

There are many reasons why a fringe musical remains unknown after more than twenty years. There is no shortage of sharp, witty dialogue, and the music adds an enjoyable dimension to an oft-parodied art-form. And Bob Carlton and his creative team have given the piece their best shot, with a superb staging and spot-on performances. But compared to, say, Pick Yourself Up, or the Queen's classic Return to the Forbidden Planet [due another revival this November], this doesn't quite cut the musical comedy mustard.

production photo: Nobby Clark

this piece first appeared on The Public Reviews

The Detective and The Blonde from Queen's Theatre Hornchurch on Vimeo.

GODSPELL

GODSPELL

Cut to the Chase at the Queen's Theatre Hornchurch

19.05.2014

for The Public Reviews

Somewhere between Hair and Superstar there was Godspell, a free-love, feel-good take on St Matthew with some pretty good songs.

Matt Devitt's bold re-staging almost convinces that it's worth reviving. The playground is now a grungy concrete wilderness, skateboard ramp, wire fences and graffiti which includes some sneaky sacred imagery. Plus of course a keyboard and drum-kit for the actor/musicians who power the show. The clowns are now random performers, in hoodies for the opening, where the philosophers and thinkers [plus L Ron Hubbard] are googled, kicking off with an Essex-accented Socrates.

Musically the show sounds superb [the MD is Julian Littman], with a super-charged rock-rhythmic pulse for the noisy numbers, and, just as effective, simple guitar accompaniment for the more reflective moments, like The Willows, or By My Side, a survival from the original stateside student entertainment that started it all. Wisely, the crosstalk vaudeville All For The Best remains unrevised, and is brilliantly delivered. Only Turn Back O Man disappoints – superbly sung, but really needs a slinky chanteuse to make sense of the style.

The show is eager to please, with its naïve joy in the word of the Lord, but can seem predictable with each parable acted out with naïve enthusiasm, and one clap-along worship song after another. So Devitt skilfully keeps things fresh with constant clever touches: the hypocrites in a supermarket trolley, the water into wine, George Formby and his ukulele as Abraham, Alan Sugar as the rich man – nice to think he'll never enter the Kingdom of Heaven. And, alongside all the cartoonish New Testament characters and the sketch-show acting, there are moments of real reflection. The prog-rock crucifixion, red ribbons against the wire fence, foreshadowed in the Baptist's washing of Christ's out-stretched arms, is followed by the simple sincerity of the Deposition. We are left with a more typically upbeat finale, of course, All You Need Is Love on the screens, the audience clapping along to the Megamix medley.

Wonderfully outgoing performances from these ten actor/musicians; Queen's newcomers Patrick Burbridge and Deborah Hewitt impress instrumentally, too, on guitar and violin. Sean Needham is a darkly powerful presence as Judas, and also John the Baptist in the opening sequence, in which Sam Korbacheh's Messiah is discovered wrapped in a blanket. His Jesus radiates intensity and love – a very charismatic figurehead for a cult.

The original Godspell struck a chord, on both sides of the Atlantic, with the generation who went to Sunday School in the 50s and to college in the revolutionary 60s. Does it have any resonance today, when the cynical Book of Mormon is our West End view of religion ? Or, even in this eager-to-please reworking, is it just a feel-good sequence of songs and sketches ?

production photograph by Nobby Clark

this piece first appeared on The Public Reviews

THINGS TO COME - GODSPELL

GODSPELL

The Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch, is to present a new production of the divine smash hit musical – Godspell, from 16 May – 7 June.

This almighty celebration of friendship, loyalty and love is bursting with boundless energy and features a multi-talented cast – all members of cut to the chase…, the Queen’s professional resident company of actor-musicians. It’d be a sin to miss it!

From John and Judas to prophets and parables, Director Matt Devitt’s stylish urban-inspired production retells the timeless story of Jesus - as told in the Gospels - in a gloriously colourful way.

With music and new lyrics by Stephen Schwartz – the Grammy and Academy Award-winning composer ofWicked - Godspell’s wonderfully uplifting soundtrack is jam-packed with soul-stirring pop, folk and rock hits such as Light of the World, Prepare Ye, Day by Day and many more. All music is played live on stage by the brilliant cut to the chase… company.

In a bid to inject more joy and energy into church congregations, creator John-Michael Tebelak originally wrote Godspell as part of a project in the drama department of Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University. Since opening off-Broadway in 1971, it has been performed in thousands of shows on Broadway and in the West End, becoming one of the most popular and enduring musicals in modern history.

The cast includes cut to the chase… company members Ellie Rose Boswell, Patrick Burbridge,Georgina Field, Deborah Hewitt, Callum Hughes, Sam Kordbacheh, Megan Leigh Mason, Sean Needham, Sam Pay and Sarah Scowen.

Godspell is directed by Queen’s Theatre Associate Director Matt Devitt, with set and costume design byMark Walters, musical direction by Julian Littman, lighting design by Mark Dymock, sound design by Rick Clarke and choreography by Donna Berlin.

Godspell runs at the Queen’s Theatre, Billet Lane, Hornchurch from 16 May – 7 June. Tickets cost £12.50 - £26.50. Call the Box Office on 01708 443333 or book online at queens-theatre.co.uk