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

JACK AND THE BEANSTALK

JACK AND THE BEANSTALK

Cut to the Chase at the Queen's Theatre Hornchurch

03.12.2012

for The Public Reviews

One of the joys of the Great Traditional British Panto is the pleasure of recognition, familiar friends encountered afresh. And I don't just mean the ghost routine, and milking the cow, and the wallpaper messy scene, though happily all of those are in place at Hornchurch this year. But for those theatres fortunate enough to sustain a resident repertory company, it's the delight of watching actors we've seen through the year letting their hair down in front of a house of screaming kids, high on sweets and fizzy drinks.

Though it's not easy to recognize Simon Jessop, who's Hornchurch's dame this year, under a formidable layer of warpaint, and trussed up in an increasingly fantastical succession of frocks. A paintbrush, a meadow, a candelabra, a cheeky toad in the hole, and a wedding bell amongst others. He gives a shamelessly traditional schtick, with the odd blue note, and keeps the show moving along nicely.

Nicholas Pegg's Jack and the Beanstalk, directed by Matt Devitt, is a pretty traditional affair altogether, with only the occasional reference to popular culture, Downton or Gangnam, to remind us that rationing is over. Dick Emery, Hilda Baker, Terry Scott, even Old Mother Riley, could have stepped into the panto shoes of performers here without having to pause for thought.

So we had sweets thrown out into the audience ["Don't sue me if it takes your eye out …"], a singalong before the wedding, and name-checks from the giant guest book ["3^rd Upminster Beavers"]. But also a ker-ching moment for each of the show's local sponsors, and a plug for next year's Treasure Island.

Not surprising, perhaps, that the older performers are amongst the most impressive this year. Allison Harding is excellent both as the twinkly old lady who tells the tale, and a feisty Northern Mrs Thunderskull the Giant's wife, while James Earl Adair adds another baddie to his repertoire, effortlessly rousing the rabble against his fiendish Fleshcreep. Both beautifully spoken, too.

Natasha Moore, always a favourite, is a charming Jill, though she has a feminist moment at the end, with Alison Thea-Skot as her thigh-slapping Jack. Simple Simon is an instantly likeable Mark Newnham, and Sean Needham gives a copybook Mr Bumble, not a beadle here, but Jill's bluff old dad.

Billy Irving and Samuel Ward-Smith are Buttercup, plus, respectively, the Giant and Minerva the golden egg chicken.

Cut to the Chase, resident company at the Queen's, are joined as ever by three teams of youngsters, given an ambitious routine of their own in Cloudland by choreographer Donna Berlin.

Carol Sloman provides original songs in several genres, including the statutory love duet, a rousing anthem ["Climb"] just before the Act One curtain, and Let's Get Personal for Bumble and Dame Trott; Greg Last – invisible in the depths of the pit – is the Musical Director.

The costumes and the set are sumptuously designed by Mark Walters – dripping with sparkle, and pretty as a picture-book, especially the land above the clouds, the Giant's kitchen and the windmill's rustic interior. Lots of clever touches, too, like the huge duelling utensils, the pinball pudding, the beanstalk itself, huge and pneumatically sinister, and, charmingly old-fashioned ombres chinoises for the prologue and the escape from Castle Thunderskull.

production photos by Nobby Clark

this piece first appeared on The Public Reviews