OUR HOUSE

OUR HOUSE

Chelmsford Young Generation at the Civic Theatre

08.11.17

A typically exuberant performance by Young Gen of this iconic Madness morality musical.

Director Sallie Warrington opts for a simple staging – twin triangular trucking towers, an upper level for the juniors,  black and white curtained doorways for the “simple equation” - and fills the stage with boisterous, streetwise, cheeky kids. Excellent ensemble work, not only with the famous dancing desks, but Camden Market, the faceless prison inmates, the Wings of a Dove production number, and much more. Though the opening of the second act feels very static by comparison.

A splendid crop of principals, headed by Charlie Toland as “Golden Boy” Joe Casey, whose Sliding Doors moment triggers the seven-year alternative lives of Good and Bad. His loyal girl Sarah the lawyer is wonderfully sung by Jessie Hadley, with exemplary diction – not the case for everyone on stage, meaning that Our House newbies might struggle with the finer points of the plot.

Great comedy support from Millie Parsons and Livi Khattar as the two girls turning up like bad pennies, and from Matt Wickham and red-shoed, magnetic Reuben Beard as the “gormless prats”.

Dan Hall is determined to shine in a quartet of cameo roles, and Oliver Gardner manages three other characters in addition to the property developer Pressman. The evil Reecey is played with a palpably malign presence by Jack Toland.

The grown-ups are Jill Gordon, a movingly subtle performance as Mrs Casey, and Assistant Director Jimmy Hooper outstanding as the ghost of Joe’s father, desperately trying to help his boy avoid the mistakes he made in his own life.

Those catchy Madness tunes are given great support by Bryan Cass’s punchy pit band, featuring Rob Downing’s soaring saxophone.

production photograph: Barrie White-Miller

OUR HOUSE

OUR HOUSE

at the Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch

27.07.2016

for The Reviews Hub

“The London Musical” is a great choice for the Queen's 2016 Community Show.

It's lively, it's a crowd-pleaser, and, like most of the company, and the audience, and indeed Madness themselves, it has its roots just down the road in NW1.

The Community Musical has a long tradition at the Queen's. Every other year, a performing company is formed from scratch, to work with professional creatives – the aim is to get local people involved in the vibrant life of their local playhouse. This year's cast numbers more than fifty, and includes people of all ages from East London and Essex as well as Havering.

Directed by Ros Philips, they fill the stage with school kids and convicts, bringing Las Vegas and Camden Market to life on the huge Queen's stage. James Watson's versatile set features a semi-transparent terrace for Casey Street, with spinning black/white doors for the crucial choices. The familiar numbers are in the safe hands of Andrew Linham's superb band, proudly wearing red sparkly bowlers, with pit prop bric-a-brac spilling over into their house, too.

But on opening night there were issues with balance, meaning that dialogue and lyrics were lost; they are helpful, even to those of us who know the show well, to keep the ingeniously plotted narrative on course.

Every member of the company makes a unique contribution to the success of Our House, from the diminutive denim dancers to Joe's Dad – Paul Robinson an imposing figure in his ghostly suit. Joe Watch makes a convincingly confused school-leaver; Becky Smith is Sarah, the girl he almost loses. Fine character work from the vacuous Angie and Billie (Hayley Sanderson and Lauren Sanders), and their male counterparts, “gormless prats” Emmo and Lewis (Oliver Barry-Brook and Conor Dye). A lovely warm performance from Kerry Lawson as Kath – her big number is a musical highlight. Forces of darkness include Jenson Grech's slimeball Reecey and Mandy Lyes' forbidding Pressman.

Plenty of energy in the big ensembles, though the choreography tends to be static, and some excellent staging: Camden Market, the Nightboat to Cairo with the puppet lovers, and the grey stripes of the prison contrasting with the rose-tinted dream overhead.

A rapturous reception from the first-night fans, cheers and applause sustained through the megamix curtain calls. But disco dazzle and Mexican waves are no substitute for real emotional engagement with the characters and their moral dilemmas, only occasionally achieved in this ambitious community venture.

image: Mark Sepple

OUR HOUSE

OUR HOUSE

WOW! 

at the Public Hall, Witham

16.02.15

Oh what fun they had – and we did too – at this bizarre blend of morality play and Madness tunes.
Chief strength of Amy Trigg's lively production is the imaginative and challenging choreography by Louise Lachance. The schoolroom Baggy Trousers, the exercise yard, even the characterful curtain calls are all brilliantly conceived and executed by an energetic company.
A clutch of hugely enjoyable performances by WOW regulars includes the surefire comedy duos of Emmo and Lewis, the “gormless prats” brilliantly done by Jack Martyn and Max Lenoir, and the shallow girls Billie and Angie, Alice Tunningley and Ashton Reed.
Ben Huish brings presence and pathos to the two Joes, black and white, wrong and right, and is vocally very assured. His girl, Sarah, is excellently sung by Rosie Goddard – duetting with Joe in It Must Be Love, and with his dead Dad in NW5.
Mark Ellis, haunting his son like Hamlet's father on the battlements, guides Joe, and us, through the dual development – Simple Equation, books balanced, justice seen to be done.
Strong support in smaller roles from, amongst many others, Amy Seymour as Joe's Irish Mum, Ed Tunningley as the evil Reecey, Chris Tierney as the fat cat property tycoon, and Bella Tull as Julie on Reception.
Wings of a Dove might usefully be more kitsch, but there are many superb stage pictures on the bold geometric set – notably the fatal birthday party with the cake and balloons and the crazy joy ride in Joe's 80 quid car.
Emma Firth's punchy band – with the crucial saxes to the fore – provides great backing for those iconic numbers, which, lest we forget, charted years before these young actors were born ...

OUR HOUSE

OUR HOUSE

Springers at the Civic Theatre

14.06.2014

Oh what fun we had … a moment of pure Madness in the closing minutes of the last night, as the triumphant cast jumped down to join the cheering crowd in the aisles of the Civic Theatre, all dancing to the umpteenth reprise of the title number.

Barry Miles' production is cheeky and lively from the off, with a huge cast throwing themselves into this song-and-dance story of a Camden lad whose double life makes a powerful morality play. The choreography, by Melissa Smart, is quirky and inventive: the stop motion street scene, the Vegas wedding, the fan dancers, the skipping-rope, the Berkeley brollies, and, most talked of over interval drinks, those dancing desks and daring lifts.

Jon Newman played good Joe and bad Joe – a virtuoso performance as he flipped between the straight and narrow and the primrose path. Nicola Myers was his movingly loyal girl Sarah, with two excellent duets in the second act. A huge cast changed costume and character in a twinkling – funeral to wedding – and brought a raucous enthusiasm to these iconic numbers.

Strong character support from Colin Shoard as the Dad from Above, and wonderful comic double acts from Ian [Frank Spencer] Pavelin and Aaron Crowe as Joe's gormless mates, and Sophie Lines and Natalie Hills as the heartless girls.

The dialogue is not always convincing, the lyrics even less so, but the story and the music carry the show – Ian Myers' classy pit band had the audience waving and clapping along about eight bars in …

OUR HOUSE

BOSSY at the Brentwood Theatre

10.11.10

The Madness Musical, all urban malice and bouncy beats, is a challenge to any group. Bossy brought to it their trademark enthusiasm, a great backing band and a large cast of suitably youthful spivs and scallies.

“Oh What Fun We Had ...”, the big ensembles came off best, especially the carnival Wings of A Dove, and the old school desks whizzing round on castors, though the vocal energy didn't always match the physical, and even that sometimes waned before the final chords. I liked the parody Who Will Buy, with newspapers, the Act One finale, and the duet It Must Be Love. The car sequence was less successful – it needed more acting and not so much cardboard car and pointless back projection.

These catchy Madness numbers are not an easy sing, and we do need to hear all the words if we are to follow the clever duality of the plot.

Perry Hughes had the demanding role of Joe, whose life divides into Good and Bad, with Livvie Milne as his girl. A strong performance from Josh Bishop as the absent Dad, watching the action from underneath the streetlamp, and excellent comedy work from the OMG Whatever Girls [Chloe Rickenbach and Laura Wood] and the gormless Emmo and Lewis [James Wilson and Ross Llewellyn].

Our House was directed for BOSSY by Gaynor Wilson, with Andy Prideaux in charge of the music. And respect to Barnett, for putting a full page ad in the programme, despite the less than glowing endorsement for property developers in the show ...