THINGS TO COME - BLOOD BROTHERS

From musical back to the basic play - The Full Monty in the West End, and now Blood Brothers at the Old Court.

Chelmsford Theatre Workshop are producing Blood Brothers the Play by Willy Russell May 14th - 17th and 21st to 24th at 19.45 with a charity night being given to Farleigh Hospice on Tuesday 20th. 

A Liverpudlian West Side Story – written by Willy Russell back in 1981 as a play, the legendary Blood Brothers tells the captivating and moving tale of twins who, separated at birth, grow up on opposite sides of the tracks, only to meet again with fateful consequences. CTW is taking it back to its roots for a two week run. Book your tickets early for this production as it will be very popular!
Tickets for this show are from The Civic Theatre Chelmsford 01245 606505 and for the charity night from The Farleigh Hospice and are £9 Cons £8 except Fri and Sat. 

PARADE

PARADE

Billericay Operatic Society at Brentwood Theatre

08.03.14

Ethnic tensions, trial by media, a true story. Jason Robert Brown's first Broadway musical is richly, if unmemorably scored, with a compelling book by Alfred [Driving Miss Daisy] Uhry.

Wayne Carpenter directed a powerful production for Billericay, as well as giving a nuanced performance as Leo Franks, a Jew out of his element in the Deep South of a hundred years ago.

Using a multi-level setting, and a large cast, the story was tautly told, though there was still some tension lost in silent darkness.

Excellent work from the principal players. No mean feat to make the score – a patchwork of folk, anthem, vaudeville and more – sound better than it is. Under the Musical Direction of Ian Southgate, Nik Graham did, as the drunken janitor and star witness, and Bob Southgate as the smooth-talking prosecutor. Impressive work too from Peter Brown as the “Georgian” hack, Fiona Whittaker as Frank's wife, mousy at first, feisty in his defence, and Gail Carpenter as the Governor's Lady and Minnie, the family cook.

So encouraging to see so many talented young performers on stage; notably Nicole Clements as the young victim – she was the right age, and had a lovely pure voice, – and Simon Johnson as the young Confederate soldier who has to start the whole show with a demanding solo – The Old Red Hills of Home.

The staging set big production pieces – the mob, Memorial Day, broadsheets brilliantly used - against lonely protagonists – the fantasy picnic, Frank's soliloquies – nowhere more successfully than the ending, with Leo poignantly isolated in his office.

Had this been fiction, Franks would have been reprieved at the last moment, and the real murderer exposed - maybe rabid bigot Watson [Mark Clements]. But, tragically, real life is not so tidy, and although Franks was eventually pardoned, by that time he'd been dead 70 years, hanged by a lynch mob back in Marietta.

Mary Redman joined me on the Press Bench ...

Subtitling an off-Broadway show as An American Musical Masterpiece is giving a bit of a hostage to fortune as it were and challenging to boot. On the other hand with a book by the acclaimed Alfred Uhry it had a pretty good pedigree. The result, in the lively hands of Billericay Operatic, was a show that entertained while informing and moving its audiences.

It started with an equally big challenge for lanky teenager Simon Johnson, his build contrasting with his powerful, beautiful singing voice, and set the drama in motion.

It's century-old story of an outsider, hounded by the tabloid press, paying with his life for being an alien in a backward part of the Deep South of America. A story of trumped up murder charges and ignorance which, unfortunately, still exists world wide.

Wayne Carpenter carried off with panache the difficult, demanding roles of director of the very large cast and leading actor. As Leo Frank, mild mannered accountant his singing voice also stood him in good stead while his acting made him believable in his bewilderment. Fiona Whittaker as his initially meek yet later firecracker of a wife seeking justice for her husband, used her beautiful singing voice to add to the drama affecting them both.

With such a very large cast the excellent support given by many of the cast included Nik Graham as the lying factory worker framing Leo; Brian Plumb as the arrogant Governor; Bob Southgate using his powerful singing voice to advantage as the lawyer determined to convict and hang Leo; Peter Brown as the snake-like tabloid journalist; Cheryl Johnson as the grief-stricken mother of a murdered girl. We are accustomed to Gail Carpenter using her physical form to create showy roles but here as the shrunken, lying Minola McKnight she was virtually unrecognisable by contrast with her other role as the flamboyant Governor's wife.

A special word of praise for the other teenagers in the cast such as Matthew Carpenter's assured, well sung Frankie Epps and Nicolle Clements as the charming young victim Mary Phagan.

The set was a useful multilevel series of acting areas put to especially chilling use at the end of the show. There were drawbacks including the effective costuming being let down by a lack of period corsetry framing the dresses. The over enthusiastic use of unnecessary blackouts between many scenes slowed the action in a very long show.

Music, in the safe hands of Ian Southgate's band was not catchy, yet a pleasing, relevant use of traditional airs with dramatic, Sondheimesque chords creating dark atmosphere.

It was what the profession calls a big sing and I'm very pleased to have seen it.

HELLO/GOODBYE

HELLO/GOODBYE

Chelmsford Theatre Workshop at the Old Court

07.03.14

Peter Souter's play – somewhere between romcom and 21^st century comedy of manners – centres on a couple thrown together by destiny and an estate agent.

They have little in common; they sometimes don't seem to speak the same language.

The script is challenging; not quite naturalistic, often very funny. This production – the first non-professional staging of this piece – by Mike and Sara Nower manages to bring out the honesty as well as the humour, and the ending is genuinely moving [and refreshingly happy, too].

Despite the vital contributions of Paul Bonnici as a bemused boyfriend and Rebecca Segeth as a smart auctioneer, this is really a two-hander.

And the two actors carry their characters wonderfully well.

Vikki Pead is the “shouty woman with slightly disastrous hair”, “vile”, “prickly” who turns out to be desperate to raise a family. A lovely, thoughtful performance, using a turn of the shoulder, a look askance to convey much that is unspoken.

Ian Willingham is the nerdy Rain Man completist, collector of “crap in frames” who offers her a bed in the box room and, ten years later, an island idyll. A totally convincing portrayal of a complex character, tender, introverted, funny and vulnerable.

Both actors timed their laugh lines brilliantly, though words were occasionally lost.

If Souter's charming, intriguing play has a weakness, it's that the symbolism and the subtext, and much else, is too heavily underlined. Alex's “Cheating is wrong...” says autistic spectrum. We can see that the intertwined candlesticks are a symbol, like the tandem. And the eggbound chicken.

This stage version was originally a radio play called That's Mine, This is Yours. And in Act Two divorce entails a division of “shared stuff”, unveiled as if for a poignant version of Kim's Game: the bedstead, the bowl of pebbles, the Damien Hurst …

The setting, and the props, are meticulously done. And there's a free roll of love hearts with every programme.

A fine production of an enjoyable new play.

BOEING BOEING

BOEING BOEING

Talking Scarlet at the Civic Theatre

04.03.14

Brighton-based Talking Scarlet have been touring this frenetic farce for a year or more, and hope to extend its life into 2015 …

There's certainly plenty of AirMiles left in the old Caravelle, and Patric Kearns' stylish production reminds us of what a success it's had, from its opening in 1962 to a star-studded revival of 2007.

The set is sophisticated 70s Parisian, though the performances are less subtle generally, with lots of supercharged shouting and meticulous slapstick.

The three mini-skirted cyphers who make up Bernard's “international harem” are played with a shameless sense of fun by Ciara Janson [Air France], Zoie Kennedy [Lufthansa] and Kim Tiddy [TWA].

Their fiancé is “Parisian bachelor” Ben Roddy, his ordered timetable trashed by turbulence and new technology. But the evening really belongs to Philip Stewart, as his unpolished provincial friend – a fine, manic physical performance – and Anita Graham as his seen-it-all cynical housekeeper, a welcome oasis of subtlety in a stormy night.

THE ACADEMY OF ANCIENT MUSIC

ACADEMY OF ANCIENT MUSIC

M&G Concert at the Civic Theatre

02.03.14

One of the best baroque bands around, the AAM brought their new programme to the Civic for this very enjoyable evening's music-making.

It's based around the Dresden Court of Augustus the Strong. Vivaldi's Venetian style was very popular there, apparently, especially when brass and wind were added to the mix. So the concert began and ended with concertos featuring lavish wind parts as well as virtuoso writing for the violin – the two horns, in particular, vied with Rodolfo Richter's fiddle [whose history goes back further than the music he played] to spectacular effect.

William Carter, whose lute is a mere ten years old, was the soloist in Fasch's Concerto, with its sensuous slow movement.

In a generous programme, we also heard a colourful Overture by Veracini, and two works by JS Bach, a lively Third Brandenburg, and the Concerto for Three Violins, with its scintillating finale.

The last Civic Concert for this season, at the end of the month, will feature the Orchestra of the Swan in Mozart and Britten.