SEE HOW THEY RUN

Ian Dickens Productions at the Civic Theatre

Philip King's trusty wartime farce is a classic of its kind. Tea with the vicar, men without trousers, drunken spinster, a web of improbable coincidences.

Ian Marston's workmanlike production had an excellent Humphrey in Jeffrey Holland, whose precise timing and facial expressions kept the audience laughing. Guy Siner, the other sitcom star on stage in this experienced cast, was merely required to reheat his Gruber. Dale Meeks failed to convince me that he was a Coward actor - working class boys just didn't, not in those days, dear boy ...

Kathryn Dimmory was engagingly daffy as the hyperactive Mrs Vicar, but the star of the show for me was Rachel Izen as Miss Skillon - a brillant physical performance, fainting, collapsing, subsiding, crawling all over the furniture and Alan Miller Bunford's solidly traditional stage set.

THE LLANELLI MALE CHOIR

Chelmsford and District Welsh Society at the Cathedral

Our Cathedral was packed with ex-pat Celts for the Chelmsford and District Welsh Society's concert last Saturday.

It was their first time in this glorious choral acoustic, and the guests were the excellent Cor Meibion Llanelli, accompanied by Helen Roberts.

Under their inspiring director, Eifion Thomas, they brought us a selection from their wide and varied repertoire, including hymn tunes, opera, and the “greatest love song of all time”, Myfanwy.

I especially appreciated their American Trilogy, Mozart's Chorus of the Priests, and Mansions of the Lord, from the Vietnam movie We Were Soldiers.

As the Mayor pointed out, the concert was a potent reminder of the beauty of the Welsh tongue, and the wealth of repertoire written for these marvellous choirs.

The guest soloist was the young Welsh baritone Gary Griffiths. Sensitively accompanied at the piano by Nico de Villiers, he sang traditional Welsh airs, oratorio, Strauss, Don Giovanni and that sentimental ballad beloved of the diaspora, My Little Welsh Home. His encore was a beautifully phrased Some Enchanted Evening.

Memorably, choir and audience joined together in community singing, culminating, of course, in Land of My Fathers.

JEKYLL AND HYDE – THE MUSICAL

Springers at the Civic

I struggle to be inspired by Jekyll and Hyde, the Musical. Frank Wildhorn's meandering melodies. Leslie Bricusse's limp lyrics. The anachronistic book.

But Springers clearly have no such problems, and gave the show a brilliant production at the Civic Theatre.

Eric Smart used his chorus effectively: grouping and singing were dramatically powerful. The scenery was well designed and evocative; Phill Knight's lighting design was superb. The wigs and costumes were less impressive, but the stage pictures were frequently arresting – the duet In His Eyes, the Prologue, the Façade street scene, the melodramatic wedding.

I liked the Goth bookends – the Sinister Assistants – and masks were used to good effect. Sax and sex in the Red Rat [just down the road from The Three Cripples] introduced Deborah Anderson's impeccable Lucy, the good-time girl who tempts both Jekyll and Hyde.

The tormented doctor, given a stag night and a motive for murder in this version, was played by Simon Brett – a once in a lifetime opportunity he seized with enthusiasm. His final confrontation was a tour-de-force, and he made the most of the one memorable number in the show. His intended was Olivia Gooding, with Andy Hall as her father.

The assistant director was Steve Holding, choreography was by Jacqui Tear, and the MD was Ian Myers.

WE'LL MEET AGAIN

Duggie Chapman's wartime show at the Civic

06.06.08

Delayed by the blackout, We'll Meet Again brought wartime nostalgia to the Civic once more last week. They are one of the last Concert Parties in captivity, working like Trojans to keep the audience entertained.

These time travellers were here at Easter last year, with an almost identical show: full marks to cheeky chappy Steve Barclay for freshening his act with some new material, including a topical pot shot at Fern Britton.

Fair enough – you can't rewrite the war – Lili Marlene was the only German number, and only in its English version.

The fans – war babies, veterans, spivs and evacuees – loved every minute: Shelley James, Forces Sweetheart, Andy Eastwood, with his little ukelele in his hand, not to mention the fiddle and the banjo, and Tony Layton, recalling the vocal refrains of the Dance Band days.

Rear Gunner Martyn St James, MD and keyboards, kept the whole thing moving, and lighting and staging were slick and smooth.

Seeing the show again so soon, we noticed the tricks and the wrinkles: the voice with no power left at the bottom, the fixed grin and the Archie Rice eyes, the resolutely un-PC gags just the right shade of blue, as the comic worked the mature crowd with consummate skill.

This was the same show as last year - have a look at that review in the archive !

THE THREE SOPRANOS PLUS

Lunchtime music at the Cathedral

30.05.08

The Three Tenors are the stuff of legend. Last year our Cathedral hosted the three counter-tenors. Last week it was the turn of the Three Sopranos, with an operatic miscellany of myth and legend.

From Richard Strauss's Nymphs [Ariadne auf Naxos] to Richard Wagner's Rhine Maidens, joined by token baritone Gary Griffiths as Alberich [a powerful performance, this].

Two favourite solos, too. Elizabeth Kent chose Purcell – Dido's Lament [When I Am Laid In Earth] – and Susanna Heard sang Dvorak, in Czech – Russalka's Song to the Moon.

At the heart of this well constructed programme was a generous slice of Handel's Semele, with Susanna performing a lively duo with Beverley Lockyer, Gary as Somnus raised from his slumbers, and Beverley giving us Endless Pleasure.

The hard-working accompanist was Peter Dollimore.

It's over two years since these performers entertained in the Cathedral; we look forward to another themed dip into the operatic repertoire.