BLONDE BOMBSHELLS OF 1943

BLONDE BOMBSHELLS OF 1943

Colchester Mercury

23.03.09

The lady in front of us was baffled by the pay terminal in the multi-storey. Not surprising, really, since she’d clearly been teleported from the 40’s – sensible brogues, tweed skirt, hair net …

She was on her way, via the Balkerne Gate, to the Mercury to watch the Blonde Bombshells of 1943.

The original Bombshells film had Judi Dench struggling to arrange a reunion for the wartime girl band she’d joined as a girl of 15.

The stage spin-off, almost a tribute show, has the band recruiting three new girls, replacing members lost to the depredations of GIs. Alan Plater, who penned both scripts, was inspired in turn by the all-female orchestras epitomised by Ivy Benson. The live version has been on the road since 2006, including a tour of duty in the Far East.

The format is simple. Betty [Charlotte Armer] sits in a grim rehearsal room. Vaguely feminist/filthy chit-chat is exchanged with other members of the band as they drift in. The three novices – Miranda the upper-class tart [a brilliantly dim Rosie Jenkins] Liz the innocent schoolgirl [a gawky Laura Staveley] and least likely but most amusing, Lily the nun. From a liberal order which embraces the Melody Maker and the cheeky innuendo of George Formby.

They do their audition pieces, and are magically melded in a moment into the Valentino Sisters [Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree]. Then, in a tune-filled climax, the BBC wireless show broadcast live from somewhere in England [ alright, Hull ]. As in the tv film, the other plot line is Some Like It Hot draft-dodging drummer [Matthew Ganley] who is shamed into joining the colours [Wish Me Luck as You Wave Me Goodbye].

The show’s secret, and what made this such an enjoyable evening, is the comedy skills and consummate musicianship of the eight actors, and of course the powerfully nostalgic tunes. Number Fifteen on your News Chronicle song sheet ...

RIVERS AND SEAS

The Essex Symphony Orchestra at Christ Church

21.03.09


Starting with a tiny trickle, the source of the Vltava, and ending with the mighty struggle of the wind and the waves, Justin Doyle and the Essex Symphony Orchestra took us on a water-borne journey, navigated by five composers.

Besides Bohemia, we sailed the grim grey North Sea, the Med at Capri, the Loing near Fontainebleau and the Channel off Eastbourne.

Smetana's great poem was superbly played, with noble strings and brass, and nimble dances on the riverside.
The Delius, Summer Night on the River, despite some evocative woodwind playing, never quite achieved the gossamer texture this music needs. The bracing Britten, though, was very successfully caught, especially in the glacial dawn opening, and the brass-rich storm at the end, with its tantalising moments of calm.

The ESO's guest leader for this concert was Philippa Barton, and the soloist was mezzo Clare McCaldin, who gave us a powerful set of Sea Pictures, with the orchestra making the most of the great surges of Elgarian melody. And the evening ended with Debussy's familiar evocation of the sea in all its moods, especially impressive in the closing elemental dialogue.

This was Justin's last concert with the ESO before he leaves for Opera North, and in lieu of an encore, he joined Clare in a Grossmith ditty, referencing many of the motifs from the programme, and aptly titled Baby on the Shore.

Were this Radio 3, we should be begging you to text or email your suggestions for an actual encore for this themed concert. So why not add a comment - costs nothing, can be anonymous . Maybe "Calm Seas and a Prosperous Voyage" for Justin, or, my favourite, Arnold's Padstow Lifeboat ...

HOT MIKADO

Billericay Operatic Society at the Brentwood Theatre

19.03.09

Eighty years ago, this very society staged their first ever show, the Mikado. Only ten years later an all-black Hot Mikado hit Broadway, and this was the inspiration for Rob Bowman's ingenious, and hugely enjoyable, re-working.

“If Gilbert and Sullivan could see me now …” mused the J Edgar Hoover of Japan [Ian Rainsby’s not very menacing Mikado], as he tapped his troubles away in Act Two. Well, they’d certainly recognize the plot, though it was trimmer and slimmer in this low-fat, full-flavoured version. 

And the tunes, too, though it was here that the really clever changes were made.

So Katisha [a barn-storming performance from Gail Carpenter] had a big Gospel number, and a very witty arrangement of her first entrance, and the Three Little Maids,fronted by Gill McGarry's knowing Yum Yum, owed a lot to the Andrews Sisters.

The coolest cat in Titipu, Poo Bah, no less, was played with sleek charm by Brian Plumb, but the stand-out male performers were director and choreographer Wayne Carpenter as Nanki-Poo, a clean-cut college boy with enormous specs and an ego to match, and Philip Cousins' perfect Koko, neatly capturing a vocal style somewhere between lyric and lounge. His little list included revivalists and ragtime.

The show looked great in this relatively intimate space, with technicolor zoot suits and print frocks; the invisible band, under MD Derrick Thompson, was a constant delight.

BLACKADDER

CTW at the Old Court

18.03.09

Did you do something funny for Red Nose Day ?

Some of Chelmsford's finest actors were on stage at the Old Court, in the travesty of Tudor England that is Blackadder Live.

Like 'Allo 'Allo, at the Civic next month, the show comes with high audience expectations – the original performances [and many of the classic gags] being burned into the collective consciousness.

Edmund Blackadder was David Chilvers, a confident, stylish reincarnation which managed to bring something of himself to the character,as did Mark Preston as the hapless Baldrick, the butt of much of the physical humour, forever sacrificing his dignity and his bodily fluids to the greater good.

Among the many other larger than life characters were Kenton Church's Percy, Robin Winder's legless Rum, Ben Fraser's debonair Raleigh, Sara Nower's knitting Nursie, and of course Lionel Bishop making the most of the flamboyant Flashheart. Last word to Christine Davidson, who contributes two contrasting caricatures, the wisewoman and the puritan. Ruth Cramphorn's Kate ["Bob"] looked good in both guises, and Rebecca Errington was a splendidly petulant Queenie. Great character opportunities were gleefully seized by Vince Webb as Leech, Sarah Bell as the Young Crone and Simon Thomas as Kate's Dad, who has the key role of kicking off the plot. Kevin Stemp brought some gravitas to "the creep" Melchett.

Dean Hempstead's pacy production got lots of belly laughs from the capacity audience, despite the endless scene changes, which gave us the chance to enjoy various ancient airs, but added considerably to the running time, and made it nigh on impossible to build the hilarity as Curtis and Elton intended. The setting was simple, but the costumes, by Tony Brett, added authenticity to these three comic tales.

HAYDN AND ROSSINI

Waltham Singers at Chelmsford Cathedral

14.03.09

When Charles Darwin was born, 200 years ago last month, Joseph Haydn had but months to live. His Creation, of course, is a strictly scriptural affair, with God's six days' work presented in a series of pictorial choruses, arias and recitatives.

In the Cathedral last week we heard the first part, taking us up to the lights in the firmament of the heavens.

Andrew Fardell's expressive reading gave us all the images of Genesis: the eddying face of the waters, for instance, and the glorious blaze of light from the choir, who were responsive to the big moments, but also the drama and rhythm of the closing passages, including the familiar Heavens Are Telling.

The three soloists had a sizeable share of the story, too, with Helen Meyerhoff's Gabriel making light work of In Verdure Clad, Christopher Foster's Raphael evoking the limpid brook, and late replacement American tenor Paul Austin Kelly especially effective in the calm beauty of the moonlight.

In this programmatic music you can often get the gist without understanding the words. But in Rossini's shamelessly operatic Stabat Mater I'd defy anyone to tell from the music that this is a deeply religious work, with the Mother of God weeping for the death of her son. Nonetheless, this was a powerful performance, with Susanna Spicer joining the soloists – a wonderful duet with Helen Meyerhoff – and a high standard of choral singing, particularly perhaps in the unaccompanied plea for the soul to enter heaven at death, which preceded the upbeat final Amen.

The accompaniment was provided by the Chameleon Orchestra. Although there was some splendid playing by brass and by strings, there were times, in the Rossini especially, where their forces overwhelmed the efforts of the soloists.