(no subject)
Right. This next review is only 2 weeks late *g*
Betty Blue Eyes @ Novello Theatre
We arrived at the theatre to the news that Sarah Lancashire wouldn't be on that night :-( which is never a good start except that understudies are so often fabulous because they get fewer chances to shine. We had Kirsty Hoiles playing Joyce Chilvers and she seems a good place to start- she was very good and I only caught myself thinking "I wonder how Sarah would do this" twice in the whole show which is pretty good :-P
The whole cast were very good to be honest. Any show with David Bamber in it has a good chance of going well for me because I love his self-importance :D And then Adrian Scaborough too! (Though I don't really understand why- he doesn't do musicals normally and he's an Alan Bennett man through & through and Alan wasn't exactly thrilled by this version of what he'd written in a Private Function) ANYWAY whatever the reason he decided to join the cast he was having a ridiculous amount of fun being the bad guy and painting all the illegal meat green. Yes he was about a MILLION miles over the top most of the time & I know that's annoyed some but I was just enjoying his enjoyment iyswim.
The other understudy we had on wsa Christopher Howell playing Henry Allardyce who is Betty's biggest fan *g* and who sings the title song Betty Blue Eyes with Gilbert Chilvers and he too seemed to be enjoying himself... slightly disturbingly given the whole "being in love with a pig" side to the character :-P
And Ann Emery as Mother Dear (nice character name there *g*) was very good too- she was doing a great line in slightly batty, very defensive, older woman.
But oh Reece Shearsmith ♥ Have I ever admitted on here to my ridiculous crush on him? Because I absolutely do have one and OH seeing him on stage in a musical was BRILLIANT. No he's not a musical theatre person really and no he couldn't have hit the big high notes but the show was arranged so that he didn't have to try. Occasionally he lapsed into that sort of half song/half spoken style but it felt right for the character and meant that the stuff he did sing was at a pitch he COULD sing it well so I thought it worked beautifully.
And Magic Fingers broke my heart just as it did the first time I heard it on a Stiles & Drewe CD back before the show had a name ♥ Honestly how a song about a Chiropodist can be so moving I don't know but it was!
The staging was maybe a little bit too clever for it's own good imo but Betty was brilliant and used sparingly enough that the animatronics didn't get annoying.
Dad was a little uncertain about some of the songs but I think that's partly because he didn't know what to expect. Very few of them are liekly to become classics but they're all good and fit the story and if I had time/money I would HAPPILY see the show again before it closes early [insert rant about London audiences refusal to see new shows that aren't based on franchises]
On the Reece Shearsmith front did everyone see the utterly BRILLANT news yesterday that the League of Gentlemen are reuniting to do some sketches for Horrible Histories? ♥♥♥
Right. Time to get changed & head off to work... yay?
Betty Blue Eyes @ Novello Theatre
We arrived at the theatre to the news that Sarah Lancashire wouldn't be on that night :-( which is never a good start except that understudies are so often fabulous because they get fewer chances to shine. We had Kirsty Hoiles playing Joyce Chilvers and she seems a good place to start- she was very good and I only caught myself thinking "I wonder how Sarah would do this" twice in the whole show which is pretty good :-P
The whole cast were very good to be honest. Any show with David Bamber in it has a good chance of going well for me because I love his self-importance :D And then Adrian Scaborough too! (Though I don't really understand why- he doesn't do musicals normally and he's an Alan Bennett man through & through and Alan wasn't exactly thrilled by this version of what he'd written in a Private Function) ANYWAY whatever the reason he decided to join the cast he was having a ridiculous amount of fun being the bad guy and painting all the illegal meat green. Yes he was about a MILLION miles over the top most of the time & I know that's annoyed some but I was just enjoying his enjoyment iyswim.
The other understudy we had on wsa Christopher Howell playing Henry Allardyce who is Betty's biggest fan *g* and who sings the title song Betty Blue Eyes with Gilbert Chilvers and he too seemed to be enjoying himself... slightly disturbingly given the whole "being in love with a pig" side to the character :-P
And Ann Emery as Mother Dear (nice character name there *g*) was very good too- she was doing a great line in slightly batty, very defensive, older woman.
But oh Reece Shearsmith ♥ Have I ever admitted on here to my ridiculous crush on him? Because I absolutely do have one and OH seeing him on stage in a musical was BRILLIANT. No he's not a musical theatre person really and no he couldn't have hit the big high notes but the show was arranged so that he didn't have to try. Occasionally he lapsed into that sort of half song/half spoken style but it felt right for the character and meant that the stuff he did sing was at a pitch he COULD sing it well so I thought it worked beautifully.
And Magic Fingers broke my heart just as it did the first time I heard it on a Stiles & Drewe CD back before the show had a name ♥ Honestly how a song about a Chiropodist can be so moving I don't know but it was!
The staging was maybe a little bit too clever for it's own good imo but Betty was brilliant and used sparingly enough that the animatronics didn't get annoying.
Dad was a little uncertain about some of the songs but I think that's partly because he didn't know what to expect. Very few of them are liekly to become classics but they're all good and fit the story and if I had time/money I would HAPPILY see the show again before it closes early [insert rant about London audiences refusal to see new shows that aren't based on franchises]
On the Reece Shearsmith front did everyone see the utterly BRILLANT news yesterday that the League of Gentlemen are reuniting to do some sketches for Horrible Histories? ♥♥♥
Right. Time to get changed & head off to work... yay?