This newly minted 1960s juke box musical is like a warm bath with lots of bubbles – smilingly appealing to sink into. And yet – for me – at least, it feels fresh and stops short of cheesiness. Suffice it to say I grinned and chuckled a lot.

Jennifer Selway gives us six characters who meet in a Carnaby Street coffee bar (remember those?) in 1965. One is a journalist, another an aspirant art student and a third a traffic warden. The coffee bar is owned by a wise, older woman and a young American man works for her, Then a Liverpudlian wannabe photographer falls through the door. Gradually they become friends with various relationships and tensions between them forming a surprisingly coherent narrative considering that it’s driven by the musical numbers.

All the acting and singing is strong and the five piece band, seated at one end of the well used traverse space, do a splendid job led by Curtis Lavender on keys (or sometimes sax or guitar). I loved their Nut Rocker – an arrangement of part of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker by Kim Fowley at the beginning of the second half.

Joanna (Eliza Shea), Cassie (Candis Butler Jones) and Vera (Elizabeth Walker) form a girl band managed by Sam (Connor Arnold – fine actor muso) who doesn’t want to serve coffee for ever. Each girl has a different reason for doing this but as a trio they make a good sound and achieve some success. And Helen Goodwin (another pleasing singer)  brings gravitas and balance as Hetty who used to perform during the war with her late husband.

But the one to watch – really watch – is Harry Curley as Bobby. He’s a 2022 graduate from Mountview and is vibrantly strong as well as engagingly natural.  His rendering of Dedicated Follower of Fashion is an energetic show stopper. He can also do lyrical. Accompanying himself evocatively on acoustic guitar for Ferry ‘cross the Mersey as a love song, he’s so convincing that yes, I’d have gone anywhere with him. In some ways he reminds me of Charlie Stemp. Remember where you first heard this.

Selway, who has worked with John Plews a lot over the years, makes the book witty – which is why it works so well. There are some good, often rueful, jokes. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could carry phones with us instead of relying on phone boxes? Rock and Roll doesn’t last. It isn’t as though the Rolling Stones are going to be performing in their seventies is it?  “Why can’t you go to college? Surely you don’t have to pay tuition fees in this country?” And of course the knowing audience smiles each time it hears a song coming on. Obviously Elizabeth Walker eventually sings Bobbie’s Girl and we can all relax because as Hetty remarks “We all like a happy ending”

Just the job for a damp winter’s day. I sang all the way home.

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  All photos: Darren Bell

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Emily Cairns Dreamcatcher. Photo: Bill Knight

By any conventional definition this show is in a genre of its own: a antidote to standard pantomime. Borrowing an idea from Into the Woods, John Savourin’s script whizzes us from one fairy story to another so that we get a gloriously chaotic mixture which includes magic beans, lamps to rub, a flying carpet, a poisoned apple, three blind mice and the Jolly Roger – among many other delights, all packed in fast and furious. The vibrant energy which underpins this show is very striking.

And it’s a completely unexpected twist on the Rumpelstiltskin story. He’s an evil goblin whose encounters with the Dreamcatcher and show-long quest for the Story Teller eventually persuade him to be kind and nice. He no longer wants the name there was initially such a fuss about either.

Because this is an opera company the singing – in what is effectively a four-hander rock opera – is at a higher standard than in most pantomimes. And although it’s sung to a pre-recorded sound track it works coherently most of the time.  Philip Lee, for example, as the goblin (nice ears!)  sings with real warmth and proper musicality as well as bounding all over the stage and commanding it with glee. I’m not surprised to read that he has done a lot of G&S as well as other opera.

Emily Cairns is outstandingly versatile as the malevolent, gangster-style Dreamcatcher and in several other roles with a range of accents and body stances. Tamoy Phipps is a strong beltissimo singer and especially good (very funny) as Jack’s leaky cow. Lucy Whitney, light on her feet and with lively adaptability, has fun as Larry the Cat, among other parts all done with verve.

The night I saw Rumpelstiltskin the audience mainly consisted of adults who were lapping it up. I couldn’t help wondering whether it might be a little too sophisticated to appeal to children although the cast pulled two children out of the audience and got them to “help” with some rowdy rat catching and that seemed to work well enough. Best joke of the show was calling one of the offending rodents “Rat Hancock”.

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  All photos: Bill Knight

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First published by Sardines: http://ardinesmagazine.co.uk/review/rumpelstiltskin-2/

A Christmas Carol (2022). Photo: Lidia Crisafulli

This adaption of Dickens’s most famous evocation of Christmas has been around for ten years but this was the first time I’d seen it. Why did I wait so long? It’s attractive, poignant, wry and the live music is a treat.

With a cast of eleven it’s more ambitious in scale than many fringe shows these days and we start with a choral arrangement of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen with emphasis on its minor key, new words and David Burt (excellent) as Scrooge crossly dismissing them.

Staged in a square playing space with seating on three sides facing Middle Temple Hall’s famous Elizabethan carved oak screen you could hardly have a more atmospheric setting – especially as I attended a 3pm matinee throughout which it gradually grew darker.

The abridgment of the story is lighter here than in many accounts of A Christmas Carol. The show runs for just over two hours (with interval for mulled wine and mince pies – obviously) so it’s leisurely and pretty faithful to Dickens. That means, however, that it’s a tad wordy in places.

The sound and light provides a very creepy ambience especially at the entrance of Richard Holt, clanking and grey in his chains as Jacob Marley’s Ghost and the build up of the tension before the appearance of each of the three spirits.

In a generally strong cast, Matt Whipps is warmly convincing as Bob Cratchit and I liked McCallam Connell as the Ghost of Christmas Present. There’s a fine performance from Jack Heydon as Scrooge’s nephew Fred – cheerful, decent and enjoying life: the old man’s opposite in so many ways. Heydon is also a pretty good trumpeter playing lots of top lines, flourishes, fanfares and so on in the music which permeates this show. The role of Tiny Tim is shared. At the performance I saw Dylan Hall found all the poignancy the role requires.

Nick Barstow’s music – delightful arrangements played by a band of four plus several actor musos in the cast – includes many Christmas Carols or references to them. I particularly liked the folksy arrangement of ‘Tis the Season to Be Jolly upliftingly danced as a quasi-Circassian Circle at Mr Fezziwig’s party. Long before they became inextricably linked with Christmas, Carols were dances after all.

All in all it’s an enjoyable show which really “does” Christmas with aplomb but it comes with a problem.  There are a lot of new words in the sung numbers relating to Victorian social conditions – or at least I think they do. The trouble with Middle Temple Hall is that, stunningly atmospheric as it is, the acoustics are not great and I couldn’t hear most of the sung words which is a pity.

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  All photos: Lidia Crisafulli

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The company in Chichester Festival Youth Theatre’s ‘The Wind in the Willows. Photo: Manuel Harlan

Some directors are magicians. And it is on ongoing mystery to me how talented Dale Rooks gets this astonishingly high standard of professionalism from a youth theatre cast. As I’ve said, more than once before, Chichester Festival Theatre really does run one Britain’s finest youth theatres.  It is, moreover, testament to all concerned that CFT turns its main house over to the youth theatre for what becomes the theatre’s annual Christmas show with all the high production values it would afford any other show.

Alan Bennett’s witty, upbeat but respectful take on Grahame’s episodic tale of highly anthropomorphised river bank animals was originally written for National Theatre thirty years ago and remains one of the best adaptations. It allows for a big ensemble cast and plenty of music – played beautifully here by an unseen six-piece live band led by MD, Colin Billing.

The main roles are shared but on press night I saw Milena Harrison as Mole, quivering, anxious, learning to enjoy fun and always putting forward a commonsense view. She’s a delight to watch. So is Spencer Dixon’s camp, effete and very decent Rat who towers over her in an avuncular way.

Jack Keane, as Toad, commands the stage with excess, outrageousness and fabulous movement work. He’s quite an actor to watch. Alfie Ayling’s badger is more loveable and less curmudgeonly than some interpretations but enjoyable nonetheless. And Edward Bromell as Albert, the lugubrious, bolshy horse who objects to being smacked on the bottom and likes a quiet read when he’s allowed one, is so entertaining that he almost deserves a show of his own.

Other high spots include Lucy Campbell as a cheerfully gor-blimey Otter and Milly Fryman singing a 3|4 music-hall style number as the Barge Woman and getting the Marie Lloyd vibe perfectly.

The ensemble sings and dances well in various combinations and threads mysteriously in and out of Simon Higlett’s magnificent set which comprises green willows which open to admit other settings such as Toad Hall, Badger’s House, the barge, the train and so on. And neatly woven into this is a hint of recycling and a reminder of scale. Toad Hall is, actually, a grand old teapot. Ratty’s boat is a sardine tin which he rows with cotton buds.

Not only does the ensemble of mice, rabbits, foxes, weasels, ferrets and the like sound terrific – sometimes singing in four parts – but it looks gorgeous too. Ryan Dawson Laight’s costumes are a delight: from the baggy brown trousers and big tail for Mole to the huge round ears for the mice, some of whom are very tiny, and the big red bushy tails for the foxes. Each and every one of them encapsulates the animal’s most prominent characteristics.

It really is a fine and uplifting evening’s theatre. Catch it if you possibly can.

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  All photos: Manuel Harlan

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Glisten. Photo: Stephen Beany

This show is effectively a 20 minute, solo,  sensory dance performance for babies and as such it works very well. Alessio Bagiardi, a charismatic mover, is beneath a tent frame which has some unobtrusive items taped to its bars. During the course of the show he finds lights, a big rustly foam rug, coloured cellophane, rainbow-bright chiffon scarves and creates a landscape with them on the floor. Gentle music plays throughout and provides an aural structure for Bagiaridi’s quasi-balletic body work. It’s also soothingly reassuring for very young ears.

The audience – and their grown ups –  are seated on cushions and chairs round the edge. The response is fascinating. There are chatty wrigglers, excited commenters, one who’s a bit edgy and thinks about crying and one – perhaps a year old – who sits perfectly still, transfixed and mesmerised following every movement with his eyes. It’s rare to see such focus in the theatre even amongst adults. When it was time for the interactive play session at the end, that same child crawled purposefully to Bagiardi’s feet and allowed himself to be lifted high into the foil tendrils overhead – a jolly good game. How lovely, too, to see a baby only a few weeks old lying alert on a little mattress at the end, concentratedly watching the lights and colours, arms and legs thrusting enthusiastically.

Of course I’ve seen theatre for under-twos before but it’s been a while and I’m struck afresh that “imaginative” and “simple” are not contradictions. This very pleasing miniature show does both and engages its target audience with exquisite skill and warmth.

First published by Sardines:

The Grotto. Photo: Cam Harle

A youngish couple are wearily running Santa’s Grotto, although they’ve actually been separated for some months. Pete (Toby Hampton)  smiles and ho-hos falsely while Leyla (Laurel Marks) as his elf mimes bringing in child after child. Then, at the end of their monotonous shift we see them as themselves: sparring. They are dispirited (literally as it turns out)  but clearly yearning in their different ways – her exasperation and his relentless jokiness – to get back together.

Hampton’s play is surreal. With a sideways nod at A Christmas Carol a supernatural force arrives in the form of puppet Christmas fairy/angel (voiced by Bryan Pilkington) whose stated aim is to help them recover their Christmas spirit.  The challenges he sets are macabre, peculiar and often very funny. There are plenty of unexpected twists so no spoilers.

In general I found the whole concept slightly too wacky and without much dynamic contrast. And although it’s a short one act play running 70 minutes it’s actually ten minutes too long. But it was a preview  performance I saw so there is time for the production to settle.

I saw Laurel Marks on stage twice earlier this year in two very different roles. Her performance as Leyla confirms me in my view that she is an exceptionally talented actor. She has a very expressive face which she uses with a great deal of evocative nuance and she does wonderful things with breathing to connote anger, stress, fear – or a physical condition which makes Leyla sneeze a lot.

She and Hampton repeatedly declare themselves a team as their characters in this play. They are evidently a strong team as actors in real life too because they bounce off each other well with a lot of high octane listening as well as action.

Director, Matthew Parker, makes imaginative use of the small playing space at Drayton Arms Theatre (my first visit there, incidentally) and it’s a busy production with lots of props so well done stage manager, Summer Keating too.

While it isn’t the best thing I’ve seen this Christmas season The Grotto is commendably original and  certainly a refreshing antidote to all the predictable stuff one sees at this time of year.

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  Photos: The Grotto. All photos: Cam Harle

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First published by Sardines: https://www.sardinesmagazine.co.uk/review/the-grotto/