THEATREWORLD

SAVE THE LAST DANCE FOR ME is a story set in Lowestoft in 1963 featuring a string of classic rock and roll songs. The story includes an American military base, Coca Cola, a band, caravans and teenage dreams. Essentially it is a set of great songs with some poorly scripted links between them. The choreography is stiff and limited, the set amateurish and the lighting overdone. All this lets down a group of talented performers gallantly doing their very best.

The show is enjoyable, despite all its problems, thanks to the skill and enthusiasm of the performers. Their singing and live music playing is fantastic. The unaccompanied versions of ‘Sweets for My Sweet’, ‘Hushabye’ and ‘Save the Last Dance for Me’ were so accomplished they sent chills down the spine. Hearing such a large group of excellent voices working brilliantly together is wonderful.

If you like this era of music you will enjoy the show – but go for the songs, not the drama.

Reviewed by Gertie Whitfield for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

Reviews by "The Whitfields" for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

CRUCIBLE THEATRE

SHEFFIELD

BOX OFFICE: 0114 249 6000

www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk

Reviews by "The Whitfields" for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

CRUCIBLE STUDIO THEATRE

SHEFFIELD

BOX OFFICE: 0114 249 6000

Reviews by "The Whitfields" for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

ROYAL EXCHANGE THEATRE

St Anne's Square

Manchester

BOX OFFICE: 0161 833 9833

Web site: http://www.royalexchange.co.uk

The Royal Exchange Theatre in association with Told by an Idiot

Presents

YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU

by George S.Kaufman and Moss Hart

Now playing until 14th January, 2012.

Festive fun and frolics at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, take on their traditional alternative to pantomime with this lightweight and frivolous 1936 American award-winning and highly successful comedy which, I am sure, will find favour with a great many intent on enjoying an evening of unadulterated fun at the theatre at this time of year.

Paul Hunter and his Told By an Idiot cast, in association with the Royal Exchange, rely heavily on physical theatre and, as Hunter expresses in his programme note: 'I suppose our style is all about having a very direct relationship with the audience and not attempting to create reality on stage.' And he is true to his word. Think of the Marx Brothers, the Fockers, the Addams Family, (the Munsters may be pushing it) and you come close to both the eccentricities of the characters we are presented with and the anarchic style of the piece. You Can't Take It with You relates the humorous encounter between a conservative family and the crazy household of Grandpa Martin Vanderhof (the admirable Christopher Benjamin) who has avoided paying his taxes for some eight years as a result of the authorities believing him to be dead. Grandpa's family of idiosyncratic individuals amuse with their energetic physical antics and inspire with their wholehearted pursuit of happiness and that would seem to be at the core of the piece and Grandpa's philosophy of life.

Sam Parkes (Paul Sycamore) and his assistant Martin Hyder (Mr de Pinna) make fireworks, Joanne Howarth (Mrs Sycamore), is desperately trying to complete writing a play, Sophie Russell (Essie), her daughter, makes candy but is desperate to be a dancer and who dances everywhere rather than walking, tutored, unsuccessfully it would appear, by Miltos Yerolemou's eccentric Russian Boris Kolenkhov; Adam Burton (Ed) her xylophone-playing musician husband, Golda Rosheuvel (a maid) and Denton Chikura (her love interest), together with snakes on a hat-stand, make up this very entertaining unit leaving daughter Alice (Sarah Ridgeway) to represent the face of normality; but normality doesn't equal fun. And when she becomes engaged to Tony Kirby (Hugh Skinner) and invites his family for dinner to meet her family, representing the seeming face of respectability, confusion and conflict arise when they mistakenly arrive for the evening the day, before leaving Alice to break off her engagement and quit her home in both embarrassment and in an attempt to distance herself from her family from the resulting chaos. Needlessly to say, all comes right in the end which is exactly as it should be.

To add to the mayhem Hyder and Maggie O'Brien (who is also Olga, a Russian countess) play Tony's conservative parents, the Kirbys, with additional doubling up coming from Chikura and Rosheuvel. It's all designed to keep the action going and the pace manic.There are a number of entertaining set-pieces and the hard-working ensemble squeezes every ounce of fun from the script. Hunter choreographs his scene changes with the cast and furniture working together to create a variety of stage pictures; there is some flying, some explosions and period music to package the whole and give it colour and a degree of spectacle. It works to some extent. But,to be honest, given the Royal Exchange's resources and reputation and in spite of the calibre of the cast I am not entirely convinced that this production of this 1930s classic American comedy has either the weight or the depth to lift it from the reasonably entertaining to a higher plane.

Reviews by Colin Snell for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

LIBRARY THEATRE

Central Library

St Peter's Square

Manchester

M2 5PD

BOX OFFICE: 0161 236 7110

web address: www.librarytheatre.com

Reviews by Colin Snell for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

OCTAGON THEATRE

Howell Croft South,

Bolton,

BL1 1SB

BOX OFFICE: 01204 529407

www.octagonbolton.co.uk

THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ

Directed by Elizabeth Newman

a new adaptation based on the book by L. Frank Baum

Now playing until January 14^th 2012

Having abandoned the works of Dickens as their seasonal offering, which has entertained audiences over the past couple of years, the Octagon, under the direction of Elizabeth Newman, who is also the Head of New Writing, has commissioned eight professional writers to give the familiar L. Frank Baum's iconic story a new treatment. Now set in Bolton with a rather chavvy Dorothy Broadbottom having a tantrum in Bolton Market because she wants a new pair of red trainers, and with a new musical score by musical director, Barbara Hockaday, Newman and her team profess to 'combine magic with the everyday that young people recognise'. But I didn't find this Dorothy someone to aspire to or who could be a good role model for young people. Perhaps, I am reading too much into all of this. But Ellie Paskell's Dorothy has a grating Boltonian accent and seems to shout her way through the two hours with very little let-up. It is very difficult to warm to the character; I, personally, didn't find her very likeable. The innocence, naievety and charm which are associated with the original are clearly missing and, I suspect, is a fault of the writing. By the end, however, Dorothy does appear to accept that returning home to Bolton, from Oz, might not be such a bad idea after all and she acknowledges that what she has and what she knows is probably not as bad as she originally thought. She has learnt her lesson after all.

It is left to Paul-Ryan Carberry's very athletic (and incredibly flexible) Scarecrow, Lee Drage's confused Tin Man and Lloyd Gorman's rock star Lion to create the trio that accompany Dorothy on her journey to Oz and it they who exude good humour and friendliness which bind them together. They work well as an ensemble and add much to the fun throughout finding a brain, heart and courage respectively as the story has it. Ruth Alexander Rubin's Aunt Em/Good Witch of the North offers good service as does Thomas Eyre's toilet-cleaning Uncle Henry, who also doubles up as the Wizard (from Wigan). Clara Darcy's Wicked Witch of the West brings a touch of evil to the proceedings which she clearly delights in.

There is no doubting the cast's conviction and commitment to the piece and they will, no doubt, be totally exhausted by the end of their 97 scheduled performances (I counted them all). In addition to playing their roles they also play instruments (something that now seems a little predictable in some of the Octagon's programming). The production is colourful and will entertain audiences, both young and old, as a Christmas offering; I didn't find the songs particularly memorable nor welcome - they seemed to be an unnecessary distraction and the danger is in trying to make the story fit into the location and to give it a relevance. I wondered about the value in doing that. It is difficult to get away from the MGM film and the story's various manifestations (The Wiz and Wicked, for example) and I am sure there were those who longed for Somewhere over the rainbow and The Yellow Brick Road rather than the rap and other musical offerings in this production.

Christmas is a time for tradition and traditional values so do not go along to the Octagon Theatre expecting a traditional Wizard of Oz. You may very well, however, come away pleasantly surprised.

Reviews by Colin Snell for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

LIVERPOOL EVERYMAN

Williamson Square

Liverpool L1 1EL

Sales and Information: 0151 709 4776

Minicom: 0151 709 0534

www.everymanplayhouse.com

Reviews by Wendy Fairbank for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

LIVERPOOL PLAYHOUSE

Williamson Square

Liverpool L1 1EL

Sales and Information: 0151 709 4776