January 2001 - Region 10 - Peter Hendren
CALAMITY JANE
Whitehaven AOS
A bright and colourful show from Whitehaven AOS. Producer Geoff Hubbard had some nice touches to embellish the storyline, especially the star backcloth for " The Black Hills of Dakota". As at another recent version there was an audibility problem of words both in the libretto and in solo parts of songs early on, presumably with the mic's. Happily this seemed to be corrected as the show progressed.
The casting was solid throughout and some fine cameos emerged. Newcomer Audrey Pedersen as Katie Brown was very good, and I liked Paula Hamer as Adelaide Adams too. With good singing and speaking voices, these two should be future assets to the Society.
Ann Simpson as Calamity played the role very well, and sang "Secret Love" quite excellently. The chorus of newcomers too was rousing and topped off an enjoyable evening.
BUGSY MALONE
Workington AOS. (Juniors)
An entertaining evening with the Junior section of Workington AOS. The very brief scenes in Act I were not always audible, but later as the main principals took over the action, this improved noticeably.
Nathan Walker made a good Bugsy and was well complemented by Laura Dixon as Blousey Brown. Jenna Walker played Tallulah very nicely, and the gang leaders of Fat Sam (Tony McGee) and Dandy Dan (Daniel O'Hagan) were very convincing.
The various 'sidekicks' of both gangs duly worshipped their leaders, in case they were 'eliminated'. The chorus of street people and dancers was exuberant, including a couple of very small 'scene stealers'!
Over 40 youngsters were on stage, all marshalled by that ubiquitous producer, Ed McGee. Surely an excellent augury for the long term for the Society?
SCROOGE
Workington AOS.
I looked forward immensely to this new show and like the rest of the audience already had a fair idea of the story. Workington AOS tackled this show very well indeed. It is intensely difficult staging so many sets quickly and efficiently, and many times the stage hands were changing one area, whilst the action went on in another. This was distracting, when done many times, but presumably could not be overcome by selective area lighting.
Next the songs were almost all difficult with not too much recognisable tune (there were 3 exceptions!) and I'm told that-the chorus harmony parts were tricky too. Then the widely known plot was unveiled very slowly by the writers.
Thus the cast had many difficulties to surmount in the playing of the piece. But, by Jove, didn't they do well in surmounting them! Character identification is vital in period pieces and Tex Houghton as Scrooge was exceptional. His gestures, songs, movements and speech were well co-ordinated in working up the character beautifully. In this he was matched by Roger Wilson as Bob Cratchit, and Graham Hawley as Harry and Young Scrooge. The ladies too, Ann Hill as Mrs Cratchit and Diane Prest as Isabel and Helen, were all well cast, and all these principals could sing agreeably and confidently.--even in the 'obscure' melodies of the score.
The set was entirely authentic being newly made, and was mainly on trucks for fast changes. Costumes too were authentic and colourful where needed. However the whole piece is fairly drab until the 'happy' ending, but the Society did extremely well in tackling this show, and pulling it off successfully.