SEX, CHIPS & ROCK 'N' ROLL. To 6 August.
Manchester
SEX, CHIPS & ROCK N' ROLL
by Debbie Horsfield and Hereward Kaye
Royal Exchange Theatre To 6 August 2005
Mon-Fri 7.30pm Sat 8pm Mat Wed 2.30pm Sat 4pm
TICKETS: 0161 833 983
www.royalexchange.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 23 July
The plot-hinges may be rusty with familiarity, but the whole show holds together with energy and optimism.This is a family musical, in its material if not its intended audience. It's also about the sixties sloughing off the fifties, contrasting Manchester's tradition-minded Eccles with its opening chorus of dark-mac wearing, brolly-carrying figures and London's bright-patterned metropolitan mini-skirts: dogged choreography for the rain-soaked north versus lithe energy for the free spirits and bare legs of a capital that's one big Carnaby Street.
Middle-aging northerners cling to an old, oppressive morality. Heroine Ellie Brookes suffers the oppression. A sensitive person who opens the show descending on a swing, reading Yeats, she lands on an earth that has little to offer her mind.
Ellie's mother hides her feelings behind severe specs and the stiff lines of a starched dress, while her daughter's swept into marriage by local chip-selling entrepreneur Norman Kershaw (a bravura entry for his chip van er, mobile frying outlet) and her sister Arden captures the man Ellie really loves (they share a poetry book; what deeper sign of potential lifelong devotion could there be?) through a declaration of pregnancy.
Derived from Debbie Horsfield's TV series, the show's packed with Hereward Kaye's tunes, to jointly-scribed lyrics which it's to be hoped came easier than the hit sought by hero Dallas McCabe's rock band who themselves have to slough off the fifties style of their inept manager. Summing-up the break with the past that's the musical's feelgood point, mum's negative moralising, I Want Never Gets becomes a line that unlocks the lyric that brings the fame. And the crisis.
For the old style fights back. From the start David Birrell's Norman combines a light, slightly nervous voice with a straight-backed directness that indicates the domestic tyrant-in-waiting who'll stand firm on self-certain morality, while, as Ellie's mother, Tracie Bennett's stern disapproval (matched by a strong singing voice) finally reveals the secret she's been made to feel brought shame.
In the modern corner, Emma Williams conveys Ellie's discovery of resilience while Dean Stobbart eventually brings out his lead-singer's stronger qualities. The show's speedy moves between numbers leaves just enough space to show character and Horsefield's sympathy with youthful sixties optimism. Highly enjoyable.
The Wolf: Ben Barnes
Irma Brookes: Tracie Bennett
Norman Kershaw: David Birrell
Shane Riordan/Ensemble: Kevin Doody
Arden Brookes: Elaine Glover
Hayley/Ensemble: Leanne Harvey
Nurse Fido/Ensemble: Michelle Potter
Larry B Cool: Paul Ryan
Dallas McCabe: Dean Stobbart
Tex Tunnicliffe: Ben Sutherland
Ellie Brookes: Emma Williams
Ensemble: Lindsey Lauer, Lizzi Malley, Laura Ann McAlpine, Zara Warren, Matthew Wolfenden
Director: Jonathan Moore
Designer: Conor Murphy
Lighting: Vince Herbert
Sound: Steve Brown
Musical Director: Dane Preece
Choreography: Ann Yee
Assistant musical director: Richard Reedry
2005-07-25 10:11:54