SONG OF SINGAPORE. To 7 July.
Bolton
SONG OF SINGAPORE
by Allan Katz, Erik Frandsen, Michael Garin, Robert Hipkens, Paula Lockheart
Octagon Theatre To 7 July 2007
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat 27, 30 June, 4, 7 July 2pm
Audio-described 4 July 7.30pm
BSL Signed 5 July
Runs 2hr One interval
TICKETS: 01204 520661
www.octagonbolton.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 16 June
Never mind the plot, just tap the toes.
This isn’t a great musical. It’s not long, nor is it epic. It doesn’t tread new ground, nor explore anything in depth. Its songs aren’t memorable, either as music or lyrics. The story barely exists. No, this is by no means a great musical.
But, expertly served up by director Mark Babych at the Octagon, it’s a tuneful, good-humoured delight. Set in Freddie S Lyme’s Singapore night-club in 1942, it offers a motley crew of ex-pats playing singing and introducing themselves as the Japanese grip grows ever-nearer.
There’s a story of sorts lying around. It involves missing jewels, a corrupt police-chief and is altogether a fishy tale that never hooks the audience, though some of them get to eat the evidence. Not that anyone’s likely to be bothered, even when it’s announced one song will advance the plot.
Song of Singapore was devised by its original cast and is, as Musical Director Howard Gray notes, more cabaret than musical. The two women come nearest to some kind of character, Emily Price’s smilingly acquisitive Chah-Li singing and dancing beautifully, while Ruth Alexander-Rubin doffs the hair-colour from last year’s Blonde Bombshells of 1943, stepping back a year and across half a war-torn world as the amnesiac singer who gets led down a memory-trail to her improbable identity (though it’s one that’s highly useful as the band seeks airborne escape from the advancing enemy).
Hers is a fine performance in an expert company. Among others, the Octagon’s induced Andrew Schofield to come inland from Merseyside and Nick Lashbrook to cut-away from Bob Carlton’s cut to the chase company of actor-musicians at Hornchurch Queen’s. Matt Devereaux creates one of the few dramatic moments as the Inspector who calls on the club, while Christopher Fry dies an extravagant death stabbed in the back with multiple swords and daggers.
Add Richard Foxton’s colourful set, with its side-stage bar for moments when a bit more space is needed than the main bandstand setting provides, bathed in the colourful swathes of Jason Osterman’s lighting, plus Beverley Edmunds’ smooth choreography and here’s a warm summer season’s-end that’s unadulterated fun.
Bo-Tay Mend: Tayo Akinbode
Rose: Ruth Alexander-Rubin
Inspector Kurland/Noonan/Pilot: Matt Devereaux
Bones: Mysterious Man: Christopher Fry
Chah-Li: Emily Grace
Freddie S Lyme: Howard Gray
Hans van der Last: Nick Lashbrook
Spike Spaulden: Andrew Schofield
Mr K: Francis Tucker
Director: Mark Babych
Designer: Richard Foxton
Lighting: Jason Osterman
Sound: Andy Smith
Musical Director: Howard Gray
Choreographer: Beverley Edmunds
2007-06-20 07:19:21