WITH A LITTLE BIT OF LUCK (Songs, Monologues, Music of Stanley Holloway)
WITH A LITTLE BIT OF LUCK: Dave Sealey.
Touring.
Runs: 2h 10m, one interval.
For information go to www.perrottsfolly.com/DaveSealey.html.
Reviewed at the Old Joint Stock in Birmingham: Rod Dungate, 12 September 2007.
A truly delightful show – and more.
For those who aren’t aware of Stanley Holloway – he was an accomplished comedian and singer, famous in his time for performing monologues. He started his career in the 1910s and it ended in the 1970s.
There’s a big dollop of nostalgia about Sealey’s show, and that’s a pleasure in itself. I was whizzed back to my tiny-hood as I heard again Brown Boots, or My Word You Do Look Queer . . . and particularly the catchy song about the beheaded Anne Boleyn, With Her Head Stuck Underneath Her Arm – which I must confess to having precociously sung as a child. He recreates for us some of the monologues about the recalcitrant soldier Sam Small. At appropriate moments audience members automatically join in with choruses – it’s that sort of friendly show.
But more than this, Sealey has created an informative tribute to this great performer. I had completely forgotten the sheer scope of Holloway’s work. There are the Ealing Comedies, the reviews, his work with Olivier – Beggar’s Opera, Bottom in the Dream, Gravedigger in Hamlet. Many of us will know his Doolittle performance in the film My Fair Lady – it’s remarkable to learn that when he opened in the stage musical in the US he was 66.
Sealey has an easy-going manner and builds a warm relationship with his audience. He slips in and out of Holloway’s persona with the simple aid of a pair of specs. He easefully adopts the trade-mark Holloway working-man accents and a strange thing happens . . . you are no longer listening to charming songs from the past, but to works that are vital parts of our performance and social heritage.
Yes, he also does Get Me To The Church and, of course, With a Little Bit of Luck.
Devised and Performed by Dave Sealey.
2007-09-13 10:17:09