Posted by Alan Hakim on January 18, 2012 at 06:12:10 user awhakim.
In Reply to: Re: A not so good review of the musical posted by Alan Hakim on January 08, 2012 at 09:05:33:
Well, I went to the Chichester performance last night, and it was excellent. The actors, though full-grown, gave a complete impression of being children. As for the 'band', these six people, mostly dressed in grey overalls and cloth caps, not only played a huge variety of musical instruments (sometimes two at once) but moved the props, represented the water of the lake and the wind in the boats' sails, and also took all the supplementary acting parts. A tour de force.
This was the first night at Chichester. It got a most enthusiastic reception, with many young people in the audience, and though the theatre was only about half full, that is the equivalent of full house at the Vaudeville Theatre where it played in London until last week. Both performances on Saturday are sold out, and nearly full for Friday.
There was, unavoidably, a certain amount of rearrangement of the story, but the basics were all there. The general consensus about the Sunday Telegraph reviewer is that he lacked imagination. If you have some, you'll love the show.
I was delighted to find Geraint and Helen Lewis there. They had come all the way from Durham (about 350 miles, a long way even by American or Australian standards) to bring the AR Trust display boards which were prominent in the foyer. They had already seen the Bristol and London productions on ordinary proscenium stages, and recognised the cast had had to make a lot of adjustments for the thrust stage - particularly to avoid sailing over the edge. But it all worked magnificently.