Review by: Paul Towers, 26/02/2020
Curtains by Rupert Holmes with music & lyrics by John
Kander and Fred Ebb
Produced by Dlap Entertainment, director Paul Foster
At Royal & Derngate, Northampton – 25 – 29 February
2020
“a good hearted, undemanding evening of laughter”
Kander & Ebb are best known for such musicals as Chicago,
Cabaret and New York, New York (a favourite of mine) but Curtains is less well
known, probably because it is much more light hearted.
Curtains is set in 1959 Boston. A low budget theatre company
are trying to stage a new musical version of Robin Hood transposed to the Wild
West. When the less than competent leading lady drops dead on stage it turns
out to be only the first of a series of deaths. Enter Lieutenant Frank Cioffi
(Jason Manford in fine voice), a frustrated amateur performer, sent to
investigate what turns out to be a murder.
The show skips back and forth between the rehearsal room and
the stage as the show’s composers (Ote Oduba and Carley Stenson) and the
director (Samuel Holmes) try and whip the songs into some sort of shape. The
show’s producer, Carmen (Rebecca Lock giving Ethel Merman a run for her money
in the belting out a song stakes) is determined the show must go on as she has ploughed
her life savings into it.
Meanwhile Lt Cioffi prowls around interviewing people while
trying to inveigle himself into the show. Several murders later and, in true
Agatha Christie style, the detective explains all the improbabilities and the
culprit is caught.
Kander & Ebb obviously had huge fun with the musical
numbers including What Kind Of Man? which pokes fun at theatre critics and It’s
A Business which faces the harsh implication that show business is a business,
not an art form. A couple of the numbers are deliberately bad to fit in with
the story, which is hilarious and many of the lyrics have some wicked lines in
them which, if you don’t listen carefully, you miss. There is also a lot of
black humour, especially about the actress that drops dead on stage.
Curtains is out on tour after a successful limited run in
the West End and is a good hearted, undemanding evening of laughter and
spectacle from a hard working cast.
Curtains runs til Saturday 29th Feb. Tickets
still available.
Royal & Derngate https://www.royalandderngate.co.uk/
http://ptheatre.blogspot.co.uk/
http://ptheatre.blogspot.co.uk/
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