Priscilla Queen of the Desert - The Musical

DeMontfort Hall in Leicester hosted a mere week of the touring version of the West End hit that is Priscilla Queen of the Desert - The Musical. Judging by the audience reaction this is the ideal show for girls' nights out and hen parties as well as ladies and gentlemen of a certain persuasion.
Right from the minute the curtain rose and Miss Understanding burst out of the curtains to give us her Tina Turner we knew we were in for an evening of raucous fun. Priscilla is much more than a jukebox musical and all the numbers actually pertain to the story. However it is not afraid to mix pathos with potty mouthed humour and exuberant dance routines.
The costumes deserve much more than a mention. With some 500, yes FIVE HUNDRED, costumes you hardly have time to take in the sheer audacity of some of them before the next outrageous creation appears on the stage. The speed of some of the quick changes are amazing. The various frocks are a kaleidoscope of colour, foam, feathers and sequins recreating every one of the remembered outfits from the film and a whole wardrobe of extra designs. To add to the familiarity of the show is the fact that every one of the laugh-out-loud moments from the film has been retained along with even more gags.
I was dubious about how they would tackle the bus, Priscilla herself, in a touring production but it is recreated marvelously and skids around the stage with almost a life of its own.
Altogether this is a camp romp through the sounds of the 80's piggy backed onto a great story of love lost and regained, friendships forged through adversity and small town bigotry overcome.

© Paul Towers 26/2/2014

A Kitchen Nightmare

This romp through the repertoire of TV impressionist Liam Hourican is based on two of his favourite characters, Gordon Ramsey (celebrity chef) and Mick Connor (Irish bareknuckle fighter). The premise is that Mick has decided to travel to England to find that special someone to have lifetime feud with. To this end Hourican reimagines Fight Club as a gay dating experience, complete with an online presence, to find your ideal fight partner.
Add into this mix a catalogue of characters both on stage and on video and you have an hilarious evening of fun. Alongside the expected potty mouthed rantings of Gordon Ramsey there are the unexpected pleasures of the RyanAir spoof, Peter Stringfellow free-running and the gentle sending up of AmDram.
Liam Hourican also effectively rips Ramsey's TV shows to pieces in well acted video segments.
Be aware that this show is not for the easily offended as the producers have yet to find a way to bleep live dialogue!
A Kitchen Nightmare is on again on Tuesday 18th Feb at Upstairs at The Western. Get a ticket if you can

First published in Western Gazette 
© Paul Towers 17/2/2014

Big Daddy vs Giant Haystacks

Saturday afternoon in the late 60's and all eyes were on World of Sport on ITV. Dickie Davis' close cropped moustache would quiver as he announced 'and now Wrestling from Eltham Baths' or some such venue where the swimming pool had been temporarily boarded over for the afternoon. The screen would dim and the theme tune would strike up, a suitable compromise between stadium rock and showbiz razzamatazz. For this is what is it was, a pumped up theatrical experience. We all knew it was staged. Didn't we?
While televised wrestling continued to be the mainstay of the commercial channel's weekend sport output, by the mid 70's the public wanted something extra. The time was ripe for larger than life characters in the ring and they didn't come much bigger than Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks.
Big Daddy started life as Shirley Grabtree and started wrestling in 1952 as a blue-eyed adonis. However he quit the ring in 1966 after one too many fall outs with other wrestlers. Crabtree returned to professional wrestling in 1972 and, two years later, emerged as Big Daddy but it wasn't til 1975 when he teamed up with Giant Haystacks as a tag team that he became a superstar. The pair started to dominate the circuit as the baddies everyone loved to boo. However, by 1977 they had split up acrimoniously and Crabtree reverted to being the goodie in the ring, especially when he was pitted against villianous Haystacks.
Giant Haystacks was born Martin Ruane, began wrestling in 1967 and quickly morphed in Giant Haystacks. Teaming up with Big Daddy cemented his reputation as a heavyweight bully in the ring. When the two dissolved their tag team they became adverseries and often ended up battling each other in Battles of the Giants.
Big Daddy vs Giant Haystacks at Upstairs and The Western is a rumbustious romp through the years of televised professional wrestling pegged on the life of Shirley Crabtree and his family. A myriad of characters flash before your very eyes courtesy of the talented pair of actors, Ross Gurney-Randall and David Mounfield. The various chancers, movers and shakers are portrayed with a minimum of props but an array of accents. Poking fun at the whole charade that is the sport, this play fills in the life of Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks away from the ring with pathos and humour. The laughs start in the first minute and don't let up til the finale.
A great night out for those of us around in the 60's and 70's but an education for the youngsters

First published in Western Gazette 
© Paul Towers 14/2/2014

Double Booked

Double Booked is a pair of very witty monologues which chart the everyday juggling of family life by an harassed mother of two who has to contend with a husband who is away working a lot. Like Shirley Valentine before her, Ruth Rich dreams of something better. Pre-menopause it was Colin Firth complete with wet shirt but now she worships from afar her son's English teacher.
Written and performed by Ginny Davis she has created an everywoman we can all relate to. Think Outnumbered written by Joyce Grenfall and you will have some idea of the beautifully accurate characterisations that populate the quirky situations her heroine finds herself in.
The first half of this double bill chronicles the mayhem caused by a diary mishap as Ruth struggles to contain her fantasies about Pete, the English teacher while trying unsuccessfully not to let her son's best mate's Yummy Mummy lord it over her.
The second of these exquisite tales is the result of her son having misbehaved and only being allowed on a school trip to Marrakech if she chaperones him. This means she has to leave her 17 yr old daughter home alone for the first time and she ends up in North Africa having to share an apartment with the sexually frustrated aforesaid Yummy Mummy like a slightly restrained episode of Ab Fab.
These two plays are the second half of the Ruth Rich saga which Ms Davis tours regularly inbetween playing to sell-out audiences at Edinburgh Festival and the Brighton and Buxton Fringes.
Double Booked is on again on Weds 12 Feb at Upstairs at The Western as part of the Dave Leicester Comedy Festival

First published in Western Gazette 
© Paul Towers 11/2/2014

Upstairs and Funny

The 2014 Dave Leicester Comedy Festival is in full swing and comedy gigs abound around the city. Leicester's newest intimate theatre space, Upstairs At The Western, has a myriad of events on and tonight hosted an hilarious evening featuring three up-and-coming young stand ups, Matt Holmes (also to be seen as compere of Bright Club), Jack Campbell and Dan Nicholas.
Matt Holmes, who I last saw as compere of Bright Club, opened the evening with his own spot. One or two gags were repeated from Saturday but most of his material was, as usual, garnered from the audience. Matt is a past master at making the audience write his material. His hesitant, slightly gauche manner allows him to get away with some very personal digs at his audience members without ever going too far. This guy deserves to end up as TV presenter at the very least. Matt won the DMU Footlights Comedian Of The Year Award in 2011 and is part of the Just The Tonic stable of comedians working around the country. Well worth making an effort to see for his intelligent wit and gentle teasing of the punters.
Jack Campbell is what would, in the Fifties, have been called an Angry Young Man. Having been performing since 2010 Jack is a self assured performer who mixes tales from Uni with his disillusionment with teaching and lacing this with edgy tales of his racist Mother. His blond floppy hair belies his sharp with and his confident style on stage coped well with a misfunctioning microphone which, hilariously, only started to work at the end of his spot.
Dan Nicholas is an enigma. Described as 'borderline psychotic' by Birmingham Comedy Festival (and I wouldn't argue with that), his edgy stage persona has more than a nod to Emo Phillips' demented physical posturing. Add to that an immensely brave use of Pinter-esque silences and you have a dangerous comedian who keeps you on the edge of your seat waiting for the next outrageous non sequitur. His surreality is always funny and often uncomfortable, staying just this side of tasteless. Usually.

First published in Western Gazette 
© Paul Towers 10/2/2014

Bright Club

The start of the Dave Leicester Comedy Festival got off to a start at Upstairs at The Western on Saturday 8th February with Bright Club

Bright Club is an interesting concept. Give a selection of University researchers and students some stand up training and then let them loose on a stage for 8 minutes each before a paying audience. The idea is a couple of hours of intellectual verbal hilarity. Overall the material was quite good but needed editing and, of course, the delivery was far from slick. However, given the fact that it was their first time on a professional stage, it went well.
As with all comedy club bills the standard was a little uneven. Probably the best of the bunch was Thom Corah (now there's a good Leicester name!) whose opening segment on his penis was worth the ticket price. David Gleave, and air crash investigator, had his work cut out trying to make a gruesome subject funny. Only one act, Richard Fletcher, took notes onstage with him and the other while John Arnold had a nice bag of props to get added laughs. The rest of the group were pretty forgettable, to be honest.
All of the acts, except Aoife Finneran who rambled on about her friends and their love lives, suffered from performance issues. They all sounded like lectures or presentations that had got laughs levered into them. Although this was to be expected when their remit was to take their work subjects and wring comedy out of them.
The whole evening was held together admirably by compere Matt Holmes with his winning way with an audience and was wound up by standup Ahir Shah, currently touring comedy clubs around the country.
Don't go to this expecting Comedy Store slickness. But do expect an evening of laughter from unexpected subjects.

First published in Western Gazette 
© Paul Towers 8/2/2014

Chicago

My last theatre visit of the year was to see Chicago at Curve. Walking through Leicester's Cultural Quarter I followed the click clack of foldable walking sticks and the excited squeals of parties of drama students escaping classes for the afternoon.
Settling in my seat right at the back of the stalls I had a great view of the stage. In fact there aren't any 'restricted view' seats at Curve. As we shed our coats and arranged ourselves for the entertainment ambient noise of Chicago's 1920's streets buzzed through the auditorium. Right on time the lights dimmed, the overture was struck up and we prepared ourselves for All That Jazz.
The first thing to notice about Paul Kerryson's production is the colour. Ever since Bob Fosse revived the show in 1975 with his iconic choreography, staging and costumes every subsequent production has copied him. Curve strips it back and starts pretty much from scratch. So out went the black leotards and gothic chiffon and in comes flapper dresses and lots of sparkle imaginatively created by takis who obviously venerates Jean Paul Gaultier; out goes that angular choreography and in comes balletic movements that owe more to Mathew Bourne; out goes the sparse cellblock scenery and in comes a whole raft of clever staging making full use of Curve's lighting capabilities and full height flies for back drops.
The cast, led by Verity Rushworth proving that ex-soap actresses are wasted on TV, and Gemma Sutton, a musical theatre veteran, are a fine assortment of leggy girls and pretty boys who populate the story with a myriad of characters.
I have seen Chicago a couple of times before and it has always seemed to me to be only one step away from a juke-box musical show. Curve's production has, like the film, opened the story up more and made it visually much more exciting. I would be surprised to find it nominated for awards like Gypsy and Hello Dolly before it.
The second half of the show ramps up the switching between fantasy and 'fact' and the entire proceedings, reflecting the surreal manner of the action, becomes a circus and is suitably costumed. This provides a finale which is suitably colourful and outrageous.
Last plaudits must go to the on-stage orchestra who, nestled behind their own mini-proscenium arch, are the backbone of the performance.

© Paul Towers 11/12/2013