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Singin’ in the Rain
Birmingham Hippodrome
***** SHOWS don’t come much better than this
when you are looking for sheer entertainment. Based on the 1952 film this is a production awash
with catchy, familiar songs, great dancing and choreography, a 10 strong
live band, a decent storyline and that all important, iconic dance to
the title song in a raining cats and dogs Hollywood downpour. There is even an encore with the
Ballet-trained James Leece, a West End star who
has worked a lot with Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, is just superb as
Don Lockwood, the silent movie star, played by Gene Kelly in the film,
who falls for struggling actress Kathy Selden, played by another West
End regular Amy Ellen Richardson who can not only act and dance but has
a beautiful singing voice as well.
When it comes to voices though that prize has go
to former Steps star Faye Tozer as Don’s bimbo co-star Lina
Lamont. Tozer produces a voice that could crack anvils at 50 yards and
when she sang even deaf men cringed. To sing that badly is a difficult
task unless you are completely tone deaf, and she certainly isn’t – just
listen to her with Russell Watson on Someone Like You – but she
managed it magnificently. Her solo, What’s Wrong With Me, was
truly, gloriously dreadful. One of the best worst performances you are
ever likely to see or hear. . . if you see what I mean. She believes all the hype and studio publicity
about Don and Lina being off-screen as well as on-screen lovers while
Don knows it for what it is, spin, and falls for Kathy, a struggling
actress who saves him, unwittingly, from a mob of fans. And flitting around the trio is Stephane Anelli
as Cosmo Brown, Don’s sidekick from vaudeville days and now the studio
pianist. This was a role that won Donald O’Connor a best supporting
actor at the Golden Globes and Anelli provides tremendous support here. There is also good support from Maxwell Caulfield
a Miss Dinsmore, the dialogue coach played by
Jacqueline Clarke would probably agree, with Clarke also playing the
Louella Parsons style radio show host Dora Bailey. The original film depended upon screenings of the
movie that was being made by Monumental Pictures which are integral to
the plot so those scenes are faithfully recreated with flickering, soft
focus, 1927 style images on a huge screen.
The takes are funny and all add to the action and storyline as the useless Lina threatens to end Kathy's career before it is started by forcing her to work as her voice double. A dastardly plot is foiled by Don and Cosmo so everyone can live happily ever after - except Lina of course. But as she got cheers at the end she didn't do to badly out of it. First and foremost though this is a song and
dance show, with the original directed, choreographed and starring Gene
Kelly and this production doesn’t forget it with plenty of routines that
would be at home in MGM’s finest. Cosmo excelled with Make ‘em laugh
and there was a fine trio with Cosmo, Don and the dialect coach
played by Luke Dowling for Moses Supposes. Kathy’s You are my lucky star was cut from
the original film but restored on DVD releases and is retained in the
show, to give her a lovely solo. There are familiar songs such as
Good Morning and the Kathy and Don duet You Were Meant For Me
as well as out and out dance numbers such as Broadway Ballet with
Jenny Legg as the seductive Broadway ballet girl. There is nothing like a live band and the
10-piece tucked in on a shelf above the studio gates at the back of
Simon Higlet’s excellent set, put in a phenomenal shift under
musical director John Donovan. Ten is big by modern touring numbers and
it shows with a big sound while Andrew Wright’s choreography is a
delight harking back to those glorious MGM musicals of the 1940s and 50s
along with some contemporary Costumes look authentic – although what wardrobe
will do with 28 sodden costumes after each performance hardly bears
thinking about, it’s either banks of tumble driers or maybe washing
lines strung out across Thorp Street like a scene from Call the
Midwife.
Tim Mitchell’s lighting is effective and clever,
adding to the show and it is all pulled together by director Jonathan
Church who keeps things moving at a cracking pace; a 90 minute first act
is a long time but it just seemed to fly by. Touring shows often have to make compromises but
this brings West End production values out on the road with a cracking
show and four leads who really demonstrate what musical theatre and
particularly musical comedy at its best is all about. And as for that downpour? It seems 12,000 litres
of water pour down from a bank of sprinklers every show. That’s 2,640
gallons in old money, 15.7 cubic yards of the stuff, and as a spectacle
it is worth every drop – and the first four rows or so get their own
personal drops to take home with them. This is far more than a mere
tribute to a 64 year old film, it is a tremendous, elegant show full of
life and fun in its own right - a standing ovation at the end says all
you need to know. To 05-04-14. Roger Clarke
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entire
cast splashing about in a finale Singin' in the rain routine
which probably leaves the first four rows as wet as the cast – this is
no show for wimps, on or off the stage.
s
studio boss R F Simpson and the Emmerdale, Casualty and Dynasty star
gave us his best Howard Hughes movie mogul to look and sound the part
while Paul Grunert gave us the increasingly frustrated director Roscoe
Dexter, losing hair tuft by tuft as he realised that the microphone
probably had a higher IQ than his star Lina.
touches. It is imaginative and sparkling from beginning to end.