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A warm,
funny kind of Madness
Our House
– it must be love Belgrade
Theatre, Coventry ****
THIS musical has it all and generous dollops
at that. The songs are Madness favourites including
Wings of a Dove, House of Fun, Baggy Trousers,
Our House and more. It is
exuberant, busy, lively and basically FUN! Add dancing, amazing
musicianship that Madness would salute, a versatile set, a company full
of life and energy, and even then I'm not doing it justice. Madness as a band were at
their height in the late 70s and 80s with hit after hit influenced by a
range of styles including Ska, punk but with wonderful lyrics that lend
themselves to a musical interpretation. Their warm ‘norf lunnon' glottal
stops permeate the action. The story revolves around
16-year-old Joe Casey (Alexis Gerred), born at ‘our house' 25 Casey
Street, to mum Kath (Rebecca Bainbridge) and absent father. On the cusp
of manhood, the choices he makes on that night seal his fate for the
rest of his life. Like ‘Sliding Doors', the
choices are played out with on-stage guidance from narrator dad (Sean
Needham). The costume changes alone are
in the Guinness Book of Records! Joe's ‘white' choices, the right
choices, lead down a gloomy, dark path which looks initially as though
his ‘right' choices were the wrong choices for him. His ‘easy street',
black as night choices, gain him a fancy motor, penthouse flat but even
at the start lose him his girl, Sarah (Daniella Bowen), his friends
Lewis (Alex Spinney) and Emmo (James Haggie) and ultimately his home and
family – ironically he wasn't quite bad enough to save them. My favourite scene was with
‘good' Joe spoiling his Sarah on her birthday to the taunts of the OMG
brigade Billie (Natasha Lewis) and Angie (Dominique Planter). He has £80
from his ‘marketing' job and buys a clapped-out Morris Minor in
hand-painted scarlet. What a car! But, predictably, it's a lemon. But
it's always great to see a car on stage. Also it's always great to see
musicians on stage – and everyone in the company seemed to be able to
play trumpet or saxophone – very impressive. Written by Tim Firth (Calendar
Girls) and Madness, and directed by Peter owe, all in all, this is a
great show – great family fun with so much to recommend it. On the first
night, the audience were up and dancing and there were a few mad Madness
outfits to be seen. Great stuff indeed. To 02-11-13 Jane Howard
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