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Stars explained: * A production of no real merit
with failings in all areas. ** A production showing evidence of not
enough time or effort, or even talent, and which never breathes any real
life into the piece – or a show lumbered with a terrible script. *** A
good enjoyable show which might have some small flaws but has largely
achieved what it set out to do.**** An excellent show which shows a
great deal of work and stage craft with no noticeable or major
flaws.***** A four star show which has found that extra bit of magic
which lifts theatre to another plane. |
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A fine choice for a night out
Making a choice: Paul Viles (Henry Horatio Hobson), Amy Parr (Alice Hobson), Laura Nock (Vickey Hobson), Gary Pritchard (Will Mossop), Liz Webster (Maggie Hobson) Hobson's Choice The Grange Players Grange Playhouse, Walsall ***** NEARLY a quarter of a century after
playing Henry Horatio Hobson for this talented amateur company, veteran
actor Paul Viles has returned from retirement as an actor to do it
again. And with style. It's a great part in Harold Brighouse's classic
Lancashire comedy about the wealthy but grumpy owner of a Salford
hand-made boot and shoe shop, and he fills the boots with consummate
ease. Even so the excellent Viles is upstaged by Liz
Webster, the hard-drinking businessman's eldest daughter, Maggie, brains
behind the shop's success and who, at 30, is considered an old maid by
her father and out of the marriage market. Liz is a real delight, with a range of wonderful
expressions, as she stuns Hobson and her snooty younger sisters by
announcing that she will marry the apparently gormless Will Mossop,
the shy cellar-based bootmaker whose skill attracts quality customers. Horrified Henry takes his belt to worried Will in
his fury, but Maggie knows her man's worth, sets up a rival shoe shop
which soon relieve's Hobson of many of his prized customers. Mossop, beautifully played by Gary Pritchard, is
at first terrified by the prospect of getting wed to the boss's clever
daughter, but she transforms him in more ways than one, and eventually,
cleverly guided by the masterful Maggie, he takes over the
long-established business and re-names it 'Mossop & Hobson'. Paul Viles reprising the role of Henry Hobson he last played almost 25 years go with his old maid of a daughter Maggie played by Liz Webster who shines like the finest shoes in the shop Fine performances, too, from Amy Parr and Laura
Nock as Maggie's sisters Alice and Vickey, while Robert Onions, who
played Mossop in 1989, returns as Tubby Wadlow, another of Hobson's
underpaid workers. Alice and Vickey are being courted by young
solicitor Albert Prosser (Dexter Whitehead) and local businessman Fred
Beenstock (Liam Matthews-Dibbins), but as Hobson hates lawyers that
causes yet another upset. Especially when, after another session in the
Moonrakers (his local) the drunken Henry falls through an open cellar
door into Beenstock's premises on his way home and is promptly sued for
trespass. Viles sparkles in his numerous clashes with
family and would-be sons-in-law, and is then involved in amusing
exchanges with Dr MacFarlane (David Stone) after being warned that his
illness is caused by his heavy drinking which could kill him unless he
gives up the booze he loves. Somehow it all comes right in the end, thanks to
the marvellous Maggie, and a by now super confident Will who exclaims as
he surveys his new empire: "Bah Gum". A fine cast is completed by Rosemary Manjunath (Mrs
Hepworth), Chris Waters (Jim Heeler) and Sarah Richards (Ada Figgins). The costumes used by the cast - particularly the
ladies' dresses - are excellent, and full marks to the producer and
director Martin Groves who also designed the three impressive
sets....the interior of Hobson's shop, his living room, and Will
Mossop's shop, all well constructed and realistic. A classic play brilliantly performed. One of the
great moments comes when the innocent and nervous Mossop, unsure of his
other skills on his wedding night, is led into the bedroom by Maggie
who, already in her nightie, grasps him by the ear and marches him to
his destiny. To 17-03-12. Paul Marston |
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