Relatively Crazy

AWFUL AUNTIE

Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton, Thursday 28^th March, 2024

Crass comedian David Walliams has carved out a hugely successful second career as an author of children’s books.  Very much in the same vein as Roald Dahl’s work, the stories often feature a decent child among grotesque adults.  This one has young Stella imprisoned by Aunt Alberta, who is plotting to rob the child of her inheritance.  What sets this one apart from other Walliams books is it’s not set in the present day.  It’s old-fashioned, taking its cues from say, a Frances Hodgson Burnett or a Philippa Pearce et al.

Adapted for the Birmingham Stage Company by director Neal Foster, the action is set entirely in the gothic mansion at stake.  As usual, the production values and the theatricality are top drawer – invariably I find these BSC versions more palatable than the books!   Foster also appears in the title role, playing Alberta larger-than-life and then some!  A truly monstrous figure as ridiculous as she is cruel.  Foster inhabits the role with gusto, keeping on the right side of the Monty Python method of female impersonation, which would be terribly grating sustained for two hours.

Our heroine Stella is portrayed by Annie Cordoni, whose youthful energy brings out the character’s duality: Stella is on the brink of her teenage years, so in some ways she is mature and capable, in others she is still prone to emotional outbursts.  Cordoni keeps Stella’s resilience and self-reliance to the fore, as she is forced to overcome her childish fears and take direct action to save her skin.

Imprisoned in the coal cellar, Stella befriends a ghost in the form of young chimney sweep Soot (a likeable Matthew Allen) and the pair work together to overthrow the tyrannical Alberta.  Soot has a nice line in Cockney rhyming slang, a contrast to posho Stella’s plummier tones.  The representation of class is old school, but at least by the end Stella learns to not be so much of a snob.

Adding humour to proceedings is Zain Abrahams as Gibbon, the deaf and dotty butler.  Adding menace is a beautiful puppet owl called Wagner (operated by Emily Essery).  Puppets also feature in action scenes, as though in long shot.  Foster’s direction blends these ‘zoom outs’ seamlessly, while Jacqueline Trousdale’s set slides on and off or rotates to take us to various locations in and outside of the mansion.

Composer Jak Poore’s music contains plenty of crashing chords to highlight the melodramatic aspects of the story, and to intensify the suspense.

Yes, it’s all over-the top.  Yes, the moral message seems bolted on at the end, but it all makes for a funny, gripping, comedy-thriller with something to entertain every member of the family. 

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

A real hoot: Emily Essery gives a hand to Wagner the owl while Aunt Alberta (Neal Foster) is mother.

Mental Dental

DEMON DENTIST

Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, Wednesday 26^th October, 2022

Hot on the heels of Gangsta Granny, Awful Auntie, and Billionaire Boy, comes this latest stage adaptation of a David Walliams novel.  Demon Dentist is in similar vein, with all the Roald Dahl-esque features we have come to expect, but with this story there is an extra frisson of horror.  Of course, bung ‘dentist’ into the title, and you’ve got a head start when it comes to frightening people!

The story begins with the Tooth Fairy leaving horrible things under kids’ pillows.  Instead of shiny coins, they find dogs’ tails, dead mice, squashed toads.  Then a new dentist comes to town, offering ‘special’ toothpaste and sugar-free sweets… and the mystery deepens.  It falls to 12 year-old, dentist-phobic Alfie and his friend-who-is-a-girl Gabz to investigate.

Leading this excellent ensemble is Sam Varley, who is instantly appealing as big-hearted, bad-toothed Alfie; I’m convinced he is genuinely a schoolboy claiming to be a much older actor rather than the other way around! And when he sings, it’s spine-tinglingly good.  Alfie is a carer for his dad (James Mitchell) who is debilitated by a case of black lung from his time as a coal miner.  Their relationship is the emotional heart of the play, and the two of them tug at your heartstrings.

Georgia Grant-Anderson is great fun as Gabz, while Misha Malcolm’s social worker Winnie navigates the fine line between broad comedy and touching drama.  Extra comedy is added by Zain Abrahams as newsagent Raj (a recurring character in these stories) and Ben Eagle as PC Plank.  There is also strong support from Aaron Patel and Mia Overfield in a range of smaller roles.

Emily Harrigan really gets her teeth into the role of Miss Root the evil dentist , like Cruella de Vil taking on NHS patients.  A proper, scary villain, Harrigan belts out songs one minute, makes malicious threats the next, all the while looking fabulous.  Here the humour is at its darkest and most delicious.

Neal Foster’s direction keeps things moving.  There’s a lot of fast-moving action, plenty of fart jokes, and some effective moments of suspense and surprise, but it’s the emotional beats that kick you in the teeth.  This play really does have something for everyone.  Listening to the children in the audience alternate between screams of laughter and screams of, well, screams, adds to the gruesome, silly fun.  It’s a perfect family treat for Halloween and the Birmingham Stage Company have yet another hit on their hands.

You won’t be needing nitrous oxide for this show to make you laugh.

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Sam Varney (under the cat), Emily Harrigan, Georgia Grant-Anderson, and Misha Malcolm

Dress To Impress

THE BOY IN THE DRESS

Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford upon Avon, Monday 16^th December 2019

 

I have seen quite a few stage adaptations of David Walliams’s bestselling children’s books, ranging from rather good to brilliant.  This musical one, with script by Mark Ravenhill, lyrics by Guy Chambers, and music by none other than Robbie Williams, is the RSC’s bid to match the success of its Roald Dahl-meets-Tim-Minchin megahit, Matilda (which is still running in the West End a decade later).

This is the story of Dennis Sims, who feels different in a world of ordinary people.  His mum has walked out, leaving Dennis with his older brother John, and their Dad, who can’t cope, handle emotion, or serve proper meals.  Everything changes when Dennis is irresistibly drawn to a copy of Vogue magazine at the local newsagent’s; he teams up with local stunner Lisa James and before long he’s venturing out, dragged up as a French exchange student, complete with wig, beret, and a gorgeous orange sequinned dress.  Controversy is not far behind, jeopardising Dennis’s education and (seemingly more importantly) his place on the football team.

Playing Dennis tonight is the stunningly magnificent Oliver Crouch, who sings like an angel (not a cue for an old Robbie track), shows impressive range as an actor (I’m in tears ten minutes in) and whose dancing would have the Strictly judges adding extra zeroes to their ’10’ paddles.  Honestly, I have never seen a better performance from a child star, and Crouch continues to amaze as the show goes on.  A stellar, heartfelt and funny performance.  He will knock your frocks off.

The second time I well up with tears is when Dennis puts on the orange dress for the first time.  It is a moment of revelation, transformation and self-acceptance, building to an all-out discoball drag number that is absolutely joyous.

Rufus Hound pitches the depressed Dad perfectly – the third time the tears are wrung from me is his eventual acceptance of his remarkable son.  Natasha Lewis is an absolute hoot as Darvesh’s embarrassing mother, and Irvine Iqbal is a real treat as newsagent Raj (a character who features in every David Walliams book I’ve come across).  Max Gill’s Big Mac is a study in infatuated schoolboy nervousness, while Alfie Jukes finds a balance between oafishness and affection as Dennis’s big brother John.  Asha Banks shines as schoolgirl stunna Lisa James, and the mighty Forbes Masson storms it as the gleefully hateful headmaster Mr Hawtrey (the characters share surnames with Carry On actors).

The score is marvellous, catchy and tuneful, and is Williams’s best work.  Take that, Gary Barlow!  Ravenhill’s adaptation brings the book to life, with tweaks rather than changes, adding topical references to update the action to today.  Robert Jones’s design maintains a colour palette restricted to mainly greys and blues (so that Dennis’s orange dress really ‘pops’) and the set consists of movable houses that open up to provide interiors, wheeled around by the cast.  Gregory Doran’s direction delivers all the emotion and humour of the story – the football matches, for example, are inventively and hilariously staged.

It’s a joy from start to finish, tickling your funny bone and tugging at your heartstrings, and it makes me think how bloody daft it is that we impose gender norms on the way people dress.  “Everyone should be able to wear what they want,” asserts Lisa James.  You go, girl!

A great story, brilliantly presented, that looks like it could match Matilda for longevity – it certainly deserves too.  And Oliver Crouch must have a glittering career ahead of him, and I don’t necessarily mean on RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Masterful: Forbes Masson as Mr Hawtrey. Photo by Manuel Harlan (c) RSC copyright

 

 

Funny Money

BILLIONAIRE BOY The Musical 

Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, Wednesday 20^th February, 2019

 

The children’s books of David Walliams have filled the gap left by Roald Dahl.  They are child-centred stories, with outlandish events and grotesque characters – usually the adults, save for one or two sympathetically presented ones.  Billionaire Boy the Musical  fits this mould exactly, telling the story of young Joe Spud, son of toilet-paper innovator Len, one of the richest men in the world.  For all his riches, Joe is unhappy.  He wants friends and so opts to go to the local comprehensive to make some.  It’s not long, of course, before his money gets in the way.

As Joe, Ryan Heenan is an appealing figure, boyish and with a superb singing voice that suits the rock and pop sensibilities of the score.  The songs (by Miranda Cooper and Nick Coler, with lyrics by Jon Brittain) are without exception catchy, with witty lyrics and in a range of styles.  Dean Nolan is great as the crass nouveau riche Len but seems to have the most fun as a disgusting dinner lady (imagine Matilda’s Miss Trunchbull let loose in a school kitchen!) Bringing out Len’s paternal side is the mighty Sophia Nomvete as Gwen, the Mum of Joe’s new friend Bob.  Nomvete has remarkable presence, whether she’s narrating, playing Gwen, or a more exaggerated character like the school teacher.

Lem Knights is great fun as Bob, bringing physical humour and also sensitivity to the role, while Eleanor Kane’s Lauren is cute and energetic without being too girly.  Jared Leathwood and Natalie Morgan gurn and growl as school bullies, the Grubbs. (Cast members also play musical instruments, augmenting the upstage band)

Special mention to Avita Jay, doubling as Len’s gold-digging model girlfriend Sapphire Stone and as shopkeeper Raj (a staple of Walliams’s books) working the audience and doing a lot of the frame-breaking.  This is a show that establishes a rapport with the audience without going full-on panto.  We are included in everything and somehow the overt theatricality of the piece draws us in rather than alienating us in a Brechtian fashion.

It’s a funny and engaging production.  Director Luke Sheppard keeps everything lively so when the moments of pathos come, they are all the more touching.  There’s a wealth of talent at work here in a show rich with comedy, infectious tunes and a moral, which is perhaps obvious but is not hammered home.

Working with Nuffield Southampton Theatres, the Belgrade has struck it rich with this vibrant new musical.  I loved every minute.

Golden boys Ryan Heenan as Joe and Lem Knights as Bob (Photo: Manuel Harlan)

Nasty and Niece

AWFUL AUNTIE

Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton, Wednesday 26^th September, 2018

 

Birmingham Stage Company is back, following up the success of Gangsta Granny with a second alliterative title from comic actor-turned-children’s-author, David Walliams.  Walliams appears to have appointed himself the successor to Roald Dahl and his work bears many similarities to Dahl’s classic novels for children.  Chiefly, Walliams doesn’t sugar coat any aspect of his stories, populates the tales with grotesques, and places a wise child at the heart of them.  Adaptor-director Neal Foster captures the Walliams spirit superbly well, rendering the action in imaginative, theatrical ways.

This one is a grim (Grimm) melodrama that is positively Victorian in its sensationalism.  The titular aunt – Agatha Saxby – is monstrously cruel to her recently orphaned niece.  The title deeds of rambling manor Saxby Hall are at stake.  Richard James is enormous fun as this squawking villain, stomping around in plus fours and a ginger wig.  His sidekick, Wagner, is an imposing owl – and a beautiful piece of puppetry performed by Roberta Bellekom.

Georgina Leonidas instantly gains our sympathy as plucky, long-suffering heroine, 12-year-old Stella, who finds an ally in the form of friendly ghost, Soot (the likeable Ashley Cousins) a chimney sweep’s boy who came to a sticky end on the job.  The pair uncover the true extent of Auntie’s abominable activities as they clamber up and over Jacqueline Trousdale’s revolving set pieces.  The gothic events are offset by the humorous appearances of dotty retainer, Gibbon, in a hilarious turn by Harry Sutherland.

Jak Poore’s original score adds to the urgency of the action and the melodramatic atmosphere of the whole.  It may lack the warmth of Gangsta Granny, but there is plenty here to enjoy as Stella endures tribulation and trials, and Auntie gets her comeuppance in a satisfactory turn of events.

Darkly delicious with a generous helping of toilet humour and gross-out moments, Awful Auntie is awesome entertainment for the whole family.

Georgina Leonidas and Ashley Cousins try to twoc their way out of trouble (Photo: Mark Douet)

Grab This Granny

GANGSTA GRANNY

Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, Tuesday 16^th February, 2016

 

Every Friday night while his parents go ballroom dancing, young Ben (Ashley Cousins) has to stay with his granny. He resents this arrangement, finding the old woman boring and smelling of the cabbage that is ubiquitous in her cuisine. In order to keep the boy on side, Granny (a lonely old woman, neglected by her son and his wife) tells Ben exciting stories of her former life as an international jewel thief. Ben is hooked. He plans the biggest heist of the lot (the theft of the crown jewels) as Granny’s comeback and swan song… but has the old girl been telling the truth?

Adapted from David Walliams’s popular children’s novel, this is a cracker of a show, crammed with things to amuse audience members of all ages. There is some delightful comic playing: Ben’s mum and dad (Laura Girling and Benedict Martin) aren’t quite in the Roald Dahl league of monstrous parents, but they flit around, selfish in their sambas, and tyrannical in their tangos. Alison Fitzjohn supports as a range of characters – her assertive Matron gets a lot of laughs – and Richard James’s Teacher and Policemen are also indicative of the versatility of the players. As Strictly-type personality Flavio, Umar Malik almost steals the show, prancing and posturing around. The cast also change the scenery – Jacqueline Trousdale’s ingenious set opens up and turns around to create a wide range of settings – and they dance their way through the transitions, keeping the mood elevated. Jak Poore’s superlative score combines heist movie suspense with ballroom rhythms and flair – irresistible.

But the show is all about the relationship between a boy and his gran. Ashley Cousins is a likeable narrator, bouncing with boyish energy and Gran (played in this performance by Louise Bailey) is full of surprises as much as flatulence, keeping to the right side of grotesque. Beneath the comedy and the adventure runs an undercurrent of loneliness and an admonition to us all to get to know the elderly before it’s too late.

Director and adaptor Neil Foster delivers high quality entertainment for all the family, balancing Walliams’s toilet humour and heart perfectly. Gangsta Granny is a funny, touching and salutary story, performed here with exuberance, great warmth and panache.

 

 

Not Quite Up To Scratch

Mr. Stink

Nottingham Playhouse, Tuesday 16^th August, 2011

 

The stage adaptation of a children’s novel by Little Britain’s David Walliams has, like the book, more than a whiff of Roald Dahl about it. The book’s illustrations and the show’s publicity materials boast artwork by Dahl’s distinctive illustrator, Quentin Blake, and on first glance, the story has many Dahlian aspects, but I came away not with a smell in my nose, but with a taste in my mouth – as when one bites into a pie that is all pastry and no filling.

 

A story which centres on the relationship between a lonely 12 year old girl and a homeless man, Mr Stink throws up a few questions, some of them about our society, but there is something questionable about its central message: encouraging children to befriend a tramp who will then sort out your family’s woes.  The eponymous tramp in this case is a well-spoken, ingratiating fellow, with vowels as rounded as his belly – there is no sign of super strength lager, drug addiction, mental illness or CRB check about him.  He confronts his new friend’s bully with stern words and a belch in the face.  He takes a bath in her mother’s ornamental pond.  He is as full of fun as he is of fleas.   Our heroine, Chloe, also has a friendship with the local newsagent, whose jokes are as out-of-date as the range of confectionery he purveys.  I am worried about Chloe.

 

Chloe’s mother has pretensions of being elected as a right wing candidate in the local elections.  Here the show touches on topical themes, caricaturising a certain type of middle class, Little Englander (as opposed to Little Britain). Rest assured she gets her come-uppance:  after an embarrassing appearance on Question Time, her character does a volte face and resolves to be a better wife and mother.

 

With order restored, Mr Stink, like Shane in the old western, bids farewell.  The show is in danger of lurching into sentimentalism at this point but because the characters are so broadly drawn and the emotions on the surface, it doesn’t quite get there.  And that is the problem with the show as a whole. It doesn’t quite get there.  “What are you laughing at?” asks the Duchess, Mr Stink’s puppet dog, to someone on the front row.  No one in the auditorium had made a sound.   More laughs are needed, especially in the first half – we are not revolted enough by Mr Stink neither is he all that endearing.  It is as though the script has been sanitised by an overkill of Oust!  The scratch-and-sniff booklet, in lieu of a programme, is good fun, an effective gimmick in a show poor in jokes and slapstick.  The children in the audience watched and listened, seizing on the rare instances of physical comedy.  It was the business of scratching off each new smell that gave rise to the biggest reactions.  The whole show should have been that much fun.

 

 

The cast works hard, with puppets to handle and multiple characters to portray, and their energy keeps things moving along.  The songs tend to slow things down again but the transforming doll-house style set and the lively characterisations make this a watchable, if ultimately bland, production.