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

The King is not Dead

THIS IS ELVIS

New Alexandra Theatre, Monday 19^th March, 2018

 

This new musical is not the usual fare, in that we don’t get the rags-to-riches rise of the protagonist.  When the show begins, Elvis Presley is already the biggest star in the world but, after a decade of making questionable movies, he’s planning a comeback concert on live television.  Nerves are running high, the King’s self-esteem is at a low point and the time he is spending at work is putting a strain on his marriage to Priscilla.  Around him, his entourage of ‘friends’ discuss his plans and problems, like sycophants at a royal court.  Among them are Presley’s best friends, Joe Exposition (sorry, Esposito) played tonight by Ben Stratton, and Charlie Hodge (Mark Pearce).  The dialogue, by Philip Norman, is clunky, heavily laden with factoids, telling us things rather than showing us; it’s a relief when these ‘dramatic’ interludes give way to the songs.  We are not allowed to meet the infamous Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis’s manager, nor Mrs Presley herself – Both of these interesting characters are restricted to telephone calls, and we don’t even get to hear their side.  The show misses out on a couple of humdinger scenes by keeping these sources of conflict off-stage.

The second half is given over to a recreation of a Las Vegas show.  Seeing it in context – we’ve glimpsed the King’s drug abuse, his self-doubt, his loneliness – makes what follows all the more remarkable.  As the man himself is the phenomenal Steve Michaels, who has Presley down pat: the voice, the mannerisms, the moves, in an uncanny performance that brings Elvis into the building.  So many highlights, including Suspicious Minds, It’s Now or Never, Are You Lonesome Tonight?…

The entourage from the first half form the backing band, a taut combo, augmented by a trio of backing vocalists, Sweet Inspirations (Chevone Stewart, Katrina May, and Misha Malcolm).  Together they are terrific, creating an authentic sound.  But it is frontman Michaels who grabs us by the pelvis and, channelling the King, gets our blood pumping and our hands clapping.  And so what starts out as a ropey dramatic reconstruction culminates in an hour-long tribute act that is irresistible and exhilarating.  The King is not dead; he has been reincarnated.

This is Steve Michaels (Photo: Pamela Raith)