Acorn Antiques The Musical!

Acorn Antiques was originally a weekly slot in the sketch show ‘Victoria Wood As Seen On TV’ written in the late 1980’s by, of course, Victoria Wood. At the time long running serials such as ‘Crossroads’ with their apparent low production values, wobbly sets, overacting, unlikely plots and missed cues etc. proved a valuable source of inspiration for her sketches. In 2005 she created a musical version ‘Acorn Antiques The Musical!’ with members from the original cast taking the lead roles and so iconic and well established are these characters that to my mind, it would be difficult to play them in any other way and so I was intrigued to see how close Kaleidoscope Players would come to them and if infact they would follow this path. Well, I’m pleased to say they did, and how successful it proved to be. It follows the story of sisters Miss Babs and Miss Berta who are struggling to keep their antique shop solvent after shop rents are raised and shop after shop on the street closes, selling out to various franchises. Zoe Shepherd was superb as the affected, haughty, sexually repressed and tweed-clad Miss Babs slipping out of this ‘character’ just once when she takes off her jacket to reveal a very sexy corset and flamboyantly sings ‘Have You Met Miss Babs’! Lucy Bramley was equally superb as her younger sister Berta who is pining for Mr. Clifford. Sam Hempsall was also superb as the assertive, ruthless and somewhat evil, Miss Bonnie later revealed as the third sister. All three had distinctive characteristics and mannerisms, great comic timimg and could sing and dance brilliantly. Chris Grantham as Mr. Clifford, gave a good strong performance in both singing and acting as did Damien Gilmartin as the posturing loan shark, Tony. Impressive portrayals came from Callum Reilly as Hugh and Kiah Smith as Mimi, the two young people on work experience. An absolutely show-stealing and hilarious performance came form Michelle Bradford as Mrs. Overall. She captured the look and the Birmingham accent of Julie Walters (who was the original Mrs. Overall) to perfection and her comic timing and delivery were outstanding. The Ensemble which included shopkeepers, customers etc. all played their individual roles to perfection giving excellent support to the main characters and to the many musical numbers in which they were involved. The set was very creative and the props first-rate (loved the Acorn stair-lift) and the costumes were splendid. The choreography was most enjoyable and I did like the fact that the cast kept ‘in character’ during the numbers. I did feel however, that at times the splendid four piece band and the ‘taped’ music was just a little too loud. Everyone on that stage gave their all, playing their roles with enthusiasm, confidence and great skill. Credit must go to them for all their hard work and to the production team, stage crew, technical team and musicians for putting on a show to such a high standard that was absolutely terrific, indeed, one could say that it was an ‘Overall, Tip Top Tap’ show!

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