Betty Blue Eyes

There’s something rather ironic about spending the evening of election day watching a show of which the opening chorus echoes the words of a Prime Minister shown on a newsreel. “Fair shares for all” is the cry, a sentiment not unlike some we have heard in recent weeks. But in this case we are in the dark days of 1947, with its austerity and food rationing, the only brightness being the forthcoming wedding of Princess Elizabeth and her beloved Philip.          

Some of the top brass in a Yorkshire town are planning a banquet for the occasion and are secretly fattening up a pig in preference to the ubiquitous spam. The local chiropodist and his wife are anxious to establish themselves with a surgery on the high street and an invitation to this “private function”. It’s Alan Bennett’s film of this name which provides the inspiration for this musical which must be one of the funniest around. Surprisingly, the book is written by two Americans but the result is as Yorkshire as the White Rose. Another transfer from screen to stage, it works better than some, perhaps because the music by Stiles and Drewe is of a high standard and this production gives it as good a performance as you could wish for. Essentially British in style, it’s almost as if Gilbert and Sullivan met Sandy Wilson and Julian Slade but much of it is not easy. A seven minute sequence “Pig, no pig”, sung by the three main principals whilst there is complete mayhem on stage must have taken hours of rehearsal.  A lovely song, “Magic Fingers” provides an opportunity for a trio of the chiropodist’s lady clients to extol his skills whilst displaying talents of their own in some excellent harmonies. In the dance hall number later, three other members of the cast seize a similar opportunity.       

Stuart Hutchinson and Ruth Graham gave excellent performances as chiropodist Gilbert and his wife, Joyce, both expertly capturing their respective characters, the former rather shy and thoughtful, the latter showing the greater drive and ambition with just a little aspiration for the bright lights. Her number “Nobody” provides some glitz and glamour as does the “Lionheart” scene in which we discover how the two of them met during a bombing raid on a Leeds dance hall.  Christine Castle in her debut for this Society extracted all the humour out of her role as Joyce’s mother (“Mother Dear”) particularly in the scene involving the pig number. The Meat Inspector was played with just the right amount of villainy by Richard Upton, a cross between Herr Flick and Inspector Javert perhaps? The three conspiring Councillors with their respective characters plus a sympathetic policeman were all well played and Chris Cowling as Allardyce has the responsibility of introducing us to the title song. There were several other cameo roles, all extremely well handled but I particularly enjoyed Laura Askew as Mrs. Metcalf, a butcher’s wife anxious to allow Gilbert’s magic fingers to explore some other parts of her anatomy. This being 1947, he, of course, politely declined.  The usual caveats regarding children and animals were superfluous here as Holly Todd as Veronica is an experienced young lady and the pig, the eponymous Betty, is electronically controlled.

It was a pleasure to hear an orchestra containing violin, mandolin and cello as well as the somewhat unusual but welcome sound of an accordion. The cleverly designed set was skilfully handled so that scene changes were very slick. Costumes and hair styles were attractive and accurate for the period whilst the entire production provided another excellent example of this Director’s ability to give us a splendid evening’s entertainment.

Although all ended happily in the story and even the pig survived, we were left to face the omnishambles of 2017 with its Brexit and much more. At least we can look forward to the royal platinum wedding celebrations later in the year.                     

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