Boogie Nights

Rainhill Musical Theatre’s latest very entertaining production was “Boogie Nights” written by Jon Conway, it is a Jukebox musical set in a Disco Club of the same name and the story is set around a number of famous hit songs from well-known artists of the 1970s, which included Hot Chocolate, Donna Summer, Rod Stewart, Earth Wind & Fire and the Village People.We are taken back to the time of platform shoes, flower power, flared trousers, multi-coloured blouses and the Ford Cortina.

This energetic production from Rainhill Musical Theatre Company was directed by Pip Bradshaw. The cast worked hard and the show was full of energy moving from one well-known song to another smoothly. They also worked hard performing the very upbeat good choreography by Lucy Bradshaw excellently. The story follows the antics of cocky Roddy O’Neil, very well played by Christopher Fox, who had a good rapport with the audience. Roddy is an out-of-work dreamer whose ambition is to become a rock 'n' roll singer. He has had the same girlfriend for the past five years since they were at school together called Debs, played very nicely by Blathine Maguire, but Roddy two-times Debs and we look at their relationship and the consequences of his actions, both Christopher and Blathine made a good strong central couple.  Their best friends are Terry and Trish who were played by Paul-James Green and Dawn Louise Wright, both had good comic timing and produced two very likable comedic characters. Other important entertaining performances came from K Lopez who produced a good characterization as Spencer the lead singer with the club’s resident band and Sarah Johnson sang very well as the sassy singer Lorraine, Spencer’s long suffering girlfriend who cheats on him with Roddy. There was also a really enjoyable performance from Alan Harbottle as Roddy’s Elvis loving father Eamon, who managed to portray excellently the sometimes funny, and caring yet volatile relationship he had with Roddy and Dru Grindley-Fitzgerald gave a nice performance as the understanding Dean, Roddy’s friend and DJ at the club, who has a daytime job with a career and he is secretly in love with Debs.  Diction and clarity of words was generally good so the story could be followed easily, although there was a problem with some of the cast’s microphones on a few occasions. The chorus and smaller roles supported the principle cast very well with lots of energy, loads of enthusiasm and appeared to be enjoying themselves very much. The band led by musical director Wayne Oakes played on stage and were an integral part of the action as the resident night club band “The Love Machine” playing excellently and supporting the cast very well.

There was excellent use of the stage area with basically one main static set for the club scene on the main area of the stage and Eamon’s house to the side, other scenes were set by the use of large props such as furniture along with lighting and a front cloth was used for the outside the club which enabled smooth transition between scenes, so well done to the efficient stage and technical crew, including props. Costumes were spot on for the era and very colourful enhancing the production, we enjoyed reminiscing about platform shoes and trying to see who was wearing the largest flairs.

Congratulations must go the Pip Bradshaw and to everyone involved in this full of fun, enjoyable production. Thank you for inviting us we had a lovely evening and hope to see you for your next production.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.