Bugsy Malone

I wasn’t sure how ‘Bugsy’ would work, as an adult show, but I have to say it works extremely well, only lacking the innocence of the children’s version.

There were some lovely performances and the star for me was Rebecca Hardman, playing Blousey Brown, her soulful voice was superb. She was very well supported by Aron Armstrong, as a very convincing  Bugsy, he played the cool dude fixer, very convincingly. In fact, it’s true to say their wasn’t a bad performance, Gavin Dodd as Fat Sam, Ian Quirk as Dandy Dan, Rebecca McDowell as Tallulah and Ann Simpson as a female Fizzy, were all suited to their roles. Sam’s gang deserve a special mention, they were suitably incompetent, and sang extremely well, all in all a well balanced company.

The set was simple but served the purpose and the costumes were generally of period. The combo performed very well, and I particularly enjoyed the trumpet. The downside for me was the sound!!. It is always my biggest bone of contention at the Civic Hall, the company deserve better, it really was very poor for long periods. Please please get it right sound engineer!!!!!

On balance this was a good production by CATS, it was a very brave decision to create this children’s classic with a grown up company, but it worked.

I was delighted to present a forty year bar to society stalwart Ripley Steele, at the performance.

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