Bugsy Malone

A visit to TMTC Youth is always a joy for the sheer enthusiasm shown by the youngsters and the palpable pride of the adults supporting their efforts – it is even more of a joy when the finished product is of high quality and hence my visit, on an extremely warm Friday evening, was especially gratifying.

Add to that the production Bugsy Malone is a ‘feel good’ show with plenty of opportunities for the youngsters to excel in small cameo roles to full scale principal whilst covering themselves with ‘splurge’ and you may get the picture of the environment I attended.
Each youngster, it was apparent, was thoroughly relishing their roles – no more so that the title role of ‘Bugsy’ confidently performed by Matthew Beck who acted as a sort of narrator if you’ve never seen Bugsy before (where have you been…) His love interest (eventually after a stormy first meeting) was ‘Blousey Brown’ in the form of Emily Kay who looked and acted the part well. Playing the role of ‘Fat Sam Stacetto’ was Michael Reeve – the role was simply ‘made’ for Michael as he looked and confidently acted it with great panache, with his accent never once faltering and comedic timing spot on especially when dealing with his henchmen like ‘Knuckles’ (Eddie Cook-Smith) who impressed in the small cameo role as the somewhat dim-witted Jewish Italian hoodlum. Included in Fat Sam’s speakeasy as staff were Lauren Wilson, Ellie-May Sayers as ‘Tallulah’ and ‘Fizzy’ respectively – both girls it was apparent enjoyed their roles as singer and odd job man tremendously.

Two adults joined the cast to play the roles of ‘Dandy Dan/Capt. Smolsky’ and ‘Officer O’Dreary’ (Phil Graham and Mike Harbisher respectively) and each were impressive in some of the best comedy slapstick scenes in the show.

The would-be Boxer ‘Leroy’ (Abbie Whitehead) and gym owner ‘Cagey Joe’ (Daryl Johnson) were also well matched and responsible for some of the best dialogue and fun – Abbie for her one-word answers and Daryl for his strong booming voice.

A fixed but truly versatile set was used to the full, costumes and props were spot on and choreography was well thought out and executed by the whole cast.
It is difficult to miss out anyone in this rollercoaster of a performance but each and every individually named character played the part and contributed to a wonderful production.
If you can measure the success of a production by how ‘splurge strewn’ the final scene becomes then it was a triumph (and probably a nightmare to clean up after each performance…..)
Well done to all concerned….

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