Bugsy Malone

The groundbreaking 1976 Alan Parker film gave a whole new meaning to young people having the opportunity to play flawed grown ups but with lashings of comic situations thrown in and, although not released for Youth groups for quite a while afterwards, when it was, it was a theatrical gift for a young person to be involved in. Quarry Bank Musical Theatre Society Youth have never been afraid of a theatrical challenge, and they met this one head on and provided a delightfully entertaining evening at Stourbridge Town Hall.

We are taken back to Prohibition era New York and its street gangs.  ‘Dandy Dan’, played with great style by Daniel Cwiertak, and his mob up against ‘Fat Sam’, relished in his performance by Finn Dyas-Harrold getting every ounce of humour and frustration with his incompetent mobsters out of the role. ‘Fat Sam’ needs help to combat ‘Dandy Dan’s’ new weapon – the splurge gun and calls in the help of title character, ‘Bugsy Malone’, played by Jackson Fryer who brought an utterly realistic streetwise quality to his performance, which, as the central character, really made you believe that we were witnessing life in the late 1930’s.   Add in Fat Sam’s love interest as well as nightclub singer, the extremely talented Lily Grace Wooldridge as ‘Tallulah’ with a great rendition of “My Name is Tallulah” and the naivety and charm of Eliza May Plant’s ‘Blousey Brown’ and you have the making of a great plot. ‘Bugsy’ and ‘Blousey’ made a great partnership, making the most unbelievable scenario on paper utterly real, helped by great and consistent characterisation and well done on the accents! 

For a musical it is not inundated with song after song, it relies more on a strong storyline with extremely well-drawn characters and QBMTS Youth have a plethora of tremendous acting talent accompanied by the well placed numbers to push the story home – Liam Cox as ‘Fizzy’ tugged at your emotions with his delightful characterisation as well as leaving you in bits with his singing and dancing in “Tomorrow”  contrasted with Fat Sam’s Gang Lilybell Greaves as “Roxy the Weasel”, Kersten Davies’ “Knuckles”, Connie Davies’ “Louis”, Georgia Laughton’s “Snake Eyes”, Naomi Thompson’s “Ritzy” and Connie Perks “Angelo” and chorus treating us with “Bad Guys”.  Loved the auditionees for the nightclub – great characters, Oscar Wilkinson’s “Looney Bergonzi” never once let his comedic character slip and was mesmerising to watch.

If there is one thing guaranteed about a Youth Show it is the energy and enthusiasm that goes into making something the best that it can be for all concerned.  This came across wonderfully with the ensemble work in the bigger number – “Fat Sam’s Grand Slam” set the place alight with its sheer exuberance and tremendously executed singing and choreography and the same goes for “So You Want to be a Boxer” – a totally contrasting number but delivered with the same vitality with Noah Tromans as “Cagey Joe” leading the ensemble.

The show was wholly supported by a great technical team, some great sound balance in the songs making the solos really stand out. The set totally complemented the action and some brilliant lighting effects – but what does everyone really go to “Bugsy Malone” to see, despite all the hard work and talent on display is bucketloads – it’s the splurge guns and the custard pie fights – and we were not disappointed, everyone threw themselves into the show, but the sheer enjoyment and delight to see choreographed and disciplined young actors making a mess was truly memorable.

My thanks to everyone at QBMTS Youth for a great evening and for your kind hospitality, it was very gratefully appreciated.

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