Bugsy Malone

In these modern times, when there are junior versions of so many top musicals, doing Bugsy Malone would seem to be a rather brave move. After all, would Yeovil audiences choose to come out and see a 40-year-old musical about gangsters and prohibition where violent murders are ‘softened’ by using cream, instead of bullets?

Castaway Theatre Group are certainly not afraid to tackle an ambitious project, their version of Snow White included a very emotional rendition of Leona Lewis’, 'Run', and their plans for this year even include a performance at Disneyland Paris! So it was interesting to see what director Lynn Lee Brown would do to make Bugsy Malone stand out from the crowd.

The production opened with Dandy Dan’s gang ‘splurging’ one of Fat Sam’s men. This was a really fun way to start the show and was very much appreciated by the audience, the splurge guns were very well constructed and looked great, they also worked effectively too and, I can only imagine, must have been so much fun to use.

The opening scene was very minimal with pretty much no scenery at all, this set the tone for most of the show. The vast majority of the show had little or no scenery and instead relied on a few props to set the scene. This worked quite well and gave an interesting abstract feeling to the production, which actually matched the abstract tone of the production well. However, the notable exception to this rule was Fat Sam’s Night Club, this was an elaborate set that was colourful and filled the stage, it also looked fantastic and was even set on different levels, congratulations must go to Proscenium of Rochdale who supplied Fat Sam’s, also looking at their website, they even supplied the aforementioned splurge guns, as well as some other very impressive props, including two stunning 1920s style cars. However, despite the minimal use of scenery, some scene changes were still quite long and pretty noisy. Another set piece that looked impressive was the 'phone box', however, again, this was incredibly noisy when it was wheeled on and off the stage and must have been a little distracting for the young performers.

Keeping the audience entertained, during the scene changes, were the orchestra under the musical direction of Matthew Holmes. In fact, the orchestra were entertaining throughout the whole production and didn’t seem to play a bum note. Recently, I have been to productions where the orchestra drowns out the singers but this did not happen here.

The sound and the lighting was looked after by the Octagon Theatre Team, the lighting was good and really worked well to compliment the staging, especially against the black back drop when no sets were used. However, the sound let down the production a little and on more than one occasion, mics were not turned up quickly enough, meaning beginnings of speeches and songs were lost, this is a shame and unfortunately seems to be a recurring theme at The Octagon.

Costumes were either hired from Off Beat Theatre, in Herefordshire, or sourced/created by Lynn Lee Brown and Joyce Harland, these were great and really worked well within the production. They fitted the 1920s feel and were very reminiscent of the 1976 film.   

I like to try and comment on every aspect of a production and I always find it hard to comment on the make-up. Sheila Driver; Kerrie Hutchings; Doreen Hillier and countless make-up artists across the country, are kind of in a no win situation. I never really notice the make-up, unless someone has gone over the top and made an Oompah-Loompah or has not done enough, leaving the poor performer looking like Casper the Friendly Ghost! In this production I didn’t notice any Casper’s or Oompah-Loompah’s, so well done to the make-up team.

Choreography, in the hands of Kirsty Beaumont, was a bit of a hit and a miss affair.  Every song had something, (which may seem like a given in a musical but you would be surprised and a recent production of Oliver, with no choreography at all would back up what I am saying here), which was good but the quality of the performing of these numbers varied across the production. Fat Sam’s dancers, for example, found it difficult to all be in time, with each other, throughout the show, although a rather unfortunate incident with a feather boa and a chair obviously did not help! Also, Ashley MacLauchlan, as Fizzy, had a lovely tap dance routine, which he performed well, but it just didn’t seem to fit in with the music it was being performed to. However, on the flip side, the songs "So You Wanna Be a Boxer" and "Down and Out" had some great choreography that was performed perfectly and really elevated these numbers, especially the former which used skipping ropes to make a boxing ring in a really unique and imaginative way. This routine was so good and easily stood up next to most routines I have seen as a Noda rep, the work and timing to get this right must have been immense and well done to everyone for pulling it off with such ease.

Of course, a production isn’t anything without a decent cast and Castaway’s are lucky to have such a wealth of competent youngsters to call upon for their productions. For this show, the cast were led by James Derrick as Bugsy who was perfectly cast and embodied the character well, easily portraying Bugsy as a likeable rogue who ends up on the wrong side of the law. James managed to get the audience on his side from the beginning and kept them there right up to the finale. It probably didn’t hurt that, without his glasses, there was a slight resemblance to Scott Baio. James also had a lovely singing voice and worked well with other cast members, most notably with Jessamy Bowditch who played Bugsy’s love interest Blousey Brown. Having seen Jessamy before, as Gertrude McFuzz in Seussical, and now as Blousey, there doesn’t seem to be enough superlatives to describe just what an exceptional performer she is. She played the part of Blousey exceedingly well and was perfectly cast opposite James as Bugsy. The chemistry between the two was excellent and we, as the audience, really bought into the fact that here were two kids desperately trying to carve out a better life for themselves. I note that Jessamy is about to appear in YMT’s Teenage Opera (I presume this is the one in Berkshire). I am really pleased that Jessamy is planning to expand her acting and singing abilities and I genuinely believe it would be a real loss if she doesn’t continue into a career in acting. All I ask is that when she is on The West End Stage, she remembers these nice things I said and lets me have some free tickets! As well as the two main leads I was also particularly impressed with Owen Williams performance as Dandy Dan, his was an equally comedic and menacing portrayal and worked well against the constant cheeriness of Bugsy. Anastacia Hayward had a lovely singing voice as Tallulah; Jacob Edwards was very funny as the constantly knuckle cracking Knuckles; Scareltt Thomas seemed to bring a sense of dignity and calm to Dan in her role as Louella and Joe Wilson did well with his small part as Cagey Joe and his song "So You Wanna Be a Boxer" was one of the highlights of the show. Rounding off the main cast was Ella Martin and Jack Lowder as the bumbling cops Captain Smolsky and the completely incompetent O’Dreary, these two worked really well together creating the ‘comedy duo’, Jack particularly was very funny and seemed much more at ease with this comedy role then when he played ‘Wot’ in Snow White, back in January, although I did find that it was hard to hear a lot of Ella’s lines and, in the future, it may be wise for her to slow down her delivery a little. Harry Stallard, who was a star performer in Snow White, also added a lot to his relatively small role of Leroy, Harry added a lot of pathos to this character and he definitely came across as a sweet natured gentle giant. Ashley MacLauchlan was also well cast as the plucky, never give up Fizzy.  Like Bugsy, Ashley managed to get the audience on his side well and we were all willing Fat Sam to give him a job all the way through, though as previously mentioned, the tap work for Tomorrow" didn’t really seem to fit the song. Unfortunately, Ashley also seemed to struggle with the singing of this song, which was clearly pitched too high for him and he visibly struggled, on more than one occasion, to hit those high notes. A real shame, especially as you had a live orchestra there who could have helped him out a little by dropping the song down a semitone or two. Everyone’s accents were very good, but special mention has to go to Vini Lloyd, whose chief mobster gravel was perfect, if a little strained, in fact Vini’s performance was perfect too and, along with Jessamy, was easily one of the stand out performances on the night. Vini played Fat Sam with just the right amount of menacing and humour and was a joy every single time he stepped on stage. Clearly, he was having difficulties keeping up the gruff voice but congratulations to him for perseverance. I was also made aware of Vini’s trip to A and E and, again, congratulations to him for fighting through to keep up the old adage "The Show Must Go On". This was clearly a 5 star performance from him and when he does manage to land that role in Hamilton, I hope, like Jessamy, he doesn’t forget us little Noda reps.

Overall, this was another enjoyable show from Castaway Theatre Group with some very good strong performances. Unfortunately, the night I came wasn’t a perfect night and there were issues with sound (as previously mentioned); strained voices; strained songs and some silly mistakes when a Splurge Gun was not dropped and a dancer deciding to attempt to unravel a feather boa from a chair for a few minutes, instead of ditching it and moving on. Although, the Splurge Gun incident was actually quite funny as, after the line about it being dropped, we watched the gun come flying across the stage. Although, to be fair, none of these issues really ruined my entertainment of a good show and I have to admit I wasn’t looking forward to watching Bugsy, as it is such an old show, but I believe that Castaway did a sterling job of not making it look too outdated, I particularly enjoyed the fact that you used the auditorium a lot, I always think this helps pull the audience into the show more. I would also like to add that I thought your programme and posters were also very effective. 

I thought it was a shame that, the night I came, the auditorium was probably between ½ to ¾ full and I have to wonder how much of this is down to the ticket price of £16. I understand that if you are performing at The Octagon, you need to cover your costs but I think that some people are put off if a ‘youth production’ is too expensive and I wonder if you had performed this at The Westfield Academy, with a lower ticket price, would your audiences have been a little higher? I don’t know it’s just a thought and something you may need to consider in the future, especially in light of what has recently happened to Yeovil Youth Theatre.

Thank you, again, for inviting me. It was another good production and I look forward to seeing what you guys do next. I also look forward to reading how the Disneyland adventure ends up.

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