Bugsy Malone

This was an excellent production from this very talented young theatre company.

There were some outstanding performances from the leading players. Todd Bell was a very fine Bugsy, his commanding stage presence was outstanding. His love interests, Blousey  Brown and Tallulah were also very well played by Natalie Hall and Rachel Donnan, two fine young actresses and singers. Olivia Buchanan was outstanding as would be dancer Fizzy, and Isabella Sloan and James Redmond, as Fat Sam and Dandy Dan were convincing gang leaders. All the other minor parts were well played, sadly too many to mention. All solo numbers and choruses were well sung, and the choreography, suited the period.

I’m sure the young gang members enjoyed using the splurge guns, which left quite a mess for the backstage staff to clean up at the end of the performance.

The scenery was excellent, and having the different height levels on stage took the performance to a different dimension. Costumes were very good and suited the nineteen twenties, early thirty’s period, in which the show is set.

Congratulations to the production team, I know how hard they must have worked to reach their performance level. The back stage staff were very slick with their set changes. On a very minor down side, the sound wasn’t always perfect, either too low or too loud occasionally, but it is a very difficult job to maintain a perfect balance throughout a performance. The lighting was also designed to suit the period.

The musical five piece combo, accompanied  the company very well during all the musical numbers.

Its good to see the Civic Hall being used again for live performances. This was an all round very good performance from the company, and they certainly deserve much bigger audiences than they had last night. Congratulations to everyone concerned. As always the hospitality shown to Phyllis and myself was exemplary.

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