Bye Bye Birdie

On arrival at the Priory Centre, my guest and I received a very warm welcome from members of the front of house team.  Everyone had made an effort to look the part and the girls, in particular, looked stunning in their vintage style dresses with immaculate hair and make-up, which took me back to the 1950/60’s era.

Bye Bye Birdie is a musical set in early 1960’s America and tells the story of Conrad Birdie, a handsome rock-n-roll singer who has been drafted in to the army and travels to a small town in Ohio to give a farewell performance and kiss his number one fan.

The show opened with great enthusiasm and was choreographed and performed with tremendous energy and commitment, and this continued throughout. 

The plot to get Conrad to Ohio was the brainwave of Albert Peterson, skilfully portrayed by Euan West, a songwriter who hopes to make his fortune and marry the love of his life Rosie Alvarez, unless Albert’s mother, who is determined to break them up, gets her way.

There were some very strong performances in this Riverside production, notably Euan West, who approach the role of Albert with great maturity; Gemma Foulkes as girlfriend Rosie, who gave a powerful performance which showcased her singing versatility beautifully; Georgia Compson as Kim Macafee, the lucky recipient of the ‘kiss’ from Conrad, Georgia was every inch the young devotee and brought a real early 1960’s feel to the role.  Jonathon Prestney embodied the handsome Conrad Birdie and Jo Sellick tackled the role of the controlling mother, Mae Peterson, with great gusto and much personality.

It is never easy for young people to portray adults in a production which spans the generations…inevitably there is going to be a touch of the school production about the show but I commend the entire cast for creating characters which allowed the audience to forget the great divide of age.

Sara Johnson’s choreography helped maintain the 60’s feel of the show and complimented the lyrics very well.  Ian Tipping’s musical direction and the use of live music brought a real freshness to the performances and the energy of the young cast didn’t flag at all.

Director Richard Mann should be very proud of putting together a large cast of young people who so clearly enjoyed every moment of the performance.

The art of a good theatre production, whether it is musical or any other genre, depends on the quality of the acting.  Encouraging an environment which allows the freedom to be creative and imaginative with characterisation, constantly investigates, develops and strengthens acting skills and trusts the actors to invest in their performance, is the foundation of a good theatrical experience.

I hope Riverside give their young actors the opportunity to meet the challenges of ‘grown-up’ theatre because the talent is there and should be embraced by the whole Company.

Bella Coleman

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.