Curtains The Musical

Thank you very much for inviting me to your production of ‘Curtains’. This is a fairly new Musical that I have not had the pleasure of seeing before. Why aren’t more people doing it! Curtains is a Musical Murder Mystery written by Rupert Homes with music by John Kander and Fred Ebb. The show is littered with fantastic musical numbers and comedy by the bucket load.

Set

The pre-text for this production revolves around a professional production company staging a new show in preparation for the big move to Broadway and so it stands to say that the set for this production was entirely designed to look like a stage and the backstage areas of a professional theatre. The set was fairly static with a number of pieces added in on trucks as needed. For example, during the opening number there was a wooden shack Stage Left that was added. Additional another truck was added in Act 2 that acted as the fly tower of the main theatre. The set was creatively designed and worked very well for this production. 

Choreography

I think the highest compliment I can give is that choreography at Wranglers is always very well considered. You are blessed to have large numbers in your cast and the dances are always well rehearsed with real strong consideration made for the ability of the cast.  As a result the dance numbers were extremely effective without any individual member drawing attention unless intentionally planned.

Lighting

Lighting was well planned and utilised effectively. As previously mentioned, much of the action took place within the backstage area of a theatre and so the lighting did not require much more than good face lighting. There were many opportunities however where the lighting designer was able to be much more creative and this contributed greatly to the story telling.

Sound

I am always very pleased to hear a live band for a show. Whilst only a small band consisting of Electric Piano, Bass guitar and Drums they created a full sound that really helped to lift the cast. Musical Direction was very well done with lots of. Really strong harmonies throughout.  There were many songs which had multiple layers of countermelodies and these were extremely well balanced leading to a really satisfying overall sound. This was definitely aided by the use of multiple. Radio microphones utilised in the performance. I know how costly they are to hire but it really does make a wealth of difference to the overall sound quality. On occasion the microphones were a little bit late being turned on meaning that the start of lines was sometimes missed. I could clearly hear every single soloist and the harmonies were incredibly wide balanced as a result. The opening number of ‘Wide Open Spaces’ was excellent as was the song in the saloon with the aforementioned counter melodies. ‘What kind of A man’ was another excellent song that I enjoyed. ‘The Woman’s Dead’ was an excellent comic song and again the harmony was strong throughout the number. 

Additional comments

Costumes were effective and carefully considered and provided a great level of detail to each individual character. Carmen was a fantastically strong vocalist and performer and really helped to drive the story along. Niki and Ciofi were also very strong and had a really well balanced relationship that developed throughout all of the twists and turns along the way. This was a perfect show for a company with a large ensemble that allowed for many different people to play one of the many different roles on offer.

 

Thank you once again for an enjoyable evening.

Kind regards

   Ryan Procter

   District 3 Representative

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