Disco Inferno

Many thanks to Preston College for inviting me to watch their production of ‘Disco Inferno’ at the Preston Playhouse on Saturday 17th June 2023. Disco Inferno is a jukebox musical that tells the story of an ambitious and talented hopeful named Jack who has an ambition to make it in the music industry. Jack meets Lady Marmalade, a female incarnation of the Devil while working late in a London nightclub. The story is based on the Faust legend, where Jack sells his soul to the devil in exchange for fame and fortune, but in doing so sacrifices the relationships he has with those closest to him. The musical features songs from the 1970s including some performed or made famous by The Trammps, Bee Gees, Earth Wind & Fire, and Donna Summer. Disco Inferno is a stylized musical that brings the story of Faust to life in an explosion of hit songs, high-energy dance routines, and glitter ball-spinning action.

Daniel Mason directed this production with flair. The 3 hours long show flew by and there was not a moment the audience was not engaged and enthralled the spectacle. To me, this show was all about bringing some of the biggest hits from the 1970s back to life and the narrative is one of a tongue in cheek nature to achieve this goal. Throughout the show, the lady sitting next to me was having the time of her life, singing and dancing along to the numbers. I was a little more inhibited personally, but definitely wanted to join her. This is a testament to the direction and the performers and is a clear example of the ambitions for the production to shine through. The staging was consistently interesting, breaking the fourth wall from the outset through having the DJ, Terry, offstage in a booth downstage left, who then paraded through the audience, provoking us to be involved in the action and encouraging practical engagement. There was a great unity between the cast and the leads, very well cast, bringing such wonderful charcterisations to animate the narrative.

Choreography was provided by Daniel Mason with additional choreography by Sara Hartigan and Charlotte Ormerod, which was outstanding. It was highly technical, using mainly a jazz disciple, which you would expect to coincide with the numbers within the show. There were lots of featured moments of dance within the production, including elements of acro and tricks, all of which was executed dynamically and it was evident that the performers had a high level of training as the level of technique demonstrated in these moments was extremely high quality.

Rachael Soar undertook the musical direction which use backing tracks for each of the numbers, which I think was a great choice as to get as close to the original nostalgic tracks, as possible great vocal techniques and arrangements 

The set design for the production was quite simple, mainly using a strucken stage and adding elements of tables and other small set items to highlight context for different scenes. but the show did not need much more than what was provided. Lighting was fabulous and matched the high energy nature of the show through the voice of colour, transitions and movement. Costumes, hair & make up were brilliant, highlighting some of the go-to attire of the period, but also fitting to characters.

My first point of note on the cast is that the energy and commitment which all of the students delivered with was admirable: no one was half invested. The lines of energy within the choreography went beyond the limb for every performer, the characterisations were rounded and the audience were carried through the show, constantly buzzing from the joy which was being transmitted from those who were on the stage. As a general note, some of the delivery of text was a little fast which sacrificed the diction, especially when over the top of the click tracks, potentially the balance of the backing tracks need to be lower for these moments also.

The principal male role, Jack, was played by Theo Heaviside who was extremely competent within this role. He led the show well, switching between the character as a narrator and involved in the action. I’ve seen other shows which Theo has starred in, so was no way surprised at the quality of his performance,  and this show allowed his for triple threat talent to shine through. The highlight for me with Theo’s performance was his character’s rendition of Elton John’s ‘Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word’ which was wonderfully acted through song and highlighted the strength in Theo’s falsetto range. As an item for improvement, there were times during choreography I felt Theo slipped out of character, especially in some of the technical leaps and movements. These moments were ever so slight, but the fact I am being this nitpicky is a testiment to the quality of this performance.

Another triple threat within the cast was Paris Weber as Lady Marmalade. Very technically advanced across the 3 performance art disciplines, Paris portrayed this temptress character very well indeed. She created an almost Fosse style idiosyncratic performance, repeating minute hand gestures and poses all the way through the show and there was not a moment she did not shine when she was on the stage and her articulation of movement and level of technique in dance was outstanding. An improvement item for Paris would be that although I loved the gestures which brought about the stylised performance, these sometimes came across as choreographed and so a more work to embody these actions into the core of the character could have led to more depth.

Jack’s girlfriend, Jane, was played by Reese Hudson, who gave an awesome performance, she was incredibly grounded and I truly believed her character journey. I thought her vocal ability was sublime, and she showed particular skill in acting through song, the emotional osmosis with the audience streamed. I particularly adored her version of Donna Summer’s ‘On the Radio’’ and Gloria Gaynor’s ‘I Will Survive’. 

Jack’s best friend, Tom, was played by Aiden Williams who again gave a wonderful performance. Lots of slapstick and quick witted comedy was delivered really well in this role and there was a great rapport between him and the character’s he engaged with. 

Heathcliffe was performed by Alisa Davies-Johnson who was perfectly cast for the role. She played the meanness of this part very well and was a great contrast to the character of Jack. She epitomised the Glam Rock statement the character entailed and I was delighted with the screams in the song with Sweet’s ‘Ballroom Blitz’ which was delivered with pure grit.

Another delightful singer was Sophie Holmes who played Heathcliffe’s girlfriend / the temptress for Jack. Her version of ‘I Love to Love’ gave me goose pimples. I adored Rowan Hornby’s characterisation of the voguesque hipster amigo of Lady Marmalade, Lily. It made perfect sense for the choreography of his song to be ticking, which was executed with flair from Rowan and the rest of the cast. Carolina Amaral had fabulous energy and took on the challenge of keeping the audience revved up and raring to go as Terry, the DJ, although I felt really bad that she was competing against the underscore in the DJ Booth moments.  Finishing the principal cast were Abigail Bolton as Kathy, Ellie Pennington as Duke and Jack Pearce as Nick, all of whom gave solid performances throughout.

Many thanks again to Preston College for inviting me to this fabulous performance. Good luck to all of the students graduating this year and I look forward to seeing the returning students in their future performances with the college.

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