Half a SIxpoence

~~Half A Sixpence is one of my favourite shows having played several of the parts in various productions including Kipps and Chitterlow, however I am not quite sure about this new version which has Kipps narrating throughout the show and also includes some new numbers.
I am not however, here to review whether or not this new version is an improvement on the older one but to review the production I saw in Goole.
The part of Kipps is crucial to this show and to carry it off you have to have a male lead who can sing, dance and act his way through over two hours and keep the character up. Well casting Matthew Clarke in this role was perfect. He indeed was able to sing, dance and act his way through this with ease and still keep smiling at the end of it. I mentioned about the narration which Kipps does throughout the show and this could have been a little boring had it not been in Matthew’s more than capable hands
Matthew was partnered by Maya Tether as Ann, the long suffering girlfriend and later wife of Kipps, again casting Maya in this part was perfect, she was demur when it called for it but also very feisty when the part asks. Together Matthew and Maya formed a perfect couple and both were able to bring the best out of the songs.
Chitterlow calls for an “actor” to bring the best out of this part and Christopher Adamson was indeed the “actor” required for the part, however although he played the majority of this with gusto I thought he could have included his fellow actors on stage a little more when not in his “actor” character. He had a tendency to deliver all his lines out front rather than speak to the others on stage; I have to say however the audience loved him all the way through.
 The upper class family in this piece is of course The Walsinghams and these were played expertly by Emma Johns as Helen, Alistair Jennings as Young Walsingham who was a superb pompous ass and Judith Turner as Mrs. Walsingham who would not have looked out of place in Downton Abbey, I am sure if Maggie Smith needed an understudy they need look no further than Judith.
The principals were more than ably backed by a good chorus and the shop girls and boys who again were cast very well. There was some great singing in the chorus numbers and it was a nice touch to have the Banjolele as part of the band to add to the music of the era but it would have been nice to have seen a little more dancing in this show which is after all a singing/dancing show.
All in all a very good evening and one I suspect was enjoyed not only by Jo and myself but all the other audience members. I look forward to your next production.
 

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