Hi-De-Hi

~~It is always a risk when producing a play which has been a television show as the majority of the audience members will compare the characters with the same ones they have seen on TV. Well Phoenix Players need have no doubts with this one as everyone on stage managed to capture and mimic their respective TV characters right from the start.
One of the main characters in this piece is of course Ted Bovis, the larger than life character who is the main comic of the holiday camp and who of course is always looking to make a quick bob or two, Mark Hague was perfect, not only did he look exactly like his character, although noticeably a few pounds lighter these days, but he had his mannerisms and the perfect voice to boot. Ted aka Mark also led the sing-a –long at the end of the play much to the enjoyment of the audience.
Another well known character is of course Gladys Pugh and Tracey Briggs did a great job of duplicating the part made famous in the show as did Neil Mather as Jeffrey Fairbrother, both these two worked extremely well together and I would suspect nobody in the audience would be in any doubts about their “secret” love affair which of course was mainly in the oversexed mind of Gladys.
All the characters in this show are larger than life and none more so than the parts of Yvonne and Barry Stewart-Hargreaves played respectively by Gloria Elford-Box and Frank Bardsley, once again these were able to capture the very essence of both characters and bounced off each other perfectly.
There are many characters in this play and I would suspect there are not many people who do not know the part of Peggy Ollerenshaw made famous by Sue Pollard. I think everyone feels sorry for Peggy as she yearns to be a Yellow Coat instead of the chalet maid which is her lot, Jill Connell as Peggy had the audience eating out of the palm of her hand and was able to get just the right amount of comedy out of the part without going over the top.
Very well done to everyone involved in this production, I am sure Julie Webb will be very proud of them and they should be proud of her to bring this to life.
 

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.