Jack the Ripper

Fancy making a musical about a geyser who’s going around slitting whores' throats - what a dark piece of theatre. The cockney sense of humour might well be famous, but putting fear into whores of Whitechapel at the time caused mayhem on the streets of London, which began in August 1888, when the five butchered whores on which the musical is based around were found.

It is forty years since playwrights Denis de Marne and Ron Pember, composers of the music, book and lyrics, hit on the idea of a musical and impresario Larry Parnes took Jack the Ripper to the West End, where a short run for a musical was seen at the Ambassadors Theatre. Its nice to see music hall satire and song lives on. I like the way this was brought into the show. Alison Grant took this large cast and moulded them around the stage, which was good when the chorus were singing, but I thought it happened too much, it made it very static at times. I would have liked to see more movement and dance now and again. Musical Director Diana Whybrow certainly got her principals and chorus to “belt 'em out” and belt 'em out they did. With Diana on the piano all through, it really helped to set the East End feel.There were so many good roles in the musical for both male and female, too many for me to mention individually.The camaraderie between all the cast shone through and they looked as if they were enjoying their roles and supporting each other on stage.

The chorus in their tatty costumes and hats,(Lila Webb) the conjuror’s cutting edge tricks, (Trevor Mumford and Tim Whybrow) With a superb set designed by Peter Smith and Alison Grant and great mood lighting by Jamie Sims.

All in all this was a dark musical that seemed a little dated, which was no fault of the company, just the musical. But you the Lindley Players tried hard and succeeded in may ways to bring it back to life.

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