Me & My Girl

This show is certainly one that was going to brighten up an otherwise freezing spring day and sure enough this proved to be the case.  Blackburn had certainly come up trumps with this performance which I noticed had the audience singing along from the opening bars of the overture and right the way through.  Despite this only being the second night the theatre was packed out and you knew you were in for a very entertaining evening.

The orchestra under the expert guidance of Chris Andrews were spot on and sounded great, sound was very professional, apart from a brief problem with Becky’s radio mic at the beginning and was very well balanced throughout the show.  The lighting was simple and nicely in keeping with the theme of the show.  The costumes and accessories were particularly good and well thought through, although quite how Kath Watkins managed all the changes was a mystery to me and quite amazing!

The Dave Walton set worked very well on what I know is a difficult stage with limited space both on stage and in the wings, with clever revolves and breaks to move between the different settings in the show, well done to Chris Scholey and his crew for seamless transitions from scene to scene.  Gary and Tony had obviously put a lot of time and effort into the chorus movement which was well executed and delivered, particularly in the big cast numbers like the Lambeth Walk, which was a particular audience favourite.

The parts of Maria and Sir John were brilliantly portrayed by Kath Watkins and David Lloyd, a fantastic pairing who worked hard and consistently throughout the performance, David’s drunken Sir John scene particularly had me in stitches!  Jeremy Scholey played an impressive Gerald with a thoroughly believable aristocratic air, as did Lindsay Pilkington as Lady Jaqueline lovely diction and impressive vocal work. The part of unflappable solicitor Parchester was very well interpreted by Kris Wlodarczyk. Brenda Murray & Martin Cottam both performed well as Lord and Lady Battersby and Alan Flanagan made light work of a very funny Sir Jasper.  The Hartford staff, Charles and Mrs Brown were ably delivered by Simon Hall and Julie Hopkinson with nice characterisation in both cases.

Becky Worthy played a lovely Sally Smith with excellent vocals and some very impressive dance movement, particularly the number with Nick and during the ballet section which I thought was particularly impressive, so well done to all the girls involved in that scene as well.  The shining star of this show though was Nick Gunn as Bill Snibson, what a performance!  Right from the outset Nick captured the character of Bill and held it the whole way through to the finale and some equally impressive dance moves as well!  Is there no end to this young man’s talents?

Choreographer Katie Fry had obviously had her work cut out to pull all the movement together for this show and the end result was a real credit to her.  She had clearly come up with some challenging routines which were flawlessly delivered by the cast, well done Katie.

The production team at BMTC obviously work really well together and I really think that Gary and Tony have delivered yet another fantastic success for the company both artistically and financially, judging from the audience numbers – no mean feat in the current financial climate.

As for me I left the theatre feeling thoroughly entertained, happy and enthused by the quality and professionalism of the show and that’s what it’s all about isn’t it?  Well done to all involved!

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