Our House

Celebrating their Centenary year, P& P Productions had flooded local & social media with advance publicity for this jukebox musical written by Tim Firth using music and lyrics by the ska/pop band Madness. Therefore I was expecting something a bit special and I certainly was not disappointed.

From the opening number I was blown away with this fast paced high energy production. Some of the vocals were absolutely amazing and the choreography was exceptional. The music seemed to me to be so complex and obscure that I wondered how they had manage to achieve such a high standard. The rehearsals must have been very intense

I did find the storyline a little difficult to follow in the first act, but it all became clearer after I had read the synopsis in the programme during the interval

I thought that all the leading roles were excellent, the characterisations were superb and it seemed to be that they were all living their performances

Early in the show the central character of the story line Joe Casey, played by Dean Rawson, becomes a split role, good Joe dressed in white and bad Joe dressed in black. From that moment he is hardly ever off the stage and it was impossible to count the number of costume changes that he had.  It was a magnificent performance that I am sure he will always be remembered for.

Good Joe and Sarah’s love duet “It Must be love” set on the bench, was the highlight of the show, one of those magic moments that happens in am-drams, it really felt something special.

The very enthusiastic company looked and sounded great, many of them had several minor roles and multiple changes. I thought that all the costumes looked superb and the set work well apart from one minor glitch

The atmosphere in the auditorium felt wonderful and I sure that the Madness fans in the audience found it difficult not to singalong. It was really such a shame that theatre was a little more than half full for this outstanding production.  Well done to all concerned

 

 

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.