Our House

I must start by saying how sorry I was to read in the Chairman’s programme notes that Our House will be the last FMTC autumn production for the time being. I do see this situation everywhere I visit, dwindling audiences and increasing production costs.

It was therefore with pleasure that I was watching a challenging, modern, upbeat musical with a great story and fabulous music. Our House... the Madness musical is a successful musical based around Madness songs and music and has been very successful in both amateur and professional circles. It has one failing (and this is a personal opinion, but I speak as one who knows the show intimately) When the successful first professional production came out of the West End, someone ordered a severe cutting re-write of the script and this re-writing took out scenes which made the Good Joe/ Bad Joe and time lapse from the opening sequence, crystal clear. Every amateur production has problems with this and no matter how hard they try, some of the audience will remain a little confused. FMTC tried harder than most to overcome this and succeeded most of the time. This was due in no small part to the brilliant changes of the leading mans outfits from good to bad Joe and vice versa. The set also helped with its black and white doors. It was apparent that cost played a major control factor in this show, the band numbers were reduced, the company size was small and the set and costumes also appeared tailored to fit. In spite of some of these limitations FMTC presented an entertaining production with some high performance values.

The enthusiasm and performances presented by the cast showed a well rehearsed and talented cast. The production team worked hard to bring the essential ‘wow’ that this show needs. The director understood the need for the music to shine in this show (lots of underscoring) and the MD understood and was sympathetic to the actors and never let the music overpower the cast. The choreographer brought in all the recognisable dance moves and many more to ensure the show had life and gusto. They worked with the cast to ensure very good pace... and the show fairly motored along. The characters were well cast. With the enormous task of carrying the show falling on the shoulders of one man, Ben Hardy- Phillips was very good as Joe Casey, managing to bring brashness and swagger to ‘Bad Joe’ and humility and caring nature to ‘Good Joe’. As already mentioned his changes were a ‘tour de force’, very well done. Tabitha Cox portrayed Sarah, in both of Joe’s transitions, with effortless talent. There were no weak links in the casting with everyone playing their roles with panache and confidence, (Lewis and Emmo being particularly well paired).

The small numbers in the cast made the stage a little thin at times, especially when cameo roles were doubled from the ensemble numbers, and occasionally I wanted the band to really let rip with those superlative Madness numbers.

But this was entertaining modern musical theatre, much enjoyed by your enthusiastic audience.

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