Our House

~~This raucous musical comedy, set to the music of Madness, tells a story of young love and heartbreak.  A young man full of good intentions but, always with the good goes the bad, set in the, ripe for development, backstreets of Camden Town, London NW1.

The cast tackled this musical with all the enthusiasm and energy that was possible, their efforts and enjoyment travelled well across the footlights and gave the audience a feeling of belonging and a wonderful, enjoyable evening’s entertainment.  The choreography was superb with many new groupings, dance steps and movements, yet all seemed vaguely reminiscent of those jerky movements I remember so well from Madness all those years ago.
 
The production, it goes without saying, by Giles Atkinson was superb, the whole thing moved along at a great pace, scenes were changed almost without one realising; that must be put down to an excellently designed flying set, on two levels, using projection particularly effectively for the ‘Driving in my Car’ number.  The car too was a sight to behold. The lighting was excellent with a small amount of effective strobe lighting used to maximum effect.  The small orchestra was well controlled and led all the music and dance numbers very efficiently.  Costumes were well fitting and appropriate.
 
My only criticism of this show was that, particularly in Act 1, the sound was so loud, at times, it distorted the words and made hearing of libretto over the underscoring impossible thus making the story difficult to understand.  Things were greatly improved in Act II.  There were some fine performances, particularly from Paul Matthews as Joe Casey, Christopher Stewart as his Dad and Shelley Lofthouse as Sarah with excellent back-up from all the rest of the cast playing the myriad of small parts.  Congratulations to everyone concerned.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.