Our House - The Madness Musical

This adaptation of the film of the same name certainly proved a winner with BROS and their audience. It was a big risk for the group to step away from their more traditional type of musicals so it will be interesting to see how many people who had not supported the society before will continue to do so in the long run. The fast moving production, very well directed, with the music of Madness follows the story of Joe Casey, a teenage lad convincingly portrayed by Ryan Moss, who breaks into a property on a spree with his girl friend.  The storyline then follows his two different choices, to be good and admit his act or do a runner which, if not played well, can leave the audience wondering what it is all about. The alternatives from taking the path to good or bad were well portrayed by the costume changes which were fast and very efficient.. The show had the benefits of a strong all round cast with Joe's girlfriend played by Rebecca Anderson giving an excellent performance.  Her beautiful duet with Joe, ‘It must be Love’ was a show stopper. Their friends Angie & Billie played by Vikki Strachan & Caroline Field and Joe's side-kicks Lewis played by Ben Michael & Emmo played by Ryan Richardson added to the humour of this well presented production. I felt that Joe's Dad played by Graeme Clements, sang well but was badly costumed failing to give him an ethereal persona as he was dead for the bulk of the show. In contrast Joe’s mum well performed by Julie Waite was totally convincing and appropriately costumed throughout.  The bad guy Reecey was very well portrayed by Richard Millen coming over as a really unpleasant piece of work causing Joe to stray whenever he tried to go straight. I must just mention Bruce Stewart who appeared in a great many guises, all different and all very memorable and exceedingly funny. Whether it was the sound system or balance of band against voices I don’t know but I found the music really loud. One or two characters came over very well against this big sound but many did not. It is essential to check the balance both without an audience in the theatre and then again with a full house to get it spot on. The dancing was interestingly choreographed with good ensemble numbers, and the set worked extremely well.  This was another good production by BROS.  Well done everyone.

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