Sweet Charity

This show is a challenge for societies to perform as it has a couple of quite technical scenes and, as the overture started, I could see that BasOp had chosen to use projected backdrops.  This is a burgeoning trend for amateur companies as the cost of hiring scenery continues to rise.

Unfortunately the projector stopped working almost immediately the curtain was raised so we were left to watch the show against a grey gauze backcloth.  This was a shame as it certainly detracted from the overall impression of the show. There was some lighting on the gauze, for parts of the scenes, but I appreciate that there is only so much you can do to light a large expanse of cloth. However the company carried on as though nothing was wrong although I would guess that there was some anguished discussions back stage!

Angela Phillips played the title role of Charity and she delivered a strong performance.  She commands the stage and this helped to overcome the subdued effect of the bland backcloth.  She was ably supported by Katy Potter (Helene) and Gayna Taylor (Nickie) as her two best friends, who both performed well.  Michael Plant played Oscar and I liked his portrayal of the character.

The other Principals, Richard Hill (Vittorio Vidal) Nicole Povey (Ursula) Simon Mann (Brubeck) Fred Woodrow (Herman) and Kelly Knight (Rosie) supported the performance well and a special mention for the Fandango girls, there were some lovely cameo characters, well done.

It was such a shame about the technical problems with the projection, so I went back to the theatre for the next performance to see what difference the projected back cloths made.  I was only able to see the second half and I have to say that I was still a bit disappointed.  Apart from the Rhythm of Life and Coney Island scenes (more of those later) the slides were limited to simple statements about what was happening on stage and these were only shown at the beginning of the scene so we were still left with a large expanse of gauze, for most of the scenes that I saw. 

I do think this was a lost opportunity as the colourful nature of the Coney Island scene clearly demonstrated how effective projected scenery can be. However it was a shame that the Director blocked the crowd up against the gauze so that the projected scene ‘bled’ all over them.  Far better for them to have been set underneath the box that was used (cleverly I thought) as the fairground ride.  Conversely the ‘Rhythm Of Life’ scene worked really well having the projection ‘bleed’ over the cast, as it gave a really effective psychedelic look to the scene.

The singing was lacking in volume on some occasions, notably for I’m a Brass Band, which should have been a full production number with the whole company on stage.  I assume that this was not possible as some of them were in the previous scene (Barney’s Chile Hacienda).  This brings me to the one thing, in the production, that I failed to appreciate.  This scene is the one where Oscar proposes to Charity and it is beautifully written to bring out the pathos of their relationship.  So I had expected to see a poignant scene between the two of them.  However the director chose to turn it into a comedy, which completely lost the point of the proposal.  The audience were so busy laughing at the byplay with the elderly diner that they probably missed to point of the scene

Costumes were, in the main, fine; although I think that the ‘Frug’ called for a rather more unified look than just having everyone in whatever they could find that was black and white.  Some of these costumes were good but the dance didn’t look as quirky as it should because there were so many differences in the styles of costume. I also thought the addition of frilly tulle skirts for ‘There’s Gotta Be Something Better Than This’ did not look right, although it gave the opportunity for some ‘skirt swirling’ which the number does call for!      Finally, despite the action taking place over at least a week, Charity wore the same, plain black, dress throughout.  Even if she had remained in her ‘signature’ black, I am sure that there were opportunities for her to change, which would have helped to make sense of the time passing.

The audience clearly enjoyed the production and, as that is what counts, well done to BasOP.

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