Sweet Charity

My first visit to the new Trinity Arts and Leisure Centre proved a real treat with the production of Marianettes 'Sweet Charity'. However, I can’t help thinking it was a production that was a treat in spite of, rather than because of the theatre in which it was performed.

The theatre itself is in the modern studio style with side drapes and a flat floor, albeit with tiered seating and good sight lines, as opposed to proper angled wings and a raised stage, Maybe I’m old school but I can’t say I’m a fan of this modern style of theatre because it presents a difficult challenge for a production like this, which is essentially a traditional ‘old school’ American musical, requiring 20 seamless scene changes involving quite large pieces of scenery. It is therefore a brave decision to attempt such a production in a theatre of this design. The scene changes, which with traditional wings would be easy thus gave the backstage crew the additional headache of often unavoidably revealing the entire wing area, complete with actors, props and scenery waiting their entrances. To me one of the theatre’s biggest no no’s!

This also meant the band were untidily positioned upstage in a random and haphazard manner in full view making them the back drop to everything, which took a bit of getting used to and at first appeared to be a bit odd. I felt either some sort of physical division between the band and the actors or presenting their layout in a more ‘engaged with the audience’ style would have given a cleaner and more defined acting area. Luckily they were well worth listening to and that said, I eventually became used to this setup and was soon absorbed in the action.

The eight-piece band, led by Musical Director Rob Brand were a top draw, tight outfit with crystal clear delivery, and what a pleasure to see one at all with so much sequential music so preferred nowadays. It makes such a difference.

Sweet Charity is basically a one girl story with few sub plots and therefore relies very heavily on the lead actress playing Charity Hope Valentine. Well I don’t know where she came from, what experience she has, or what she has done before, but Elly Taylor was absolutely perfect for this role. She was terrific from beginning to end. Her singing voice was faultless, her acting sublime and her dancing mesmerising. ‘Strictly come Dancing’ has made critics of us all and my other half, a devoted fan of the programme noted, ‘She finished every movement hitting the final note every time.’ A really talented performer. In fact, a real star i.e. somebody you would go and see regardless of the production. From the moment she came out and positioned herself in her initial evocative pose until the final curtain, her body language, facial expressions and general movement dominated the stage.

Elly Taylor was very well supported by an excellent cast and particularly by her two sidekicks, Sian Hartley-Booth (Helene) and Emily Bennett (Nicky) whose renditions of ‘Big Spender’ and particularly ‘Baby, Dream Your Dream’ were sublime!

Nicky Carter (Carmen) and Kate Brewster (Rosie) completed the excellent line-up in the Dance Hall whilst Ursula March was a suitable flighty, jealous girlfriend for Vittorio.

The male leads also had great voices (baritone) to die for, David Frazer as Vittorio Vidal with ‘Too Many Tomorrows’ and Chris Howes as Oscar Lindquist with the title number, ‘Sweet Charity’ were both glorious to listen to.

A special note must however be made of Mark Burnapp whose character, dance hall owner Herman spent the whole show barking angrily at his girls then un-expectantly stole the last number, ‘I Love To Cry At Weddings’ revealing himself to have the most fabulous of Tenor voices. It was one of those, ‘Where did that come from’ moments!

Apart from the ensemble of fine singers and actors, what really gave this show that something extra was Carly O’Mahoney absolutely sublime choreography. There are of course some numbers in this show that lend themselves to the creative imagination and O’Mahoney certainly used hers in spades with her very modern take on this sixty’s show. I particularly like her clever use of hands movements in the ensemble numbers. The dancers in my opinion might have benefitted from smiling a little more, albeit allowing for the more serious numbers, but other than that one niggle this is a clearly a classy troupe!

Sound and light were pretty much faultless. I see this theatre (or studio as I would prefer to call it) has modern LED lighting and Alice Burgess and Chloe Ingram on the lighting desk made good use of it with excellent blends of various appropriate colour washes. I could also hear every word which, considering the American accent doesn’t lend itself to good clarity, was highly impressive by Tim Garside on the sound desk.

The scenery department, Corin Eaton and Steve Ward were as I stated earlier severely hampered by the wings or rather lack of them, so wisely chose to keep it simple, which helped to make the required fast scene changes as slick as was possible. In the main from the neat use of simple handrails for the dance hall to the mobile scaffolding for the Ferris Wheel all were amazingly effective. Even the very primitive folding flat for a closet in Vittorio’s apartment worked better than I would have expected and looked wholly appropriate. I do think the elevator could however have benefited from being a little more defined, as it didn’t quite work for me. That aside a totally appropriate set for the limited working area backstage.

Costumes (uncredited) were excellent, especially for the dancers, but I can’t quite work out why Charity stayed in the same rather plain black number throughout?

So well done to Director, Peter Darnel and his team for despite putting on a production which was never designed for this style of theatre, you had us leaving the theatre with that wonderful feeling of wellbeing one has after seeing a superb, well-paced show. Certainly one of the best I’ve seen so far this year. Bedford Marianettes deserve a far bigger audience than was in attendance. Bedford’s loss! Putting bums on seats is hard work but you just have to get off your own and get out there and engage with the community. There is no other answer, it’s hard work but there is no magic button especially when you haven’t got your own theatre base, but it can be done.

Finally, many thanks to the excellent FOH staff who looked after us so warmly and particularly to Andy and Alex the two young ushers who were doing a splendid job showing everyone to their seats. 

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