The Hitman

When visiting the theatre there is often a habit of comparing productions to other things you have seen, however, in this case Driffield Musical Theatre has made this very difficult to do. A truly original adapted murder mystery musical was the direction this talented group decided to take their summer production.

When walking into the venue all the chairs were set up in cabaret style with people being encouraged to bring their own drinks and nibbles to enjoy along with the performance. The stage was set at the start as a plain stage with a back curtain and allowed for a wonderful performance of the song Fame as if the audience were watching a gig. What followed was an entertaining performance full of singing, dancing and intrigue. After twenty-five years have passed since the start of the show the stage changes into a wonderfully set home of retired Band Manager, Orson Cart (Lee Wilson) throughout the second song, ‘Around here’ which was extremely well sung by Charli Willis, Lee Wilson, Chloe Ellis and Gemma Walker.

Driffield Musical Theatre encourage the audience to follow all the clue and hints to unveil the murder of the severely unliked Orson in a classic who dunnit style show full of intrigue, motives and means. Although all the characters were linked in some way, they all had very different personalities and back stories which each cast member delivered well to enhance the clues that were provided.

The main body of the show started by the delightfully devious Orson inviting all past colleagues to his home where he berated them all for their many bad decisions within their lives. Although a smaller role Lee Wilson portrayed this character so well that as an audience member you wanted to dislike him as soon as he began. No band manager would be complete without their talented and beautiful band in this case the Vestal V’s, combining the wonderful vocal performances of Dyan Dee playing Phyllis Stein, Amy Wilson playing Evanne Jelliccal and Eloise Bulmer as Constance Noring. These three worked excellently together and really looked like they had been working together for years.

Every show needs partners in crime either literally or figuratively and this show had two sets. Firstly the wonderful couple of Rhoda Mandalaya (Linda Wilson) and Justine case (Sheenagh Austen), these two worked wonderfully together and added such a caring sense to the show it was truly touching coupled with the occasionally testiness of Justines character to add some spice. The Bonnie and Clyde styling of the duo of Jean Poole (Jenny Townsend) and Joe King (Ray Jones) was sensational. The overall air of calm and loving relationship was later revealed as a cunning and crafty twist.

No murder mystery would be complete without the super sloth team to correlate the evidence and uncover the dastardly scheme. In this case this was done by Mona Lott (Charli Willis) Charli’s Holmes inspired performance really gave the show shape with clever quips and veiled insults a plenty. The accompaniment of the aptly names Anna Lyst (Chloe Ellis) added a great sense of light to the seriousness of the detective duo. One highlights in this performance for me was the acting talents of Gemma Walking portraying Laura Norder and Mellissa Hill portraying Sue Ridgepipe. These two really came into their own in the performance and you could see the many layer to their characters within.

Again Driffield Musical Theatre has worked tirelessly to produce an intriguing production with beautifully put together singing and dancing performances and highlighted the best of what they had to offer. It really is a breathe of fresh air to see a different type of show, and if for that reason and not for any of the others I have mentioned above they’re definitely worth a note in your  calendar to see the their next show.

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