The King and I

I was looking forward to returning to Accrington in 2013 following their excellent production of the Sound of Music in 2012.  I think that this is a difficult show to stage, as the characterisations need to be believable, the costuming and sets lavish and the music faultless.  Accrington certainly achieved most of this in their production.  The sets looked fantastic and the costumes were excellent.  Lighting was first class as usual and the orchestra were up to the usual high standard led by Chris Andrews.  The chorus singing was very good indeed, so well done to Sue Moretta.

Dave Pilkington delivered a nice interpretation of Captain Orton and Dave Slater and Steve Potts made light and entertaining work of the Kralahome and the Interpreter respectively.  Lun Tha was ably portrayed by Simon Jackson and some excellent line delivery and lovely vocal work by Bethany Clews as Tuptim.   The two boys playing Louis and Chululongkom were both first class working very well together, in fact the society has a great deal of talent in its younger members, which is always great to see.

Howard Raw played the King; unfortunately this just didn’t work for me.  Howard worked hard, but with age and a difficult accent working against him, I couldn’t really empathise and believe in the character, it was a good effort though.  Gina Cole worked very hard as Anna and I felt for her as the chemistry between her and the King just wasn’t there.  Her vocal work both in line delivery and singing were as superb as usual, but the two characters never really came together.  This was a shame as these two characters dominate the show and really need to work to pull everything else together.

One of the best scenes in the show for me was the Small House of Uncle Tom scene.  This was superbly choreographed and performed with exceptionally nice interpretation of character by the girls from JMS Dance School, so well done to Emily Friend and all the girls involved in the scene, a tremendous and professional piece of work.

The Kings children were great, every last one of them, all keeping to character in their little cameo performances, well done to all of you.

The backstage crew all performed admirably with slick and seamless scene changes, so well done to Ian Rimmer and his crew.  The performance had been well directed and the scenes flowed well from each to the next, encapsulating the story line, Howard had done a fine job with well drilled cast movement and interaction.  Whilst this wasn’t as good (in my view) as the last production, Accrington still had a successful show and I wish them best of luck for next year.

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