The Pajama Game

Well, this was my second Pajama Game this year, obviously a show making a ‘come-back’ on the amateur circuit, and what a delightful show it is! This production was certainly a winner for me and one was greeted with a fabulous set, well dressed, and not a band in sight…?! No, the band was cleverly positioned behind the set backstage and was expertly directed by Ashley Eynon-Davies who really captured the spirit of the show from the Overture onwards.

The Dylan Thomas Theatre is a rather intimate space and the cast used this to its full advantage managing to get a lot done in a confined arena. The Ensemble were great and supported the principals well. The vocal energy in the chorus numbers was excellent and the most of the choreography was good. The costumes were beautifully designed and well sourced and the lighting plot was invariably stunning. I was a little disappointed by the sound at times as mics were going up and down at a rate of knots and the balance was not quite right on occasion, something to think about for us all as this can really detract from a performance.

There were some very fine performances during the evening. Nathan Woodford-Rott as Hinesy and Nathan Sutton as Prez both performed well, John Betts was a convincing and suitably pompous Hasler and Sally Aston, Sammy Ellsmore and Miranda Millar played lovely roles as the factory girls Brenda, Poopsie and Mae. The two romantic leads were Cai Sutherland as Sid, who demonstrated amazing vocal ability and lovely stage presence - with Ryan Israel treating us to his lovely voice in the song ‘Hey There’ - and Kathy Peart as Babe who again had a fabulous voice and delivered all her songs beautifully with a suitable amount of feistiness when needed.

There were two stars of the performance for me and special mention must go to Leah Collet as Gladys who brought wonderful humour to the role as well as an outstanding voice, especially in the song ‘Steam Heat’, and Clare O’Leary with her perfect characterisation of Mabel. Clare’s stage presence was spellbinding, vocal ability excellent and what a wonderful mover!

Well done Swansea Ams, a great production by the cast and crew!

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