The Witches Of Eastwick

Yet another top class production by B.O.D.S. This was the first time that I had seen this musical and I was not disappointed. A show of this high standard does not happen without a lot of very hard work.

The story centres on the small New England town of Eastwick, Rhode Island. The inhabitants are ruled over by the bossy and nosey Felicia Gabriel and her down-trodden, hen pecked husband Clyde. Top marks must go to Beryl Dixon and Ben Merriman for capturing these two characters admirably.

Three friends meet up at Alex’s house, they are the modern day witches who live miserable and lonely lives and are all in similar situations. They innocently plot and conjure over a brew of weak Martini’s and peanut butter brownies for a man, the ‘perfect man’. They all have different personalities but their ‘needs’ are the same. Sarah Carrick, Rachel Craig, and Michelle Larcombe as Alex, Sukie and Jane worked the stage well and created excellent cameos for themselves, they interacted well and their singing of this complex musical score was fantastic.

Most of the acting honours must go to Martin Craig whose performance as the devil himself, ‘Darryl Van Horne’ was quite something, he totally commanded the stage both vocally and physically, his seduction of the three ladies was very bewitching with humorous innuendos, but never smutty, a brilliant performance, wow!

There was a fine supporting cast. Tom Halfpenny was ideally suited to the part of Michael Spoffard and Laura Thompson as the gentle Jennifer Gabriel, but how things change during ‘Dance With The Devil’. Everyone on stage played their parts well, one of my favourite numbers was the singing of ‘Dirty Laundry’, what a lot of great songs. The climax was the finale to Act 1 with the witches flying, with so much sorcery, wizardry and the devil himself, I just ‘wished’ we could have seen the witches fly once more, but I can’t have wished hard enough.

Well I must say well done to the production team, the choreography was vivid and imaginative. The orchestra under the baton of Paul Blake was really excellent and not forgetting the back stage crew for their hard work for what obviously was a technically difficult show, and also sound and lighting. All this added up to a most enjoyable theatrical evening. Thank you.   

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