The Witches of Eastwick

After a warm welcome from the Front of House team and a chat with some Springers committee members, I settled in my seat and the show began, with the large logo on the curtain, and a taster of the high standard of music to come from the 8-piece band led by Musical Director Ian Southgate.

This musical is based on the John Updike novel and the 1987 Hollywood film, set in an ‘everyone knows your business’ small town, three female friends discuss what their ideal man would be like. When a stranger moves to town and seduces each of them in turn, they realise they might have actually conjured him up, entirely unaware of the exciting and dangerous events to come.

Linda McNeill (as Alexandra), Becky Webber (as Sukie), and Sophie Holmes (as Jane) worked so well as a believable friendship group, being three very distinct characters, playfully honest with each other, I particularly liked their scene while the storm raged outside (with very effective sound and lighting). Individually they each sing well, but when together blended in unison, and in split harmonies they were absolutely on point, vocally very impressive, a real highlight of the show like a thread running through to their uplifting final song.

Simon Brett played Darryl Van Horne with devilish charisma and self-assured presence, and a remarkably strong and clear signing voice shown at it’s best in the Act 2 songs Dance with the Devil, and Who’s the Man? These four leads were well cast and hardly off the stage, with some very quick costume changes.  Lois Gardner was appropriately haughty as Felicia Gabriel, and skilfully managed coughing up various items, being the victim of some magic. The supporting characters of Michael (by Matt Scott) and Jennifer (by Charlotte Golden) also came under Darryl’s influence, they sang nicely particularly in the duets with Darryl and Sukie, and mild-mannered Clyde (by Dan Cartlon) provided a surprising turn in the storyline.

The ensemble songs had good movement and a nice energy to them, though I’d have liked ‘Dirty Laundry’ to move from obvious disapproval to full-on scandalised gossiping, making more use of the featured soloists. The browns and dulled general colour palate worked well, as did the change to red clothing for the three ladies after they entered into the foursome arrangement with Darryl. The flames up the long side flats looked great in the scenes with the red and black costumes and complimentary lighting, and pacey set-piece choreography.

Co-directors Barry Miles and Sharon Scott had plenty of different scene locations to contend with, and a variety of projections were used, onto the backwall, and using a front cloth. The designs were created in-house and suited the style of the production. Unfortunately when using the balcony mounted projector there was some image bleed onto actors faces and paler costumes, and lighting levels affected the sharpness of the images, though was unavoidable with that set up. A low platform added a different level to the performing space, and furniture was used to give a lived-in look to the houses. I liked the attention to detail on the tombstones, bad quality lettering can be so distracting.

The memorable image of the show for me was the end of Act One, when the three witches went up on the fly wires as they took hold of their powers, suspended high above the stage and the audience, with elegant drape dresses in different colours, the stage lit to match them, beautifully singing the end to the song I Wish I May.

Congratulations to all involved with this production of The Witches of Eastwick, a darkly humorous and entertaining show.

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