The Witches of Eastwick

The Witches of Eastwick is set in a typical New England town, it tells a story of wit, irrelevance and pointless values of small town people, with a twist. The Three main characters are witches who amongst the local gossip, scandals and sorcery are just out to seek the perfect relationship.

Leitina Reuben-Travers played a brilliantly protective Alex Spofford, whilst balancing the issues with body confidence. Her vocals were strong and accompanied the other two leads well. Georgia Evans playing Jane Smart, showed a great transformation from the timid cellist, to a free willing women not afraid of anything. Jessica Dyer playing Sukie Rougemont was also brilliantly acted, her speech including the stutter was unfaultable. I think she carried the character with great confidence and I thoroughly enjoyed her performance. All together and individually the women showed strong singing voices. Doug Pattie as Darryl Van Horne was a delight to watch. His smarmy facial expression and little smiles brought out the character. Calvin Lawrence as Clyde Gabriel was acted very well against Margaret Wainwright as Felicia Gabriel.

My favourite part of Will Moore playing Michael Spofford was the love song he shared with Holly Brown playing Jennifer Gabriel.

Holly Browns Choreography was fantastic throughout, it looked as though it was very cleverly thought out, especially knowing peoples limits. An example of this was during a chorus number a couple of the ladies stepped aside, as from what I assume the dance was too much for them. Holly didn’t shy back from putting people out of their comfort zone and the dances were filled with much energy. The music was very good throughout the whole performance, my only note here is that I thought the singers mics could have been turned up a little more. Sometimes it was hard to here them over such a powerful orchestra.

The set was simple and iconic. I liked the use of minimalism, however I did think that Alex’s house could have  been used more effectively with maybe just a sofa and more use of a lighting effect.  My favourite set was Darryl Van Horne’s home, it symbolised his lavish lifestyle well. The use of the flying technique was very well done with hardly any harness’ showing.

Credit goes to Tim Ingall for his performance of Fidel, whom when on stage I couldn’t take my eyes off. Simple little movements directed at correct times made his character very enjoyable.

The costumes were bright, showing a good match for a small New England town. I thought Alex’s Wig was brilliant, you would have never know it wasn’t real. My only note here is that  jackets and cardigans could have been used more effectively by the chorus to show the change in days. Also the witches seem to be wearing their trench costs for quite a while throughout the second half.

Overall I think Rob Bristow did a brilliant job at directing such an enjoyable show, Well done to all concerned

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