TWISTED - The Untold Story of a Grand Vizier

As a passionate musical theatre enthusiast of many years, it’s always exciting to watch something new and out of the ordinary, so I was really looking forward to my visit to the Centenary Theatre in Wellington on Friday evening to see ‘Twisted – The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier’, especially as it was being presented by the Telford And District Light Operatic Players.

Having seen and reported on TADLOP’s exceptional and award-winning production of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ at Theatre Severn’s Walker Theatre in October last year, I could almost guarantee that this virtually new and unknown musical was in safe hands, and so as I fastened my imaginary seat belt to join them on their magic carpet ride to lands afar, I felt sure that we were in for a great night’s entertainment. And I certainly wasn’t disappointed. From start to finish, the show was absolutely outstanding!

‘Twisted’ first came to life in a limited run at the Greenhouse Theatre in Chicago, Illinois, in July 2013 and was released on YouTube later that year. The show is a parody of the story of the 1992 musical fantasy film ‘Aladdin’ and cleverly written in the style of ‘Wicked’ in which the popular story is told from the villain's point of view. It also cleverly pokes fun at everyone’s favourite hand-drawn animated musicals.

Once upon a time, in a faraway land, lived Ja’Far, an honest, hard-working politician and misunderstood Royal Vizier, who sets off on a quest to save his magic kingdom from a bumbling sultan, an invading prince and the most notorious thief who’s ever lived. Corruption is rampant, crime is on the up and up and the kingdom is on the verge of bankruptcy. With the help of the kingdom’s free-spirited princess, the Vizier must do everything possible to find the legendary magical oil lamp which contains a wish-granting Djinn – more commonly known as a Genie to most of us - and use his powers to defeat the villainous Aladdin, even if their journey gets a little ‘twisted’ on the way!

Having met Rich Kee, TADLOP’s Chairman, for the first time last year and subsequently had chance to fully appreciate his talents as both a director and performer, we were able to chat at great length about how, completely out of the blue, he had discovered this new and exciting musical work and secured the performance rights for TADLOP to stage it in a West Midlands premiere, with Rich playing the title role of the Royal Vizier, Ja’Far.

Apart from oddments of everyday clothing, bizarrely hanging from each of the black legs on either side of the stage, the main performance area was completely devoid of any scenery and as the house lights dimmed into a total pitch blackout, a white spot snapped on to reveal the very beautiful Sherrazade (Debra Nimo), dressed in a stunning purple bejewelled costume and standing in a pool of pure white light to introduce us in the most mystical of voices to the story.

Prologue delivered, Sherrazade left the stage as Rich Kee entered, dressed in his majestic Royal Vizier red-and-black robe with matching turban and reading a book - as if by coincidence ‘Wicked’ - to sing the first part of ‘Dream A Little Harder’ and making an immediate impact on the packed house with his great personality and stage presence.

A few lines into the song, the lights brightened and the stage became flooded with colour as the market vendors and other featured players, including the baker, book shop owner and an hilarious brightly-coloured ‘bird’ entered, none of them clearly very fond of Ja’Far from some of the comments they were making. Nevertheless, they were all in terrific voice, skilfully grouped and delivering the most dazzling opening number with wonderfully harmonic singing and choreography from the entire company which reminded me very much of ‘Belle’ from ‘Beauty & The Beast’. In fact, at one stage in the song, Ja’Far accidently bumped into a village girl called Belle who was also reading a book - but she wasn’t so polite!

Next to arrive on stage was the villain of the story, Aladdin, portrayed with great skill by Robyn Marsh who brought a wonderful but different perspective to the traditional hero character we’ve grown to love from film and pantomime. Accompanied by his most amazing monkey, very cleverly manipulated to our great amusement by puppeteer, Thalia Gill, Aladdin wasted no time in boasting about his misdemeanours of only “stealing what he could afford” in a rousing rendition of ‘I Steal Everything’.

With the addition of two stone pillars and a chaise longue, the scene swiftly changed to the Ante Room of the Royal Palace where we met Ja’Far in a rather agitated conversation with Prince Achmed of Pixar, majestically played by Charis Virgo, who was greatly distressed by having had his rear end nibbled by a Bengal Tiger which the Princess, the otherwise lovely Jasmin Bennett, had set upon him. And to prove his rather embarrassing injury, he turned round to show us! Despite Ja’Far’s endeavours to calm the situation, the Prince threatened war on the Magic Kingdom, not helped by the Princess’s selfish attitude and, despite being the most rich and powerful girl in the land, still wanted to get more out of life which she sang about in a wonderfully delivered and meaningful rendition of ‘Everything & More’. Her voice was quite sublime.

Following a whole heap of shenanigans and some further well delivered and staged vocal numbers, it wasn’t long before Ja’Far discovered the whereabouts of the magic lamp from storyteller Sherrazade with whom he quickly fell in love and married in a joyous performance of the duet ‘1,001 Nights’, only to have his happiness quickly dashed by the hilarious, very strange-looking and peculiar-voiced Sultan (Emma Paterson-Stevens) who selfishly demanded to have Sherrazade for his hareem. In despair and powerless to save her, Ja’Far sang of his wishes and plans to get her back in a very affectionate rendering of ‘If I Believed’.

Meanwhile, the Princess had run off with Aladdin who was tugging at her heart strings with ‘Orphaned At 33’ but before they got chance to even kiss, he was arrested and thrown into jail. Kindly bailed out by Ja’Far but not without reason, Aladdin was quickly dispatched to the Tiger Head Cave in search of the magic lamp and wish-granting Djinn but not before he, Ja’Far and the Princess joined forces in ‘Happy Ending’, another wonderfully performed musical number and a highly appropriate and cheerful conclusion to the first act.

Interval over, the second act began in superb military style with a powerful rendition of ‘No One Remembers Achmed’ to celebrate the return of the Prince to his own territory with all the ensemble dressed as his faithful legions in smart black robes with an orange belt, white tops and all sporting a moustache! A real showstopper!

Back in the Magic Kingdom, despite Ja’Far’s warnings, the Princess still ended up on a magic carpet ride with Aladdin in a beautifully sung duet – ‘Take Off Your Clothes’ – very reminiscent of ‘A Whole New World’ but with lyrics much more tailored to what Aladdin was naughtily trying to achieve but failing miserably!

Having snatched the magic lamp back from Aladdin and being accused of sorcery by the Sultan, Ja’Far was now on the run and spookily joined by several notable cartoon characters including Ursula, Scar, Gaston, Maleficent, Hook and Cruella. With the exception of Cruella, each of them claimed only to have been labelled as a villain as a result of their stories being ‘twisted’ as they circled Ja’Far in a brilliantly performed version of the title song set centre stage with a cleverly choreographed slow-motion battle being acted out in silhouette against the white cyclorama.

And the rest, as they say is, more or less, history. Having found out that the Princess is actually his daughter and after releasing the Djinn (Mako Hathaway) from the magic lamp, Ja’Far uses his first wish to make himself Sultan, the second to make himself a powerful sorcerer and the third to take the Djinn’s place in the magic lamp which he then handed to The Princess believing that her youth and passion was the only one who could use the lamp's power to its fullest potential which they both described in a final very moving rendition of ‘The Power In Me’.

Now trapped in the lamp forever, Ja’Far resigns himself to his fate when he is suddenly lovingly greeted by Sherrazade, brought back to life by the loyal Princess's last wish - so all ends pretty much happily ever after.

‘Twisted’ is most certainly up there with one of the most fantastic productions I have had the pleasure of watching and, without exception, every single member of TADLOP’s hugely talented company combined to bring this new and exciting version of a familiar tale to life in such an exceptional way. Apart from the named principals, many of the ensemble played multiple roles so a huge well done to you all.

Apart from the occasional piece of scenery and furniture, which were was seamlessly introduced when and where required by a very efficient stage crew headed by Nat Hodgkiss assisted by Rami Walkden. I particularly liked the way that the main stage platform area had been deliberately left uncluttered to allow a greater freedom of movement, especially in the full-company musical numbers.

The stage lighting, much of which and been hired in, was exceptionally well designed and operated by Bryonie Wilkes and Charlotte Collier and the sound, including the amazingly orchestrated backing tracks were operated with equal precision by Phil McIver and Amy Minshall. I didn’t spot one sound cue missed!

The huge variety of costumes used in this production were all imaginatively designed and added a perfect blend of image and colour to each of the characters. Hats off to Amy Minshall, Kitty Walkden and Sophie Bustin for your obvious skills in the production wardrobe. I would also like to congratulate Charlotte Collier for the creation of the wonderfully animated ‘bird’ and monkey puppets.

But, as always, my final comments, and probably the most important, must go to Director, Kitty Walkden who had clearly honed every aspect of this new work to the very highest of theatrical standards, to Musical Director, Amy Minshall, for the exceptional quality of all the solos, duets and ensemble numbers, and to Beth Williams for the imaginative and breathtaking choreography and musical staging.

Thank you as always for your hospitality and warm welcome. I’m already looking forward to seeing you all again in Much Wenlock for ‘Frozen’ later in the year.

Chris C Bell, Acting Regional Representative, NODA West Midlands District 2

As Regional Councillor for NODA West Midlands, I too was pleased to receive an invitation to a performance by TADLOP, as the bar is most certainly always set at an extremely high level. Like Chris, I had no prior knowledge of this show other than seeing the promotional material. The show was certainly not for the faint-hearted and perhaps not necessarily the choice for every musical society. Having said that, TADLOP embraced the challenge with gusto and delivered a quality performance. The audience were completely on board with the show and were not shy in demonstrating their appreciation of both the production and its humour - including the memorable bitten backside scene!

Chris has encapsulated the show above, covering the quality of the vocals, movement, and costumes. The puppets and puppeteering were remarkable. Although I have not named any one individual - Chris has already done this - I must acknowledge first-time director Kitty Walkden for taking on what is, by and large, an unknown show. This most certainly enabled her to put her own stamp on the production without any preconceived ideas of “it’s always done this way.”

For me, it was a delight to speak with cast members post-show, and I share my congratulations with everyone involved, whether on stage, part of the production team, or working backstage.

Alongside Chris, I also look forward to ‘Disney’s ‘Frozen – The West End Musical’ in October. The date is already in the diary!

Andy Brown, Regional Councillor NODA West Midlands

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