Ushers - The Front of House Musical

It is always a great pleasure to go and see a ‘new to me (and I suspect the majority of the audience)’ production, so thank you so much for inviting me and congratulations on taking on an almost unheard-of show, and placing it in the safe hands of such an experienced and talented director in Liz Procter.

The show itself gives an opportunity for the ‘front of house’ staff in a large glitzy London theatre to take to the stage themselves instead of just dreaming about it.  With a cast of just six, it takes the mick out of the whole ‘professional theatre going experience’ from the overpriced programmes, ice creams and merchandise, to the audience and the block-buster theatre productions.  There is a traditional boy meets girl storyline, with a little twist at the end, and the, these days almost mandatory, gay romance, which in this case is just about on the rocks.

The music was provided by a brilliantly played solo piano – which is something of a departure for your Society, and can only assume that this was the scoring for this show?  Choreography looked simple but was very effective and not overblown or intrusive.

With any unfamiliar show, the diction is really important to ensure that the audience really do ‘get the plot’ but unfortunately this was somewhat lacking and although I did grasp the plot I feel that we missed a fair amount of the humour through simply not being able to hear the words.  On a personal level in such a small theatre, I really feel that the microphones are almost a hindrance as they distort the sound and therefore tend to amplify any poor diction. 

There were some very good characters coming through, although I do not think that the scrip was in anyway helpful in developing the characters and giving us a cohesive ‘beginning to end’ story-line. However, many congratulations to the entire cast for such good characters, lovely smiles and generally very good facial expressions, and such energy you really looked as if you were enjoying the show.  I must also congratulate you on the musical aspect – tunes that sounded so simple and catchy were I suspect musically quite difficult and there were some great harmonies coming through.

Many congratulations once more on taking on an unfamiliar musical, and providing a most interesting and entertaining evening, and for your most kind and generous hospitality.

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