Emily Williams (starring as Rachel Marron) had the best voice I’d ever heard at the Mayflower Theatre and carried the show with it. And how did they repay her? By giving her a truly tragic wardrobe and zero opportunity to flesh out her character.
Williams’ costumes underpinned a number of other problems with this production. Dressed like a mum in 2008 in the day-to-day scenes, and sequined corsets which seemed to come straight from a costume shop over Primark leggings "on stage", we never believed that she was a “superstar”. The costume choices meant we also couldn’t work out what year we were meant to be in – if Instagram and Gordon Ramsey have been mentioned, why is our leading lady dressed like a tribute act from the 00s?
The star of the show, for me, was Emily Mae in the role of Nicki Marron. She and James Groom as Sy Spector were the only performers on stage who managed to give their characters believable depth, and Mae’s voice was spectacular. It was also shame that we didn’t get more upbeat numbers in the show because the dance troupe were fantastic and very watchable.
I haven’t ever been to a theatrical performance where the audience have laughed quite so much between ourselves at non-comedy moments. Marios Nicolaides as the stalker would creep around the stage like a pantomime villain, and it took a lot of self-restraint to not shout “he’s behind you” in one scene in which he moved through the set like he was in a Scooby Doo chase. His weapons of choice also made us laugh - the first being a large, impossibly shiny knife which looked like it was part of a children's pirate dress-up set, and the second a gun with red laser which he spent an award 30 seconds pointing into the audience. When the curtain raised for the second half, revealing Ayden Callaghan as Frank Farmer in bed and Williams wrapped in a dressing gown (her best outfit of the night), the audience didn't stop giggling until well into the start of Williams' next ballad.
Ultimately, none of my criticisms were the fault of the cast, who were doing their best with what they had been given. It is the classic flaw of jukebox musicals – they are so desperate to get all of the songs in, that they don’t give the actors enough opportunity for meaningful dialogue. Without this dialogue, jokes fell flat because we simply hadn’t been given the chance to grow to like the characters. The audience laughed at the irony when Rachel Marron’s team discussed the next movie she would make, going through a pile of scripts, and her manager asked “how many bad scripts are you going to get?”.
This show is for any Whitney fans who want to hear some five-star vocal performances, and it was clear that the mega-fans in the audience had a fun night out.
Verity Babbs is the host of Voice FM's 'Arts & Culture Show' on Wednesdays at 2PM
www.veritybabbs.com
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