Fantastic Mr Fox - a musical?

Me and my sister, Fern, last night went to the Theatre Royal Norwich to semi celebrate her birthday, but also for me to review the new touring production of Roald Dahl’s classic, Fantastic Mr Fox. Prior to the theatre we had some chicken at Nando’s, a glass of wine at the Lamb Inn and bought some sunglasses and dresses at Primark (for her of course not me). It was super nice to have some sisterly brotherly quality time, never get enough of that unfortunately. This new stage adaptation of the classic children’s story was co-produced by Leicester’s Curve and the Nuffield in Southampton where it had its premiere over the most recent Christmas period. It has since started its tour this February and planning to end in July at the Lowry, Salford although more dates are rumoured to be announced.

Sam Holcoft is the adapter of this Dahl classic which sees a cunning fox and his mischievous ways, hunting out to get the better of three farmers, Boggis, Bunce and Bean, to steal their lovely chickens, turkeys and ducks (and possibly some cider, why not!) in order to feed his family and his friends, Badger, Mouse, Mole and Rabbit. I am not overly clear on how different the stage adaptation is from the book as I cannot remember it in its entirety. However the story has a lovely moral tone to it of everyone has their individual talent, no matter how big or small, strong or obvious that may be and friends and family are really important people. This is a such an important message to get over to children from an early age, and Dahl has captured it within this simple yet effective story. Arthur Darvill is the composer and lyricist, with lyrics also by Holcroft, al Muriel and Darren Clark. This new music has been used to help tell the story of these forest creatures and it’s not too bad. Although the music I don’t think will be in my head in the next few weeks I did enjoy some of the songs. I liked the rabbit’s song about her own rabbit with an adult flavour for the parents, the finale to act one was really good and the ending was great. The only thing is I cannot find out what the songs were called so I am unable to tell you all which I songs I liked and which I didn’t.

This production of Fantastic Mr Fox is very much aimed and written for a child audience. When you hear of a Roald Dahl classic being transformed to the stage you think of Charlie and the Chocolate Factor or Matilda and you get incredibly excited and when you see them your blown away. I was not blown away by this production but it was still good. I think it was much harder to transform this story due to animals and there aren’t many musicals which have a pure animal character list, and even less which are successful (…… Cats, Lion King – let me know I am bound to be wrong and missing an absolute classic J). It does sometimes feel like you are in the audience of a children’s programme, albeit a really fun children’s TV programme. But I guess this is not a bad thing really is it? unless you are two adults in an audience with no children.

I was impressed by the cast and I am sure I recognised a couple of them – not sure as they were dressed as animals, kind of. I think my favourite character and cast member award has to be given to two people. Richard Atwill who plays Farmer Bean as well as the rat was fabulous. His two characters were very different and he plays them both so well, with a great singing voice. His camp-ish drunken rat was awesome and his crazy farmer, obsessed with killing the fox is scary. Joint favourite was Rabbit, played by Sandy Foster. She was really funny, had a fantastic voice (there was someone at the end of act 1 who hit a real stunning note I think it was her, if not it was mouse). I liked that the small intimate band were also birds in this production and had a dual responsibility; this is always something I enjoy. Richie Hart heads them up as musical director, with Anna Fordham and Patrick Burbridge. There were four of them though. Maybe it was an ensemble member. Greg Barnett plays Mr Fox and he was great. There was an element of the rum tum tugger from cats about him, I am not sure if this was deliberate or unintentional or a coincidence. Lille Flynn plays Mrs Fox and again I liked her musical numbers with on-stage husband Barnett. And their on-stage baby, Kit, is played by Jade Croot, who my sister thought was really good. Although her strong Welsh accent didn’t really fit with her parents accents. Gruffudd Glyn plays Mole and Farmer Bunce, and again a welsh accent comment, I found him very much like Rob Brydon on stage, I don’t know why but I really liked him in his role. The Mouse is played by Kelly Jackson. I loved her little poem and song about cheese, I thought the lyrics and construction of the song were very good. Edward Hole played Badger and Farmer Boggis in this production, and I thought he was a good replacement although the funniest thing was that he had the surname hole and the whole show is about animals living in holes.

I thought the set was cleverly designed. I liked the use of levels and bringing the forest to the large stage was very well achieved. I did feel there was some copying of the Cats set with the use of rubbish and litter to be used as props and furniture, but I can’t really hold that against them, Cats is amazing. Tom Scutt also designed the costumes as well as the set. I thought the costumes were very imaginative and modern; a really original idea. Instead of typical fury animals, the animal costumes described their personalities I think. A sporty rabbit, a mining fox family, a referee badger, another sort of mining mechanic mole. I am not entirely sure what the mouse was supposed to be, maybe a teacher? Super impressed by that idea. All this directed by Maria Aberg with Ayse Tashkiran on movement – I have to say I wasn’t too impressed with the movement or dancing, this was very children’s TV gone poor.

Fantastic Mr Fox would be a great musical, show for children to see. I think it is a great show to start that musical fan career in our next generation. I have to say it is not going to make my top 25, but I am pleased to have been given the opportunity to see such a show. I liked some of the music and lyrics and would listen to them again. The story is not the most magical or interesting but it is a classic and it holds a really strong morality which is very important. I wish the rest of the tour luck as it visits Bradford and Salford, and I think more dates were due to be released soon. The show is at The Norwich Theatre Royal until Saturday. There are shows at 10:30am tomorrow and Saturday, with a 7pm tomorrow night and a 2:30 matinee on Saturday. Next week you’ve got Funny Girl at the Theatre Royal with tickets still available. See you soon guys. Get in touch on twitter @AaronBurgess89.

The Play That Goes Wrong on UK Tour

Got to see my Beez last night which was just what I really needed. We of course were off to the Norwich Theatre Royal to see a play. I know a play who of thought it, a musical theatre addict going to see a play, no music (well Duran Duran were featured) but I do like a serious play haha. Anyway more on The Play That Goes Wrong shortly. We went to a little French Restaurant known as Café with a colour (necessarily disguised for advertising reasons) where I had Demi Poulet pour Frites which translates to chicken and chips, basically a dirty takeaway for me. It was so so nice to catch up and have a laugh before going to the theatre, and of course we were nearly late as per usual. I am super anxious when it comes to lateness at the theatre but we arrived just in time for the curtain up although it had already gone up. – Oops!

The Play That Goes Wrong, by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, is a comedy that won the 2015 Olivier award for Best New Comedy. Well I completely understand why it won. This play is very funny. Proper British slapstick comedy which reminded me of the likes of Rowan Atkinson’s Mr Bean, Laurel and Hardy, Monty Python and the other well-known classics. Although I was not laughing from start to finish I had some proper LOL moments and giggled throughout. People could not stop laughing and at certain hilarious points I could not hear the subsequent lines of those on stage through the laughter in the auditorium. My favourite bit was quite possibly when a description was read by one of the actor’s: “Sobs!” – can’t stop laughing 24 hours later. The play takes the longest running production of the West End, The Mousetrap, or a similar story, which is produced by a fictitious drama group. The play, as the title suggests, goes wrong and not just wrong, immensely wrong. From start to finish it goes wrong and boy do I mean it goes wrong. From the wrong lines, the wrong props, missing actors, bad actors, props falling, set collapsing and actors being knocked out, it pretty much goes to plan. I wonder if this happens to the well-established likes of Judi Dench and Maggie Smith.

Following a successful run in the West End and continuing to win awards over the pond (Broadway) The Play That Goes Wrong is also enjoying a successful second UK tour. The show is still running in both Broadway and the West End at the Duchess Theatre. This show is perfect for those of you who need a good laugh with the terrible climate we are all living in at the moment. You will laugh throughout I guarantee. I still say it must be so hard to purposefully get things wrong all night, but then again for those on stage (and of course off stage) they are getting it right according to the script. However, I doubt we as an audience would even know if anything does actually go wrong. At some points I was covering my face and shouting out as I was thinking is this supposed to happen, poor person on stage. Put it this way I really got involved.

The small cast are all extremely funny. I do have to admit I think some parts of the show are just there for obvious humour reasons but the majority of the show had me in honest stitches, with my loud yelp of a laugh at points (which is a good thing). Katie Bernstein is the stage manager who has to become Florence for part of the play. She is most funny when it comes to act 2 when she is more on stage that off stage. Adam Byron plays Robert who in turn is Thomas Colleymoore. Very funny character and actor and at one point I thought he was going to fall off the set; my heart was in my mouth. Jason Callender plays Jonathan who is the dead Charles Haversham (well supposed to be). My Beez thought he was fantastic and he was very funny trying to play dead on stage if it wasn’t for his useless co-stars. Edward Howells plays Dennis (who is Perkins the butler) and I thought his inept way of pronouncing words was very well crafted comedy. Alastair Kirton plays Max who is Cecil. The camp guy, we loved Alastair. The difficulties he faced kissing his female colleague and being overwhelmed by the audience, I can very much see myself being like that if I ever pull my finger out and join an amateur dramatic society.

Meg Mortell plays Sandra who is the original Florence in act one and returns midway through act 2. The battle between the limelight, being trapped in a clock and over acting were all highlights for me.  Graeme Rooney plays Trevor the tech guy off stage although he features enough on stage and even gets a turn at playing Florence (a well sort out part I hear you cry). The only thing I would change would be to give him a red dress but as I understand there was only one available. Patrick Warner plays Chris, the society director and playing the detective in their production. A worthy comedy actor on stage and I liked his introductions to both acts, very much set the comedic scene for me. It is difficult to say specific funny bits for each character as they were all super funny.

Mark Bell directs this fantastic and hilarious play. Nigel Hook is set designer and this is no ordinary set (who has just won the Tony Award this year for Best Set Design for the Broadway production). To design something to fail must have been no easy planning phase. I am sure set designers do not wake up and think, how can we make this set fall apart. Well he has done an excellent job and that set, it does not work. Well it does for us, just not in the intended way. The props on stage and the coordination for where they are and who is propping them back up were planned to the pin point. I was looking for a choreographer in the programme as it just felt so organised and like a dance. Very impressed. Ric Mountjoy oversees Lighting and costumes were designed by Roberto Surace.

The Play That Goes Wrong is a really funny night out for all the family. I was very impressed with how the play can create such comedy without using swearing or crudeness. I spoke with Judy Foster, from the Theatre’s communications team, during the interval and we discussed how many new comedies both on stage and screen rely on this approach to gain a few laughs. The classic comedy of this play relies on old style humour and it works so well. If you’re feeling down or low, stressed at work, too much going on in our busy lives, try and get to see this play. From the Norwich Theatre Royal, the show visits Birmingham, Dublin, Nottingham, Southampton, Malvern, Plymouth and ending in Canterbury and is booking in the West End until February 2018. The show is not sold out this week although tickets are extremely limited for all shows, nightly from 7:30pm, with matiness Wednesday and Saturday at 2:30pm. I would book quickly to avoid missing out. Please get in touch I would love to hear what you guys think of this show, I am on twitter @AaronBurgess89. Until next time, I think I am off to see Fantastic Mr Fox next week, take care.