Annie by The Eastbourne Stagers Devonshire Park Theatre Eastbourne

Annie

The Eastbourne Stagers

Devonshire Park Theatre

Eastbourne

17-21 May 2011

Performance seen 19th May

You don't get a great oak tree without planting an acorn. Equally, professional performers don't just appear out of thin air. They all have to be amateur performers beforehand. I don't really like the word amateur though. It always has that 'not very good' sound to it even though this is never the case with either The Eastbourne Stagers or The Rattonians.

The price of a ticket to this musical was a maximum of £14. Less than half the price of a comparable 'professional' production. I often wonder if people think the price level is directly related to the amount of enjoyment they will get from a show? If I am being honest up to about 4 years ago I had never seen any 'amateur' production, probably thinking along the same lines. Having now enjoyed so many great musicals staged by Eastbourne's talented 'amateurs' I now feel like I've been theatrically deprived for many years.

I think I raise this subject on every Stagers or Rattonians review. But if you think that amateur in name means a lack of entertainment value what I would say is "don't knock it unless you've tried it". If you miss Annie then the next Eastbourne Stagers show is going to be the music of Madness based musical Our House in September. Anybody who is familiar with Our House and saw what the Eastbourne Stagers did with their previous shows Footloose and Summer Holiday must know this should suit them down to the ground.

So Annie is yet another musical by The Stagers that I had never seen before (that won't be the case with Our House though!). Set in the 1920's, in New York, we have our young cute, curly redhead Annie in her lucky 'escape' from a nightmare orphanage to live in the lap of luxury with a billionaire. Meanwhile a search is undertaken for her natural parents.

This evenings performance was so close to getting a perfect review, but sadly much of the spoken dialogue was drowned out by the orchestra, especially in the first half.

The lead characters all have microphones and these were fine at being heard over the music. Equally the group musical numbers were heard without a hitch. However many of the young ensemble, who had spoken lines, had to rely on their small voices projecting around the auditorium whilst competing with an almost continuously playing band. Even with just a keyboard playing spoken paragraphs were lost in full. The lips moved but not a word could be identified.

This wasn't a case of not enough gain on the microphones, just a case of not enough microphones. I noticed a few cast members trying to share mikes, that didn't work either.

Obviously it all comes down to the funds The Stagers have available for productions together with any goodwill companies can give. If these reviews do happen to be read by anybody in Eastbourne who can help these hard working youngsters be heard better and therefore appreciated more I'm sure they'd appreciate any help.

I know I wasn't isolated in feeling this was the one major issue of the evening. Our elderly guest who we took along mentioned it and from conversations with others I am aware this was raised on the Monday performance too.

I'll get my other, supremely trivial but none the less annoying, moan out of the way now also. Not down to the equipment or cast this time but down to the simple act of a knock on a door. Please when the door is on the far left of the stage could the knocking please not come from the far right? Even the cast member who is due to enter the door could surely knock on something for the sound?

But that's the only things I have problems with - equipment and knockers!

Everything else was utterly excellent entertainment and I have to say the sound issue was far less evident in the second half both because of more group singing or the lead characters, wearing the microphones, were performing the numbers.

Like The Rattonians the Eastbourne Stagers are a huge company yet they made very good use of the relatively small Devonshire Park Theatre stage and even in the most populated scenes it never appeared overcrowded.

As always there are plenty of laughs in this Stagers show and it is always refreshing to hear the huge cheers this cast receives from friends, family and appreciative visitors as the show progresses.

Once again every cast member knows their strengths and weaknesses . Those that wouldn't want a major acting role are quite happy to be dancing and singing in the ensemble. Those who have had lead roles in other productions happily letting others have a turn in this show.

Notable performances? I hate picking out anybody as it really is down to a great performance and sheer hard work by all involved. But this was so well cast I feel duty bound to give a few mentions.

Dave Nicholles is always a star and tonight was no exception as he plays tycoon Daddy Warbucks. He was also all we heard about on the 15 or so mile journey home from our elderly friend. What a nice smile he has, how handsome he is, what a lovely man he is.......... I did wonder if she was actually paying attention to anything else for two and a half hours? But hey she's a happy theatregoer and Dave has at least one groupie!

Jane James, what a great nasty, evil Miss Hannigan she was. I thought if there was ever a musical version of Matilda she'd be a fab Miss Trunchball ! And Jane in the nicest possible way that is a compliment. I love that movie and I'd be fussy about who had that role!

Tiffany Da Silva is terrific as she takes the role of  sweet Grace this time. Gareth Brighton as alleged hard man (but really hapless man) Rooster is hilarious. Good also to see Nikki Brook having much more of a leading role as Rooster's chick (pun purely a fluke) Lily St Regis.

Julian Message I thought looked great as President Roosevelt. I thought this quirky character brought a lot of fun into the second half. The 'cabinet' scene will be remembered as one of the funniest of the show.

A canine moment now. In the last few years I have seen many dogs on stage and none of them have looked particularly comfortable at being there. Except for Sandy who is played by Jonah in Annie. Now I don't know who owns Jonah but what a well behaved, tolerant, obedient dog! Often just sitting or laying down he stayed calm even in very active scenes with shouting when many a dog would have barked. A real star - give that dog a bone!

The orphans (not including Annie yet) , bless them, they are all wonderful and super little singers. But there was a little scene stealer who I think captured the heart of everybody watching and incredibly this was her first Stagers production. Referring back to Matilda young Josie Mead reminded me so much of a young Mara Wilson who played the lead role in the 1996 movie. Similar in looks, confidence in performing, excellent presentation and that same cheeky charm I could see a little star in the making tonight.

I can't run through all the company but, as they always do , everybody worked really hard and fully deserved their loud applause and cheers at the end.

The band are rarely mentioned in reviews but I just wanted to say well done to conductor Daniel Goodger and the rest of the musicians as you are always brilliant and there would be no show without you.

But the name of the musical is Annie and the outstanding star of this show is Hannah Turner. For a young performer this must surely be one of the most demanding roles in any musical?

Hannah you looked the part completely, you sang your heart out note perfect for over 2 hours and you remained perfectly audible at all times. In short I think you put in an incredible performance. Well done! You impressed many people this week and you must have some very proud parents!

Finally well done to The Stagers directors, Luisa Veitch and Nathan Morris and to everybody else behind the scenes for once again demonstrating the great talent , young and old, that exists in and around Eastbourne.

We will see you in September for Our House and I hope that many others will read this and join us!

Summer Holiday The Eastbourne Stagers Devonshire Park Theatre

Summer Holiday

The Eastbourne Stagers

Devonshire Park Theatre

14-18 Sept 2010

(Show seen 14 Sept)

Booking this show a couple of months ago was enlightening and a revelation for all the wrong reasons. It just demonstrates how ignorant some people are about the performing ability of amateur performers, particularly in Eastbourne.

On asking to book Summer Holiday we were told it's not on and they couldn't find it on the computer. With an insistence from us that was a scheduled show the booking office clerk then came back and said "Oh yes that's the one being done by the nobodies".

This is clearly an individual who has probably never even seen an amateur production and also quite clearly somebody who doesn't have a child or a relative performing in such a production. I wonder what the response would have been from the parent of an Eastbourne Stager or even a Rattonian if they had this response? Personally I find this quite insulting for anybody involved in amateur productions and perhaps theatre staff should be encouraged to see a Stagers show before they make such personal opinions to patrons? I've now seen many an amateur show in Eastbourne which I would rate above other so called "professional shows".

Anyway I have a great show to review.

Believe it or not I have never seen the movie in which Cliff Richard, of course, starred.

However, over the years and although I am not a great fan of Cliff's music, I have become familiar with all the tracks in this musical.

My other half had seen the screen classic and was more familiar with the storyline.

If anybody is like me and has been in 'Summer Holiday' hibernation since 1963 (at which time I wasn't quite born!) the story is quite simple 4 London bus mechanics make a deal with their employers. Having renovated a London bus they intend to drive it around Europe as a travelling hotel and if it makes sufficient money expansion will be possible.

In France they come across 3 female singers and their broken down car. They offer to take them to their next gig in Greece. However they don't anticipate a stowaway. They think it's a boy but it is actually a young female singer trying to escape her publicity mad mother.There's lots of jolly music, a predictable but funny love story, mayhem at European borders and plenty of opportunity for a lot of comedic moments.

So how did the Eastbourne Stagers fare with the responsibility of standing up to a Cliff classic.

Actually it was thoroughly enjoyable. Something we have come to expect from the Stagers with this being the third production we have now seen.

No, as an amateur group, they don't have the budget to go out and create a West End type set. But the recreation of the double decker London bus had clearly been given a lot of thought with both an exterior and interior view available to use. It was all that was needed in the circumstances.

Only 10 main characters are needed from the 60+ Stagers company. But those who don't have a leading role are still kept well occupied in cast dance routines and as bystanders along the route the bus has to make.

It works well. You never feel that the company has been brought on for the sake of it and the relatively small DPT stage never looked overcrowded.

For the vocal roles the Stagers know exactly who their best singers are and they seem to stick to that.
And why not? "If it ain't broke don't fix it" comes to mind!
The casting for this show seemed to be spot-on. To be fair I thought McAuley Parker (Edwin) was a little nervous to start off with as Edwin. But who can blame him? With both opening night and a large DPT audience to contend with I expect everybody had a few nerves. However as soon as he was able to concentrate on a few individual lyrics, rather than group numbers, the nerves seemed to vanish and his true singing ability was shown.

Having played such a serious role in Footloose. Dave Nicholles was able to let his hair down (or rather to put it on) as the hilarious Jerry. Jerry was the subject of conversation on many peoples lips as we left, it was a very funny role.

Helen Ward Jackson seemed at home as Barbara's eccentric mother, Stella. Rosie Sargent has a lovely voice and made a great Barbara and "Bobby". Making such a "girly girl" look like a boy though is hard and realistically Don really needs to consider dropping into Specsavers for an eyetest!

That brings me nicely to Don, alias Nathan Morris. Nice one Nathan - vocally I thought that was an incredible performance from beginning to end. If this guy had any nerves at taking on Cliff's role he certainly didn't show it!

That leaves 2 leading men still to mention Gareth Brighton as Steve and Leigh Baker as Cyril.

Leigh is always consistent in delivering an excellent performance and he doesn't let us down this time either. Steve, who played the 'hillbilly' Willard Hewitt so well in Footloose so well, again impressed the audience with his acting and singing ability.

7 down 3 to go.

The female singing group "Do Re Me" (Alma, Angie & Mimsie) were played by Becky Hervey, Shelina Hargrove and Ellen Booth. These 3 young ladies made a quite believable group both in singing ability and in appearance and like all the Stagers they looked like they were having a great time too. I think this trio had a bit of a core fan base in that first night audience too as they received an extra loud cheer at the end from one part of the theatre in particular.

If I had to pick holes in anything it would be the minor issue that I didn't really think the tiny sequence where "The Shadows" performed at the front of the stage really worked. Something just wasn't right here on the presentation front. Perhaps it was because all 4 weren't on 'guitars' or because they looked more comfortable and believable miming at the back of the stage where they were originally?

Anybody who is still in the belief that only friends and family of amateur performers go to these shows is completely wrong. It was clear from the solely positive comments as we left the Devonshire Park that so many people had no connection to any performer.

As I said in my tweet it also just goes to show you can have an excellent show without a TV star or West End performer in sight and without the huge set investment that some productions have to rely on.

If you've never seen an amateur production even if you missed Summer Holiday why not give the Stagers a chance on their next production?

As somebody said as we left "You know what? I might well go and see that again!"....... If I lived locally I would have considered the same!

Incidentally if you have children or grandchildren why not take them to see if they are interested in drama?

I wish my parents had given me such an eye-opener.

If you did go as a result of reading this ... or if you have seen the show.... why not add a comment to this post?

Nobodies? Only in the eyes of those who won't open them.

Footloose- The Eastbourne Stagers - Devonshire Park Theatre Eastbourne

Footloose

The Eastbourne Stagers

Devonshire Park Theatre

Eastbourne

11-15 May 2010

(Performance seen 15 May)

(As with last year to save typing the cast list I've 'borrowed' this from the programme)

Rating an 'amateur' production can be so much harder than a professional production, especially when you are reviewing both on the same site.

The way I see it, a first class amateur production isn't about lush sets and a huge investment in costumes. It also isn't about experiencing the finest acting and singing ever. It's more about whether you have enjoyed the show, got good value for money and thoroughly enjoyed the show throughout.

Well done to all of Eastbourne Stagers as I thought the performance tonight warranted a five star rating!

Being the last night Leigh Baker gave a thankyou speech at the end and it was mentioned to the large audience that audiences had been equally as large and given an enthusiastic response all week. If the performance on the other nights was as good as this evening's show I'm not surprised. The Stagers have another production at the Devonshire Park this year. That will be "Summer Holiday" in the week commencing 14th September. If it is as good as Footloose it should also do extremely well.

Actually amateur productions, particularly at The Devonshire Park, are regularly achieving audiences far in excess of professional touring shows. I assume that word of mouth and family recommendations must be behind the success? The amateur production producers are certainly doing something to put bums on seats. Pricing is probably a major factor too with tickets around half the price of a "professional" production. But we have enjoyed many an amateur show far more than so called star-studded shows.

The story of Footloose is, let's be honest, totally predictable and typical of the 80's style.

Dance loving boy moves from 'with it' city, Chicago, to a small town in the West. Dancing is banned here because the bible-bashing minister (who is also on the town council) lost his son in a town accident several years before. All other residents apparently either knew or were related to other victims. So dancing was banned at it was seen as a celebration and they had nothing to rejoice about. Dance lover falls in love with minister's daughter (oh dear). But the town thug is going out with minister's daughter.

Bad boy doesn't take kindly to the new, itching to do a hoe-down, resident and decides that he'd look better with his limbs rearranged. Our God-possessed minister meanwhile is having his own personal breakdown, he doesn't like his precious Ariel seeing thug boy (Ariel needs retuning?)  but in many ways the potential new 'Patrick Swayze' is seen as a bigger threat to him, his family and the town. Dance boy needs to 'adjust the Ariel', get the better of thug boy, earn the reverence of the reverend and make the town a lovey-dovey, everybodys' happy, dancin' and a jivin' kinda place.

So yes it's a predictable, rather slushy, 80's theme which needs something special to succeed.

Humour (plenty of it) , some great singing and acting , well cast characters and yes lots of good choreography is what is required to hold the attention in a story when you can predict the ending at the beginning.

And that is what Eastbourne Stagers managed to deliver.

Any show that can manage to keep you smiling from start to finish deserves to be a success and that is what Footloose did.

Last years Back to the 80's by the Stagers was good but this was great! This was a much better all-round performance from the company rather than a few people standing out amongst the crowd.

However, I don't think I'd be being fair if I didn't mention a few of the cast who went down so well with this final night audience.

Leigh Baker (could be Lee as it was spelt that way last year?) as our dance-loving lad put in an incredible performance in lead role. He was great in Back To the 80's - in the last 12 months he has got even better! Fiona Dogan was actually an extremely very well tuned Ariel (you'll be glad to hear that's my final Ariel pun). She was a very good casting as the minister's daughter and out of all the female performers she had the best yankee accent too. Tom Robinson played a convincing bad lad, Chuck Cranston.

Let's mention a couple of the more senior members. Tiffany Da Silva was vocally terrific as minister's wife and Ariel's mum (Ariel engineer? - I lied). Dave Nicholls as Rev. Shaw Moore- wow! So believable as a man of religion he could easily be a vicar in the real world. The Reverend's role is the one where the script needs to be delivered with conviction, with emotion and to be believable. Those 3 boxes were all ticked off by Dave.

Star of the night? It seems a bit unfair to pick someone out of a very impressive company but if I didn't mention Gareth Brighton who kept the whole audience in hysterics throughout with his performance as Willard Hewitt I'd be doing the poor guy an injustice.

Willard Hewitt has a sort of Forest Gump type mentality crossed with the deliverance of humour similar to Graeme Proctor of Coronation Street. Willard is the lovable village idiot, the hilarious hopeless hoe downing hillbilly. Like Fiona Dogan, Gareth had also put a lot of work into his American country accent which he even managed to keep up whilst singing well and dancing like a loony! This was an excellent comedy performance that could put many professionals to shame!

Almost forgot the excellent band. Nice to see the 8 band members weren't crammed into the relatively tiny Devonshire Pit. Instead 6 members made good use of the pit area whilst Ollie Boorman took his drum kit into the left "theatre box" and Nick Long took a huge variety of percussion instruments into the right hand box.  Good thinking and it worked very well!

Two hours of continuous entertainment - well done Stagers - look forward to September!

Back To The 80's Review Eastbourne Stagers Devonshire Park Theatre Eastbourne

Back To The 80's

The Eastbourne Stagers

15-19 September 2009
Devonshire Park Theatre Eastbourne

Cast as follows
(apologies for laziness in copying the programme for this
but it's a huge cast and at least this way I am guaranteed
to get the names as published)

Going to see this amateur production on opening night made us realise just how difficult it must be these days to ever be taken seriously as amateurs.

OK it was 1st night - but all tickets were just a meagre £9 (still only £11-£12.50 at other times) and there wasn't a single familiar face in the audience.

There was a decent sized audience but families of the performers made up a good number of these - the lack of regular theatre goers really makes you feel for these young people who have put so much into the production and doing something far more useful than roaming the streets of a night.

You don't go to an amateur show costing so little expecting a professional performance from everybody. So to the two women behind me who talked almost all the way through this show praising your own offspring whilst moaning about everyone else people like you have no place in an audience. It's just a shame you weren't thrown out.

Anyway given the price of the tickets were their moans justified?

No they weren't because you've got to base your judgement of a production on the experience of the performers.

Whilst some of these performers in Eastbourne Stagers have considerable experience on the stage the vast majority do not...... and they have got to start somewhere!

Let's get the plot to this production out of the way so I can return to a review a.s.a.p.

This is a fun and light hearted look at the 80's - the music and events at the time - through the eyes of 'Corey' who is looking back on the good times and bad from his school days.

This concentrates around Corey's love life at the time (or rather lack of it). Other main characters are big headed, bad, bully boy, Michael, who the girls adore. The lovestruck girls include Tiffany who Corey is smitten with, despite the fact she is madly in love with Michael.

Feargal is the, regularly mocked, class geek. Eileen is the school's new girl with the rather crazy Laura and Debbie who try to help her settle in.

Meanwhile teachers Miss Brannigan and Mr Cocker have their own love life problems.

Actually script wise this musical isn't really all that bad, especially for anybody like me who was a teenager in the 80's and who can relate to the decade.

There are a few slightly tedious dialogues, mostly in Act 1, but equally there is a lot of comedy.

It won't exactly have you rolling in the aisles but it is a script that will keep you chuckling. In this age of Rubik Cubes, Atari Computers, DOS, an obsession with Star Wars and with mobile phones the size and weight of housebricks there is no shortage of 80's material to laugh at.

The music from the 80's is also wide and varied with everything from Madonna's Material Girl to the lesser known Lost In Your Eyes by Debbie Gibson (Should I admit to being a DG fan at the time? Probably not!). It has to be said the music does fit appropriately into the script and despite the fact we have The Proclaimers - 500 miles, Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse Of The Heart and Video Killed the Radio Star all in the same production it all adds to an easy to follow story.

So all that out of the way how was the acting and singing - whilst remembering this is a relatively low budget production by a mainly very young amateur cast?

It was clear that a lot of thought had gone into the casting. I think The Eastbourne Stagers know exactly where the strengths and weaknesses are and that is reflected, especially in the main characters. Some can dance better than they can sing. Some can act better than they can dance....... and yes as the 'ladies' behind me pointed out (constantly) there will be those who may never be professional at any aspect - but they all give it 100% regardless.

For heaven's sake we have not paid £40 to watch a West End show! Just £9!

I think anybody who saw this got far more than £9 worth of entertainment for the evening. As I said there are those who have a lot of stage experience and it did reflect in the show. James Moy's energy, enthusiasm and singing was terrific and experienced Rattonian Nikki Brook was confident, as she always is.

However many of the main cast leave a lasting impression in this show.

Feargal the geek is played hilariously by William Holmes. Becky Fillery ,who the boys adore as her character Tiffany, has a lovely voice and appeared confident on stage. Blonde nutter Laura is played by Eloise Cosham - I think the Stagers know this young lady's strength is comedy - she was extremely funny. Rosie Sargent I thought was a very impressive singer and seemed to very comfortable in her role as Debbie - I'd be surprised if she didn't go on to bigger things.

But there are another couple of young 'ones to watch' for the future. Ellen Booth is outstanding as Eileen (yes Come On Eileen does make the inevitable musical line up, eventually). If this young lady does not end up in professional theatrical productions I'd be surprised. Lee Baker as Corey (junior) is equally impressive and does a brilliant job in the lead role.

I haven't mentioned all of the main characters by any means but have tried to concentrate on the younger members of the stagers - but the 'oldies' did an excellent job as you would expect.

I thought the full cast rendition of We Are The World was lovely and still as touching as the original Bob Geldof led classic (and did Eloise shed a tear or two? It certainly was emotionally delivered by all).

I also thought that given the resticted budget this group must have they'd still done an impressive job with the set (great car shell) and making the most of sharing microphones etc when needed with only the main cast being permanently 'wired for sound'.

Critisisms? Well lets not forget it's an amateur production but I am sure all groups like feedback.

It may have been first night nerves but the four featured backing singers never quite seemed in total harmony with each other. It was hard to tell if one was not quite as good as the other three, if all 4 were out of tune or if they were all in tune but not quite in sync.

Secondly The Devonshire Park Theatre hasn't got the biggest stage in the world. With a company of over 70 this is just a few people too many when it comes to a company performed song. I'm not too sure if they were ever all on stage at the same time but when the stage was at full capacity it was far too packed. Choreography appeared to be very restricted and male lead Lee Baker probably by now has severe backage as he got a high kick in the back more than once on this evening alone.

On a stage like the Congress Theatre has you can get away with so many people but not here. Performers get hidden and you can't fully appreciate the choreography. Perhaps splitting the Company over certain performances may have been a solution?

But hey the show certainly exceeded our expectations. It was clear the whole cast enjoyed themselves, gave 100%, and from the cheers they got at the curtain call not many agreed with the wingers behind me.

Note the following rating takes into account this is an amateur production