From the moment John Hargreaves' excellent band started to play we knew we were in for a good night out. Mike Painter as Stripper Keno Walsh whipped the audience into a frenzy with his strip, revealing a very nice body!, which set the tone nicely for the calssic story that unfolded.
The original film was set in Sheffield, the musical is set in Buffalo. At first I thought this would take some of the charm away from the plot, but I was wrong. The tears, laughter & pathos were still there in bucket loads.
Chris De Pury played Jerry, the out of work Steel Worker, with a son to support and an ex-wife breathing down his kneck for maintenance. He struck the right balance as the straight man opposite the larger than life Kevin Gauntlett as Dave (the fat one). Together they made a perfect team nicely playing off each other. James Harrison-Baker played the hapless Malcolm to perfection, and their trio "Big Ass Rock" was a highlight.
Simon Judd had the right touch of superiority as Harold, while Leigh McLean as Horse brought the house down with "Big Black Man". The final member of the Stripping sextet was Peter Fiorini as Ethan, who seemed to drop his trousers at the drop of a hat! - very funny indeed!
The Full Monty also has some excellent parts for the females with Tracy Prizeman and Amanda Farrant excelling as Vicky and Georgie, their duet "You Rule My World" was beautiful. Pauline Gregoire as the Showbiz old-timer was perfect, a comedienne who gave a lesson to all in characterisation and timing!
Another WWOS triumph, full marks to choreographer Jacqui Morris for some top class routines. I believe they will be repeating the show at The Ashcroft Theatre in March next year. If you missed it the first time, put it in your diary now!
Ben Kidd
Words & Music Nov/Dec 2010
Unsolicited comments by the Chairman of Leatherhead O.S.
- an extract from the publicity article in Words & Music
for their forthcoming production of The Full Monty -
Are you a society putting on this show? If so, please take my advice - stage it. We thought that casting a show like this was going to be difficult and fraught with problems, but this was just not the case.
I thought that it would be just six men, a young lad and a few girls, but when I went to the Churchill Theatre in Bromley where WWOS were staging the show they had a cast of over forty, twenty six of them with speaking parts, the rest of the cast made up of dancers and sundry assorted cameos. It is a show that lends itself to any size of cast you require.
WWOS produced one of the finest shows I have seen in years. I attended the matinee, unsurprisingly accompanied by the blue-rinse brigade, who comprised three quarters of the audience, but for such a large theatre to be well over half full in the middle of the week was impressive indeed.
