"Mack & Mabel" by LEOS Musical Theatre Company.

May Hall, Long Eaton.

“Mack & Mabel” involves the stormy but romantic relationship between Hollywood silent movie director Mack Sennett and Mabel Normand, transformed from a deli delivery girl from Flatbush, Brooklyn, to one of his biggest film stars.

Sennet returns to his old studio in 1938 and in a series of flashbacks, relates the glory days of Keystone Studios from 1911, when he discovered Normand and cast her in dozens of his early "two-reelers", through his creation of Sennett's Bathing Beauties and the Keystone Cops to Mabel's meteoric rise to fame, as well as her demise.

There are some wonderful musical moments in this show. "Movies Were Movies", “Look What Happened To Mabel”, the wonderfully choreographed “Tap Your Troubles Away” and the song that most people will know from the show “I Won’t Send Roses”, and the arrangements of the score are gorgeous.

I had not seen "Mack & Mabel" for a good few years and had forgotten what a  wonderful musical this was. LEOS very quickly reminded me of that fact.

The musical spotlights a handful of lead roles but the ensemble are magnificent, both vocally and choreographically.

Dan Bates (Mack Sennett), shows what a tyrant Sennett was. Sennett barks commands to the film studio staff and is a tyrant, but then comes that lighter, more sensitive side of the character, and Dan brings that side of the movie Director to the surface also. Dan is one of those actors who only has to put on a wig and a costume to immediately morph into a character and become invisible behind the role he plays. There's also light and shade in the vocals with comic moments in "Hit 'Em On The Head" and emotional and tender sections as heard in "I Won't Send Roses" as well as the closing number "I Promise You A Happy Ending". Dan makes sure that Sennett is not only head of Keystone Studios, but also the main man, centre stage in this musical.

I commented to a friend after the show that I could not remember seeing Rachell Merrill, (Mabel Normand), before; I would certainly have remembered that voice if I had. Rachel  has been away from treading the boards locally for a good few years, despite choreographing several of LEOS recent productions. If Barbra Streisand had ever played Mabel Normand, this is what it would have sounded like because Rachel has the purest of musical theatre voices. The strength, and there are some long notes in some of these songs, and the tone is Streisandesque. Rachel is definitely the first of this wonderful cast to give me tingles from her vocals.

The chemistry between the two main characters is fiery but also tender, just as a great love story should be, and both actors seem to bring out all the best, and worst traits in Mack and Mabel.

Gavin Owen, (William Desmond Taylor), also plays a character the opposite to his own. Desmond Taylor is not a nice man, he's a manipulator but gets his comeuppance in an unsolved mystery later in Act Two, that also puts the spotlight on Mabel, but for a different reason. Playing juicy, nasty characters when you're such a nice bloke, is a testament to the acting talent that actors like Gavin possess.

Harvey Latter, (Frank Wyman), is an actor I have plenty of time for and have seen Harvey in many different roles over the years. Harvey has the aura to play perfectly vintage characters like Frank Wyman, the script writer. He also has the vocal ability to pull off the sentiment in Wyman's featured song, "When Mabel Comes In The Room", where you also discover the feelings the character has for Mabel.

Molly Parkinson, (Lottie Ames), absolutely lights up the stage with that beautiful smile of hers. One of my favourite routines in this show is the massive dance numbers "Big Time" and "Tap Your Troubles Away" - I am a sucker for a big tap number and Molly heads this one up brilliantly.

Milly Clover, (Fatty Arbuckle), gets her first principle role as Fatty and smashes it - there was never any question about it as I've seen Milly several times before and know her talents.

Stuart Bull (Mr Baumann), and Jack Woolley (Mr Kessell), play the two backers for Sennett's upcoming two-reeler films and are great in the big ensemble comedy number with Sennett in "Hit 'Em On The Head"

So, who else was involved in this show, I hear you cry?

Alice Summerton (The Writer), Victoria Palmer (Ellie The Watchman), Caitlin Sloan (Andy), Laura Davey (Ella), Lisa Stone (Iris), the Principal Dancers were Nicola Adcock, Emma Collins, Josie Coleman, Rachel Spence, Sian Hooton, Victoria Palmer and Lauren Riley.

The rest of the Ensemble were Amy Parker, Becky Morley, Liz Woolley, Louise McGowan, Mariko Jones, Tracy Hooton and Emily McDowell.

The Bathing Beauties and the Keystone Cops and all other roles were covered by the above, which goes to show what an incredibly hard working cast LEOS have for this show.

Directed by Amy Clover in her Directorial debut, assisted by Lilli White. What a show to debut as a Director but both Amy and Lilli have created a pacy and fun musical that will be remembered for a long time.

Choreographed by Rachel Spence and assisted by Josie Coleman, both choreographing debuts. The big ensemble pieces. like "Hundreds Of Girls", were pure Hollywood. I loved the Keystone Cops and Bathing Beauties choreography, and one other thing I noted as well, was the hands of the dancers, especially Rachel and Lottie. they were beautifully turned out and really finished off the armography, absolutely beautiful, right down to the footwork, everything was rounded off beautifully, showing attention to detail in the choreography by both choreographers as well as the dancers.

Musical Director is Charlotte Daniels. This eight piece band did a great job, so please do not take this next statement as criticism as it's just my personal opinion. I know that musicians and instruments are not often readily available or affordable, even now for professional touring shows. I would have liked to have had more of a lush and layered orchestral sound to match the style of musical. That may have been possible with a backing track but I love seeing a live band play live in front of me, and I will take eight very talented musicians in this band any day over a backing track. The band brought to life the feel of the era but would have loved more strings.

The Stage management for a show as big and as busy as this one is no easy task but when you have someone as adept in this role as Katie Bird, you know that the cast and crew are in safe hands.

Lighting is by David Price, and while there seemed to be a couple of nudges to get the spotlight in place on Sennet a couple of times, I must say that I loved the colour and design of the Keystone Cops scene. there's also a scene at the start with Mack sitting in a Director's chair which had just two spots from either side of the stage to illuminate him, which looked perfect. I love complex lighting designs but sometimes all you need is a simplistic design, and we got both options from David.

Sound by Sam Lenord. Over the years the sound quality at May Hall has advanced and become one of the best sounds in a local theatre setting, and yet again the sound was really good. The mix between the band and the on stage performers was well balanced and very pleasant on the ear.

The costumes  were a pure delight, especially the cop costumes and the robbers' costumes. The dancers outfits were designed to look good and allow the frantic tapping and other choreography to be able to be carried out with ease (well from an audience member point of view). there were several costume changes for all the main leads, even a green suit to accentuate the several nods to Sennett's Celtic heritage. Loved Gavin's white suit and of course, Rachel's costumes which got more glamorous with her rise to fame.

LEOS have ensured that their production is completely accessible to all with a BSL signed show on the Saturday matinee, by Kat Pearson, as well as an audio-described programme and a front-of-house touch table for prop familiarisation.

There's absolutely nothing about this production not to like, therefore you have no excuses for not supporting this show; and it's not often you see a song and dance show with so much content included. Mack wanted to make the world laugh, which he did, but a happy ending may not be a promise that Mack could keep. An entertaining evening though is something that I can promise you'll have.

"Mack & Mabel" is at May Hall, Trent College in Long Eaton until Saturday 13 April.