"Fisherman's Friends :The Musical"

Nottingham Theatre Royal.

I can remember seeing the 2019 film of the Cornish group of fishermen who formed into a local buoy band to sing sea shanties. And who'd have thought they would have reached the dizzy heights of playing the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury, as well as having a touring musical about them?

I have their album, seen the films but seeing this story performed on stage is something completely different, completely breath-taking.

Their musical talents are spotted by a green around the gills, fish out of water music producer, Danny, up from London, who sees a market for their music, but also discovers that these Cornish fishermen are not as easy a catch as first thought! After a lot of convincing, Danny takes them to London, where all matter of fun ensues, especially in one of the gay bars, but eventually an album is recorded, released and hits the National album charts and Glastonbury.

Along the way the local hostelry is saved, as is the livelihood of a young married couple with a new family. Love is found, but their is also sadness towards the end, but the power of music and community wins through. Completely heart-warming.

The soundtrack is one that will stay in your ears for days afterwards; there's no way you'll get seasick of hearing these incessantly catchy earworms. "What Shall We Do With A Drunken Sailor", "Wellerman", "Leave Her Johnny", "Bully Boys", "Shanty Man", "Keep Haulin", they are all there, and just you try and keep your feet still during these massive sea shanty favoutites. But also wait for those gorgeous Celtic sounding solo songs that will have the hairs on the back of your neck standing to attention.

The musical accompaniment is all played out on stage by members of the cast and musicians.

The whole production is an ensemble piece and the power of that ensemble hit you like a tidal wave. The harmonies from the actors are amazing and the accapella pieces sound like Phil Spector has had a hand in the sound.

James Gaddas, who plays Jim is a powerful leader of the ensemble and has a voice to match his powerful stance.

Dominic Brewer, who is the London cuckoo in the nest, also shows a really strong voice. To start with he is pushy and quite unlikeable, but then we start to see the softer side of him, as he falls under the charms of Alwyn, played by Parisa Shahmir, who has an incredible, clear voice that slices through the Theatre Royal air, giving you goosebumps.

Robert Duncan plays Jago, the eldest of the Fishermen at seventy-two years old, but what energy his character has.

One big surprise, well for me anyway, is the appearance of Susan Penhaligon, who you may remember from "Upstairs Downstairs", "A Fine Romance" and "A Bouquet Of barbed Wire", playing Maggie, Jago's wife. What a treat to see this Cornishwoman perform on our local stage in a musical all about Cornwall and Cornish people.

One other thing that I didn't know was that the book was written by Nottingham's very own legend, Amanda Whittington.

Directed by James Grieve, he made this whole theatrical experience one that I will certainly never forget.

Choreographed by Matt Cole, he created excitement with what looked to be simple choreographed pieces, but like most simple looking things, I imagine this area of the production was not as simplistic as it looked, and that in itself is something to doff one's theatrical cap to.

The sound design is by Dan Samson. There were a few late mic cues but what the heck, I was enjoying myself so much that when these second late cues kicked in, it made me revert back into reviewer mode, as previously I was just another audience member. I very quickly slipped back to audience member mode. Apart from the slight slips, the sound was incredibly clear, and at just the right volume level.

Lighting is by Johanna Town. You know that when you think back to these certain areas of production and you can't remember anything about it, you realise that it was practically perfect because nothing pricked your memory. With that in mind, the lighting must have been spot on.

Musical Direction by James Findlay. Basically see the above. Perfect music that just made you want to dance.

The set, which is just like the Port Isaac area in Cornwall is designed by Lucy Osborne, as are the costumes. Having spent several holidays in Cornwall and in Port Isaac, it was like looking at a holiday snapshot.

There are boats on stage being tossed about on a smoky sea, a marvellous Cornish bar room, London gay bar and several more scene changes which just seemed to appear and disappear, such was the smoothness of the stage crew and actors.

"Fisherman's Friends:The Musical" is at the Nottingham Theatre Royal until Saturday 4 February, so I'd get my skates on as I codn't bear for you to miss out on sea-ing and herring this heart warming musical. There's a plaice for you there and I guarantee a whale of a time will be had by all.

 "Handbagged" by Moira Buffini

Nottingham Lace Market Theatre.

I've always steered clear of politics, mainly because I don't fully understand the mechanics of politics, but this play is one that I have seen before and enjoyed. Buffini's political comedy breaks down all the stuffiness of politics and shows, at that time, the two most powerful women in the world, Margaret Thatcher and The Queen in conversation and behind closed doors. Of course, this is not based on fact, but what the conversations may have been. The term "Handbagged" was coined by Margaret Thatcher early into her term of office as a symbol of her power and a political prop.

The play originally started as a one act play back in 2010, but here is performed as two acts, with The Queen announcing the interval. All characters break the fourth wall and even state that whatever is discussed will be kept "within these three walls".

There are two actors presenting as The Queen and Mrs Thatcher, showing the younger and older versions of these two women. this shows, especially with Mrs Thatcher the way she changes the tone of her voice, and it's clear that a lot of work has gone into this area of the play. There is no attempt to make this into an impressions piece, but the look, costumes and vocal stylings are all there.

Carol Parkinson plays the elder version of Queen Elizabeth II, or "Q" as shown in the programme. Amanda Hodgson plays the younger version of The Queen, shown as "Liz" in the programme.

Sarah Taylor is "T", aka the elder Mrs Thatcher and Felicity Curtis is "Mags", the younger Maggie. Between them they have captured all of those recognisable Margaret Thatcher looks and nuances.

They alternate as narrator for their counterpart character, correcting, affirming and denying sections of speech in the way that they remember the events of the time.

Closing your eyes you instantly recognise the recognisable Thatcher tones; the Queen's are not as recognisable. That aside though it's not imperitive that the voices sound exactly like the characters, because we can see who they are meant to be and the comedy is in the delivery of the script, and the content of the script.

All other roles in the play are portrayed by two other actors, Paul Johnson and John Parker. These two add a great deal of comedy to this play, taking on other political figures, and even a battle between two Neil Kinnock characters and Paul even taking on Nancy Reagan. They introduce themselves as their characters, and what I also love is the range of accents brought forth by this pair of fun mimics.

Directed by Colin Treliving, who also created the set design. It's fast moving and the comedy timing with all the actors is spot on. The set is simple, which includes a sumptious backdrop along side a pair of chairs and a table plus regal looking drapes. Simple but effective.

Philip Hogarth was responsible for the lighting design, which comes into it's own with the character's monologues and the lighting is dimmed to spotlight the said character speech.

The Sound Design is by Jonathan Blacknell; again fairly simple sound effects but expertly placed for the best effect.

Mrs Thatcher and the Queen had a very specific style, clothing wise, and making sure that both ladies looked the part is down to Linda Croston and Jane Herring from the costume department.

An incredibly enjoyable piece of theatre, and you don't have to have any knowledge of politics to get the most out of this very funny play, presented by a cast of great actors who know how to deliver. They have the subtle lampooning down to a fine art; you may even get to shake the hand of the Queen, or one of the Queens, and by the final bows all six actors are handbagged.

"Handbagged" is at the Nottingham Lace Market Theatre until Saturday 4 February, and as of writing, tickets are selling pretty fast!

 "Rapunzel - A Tangled Pantomime" by Burton Joyce Players

Burton Joyce Village Hall.

My final panto of Winter 2022/2033 and, not only one of the best pantos of the season, but one of the best pantos performed by Burton Joyce Players that I've seen.

The King and the Queen had traded their daughter, Rapunzel, for a herb supposedly for medicinal purposes, from the evil Gothel. Gothel imprisoned Rapunzel in a tall tower, forbidding her from ever leaving, and all because the hair had magic powers.

Three good fairies show Rapunzel how to escape, and when she does, Gothel hires a pair of henchmen to bring her back. This is panto of course so we all know that these henchmen are not going to be the brightest, and the comedy ensues.

Does Rapunzel discover the truth about her parents? Does evil Gothel get her way? Does Nurse Hetty Hairspray get her man? Does this reviewer ever stop posing questions that we all know the answers to?

The show kicks off with a bouncy rendition of "Walking On Sunshine" which gets everyone in the mood for fun. Musically the choices are excellent and keep the audience's hands and feet busy as they clap and tap along. There were a few times that I thought a few of the singers needed to believe more in themselves and projected more, because the singing was really good.

Victoria Jones was great fun as Willy Widdle, which also gave rise to any number of naughty comments from Nurse Hetty Hairspray, who revealed that she had a bit of a soft spot for Willy, and found hard to give up on!

Nurse Hetty was played wonderfully by Christopher Mercer who camped it up almost to the maximum. I loved his version of "You'll Be Back" from the musical "Hamilton", even changing a couple of the lyrics to match the situation of being part of the panto.

Greg Nicholas (The King) and Tracey Evans (The Queen) were well cast and delivered a heartfelt duet that deserved the rapturous round of applause that was given.

Phoebe Anderson (Princess Rapunzel) delivered a right royal performance and was great fun to watch.

This is a traditional panto and providing much slapping of a thigh was Hannah Smith, who played Prince George.

Doubling up as a Soldier and a Mouse were Charlie Caudwell, Henry Chaloner and Robyn Steven, who were all very confident in their portrayals, as well as their singing.

Kerri Kirk was wonderfully evil as Gothel, and her confidence in this role made sure that she extracted every boo from the audience who lapped up every nasty comment given by Gothel, and this lovely but nasty role playing actor.

The pair of bumbling henchmen, Ball and Socket, provided loads of laughs and very quickly became firm favourites with the audience. As a duo Bertie Black and Steve Armstrong are very well matched for these roles and the physical comedy that they delivered. Their wonderful rendition of "Sweet Caroline", complete with audience participation was yet another thing the audience lapped up.

The three fairies were played by Lily Musson (Fairy Well), Isla Hilton (Fairy Good) and Missy Minxy Matthews (Fairy Nuff). The inclusion of two traditional fairies and a fairy with attitude and sass with three capital "S", played by Minxy, was a stroke of genius as it brought a fresh feel to the trio of fairies.

Great vocals from all fairies, especially with S Club 7's "Reach", and I know that Minxy has been away from the stage for over a decade, so it was good to see her performing with attitude, and her voice was as good as any of this talented company.

Molly Fitches played the Sergeant in charge of recovering Rapunzel, Sergeant Hawkeye and Steph Pinder played a villager and completed the cast.

Directed by Avril McCormick she has delivered one of the funniest pantos that I have seen in Burton Joyce and I am sure that she is proud of her production as well as her wonderful cast.

The set design is also one of the best I've seen on this stage with fourteen scene changes, often resulting in audible gasps from the audience. The sets were designed by Marilyn Carr and Christopher Mercer.

Excellent sound from Dominic Mills and equally excellent lighting from Jenny Cowan.

The costumes were sourced and created by Jenny Harwood, Lorraine Andrews, Tracey Bower and Lesley Tomlinson.

Helen Sharp did a brilliant job with the choreography.

Friday night was rammed, as we're the previous performances, and there are only a limited amount of tickets left for Saturday matinee and evening shows, which comes as no surprise after seeing this fun packed panto with its incredibly talented cast.

 "Broken Instruments"

Deda at Derby.

This is my first visit to Deda in Derby, and what a lovely place it is, and perfect for this kind of production. And with a multi storey car park just across from Deda's entrance, you don't even have to hunt for parking, which by the way is very reasonably priced.

"Broken Instruments" is a new play with music, as opposed to a musical, written by William Varnam with music and lyrics by Phil Baggaley and Mark Edwards. Inspired by a book called "Violins Of Hope" by James A Grymes. the origins of this performance goes back to before Covid, which is when I first became aware of the music that I heard performed live this evening.

"Broken Instruments" is a story of survival as retold by an Holocaust survivor, Ari Vander, a musician and a very special violin. While the characters are fictional, the story told is factual.

Set in 1938, it relates the tale of Ari's love of jazz music and the violin. His brother boarded a ship and Ari gave him his violin to take with him. The violin was sold to help the new life, and via a letter back to Ari, the story of the instrument continued. The Nazis banned Jews from playing their own music, especially jazz, and following one undercover music concert, Ari's hopes come crashing down. It's also the descriptive tale of the treatment of the Jews by the Nazis.

On meeting an old friend, his love of jazz is re-ignited, showing us all the power of music can unite people and can help carry you through anything. Ari is asked to repair a violin, as he now has his own workshop after the war, and...... well I won't spoil the ending for you as it's quite beautiful.

All of the music is original and beautifully composed. the songs are like spider webs; delicate and beautifully constructed, and in the correct hands, complete works of art; art that tells a story.

The story telling of the violin and Ari's recollections are breath takingly good and I, personally, hung on to every word, building pictures in my mind; the two vocalists expertly painting pictures for the almost packed audience while Phil Baggaley accompanied on guitar and Mark Edwards on accordion and piano.

Directed by Daniel Ellis, we were greeted by a warm feeling, old fashioned front room type of surrounding with an old fashioned style radio that opened the play. Musical instruments festooned the set along with a gorgeous candelabra which, when lit created a very intimate atmosphere for this intimate story.

The production is 180 minutes long with no interval.

"Broken Instruments" is at Deda in Derby only until Saturday 28 January, so I'd take advantage of this special piece of theatre and get a ticket as soon as you can.

 "Rent" by Jonathan Larson.

Kristian Thomas Company

Duchess Theatre, Long Eaton.

"Rent" tells the story of a year in the life of a group of impoverished young artists struggling to survive and create a life in Lower Manhattan's East Village and is based loosely on Puccini's opera, "La Boheme".

Mark is an aspiring film maker, struggling to find his place in the world. Roger, his room mate is an HIV positive musician who is worried about how he will leave his mark on the world before he dies. Mimi and Angel are searching for real love as HIV positive young people, facing the harsh reality of the world as it is at that time. Joanne is looking for fidelity from her performance artist girlfriend, Maureen, who has a bit of a wild streak about her.

The group's aspirations and dreams are woven throughout the musical, painting a not very rosy picture of life in Bohemian New York City in the late 1980's under the dark clouds of HIV/AIDS.

First of all, let me say that this entire cast have worked really hard on this production. How do I know this? Because it shows in the emotion and passion that comes through their acting, as well as the looks of determination on their faces as they play their roles.

Roger Davis is played by Max Henshaw and for me one of the powerhouse vocals in the show. I thought he started out just a little wobbly, but he soon proved me wrong. He shows great passion for this passionate of roles, and in Act Two when he is knelt over Mimi's weak body, not the most comfortable of stances to sing from, he produced the most amazing of vocals in "One Song Glory".

Mark Cohen is played by Ben Hale. Ben is one of those actors who is very confident in what he does, and that shows here. Another very capable singer in the company - this company though is full of them. You just can't miss Ben due to his height and his fresh and young looking features.

Mimi Marquez is played by Amelie Turner. Her singing voice grew on me throughout the production and seemed to get more powerful as the show progressed. It could be that her seduction song, "Light My Candle" is quite low key, and as the character built, so did the vocals

Angel Schunard is played by Max Fuller. I have seen several Angels over the years that I've been reviewing, but Max's "baby face", or should that be "angelic" face, has to be one of the youngest visages to play this drag artist character. I loved the "exit" of Angel, as I can't remember the character exiting in this way before. There are not many young actors who can pull off the full drag look with the over the top character, so it was quite different to see Angel played not for dramatic purposes, but quite refreshing as well. Having seen Max act before, I knew that I'd have no issues with his character acting.

Benny Coffin III is played by Jake Lightbown. Benny is the man who, after squatting with the rest of the young Bohemians, then went on to own the building and started requesting rent from the same squatters as he had been squatting with. He then goes on to develop his nasty piece of work persona by stealing Mimi from Roger!. Jake played the role with just the right amount of smarm and slimeball appeal. Enough for you not to dislike him completely, especially when the end of the musical is in sight, and he changes faces.

Tom Collins is played by Bailey West. Bailey, having seen him perform before, reminded me just what a deep, bluesy voice he has. He also reminded me that he can play emotive scenes extrmely well; just watch the Angel scenes where Tom takes care of Angel and then the final Angel scenes.

Maureen Johnson is played by Savannah Pinto. I love Maureen's voice. There is so much power, control and passion she has with her vocals, her duet with Joanne, "Take Me Or Leave Me" is spectacularly good, giving me waves of goosebumps. I also love the "performance" section of her role, milking it just enough so as not to take it over the top, and giving a nice comedic moment within the story. Another section which involves Mark where he helps with the P.A. used for Maureen's performance art, and is one of my favourite scenes is "The Tango Maureen". Their voices and harmonies work so well together.

Joanne Jefferson is played by Orlagh McAleese. Orlagh and Savannah work really well together in these roles and have wonderful chemistry, and their voices blend beautifully with some impressive harmony work. These two characters are fiery and I expect that these two ladies had great fun with these scenes, which incuded, I bet, more than a couple of giggles. The characters are so lovely as a couple.

Directed by Katy Maclaughlin, she has created a difference with Rent from the other productions I've seen. This will be difficult to explain unless you have seen other productions, and it's the little changes that have been incorporated that made this production very fresh. So if you think that this is just another production, take a look because there are quite a few refreshing viewpoints from the Director chair. Nothing major but enough to make me sit up and take notice!

Choreographed by Shannon O'Donnell. With the amount of leads and ensemble, I imagine that this job was not easy, but I loved the result, and especially in conjuction with Katy as Director for the reimagined outlook in some of the scenes.

Musical Direction is by Sam Hedley. The soundtrack is full of emotion and to wring every bit of emotion from this soundtrack takes a good MD. I've seen Sam's work before so when I saw her name in the programme, I knew that the music would be quality; and it was. Stand out musical pieces just has to include "Seasons Of Love" with its' layered and complex harmonies. This and the other songs I've mentioned within the review, makes this musically incredibly enjoyable.

Sound Design by Peter Gough, and while there were places where the volume could have been toned down a smidge so that the actor's voices could be heard more, 99% of the sound tonight was crystal clear. You could hear the words of the songs, and the emotion, and teamed with the clarity of the musicianship, I just let the sound wash over me.

Lighting Design by Stephen Greatorex is excellent. The explosion of colour gave a new level of excitement to this show. With the emotional scenes, the stage was bathed in subtle lights. With the uptempo tracks, the lighting hyped everyone up making it a visually exciting piece of theatre to behold.

Production Co-Ordinator is Katie Lawson.

As I said previously, I've seen "Rent" quite a few times, and I've seen some different touches applied, and this is one of those productions that, like Mimi's candle, re-ignites the passion for the musical. The whole cast, mains and ensemble, fully deserved their standing ovation they received. It's a brave decision to stage a musical of this calibre, complete with the emotion and subject matter, but the decision paid off royally.

"Rent" will be at the Duchess Theatre in Long Eaton until Saturday 28 January.