The Manchester Musical Revue (MMR) is an offshoot and part of Manchester University's Musical Theatre Society (UMMTS), and is there to promote and encourage 'thinking outside the box'! The group exists for those who may wish to try a role which is normaly outside of their comfort zone or to devise / wirte new material etc..
With this in mind, 'Avengers: Ensemble' was a very witty play on the 'Avengers: Assemble' film / series. Instead of Marvel superheroes however, we had Muscial Theatre composers and their stage characters in a tale of evil Musical theatre supremacy in a plot hatched by Stephen Sondheim to kill hated rival Andrew Lloyd-Webber! Sondheim recruits fellow American Alan Menken who in turn must recruit only the best and most talented characters from Musical shows to help them to defeat the evil that is Lloyd-Webber and save the world from any further insulting and plageristic music.
Sounds crazy? It is! But delightfully so. Self-devised and directed by the society members, with a lovely original song in there too 'Believe In Me' (George Parris / Roman Armstrong) it is corny, zany, over-the-top, but never actually goes too far. It is a parody, that's for sure, but also knows the boundaries and despite the characters being cardboard cut-out monodimensional 'cartoons', there is still enough realism to make us feel for them and believe in their story / plight. It's also very clever with some extremely witty lines, moments of direction / action. Needless to say, I was laughing most of the way through and thoroughly enjoyed this romp.
Ross McFadden played a Dr Strange-esque Stephen Sondheim, whilst Oscar Brennan's Alan Menken was the archetypal 'good citizen', playing it straight with an easy vocailty and stage presence. Noah Matthews' Andrew Lloyd-Webber was a bizarre mix of RP vowels and evil-maniac-on-acid. It's fair to say at this point that none of the three were trying to portray their real-life counterparts in any way other than name and fame. With Lloyd-Webber and his 'evil' were The Cat (Sam Grieve) [although since she was clearly from the musical of the same name, why not give her one of the characters' names... perhaps Jellyorum (?)] and a very languid and un-phantom-like Phantom Jack Holding. Both eliciting both comedy and pathos from their roles. In the 'goodie' camp were Nick Bond as Shrek (sorry Sean!) and Lauren Owen as Dorothy (Wizard of Oz). Both were excellent. Bond being a classically trained actor (who just happened to be green) and got his big break playing the role of Shrek, and now he has to live with that image which he hates; whilst Dorothy is a sales assistant in a shoe-shop and never takes off her red shoes. Playing things very much for herself, but joining forces with the evil camp only to get what she wants is a very credible Elphaba (Tillie Quattrone) - looking remarkably like an evil witch with long black hair and green skin.
The show is excellently put together as each member of cast all have at least one solo and so it is very much an ensemble effort and this feeling of togetherness and team-work came through all the way. Even when an unexpected and unscripted loud noise came from the speakers, and persisted for a long time, the cast were able to ad lib and joke it off with aplomb. The cast showcased their acting and vocal talents extremely well, singing some rather difficult numbers from the Musical Theatre repertoire (sometimes with altered lyrics to accommodate) and their caricatures were flawless to a man.
The stage setting was simple - a few small cardboard tower blocks with lights, upon which stood CD cases of the musicals used in the show, leaving a large bare space in front of this for all the action to play out. Costuming was also very good, each one giving an fair overall representation. My only slight concern was that the green make-up could have been applied better to both Shrek and Elphaba. Patches of white skin were showing and it was somewhat blotchy. My only other negative criticism is one which I am often writing about with productions in this venue. The band, under the direction of George Parris, was excellent, but simply too loud! Utilising a 15-piece band in such a small space, and then mic-ing them all up as well as all the cast, is simply overload, and rarely if ever is the balance correct, meaning the band are always overpowering and the overall volume is too much for the small space.
Congratulations to co-directors Roman Armstrong and Oonagh Johnson for creating a crazy nonsense world of lampooning and Mickey-taking, and making it so believable and entertaining.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 10/12/19
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