Yes, I know it says that this production was at The London Palladium... well, it was. This was an online streamed film of the show which is available to watch for free whilst the lockdown is in force.. so if you want to check the show out for yourselves, then head to www.willowsmusical.com.
Way back in 2016 I had the privilege and pleasure of attending the World Premiere production of this musical at Salford's Lowry Theatre, and have not seen it since. In 2016 I enjoyed the show immensely with a couple of reservations, and what I saw this afternoon on my computer screen did not completely allay my initial reservations, and also gave me a couple of new ones. But in the main, this is a fun, family-friendly, fresh and highly entertaining musical, and a British one at that.
Jamie Hendry presented this Musical based on the novel by Kenneth Grahame; the perennial children's favourite, Wind In The Willows. Although, I say a children's favourite, it is loved by children much older too; and perhaps even more surprising is my admission that whilst the storyline and characters are nevertheless familiar to me, I have still yet to read the book.
The story in this Musical puts Mr Toad very much in the protagonist position as we see him go from travelling in slower vehicles to discovering fast motor cars. He then steals one such car and subsequently crashes it, meaning he comes before a court and is sentenced to serve 20 years in prison. He escapes, with the help of a washer-woman, and returns to claim back Toad Hall which has been taken over by the rebel forces of The Dark Wood, namely the weasels and the stoats. The sub-plot involves the capture of a young otter by the weasels and her detention in Toad Hall, and so Mrs Otter, Badger, Mole, Rat, and of course Toad march in on the squatters, fight them off and save both the young otter and the day!
It's a lovely story; a fairy story perhaps, and certainly a story that can and should capture the imagination of youngsters. And indeed I am sure the book and certain adaptations of the book still do. I am uncertain however that this particular version is the vehicle for so doing. I enjoyed it immensely, but still think that the target audience for this musical should be a younger generation, not middle-aged grumps like myself, and yet, there is far too little within the show to capture the imaginations and hearts of youngsters. The anthropomorphic characters are just too grown-up and human, both in the way they act / speak, and in their costuming. There is very little musically to attract a young audience. I seem to remember there being a central rap sequence in the Salford show, and yet this had been omitted in this version. The whole musical has a very retro feel to it, a kind of 'homage' to the author and the era in which it was written. This works well enough for the adults, as we can all relate to this in a way that the millennials have no chance of doing... and surely it is precisely this age group we need to enthuse about it and talk about it to their children if the musical is to survive.
The filming of the show was superb. In fact, I would go as far as to say that it worked better by being filmed than it did watching it live in many respects. First, the cameramen knew exactly which actor or group to focus on, and did so; or they zoomed out to give the full stage when required, and even gave us a few lovely shots from the flies looking directly down upon the stage. The nuances of expression were more clear, and the attention to detail in both costume and set was better appreciated. Also, the set, which I didn't particularly like as an audience member looked better close-up. But I still didn't like the costumes!
Rufus Hound still played the protagonist role of Mr Toad, and was a sheer delight. The energy and commitment he gave to this role was quite astounding and it payed off. The other roles though were, by and large completely different from the 2016 Lowry cast. Simon Lipkin played Rat with a certain disarming nonchalance, and this charaterisation suited him and the role very well. [although he really ought to have hidden the obvious arm tattoos!]. Craig Mather was a very believable Mole (although at times he seemed much more like a hobbit than a mole, especially since the set had been designed with The Shire very much in the forefront of their minds!).The chemistry betwewen Lipkin and Mather was lovely, and the change in dynamic when Wilmot joined them made for excellent casting and direction. And this was the biggest surprise in the casting changes with Badger being played by Musical Theatre legend Gary Wilmot. It was delightful to see him on stage again, it has been a very long time since I saw him live, and such a wonderful and natural talent. Here he took very much a smaller cameo role, and played it with understated dignity and aplomb. The other central character cast changes were with Neil McDermott playing the evil Chief Weasel and Denise Welch playing Mrs. Otter. Both were excellent.
The staging, mise-en-scene and choreography were all lovely and seemed to work much better here than I remembered, but again that could be due to clever filming and judicious editing. Nevertheless, I am still a fan of the show and enjoyed watching this greatly. I hope it does and will appeal to younger folk too, as it deserves to be better known. Check out the website and watch it for yourselves, and see if you agree with me!
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 29/3/20
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