I had been looking forward to my visit to The Memorial Court Theatre in Northwich for a long while. My introduction to The Mid Cheshire Musical Theatre Company (MCMTC for short) was earlier this year in March when I was lucky enough to see their most excellent production of 'American Idiot'. This too, like 'American Idiot' was a musical which was completely new to me... I had never heard of 'Big Fish' before, and knew nothing about it, and so I was eagerly awaiting the sating of my love of the Musical Theatre genre.
However, 'Big Fish' doesn't pack the same punch as 'American idiot' did, and I found the music and themes very derivative, as well as the storyline being extremely thin and trite. That does not mean that I did not enjoy the show - I did; nor does it mean that the cast did not impress or give of their best - they most certainly did.
The staging for this show utilised a walkway around the band pit as well as the main prosc. arch stage; which, for the most part, relied on back-projections for each scene, with the addition of larger set items as required (bed, bench etc), whilst a raised platform at the rear of the stage afforded the director ample opportunity to create different heights and areas within the same scene. The set worked well, as did the projections, but it was the lighting design, which sometimes seemed to get a little out of hand. There is a huge tendency currently for lighting designers to be very "creative" and "liberal" with their designs, and most of the time they work. However, on occasion, they obfuscate and dissipate the scene rather than ameliorate and harmonise with it, and this happened on a couple of occasions during tonight's show sadly.
In a show which quite happily mixes fantasy with reality, and messes around with time periods, there has to be some stability, an anchor so to speak, on which we can keep ourselves grounded in the production without it all spiraling out of control. And despite his role being the one who creates all the fantasy, I found the leading role of Edward Bloom to be that person this evening. Joe Clarke's grounded and believable performance was, I think, what made me enjoy the show as much as I did. He is a very easy-to-watch actor, with a totally sympathetic and credible, fully-rounded characterisation.
Clarke was helped in his role by being cast with equally talented protagonists. His long-suffering, but ever-loving wife was played with verve and realism by Aimee Clare. The young version of his son, Will, was played by his real-life son, Billy Clarke, who made a truly good attempt at this rather difficult role, whilst the older version of his son was played by Scott Heath, who displayed just the right amount of love / confusion / disappointment / aggravation / and finally understanding and love once again in his portayal.
Jennifer Haney was older Will's fiancee, Josephine, with Dawn Lloyd and Grace Dougall playing the two different ages of Joe's childhood would-be sweetheart Jenny Hill. It was Georgia Brooksbank as the Witch however, who surprised me the most with her song in the first act - a voice and characteristation which simply came from nowhere, and truly impressed.
Along with a large and talented cast of cameos and chorus, not forgetting an extremely thin, deep-voiced Giant called Karl (Matt Austin), and a "guest star appearance" by PT Barnum's elephant, this was asensibly produced, engaging and enjoyable production, brought to life by Louise Colohan (director), Ian Sherwood (Musial Director), and Liz Cardall (choreographer).
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 24.9.22
on - 24.9.22
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