It’s a novel idea, a stage production about a Bingo Hall with interaction from the audience by way of Bingo games at strategic points in the story; the audience gets to play three games of Bingo with a give-away sum of £150 at every performance, a chance for audience members to win £50 at each game. Audience participation is encouraged, with Bingo winners being asked to shout out ‘Ee Y’ar Lad’ if they have a winning line on their Bingo card and once their win is verified, the whole audience shouting out, ‘It’s legit – lucky git.’
The story revolves around congenial Arthur, (Alan Stocks), who has been at the forefront of Bingo Hall, Bingo Star, doing what he enjoys, calling out the numbers at Bingo games, for the last fifty years. He likes the status quo of the job and doesn’t like or want change. He likes to recall the start of Bingo from the 1950s and relishes music from his favourite era, the 1980s, he thinks they go hand-in-hand and he wants to keep it that way.
Enter baddie, Tony (Paul Duckworth), the man from the local council who has plans for a new shopping centre to be built around the Bingo Hall. It all sounds too good to be true and sure enough it is.
The show opens with Debbie, (Helen Carter), belting out Tina Turner’s hits, ‘Simply The Best’ and ‘Proud Mary.’ She has a powerful voice and is a commanding presence in this production. Bella, played by Paige Fenlon, accompanies her throughout duetting with songs such as ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’ and ‘Don’t Let The Sun Go Down’ but she delights when soloing with Blondie’s ‘Call Me’ and Cyndi Lauper’s haunting hit ‘Time After Time’.
Jonathan Markwood plays buffoon hippie, Keyboard Keith, a master at managing to weave Beatles hit song titles into his verbal pronouncements and exchanges. The sixth member of the cast is Keddy Sutton playing Lesley, Arthur’s daughter; we discover that Arthur is not her birth father but has looked after her since her mother abandoned them and whose true love was Hakim, a Moroccan guy he met on holiday some years ago.
The plot jogs along with revelations and secrets being revealed and is interwoven with the delivery of 1980’s hits and the Bingo games. It culminates with a fundraiser gala which is not well attended with the ticket sales money having been squandered on a bet with the chosen horse losing Arthur all the money. But all is not lost; Tom Conner, in the guise of Paul McCartney, comes to the rescue (via video screen); he has been donating money via parcels of tinned meat product, Spam to the Bingo Hall for the past forty years unbeknown to everyone except Keyboard Keith.
The set design incorporates two locations, the Bingo Hall, brightly lit whilst the girls are singing and the downstairs storeroom decorated with coloured globe-shaped lighting and shelving housing food products.
There are a lot of corny jokes and not many surprises in the storyline; there is a comedy sketch taking a dig at yoga and a cameo appearance by Les Dennis via video screen.
This musical comedy was written by Iain Christie, directed by Emma Bird. Set with costume design by Olivia du Monceau, lighting design by Douglas Kuhrt and sound design by Kate Harvey.
The production has an age advisory warning of 14+ as there is some strong language.
Bingo Star is at The Royal Court theatre until 8th April 2023.
Reviewer - Anne Pritchard on - 15.3.23
Absolute rubbish. Only good thing was the young girl singer. Don’t waste your time
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