Only Fools and Horses The Musical
Sunderland Empire
Until Saturday 30 November 2024
So what is the show about? Del (Durham's own Sam Lupton), brother Rodney (Tom Major) and Grandad (Philip Childs) live together in a Peckham flat. Del is an older brother by some margin and he effectively raised his younger brother after their dear old mother died and their dad ran away. They try to get by selling goods in a market but financially they are on hard times. But as Del says: 'he who dares, wins' and 'by next year we will be millionaires.'
The point at which the musical starts, Rodney is about to get married to Cassandra (Nicola Munns) and needs £2000 for the flat deposit. Del is still looking for love but is about to find Raquel (Georgina Hagen) through an agency. The action is centred around their local, The Nags Head which gives the writers a chance to bring the other much loved characters to live, including Boycie (Craig Berry) with his characteristic laugh, who is struggling to get his wife Marlene pregnant, and Denzil (Bradley John) who continues his run of bad luck.
We also meet Trigger (Lee VG), who insists on calling Rodney Dave - a running joke in both television series and this musical. In fact, in my opinion, Trigger gets the most laughs in the show.
The characters will be familiar to those who watched the series, indeed, a number of the jokes and routines have been recycled from the original show. How well this works on those unfamiliar with it is hard to judged.
The characters are dressed in familiar outfits making them recognisable even though we have different actors. There was even a cheer when Uncle Albert appeared to recite one of his naval anecdotes.
This is a musical and in addition to the theme song, a number of 'I want' songs proliferate the story, accompanied by a very tight live band under music director Rachel Murphy. The songs tend to be on the functional shorter side. The pick of the singing bunch was Gloria Acquaah-Harrison, as Mrs Obooko, who has a lovely soulful singing voice.
Del, with his inappropriate use of foreign phrases in order to look clever, does get a chance to show some of his feelings about the hand life dealt him. This leads to some pathos and potential empathy from the audience.
Rodney, performed by Tom Major on his first professional engagement, made his character more likeable as his Rodney is less of a drip.
As a show for fans, this works well as a musical. Certainly, we enjoyed it and it served as a fun night at the theatre, bringing back memories of when there was something decent to watch on tv. Whether it works for a younger person who hasn't seen the show would be for someone else to comment upon. After all, it is getting on for decades since it was a regular series on the BBC.
Review: Stephen Oliver
Photos: Johan Persson
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.