Soho Cinders Review

The first thing I would say is full marks to The Bedford Marianettes for actually putting this on when they did. It takes a brave decision to put on a little known musical with a subject matter that might not appeal to all, in a brand new venue, slap bang in the middle of August in a town where a considerable amount of its potential audience are away on vacation, but, here we were on a Thursday night seated in a much larger auditorium than their usual theatre venue with what was a pretty full audience. So, hats off first and foremost to Becca Pountney and Flo Rowntree in the publicity department for a first class job of putting bums on seats!

​

I confess I’d never even heard of this show until I was invited to review it. With music by George Stiles, Lyrics by Anthony Drewe and a book by Anthony Drewe and Elliot Davis and set in London’s Soho, the plot is loosely based on the fairy tale Cinderella and centres around a rent boy, Robbie who has an illicit affair with bi-sexual, James Prince an aspiring politician and Mayoral candidate for London who is engaged to be married.  Add in two evil stepsisters, a conspiringly devious campaign manager, a supportive female friend and we have a wickedly funny political sex scandal with accompanying media frenzy in the making.

The stage at the Bedford University Theatre is vast compared to their tiny cramped one at the Trinity Arts Theatre, but the Marianettes took to it like a duck to water and made full use of it. The set under the management of Steve Ward, assistant Carys Eaton, with a crew of Carol Ward and Mark Burnapp consisted of flats stage left, depicting a Soho street, comprising a door to an upstairs apartment occupied by the Robbie’s step sisters and a nightclub next door.

​

Upstage centre was a plinth/staircase, used for entrances and exits and to highlight various speeches and scenes. Stage right was a raised platform giving us the upmarket home of Lord Bellingham. The flat, downstage of which cleverly opened up to allow several washing machines and plastic seating to be brought out depicting the ‘Sit & Spin’ launderette next door.

​

Crew and cast combined did a very slick job of all the various scene changes. But the clever bit was the back wall, on to which various very well thought out graphics by The Director himself, Leigh Smith were projected. A picture of the outside of the Launderette, various videos including a non PC Huw Edwards as the news Reader, and, my favourite, a continually changing graphic question mark depicted during the number, Who's That Boy. Neat!

​

Lighting Design by Leigh Smith & Jamie Spirito make full use of the extensive installed intelligent lighting, and I’m still trying to work out how they managed to project intelligent LED lighting inside three washing machines to give the illusion of them in action. That’s a new one on me – very clever!

​

Sound by George Colledge was remarkably good in this new venue and, apart from a couple of blips with those pesky face mics, my aging ears found it remarkably clear. Nice job guys!

​

Our excellent band, for once neatly tucked away behind the scenery on this vast stage, instead of at the back of the comparatively tiny Trinty Arts stage, was under the control of conductor/MD, Tim Dawes with the ever-dependable Andrew Longland-Meech on keys accompanied by Ed Jones (Keys II), Danny Barton (Guitar I), Ollie Smith (Guitar II), Rob Parker (Bass Guitar) and Dan Wild on Drums. Faultless all round!

 

Our narrator, Mea-Ellease Goodwin was a comedic tour-de-force, stamping her authority and quirky brand of comedy on this show from moment one. Her comedic expressions and brilliant delivery were the glue around which the rest of the show connected.

​

Our two leads, Ben Robinson as Robbie and Karl Darby-Warner as James were an excellent contrast to each other. Robbie as the openly gay lad who wore his feelings on his sleeve and James a much less open character keeping his sexually under wraps. Both these actors nailed their characters perfectly. The scene at the party thrown by Lord Bellingham where Robbie stands slightly slumped and screws his face up with the awkwardness of his situation of finding James at the same party, who looks both confused and angry at the same time, just demonstrated how good these two really were in these roles.

​

The gentle character, and the only adult in the room is Velcro, who runs the launderette next door, played with a calm manner by Amy Mansell in what was a beautifully paced but commanding performance and with a pretty impressive singing voice to go with it. Her versions of Wishing for The Normal and It's Hard To Tell with Robbie were particularly standout moments.

​

Now, if you are looking for totally over the top, full on raucous comedy with some (well, actually quite a lot of) lewd jokes and totally unladylike poses you can find no better than Rachel Smith and Charlotte Pearson as the evil stepsisters, Clodagh and Dana.  They certainly didn’t hold back with their language either and brought a wince or two from the audience on more than one occasion; their description of the seats in the brothel was certainly a very adult moment that had the audience squirming in their seats. Their rendition of Fifteen Minutes of Fame and I’m So Over Men were absolutely top draw. Very funny indeed!

​

That old stalwart, Charles Mills played the closet gay putting on an outwardly respectable front gave a really measured performance as the ‘entitled’ Lord Bellingham. After his initial anger of being finally rejected by Robbie his expression of hurt almost makes you feel sorry for the character.

​

Jake Dudley as campaign manager Willam George, was deviousness personified! Never missing an opportunity to enrich his own circumstances, he played this to the hilt and of course his final comeuppance was a standout moment, albeit on video! Nice evil job!!

​

He was ably backed up by his assistant, Sacha played by Victoria Heath and the put upon Sidesaddle, played by Esther Walkling-Lea. Their eyerolling said it all!

​

Jasmine Heath, who is always worth a watch brought all her experience to the role of Marilyn Platt, James’ fiancé with a very moving performance as the jilted bride to be. She is somebody who can deliver comedy and pathos in equal measures. Known in the business as ‘the triple threat,’ she can sing, dance and act. Let Him Go (with Velcro) was another superb stand out moment in this show.

​

The choreography by Flo Rountree in this show was particularly outstanding. The Marianettes have suddenly come into their own when presented with a stage this large and did they ever take advantage of it! However, I didn’t quite get why so many numbers were performed with their backs to the audience, so I missed something somewhere. But that said, well done indeed to Principal Dancers, Molly McCarthy, Helen Mitchell, Hayley Farrelly and Harriet Holden, excellent job.

​

Not to forget the rest of the ensemble: Keyleigh Quinn, Utsarja Bhandari, Abbie Ingold, Rosie Layton, Gabriele Caruso and Phillip Smith.

​

 Finally, If the required NODA blurb had been inserted and the spelling of the lead character had been correct, the programme would have been a great contestant for the NODA Programme Competition. Shame, as it was beautifully produced. Next time?

​

So well done to Director Leigh Smith and his cast and crew, I think you can confidently say you pulled it off with a large part of the audience on their feet at the end! Not normally the sort of show I would seek out, but having seen your version I have to say, I was drawn in.