What Will Be The Day Exactly?

That’ll  Be The Day

Theatre Severn

Thursday 25th April

Well this show promised to be full of Rock and Roll Music laced with hilarious comedy. Hilarious? Very bold indeed. The music was almost faultless, the hilarious comedy? What a subjective claim. To say it creaked like a rickety staircase is being unfair to the stairs. The comedy was incredibly obvious and unfortunately really quite weak, more of that later.

The real ingredient of the show is the skilfully played music. The band , the Starlighters, are great they are tight and on the money. As was the singing, it was very hard to fault, but it did fall down on its comedy. It just isn’t strong enough and when five minutes is eaten up with silliness that’s five minutes less music.

One would imagine that as they change this show as they do yearly, maybe they will have a new script writer that has actually identified with the 21st Century and moved away from their racist North American Indian sketch and the Mick Jagger on impotency. You’re getting the picture I am sure.

Most of it was a groan at best and at worst, well. Isn’t doing a stereotypical native North American with a Pakistani accent just wrong territory? It was embarrassing. As was the Mick Jagger. When the two lead singers and purveyors of this comedy got together one felt it was reminiscent of Don Mc.Lean and Peter Glaze doing the awfully unfunny sketches on Crackerjack! (Crackerjack…sorry you have to shout it back)

The dancing and singing was great. Voices like the artist? Elvis was particularly good but one found the homage to Cliff just a little too much to bear as did the singer, with his first song. The edges were flattened at times and those big notes stayed in the van tonight as they just weren’t there. The Rolling Stones was also highly unappealing.

However, to balance this review I would say those that found the comedy amusing were lapping it up. Good. Those that didn’t in one’s opinion had every right not to, but they were in the minority! 

There is something missing. They play well, they sing well and they communicate well, but maybe long medleys of little bits of song are just really irksome? It was like, “Stars on forty five,“ from back in the Eighties, A Jive Bunny sort of thing going on. But there was no need for that. Drop the hilarious comedy and do the full songs that might fix things a little.

From the stage came the announcements that this was their 33rd year and they are just about to devise the next show for their 34th year. That’s incredible but I am not reviewing longevity, I might advise that they really need to bring this thing on into the 21st Century.

The lighting show  was great, mood and atmosphere are so important in a revue type show and it was excellent. One loves seeing Theatre Severn being made to do what it can. Its always appealing. The back projection was a great addition and the clips of film were certainly very interesting and of course, relevant. Very pleasing a cleverly done little devise.

Costumes were flawless the ladies looked glamorous and the boys did too. Managing hectic changes but seamlessly reappearing in the role of the artist whose work was to be performed.

Now then. To keep this show relevant they really seriously need to look at the comedy. Saying stupid things in silly accents isn’t funny. It takes a whole lot more than they are giving if they want the comedy to bring in new people. Currently it simply isn’t strong enough.

Calling yourself hilarious always thrusts you under the microscope and if it can’t stand up to scrutiny, then you look  foolish. Let the audience decide what’s hilarious and when they do, when they really do, you might be able to lose things like borderline racism. One hopes so. It scraped along the iceberg of unacceptable and that iceberg might just sink the whole thing one day.

So great music, fun singing, questionable comedy and way too much talk. One was thinking at times, one was attending, Prattle be the Day!

This is a Two Star Review

Owen J Lewis