Cast
Richard Fleeshman – Sky Masterson
Maxwell Caulfield – Nathan Detroit
Louise Deadman – Miss Adelaide
Anna O’Bryne – Sarah Brown
Jack Edwards – Nicely Nicely Johnson
Mark Sangster – Benny Southstreet
Show Date: Tuesday 22nd March 2016
Venue: Theatre Royal, Newcastle
Nathan Detroit is desperate to make some money and is struggling to find a venue to host his illegal dice game, without having any cash up front to secure a place. He must also deal with added pressure from Miss Adelaide a night club dancer who he has been engaged to for 14 years. Sky Masterson returns just in time to take a bet with Nathan, all over a doll and if he can take her away to Havana the very next day. That doll, well missionary Sarah Brown.
In true musical fashion though we get that story with plenty of good songs and well put together dance routines from the very strong cast and ensemble. These routines have plenty of extra dancers both male and female in the very cool costumes, why don’t men wear suits and hats like this anymore? Honesty it would make the world a much brighter and happier place!
This is the second time I have seen this show on a UK Tour and this time it was such a brilliant and enjoyable experience. I did not care for the previous tour I caught, which in all honesty has put me off seeing the show again. But with this one coming from the new West End production I decided it was well worth going to see. After seeing it I can confirm that it is well worth going to see. The musical numbers are nailed each time and bring out some brilliant performances.
Louise Deadman was the standout for me as Miss Adelaide! She has some rather tricky songs with difficult lyrics but she breezes through it all with such ease showing that she is a very good performer. I really was impressed with her level of performance from start to finish. It seems to be a fun character to play but difficult at the same time. Her renditions of ‘Adelaide’s Lament,’ ‘Sue Me’ and ‘Marry the Man Today’ were brilliant. Linking in very well with Maxwell Caulfield for Sue Me and Anna O’Bryne for Marry the Man Today.
It was also good to see Richard Fleeshman on stage as I had heard very good things about from when he was in Ghost. Always good to see an actor who you know mainly for work in one of the soaps to then be such a good performer on stage. The same can be said for Maxwell Caulfield as well! Both with the acting and singing/dancing moments.
With older musicals like this one you wonder how they manage to keep going or get revivals at different times. I think its pretty simple for this one, the way men and women treat each other has not really changed. They still clash and don’t give the other exactly what they want when they want it. A good thing though is probably not getting called a “doll” anymore, but I think that now adds humor to the show as I really could not imagine a man or guy calling me a doll!
My favorite song from this show is easily ‘Sit Down You’re Rocking the Boat’ as it really is just one of those great musical theater songs. I was therefore really looking forward to that which is near the end of the show from the very start. I was very impressed with Jack Edwards as Nicely Nicely Johnson and thought he was fantastic from the start and really was then expecting a great rendition of the song, and he certainly did deliver just that I was massively impressed and it certainly got one of the biggest applauses of the night from the audience. I very packed audience I must add!
Newcastle is the second date on the tour and it has a two week stint at the Theatre Royal which is pretty impressive as most shows tend to just do a weeks engagement now. It has plenty of dates left on the UK tour so why not check it out when it comes to a venue near you?
