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Jan. 8th, 2009 09:28 amTo the New Theatre Royal last night to see Oddsocks do Les Misérables - Le Panto. The theatre's forgiven and more for no longer selling Lambrini, because they now sell MIXED FRUIT KOPPARBERG *mwah*
The show started in traditional style, with the cast playing a tune on medieval instruments and, as this play was set in France, leading us all in singing Frère Jacques. I couldn't tell if anyone else was singing the third line as 'soggy semolina' like me.
Next came the cast introductions. Kate Willis' suggestion that they get to know the audience one by one was cut short after a couple in the front row called Paul and Jane. The five players introduced each other to us under their Oddsocks personas such as Joe King and May Gowrong.
I wasn't familiar with the Les Misérables story but it was easy to follow and Oddsocks' humorous interpretation was a real treat. For this show they bravely combined stage and screen, filmed action on a backdrop interacting with the players on the stage. This allowed characters to have flashbacks, catered for scenes where more than five people were needed, and created a very effective street battle scene and let Inspector Javert drown himself spectacularly in the Seine. Being Oddsocks, they employed it as a comic device too, especially when actors seen on screen then passed through the curtain to appear onstage.
Joe King (aka Adrian Palmer) was a superb Jean Valjean. Paul Darken-Hansom (William Tombs) was wickedly villainous as Inspector Javert - though he had a soft side, shown mostly by his constant craving to do a ukulele solo. After being thwarted by fellow cast members throughout, he finally got to play his yuke, singing a song 'I'm très misérable', just before his suicide. As always with Oddsocks, there was plenty of audience participation - we had to boo and hiss Javert (that, and the odd character played by a member of the opposite sex, was the panto part), exclaim 'Mon Dieu! Sacre bleu! Quelle coincidence!' when anything coincidental was mentioned, and shout 'Huzzah!' when the revolutionary Enjolras slapped his thigh.
But the star of the show was Kate Willis as May Gowrong. May - the unwitting object of the desire of fellow cast member Ivor Query, who during the second-act intros kept miming kisses in her direction when she wasn't looking - announced proudly during the intros "I have all the best female parts." After quieting a heckler who called out "I can see that," she went on "I play Fantine, a mother...who dies" - she frowned before perking up to say "and I play Eponine, a sweet young girl...who dies" - frown again, then smile for "and I play Cosette, a lover!" Big cheer. "Who doesn't die!" Bigger cheer. "...But her dad does."
She was magnificent in all her roles. I especially loved her Eponine, so beautiful, sweet and vivacious. While all the audience 'aaaaah'ed her over her unrequited love for Marius, although one of the central strands of the story is Marius and Cosette's love for each other I became a firm Marius/Eponine shipper. Did he really have to say yes when she, dying, said "You thought I was ugly, didn't you?"
The ending was handled in classic Oddsocks fashion. When Valjean, attended by Marius and Cosette, apparently died, Cosette shook his body with a cry of "Father, father," which revived him - only for him to promptly fall forward on the floor, dead of a heart attack.
Majestic.
The show started in traditional style, with the cast playing a tune on medieval instruments and, as this play was set in France, leading us all in singing Frère Jacques. I couldn't tell if anyone else was singing the third line as 'soggy semolina' like me.
Next came the cast introductions. Kate Willis' suggestion that they get to know the audience one by one was cut short after a couple in the front row called Paul and Jane. The five players introduced each other to us under their Oddsocks personas such as Joe King and May Gowrong.
I wasn't familiar with the Les Misérables story but it was easy to follow and Oddsocks' humorous interpretation was a real treat. For this show they bravely combined stage and screen, filmed action on a backdrop interacting with the players on the stage. This allowed characters to have flashbacks, catered for scenes where more than five people were needed, and created a very effective street battle scene and let Inspector Javert drown himself spectacularly in the Seine. Being Oddsocks, they employed it as a comic device too, especially when actors seen on screen then passed through the curtain to appear onstage.
Joe King (aka Adrian Palmer) was a superb Jean Valjean. Paul Darken-Hansom (William Tombs) was wickedly villainous as Inspector Javert - though he had a soft side, shown mostly by his constant craving to do a ukulele solo. After being thwarted by fellow cast members throughout, he finally got to play his yuke, singing a song 'I'm très misérable', just before his suicide. As always with Oddsocks, there was plenty of audience participation - we had to boo and hiss Javert (that, and the odd character played by a member of the opposite sex, was the panto part), exclaim 'Mon Dieu! Sacre bleu! Quelle coincidence!' when anything coincidental was mentioned, and shout 'Huzzah!' when the revolutionary Enjolras slapped his thigh.
But the star of the show was Kate Willis as May Gowrong. May - the unwitting object of the desire of fellow cast member Ivor Query, who during the second-act intros kept miming kisses in her direction when she wasn't looking - announced proudly during the intros "I have all the best female parts." After quieting a heckler who called out "I can see that," she went on "I play Fantine, a mother...who dies" - she frowned before perking up to say "and I play Eponine, a sweet young girl...who dies" - frown again, then smile for "and I play Cosette, a lover!" Big cheer. "Who doesn't die!" Bigger cheer. "...But her dad does."
She was magnificent in all her roles. I especially loved her Eponine, so beautiful, sweet and vivacious. While all the audience 'aaaaah'ed her over her unrequited love for Marius, although one of the central strands of the story is Marius and Cosette's love for each other I became a firm Marius/Eponine shipper. Did he really have to say yes when she, dying, said "You thought I was ugly, didn't you?"
The ending was handled in classic Oddsocks fashion. When Valjean, attended by Marius and Cosette, apparently died, Cosette shook his body with a cry of "Father, father," which revived him - only for him to promptly fall forward on the floor, dead of a heart attack.
Majestic.
