G & S Showtime!
To the William Loveless Hall! …on Wednesday evening for SHOWTIME with the Wivenhoe Gilbert and Sullivan Society and Anything Goes.
Hurrah!
But how the chuffers do you transport a turn of the 20th Century American ocean liner into the *ahem* compact space of the good ‘ol Willie Loveless?
Man the lifeboats, etc.
The Loveless Hall is many things to many men and women. But for one week in the Wivenhoe calendar it has been transformed into a setting that resembles the opulence of High Society ocean life.
Not so much P & O, but a backdrop and positioning of the audience that gives you a top deck vantage point for the following two and a half hours of song, sauciness and mistaken identities.
But first, what of the confusion of the good folk of G & S staging a show that is actually by Cole Porter?
SPLITTERS!
Not so.
Every other year and Messrs Gilbert and Sullivan get to take a sabbatical in Wivenhoe. Anything Goes fits the theme, as well as the incredible range of vocal talent and different generations that make up Wivenhoe G & S.
This is a grand production in every sense. Setting aside, the story and songbook requires immense concentration and physical skills from all involved. With over 50% of the show immersed in lusty songs, you need lungs the size of Billy Crocker’s, um, ego to get you through the five night run.
Anything Goes shows sophistication from start to finish. The optimism of the opening scenes ahead of the SS Americana departing dock is carried all the way through until the rousing closing chorus number.
I’ve been backstage at Le Grande Willie H. Wardrobe space doubles up during the daytime as a Mothers and Toddlers group. To enable a cast of forty plus men and women to undergo frequent and ever elaborate costume changes in such a small space requires precision planning.
All the while the audience remains starboard (or is it port side?) peering down the deck and oblivious to the behind the scenes military manoeuvres that it must take to simply stage the show.
And WOH! What a show.
Mid-West comes to Wivenhoe - that’s the American Mid-West, and not Alresford. The accents appear so natural that you lose the default setting to analyse the authenticity after the first couple of minutes.
And that’s just the spoken word. Song and dance is an international language, but it’s still bloody hard to pull off an American nightclub singer solo performance when you are a resident of a North Essex estuary town.
Amazing work, Madam.
The old style flea pit musician’s area genuinely gives you the impression that you are watching a show from a different age. Mr Piano Man (HUGE apologies - arrived too late to buy a programme) is almost an actor himself up on the stage. The relationship and timing between the pinky plonky and the actors is seamless.
Jazz Hands Drummer (again, sorry) is perhaps the only person in the whole of Wivenhoe that actually understands the delicate acoustics of the William Loveless Hall. Take a drum roll, Sir. But not too loudly…
Sure there are going to be lead roles and stand out characters. But this is an inclusive show that manages to incorporate - and find a role - for all forty plus folk that put themselves forward.
No live horse as was the case for Wivenhoe Open Air Shakespeare back in the ’90s, but a charming pooch carried out the stage instructions to perfection. A comedy Blue Peter style whoopsie would perhaps be asking for too much.
The first Act is lengthy, but you’re never really wanting the action to end. The SEXINESS factor is ramped up for the second half of the show. Never smutty, but it leaves you with HOT PANTS and a probing imagination, so to speak.
Mentions must also go to the Colne Bank School of Dancing for reducing the average age of the cast by about three decades, plus the brilliantly technically proficient tech crew. Attention to detail is impressive, both in sound and vision.
And so Anything Goes in Wivenhoe up until 16th March.
Anyone fancy Open Air Shakespeare after this?
Full flickr feed.
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