Where to begin. This is a shocker of a show, there's no other way to put it, which is why there were so many empty seats around me for the second half.
There is no one reason why the production doesn't work but a weak script doesn't help. The set is also rather lack lustre and with so many bits of furniture winging around it all feels a bit unstable, the scene shifters were at least worth watching, a good job as they dominate some of the action and detract from the principles. In fact, the chorus did a stirling job and gave a crisp and disciplined performance of some of the oddest choreography I have seen in a long time. Except that someone came in on one of the songs a bar early - not something you hear every day.
I'm afraid Sarah Harding really wasn't up to the job, or on quite a few occasions up to the note. Andy Moss did sing well but spends most of the show bent foreward from the waist as if he's preparing to run for it. Jacqui Dubois' Oda Mae was fun and her sequences were the most enjoyable parts of a lack lustre show but overall I was at best unimpressed.
The use of follow spots for the main characters, continuously, was really distracting, especially when they came on at the wrong times, or not at all. The ghost effects were just about ok, the sequence in the tube train working well though learning to move a newspaper less so and the end ... well, I was just happy it was over.
I have seen many an operatic society production that would knock this into a cocked hat and at a much more reasonable ticket price so I really cannot recommend it as a night out
P.S. Dear Set Designer - the American's spell it "Operating Theater"
P.P.S. Minor point, but if the programme is going to have a section on how not to confuse a Medium with a Psychic (because either might be offended) why does the script confuse the two?
