King Alfred's College, Wantage, Wed April 11th - Sat April 14th 2007

Well.

The technical flaws mentioned by Andrew were spot, on so rather than deny, or make excuses for them why do they recur year after year?

Why do principals need to be miked in a small hall anyway? If you are going to mic-up the main leads then how are you going to amplify the minor speaking parts?

The lead (Jenney) was indeed talented and did save the show from being a complete disaster. Sadly that skill wasn't any where near matched by the smaller principals.

Customer care and consideration must come first. Once you charge an entry fee it matters not whether the cast are paid or not.

Dai Llareggub 18 Apr 2007

This is not a broadway production and one should not go see a show with that assumption!
I went opening and closing night and enjoyed both shows.The female lead Charity was fantastic, Oscar was suitably nerdy,but lovely voice, it was all brilliant. Hats off to the Wantage Stage Musical Company for pulling off a great show.

gillian rose 17 Apr 2007

I just want to say that although the cast and crew of Sweet Charity did experience technical and instrumental difficulties, they all did a amazing job, and as am dram shows go this has probably been one of my most enjoyable to watch. I came opening and closing night, and judging by the amount of applause and aftershow positive comments I overheard and discussed with other members of the audience, I'd say it was the furthest thing from disappointing. Do remember 'dear readers' for those who go to look for fault, fault can always be found, but lets hope the term 'enjoy the show' hasn't been lost/forgotten by certain individuals. Once again, well done cast and crew, I look forward to the next show.

Jerry Rodgers 15 Apr 2007

I saw this production on Wednesday too and had a great time. I've just moved to Wantage and thought I'd sample the local culture! The seats were uncomfortable, there were obvious technical difficulties, but the acting and singing were brilliant and it's a testament to the professionalism of a first rate cast of troopers that despite all the problems they were facing they never forgot a line or sang the wrong words. I've told loads of people to go.

Marky 12 Apr 2007

Sweet Charity is the tale of Charity Hope Valentine, a naïve taxi-dancer in a New York Hostess Room. The story tells of her desperation to find love, and to escape the Hostess Room and its tawdry employees and patrons. Three times she thinks she finds love, yet each time her hopes are dashed, forcing her to return to the Hostess Room and her roots.

I saw the Wantage Stage Musical Company’s production of Kiss Me Kate a few years ago and jumped at the chance to see them again. I arrived. I purchased a glossy and impressive looking programme. Good start.

I made my way to my seat and, as I sat, both my knees collided heavily with the shoulders of the woman in front. Plenty of leg room there then, but, on the plus side, the top of the woman’s head looked perfect for an impromptu writing desk. What followed has led me to the conclusion that the WSMC doesn’t like their audiences very much. We were cramped in, the heating was on, and boy were they going to make us pay. For three hours.

Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with amateur theatre. I appreciate that amateur companies have limited money, time and resources available to them, but there is never any excuse for amateurish practices that destroy the belief of the audience and gives irregular theatre-goers the impression that all theatre is like that. Sadly this show had these practices in abundance, and I’m afraid, dear reader, that this is going to turn into a rant.

To be fair, many of the performances on the stage were probably fine but I hardly noticed because I was distracted by the decisions and antics of those behind the scenes.

The orchestra was far too big (fourteen players, I think), and, at times, it didn’t seem like some of them had ever seen or heard the music in front of them. On some of the numbers there was simply a cacophony of noise and random notes which I hope wasn’t how the score was written. The actors struggled on gamely, but the slightly desperate looks that flitted across their faces gave away the fact that all wasn’t well. How many times had the orchestra and actors rehearsed together? Not many, I’ll bet. The orchestra should have been cut down to four or five players who knew the music intimately.

The amplification was very unbalanced, with the orchestra and principal characters having far too much and the chorus nothing at all. The result was that whenever a chorus member said or sang anything on their own you didn’t have a hope of hearing. The microphones worn by the principals were either not very subtly hidden or positioned in a way so that the wearer’s voice would fade in and out depending on where they were looking or would be brushed by a hand at regular intervals. Personally I’d have preferred there to be no amplification at all, and for the actors to project their voices. I’ve seen amateur companies do musicals this way in far bigger venues, and do a good job of it.

The lighting was weird. Sometimes the actors were plunged into darkness for no apparent reason and at other times random lights came on (not necessarily pointing anywhere near the stage) and snapped off again after a few moments. Not very much care seemed to have been put into aiming the lights accurately, meaning that actors could suddenly find themselves with all or part of their bodies in darkness if they moved in a certain way.

And then there was the backstage crew. Oh my. True they had to contend with quite a few bulky bits of scenery that had to be dragged on, but these were some of the slowest, noisiest scene changes I’ve ever seen. Sometimes there were quite a few seconds of darkness after a scene finished before anything was done to get ready for the next (why weren’t they ready?); sometimes hands and faces would appear through curtains before scenes finished to see where the actors were in the scene (why couldn’t they hear?); on one occasion a stage hand came on, in the middle of a scene, to place a stool that had been forgotten. This stool wasn’t used in that scene, so why was it needed in the first place? And yes, when you drag props around backstage when a scene is going on, the audience CAN hear you.

All this completely prevented me from connecting with the characters or beginning to believe that any of it was real; if there was any danger of that happening something would happen to distract me and remind me where I was.

I’m aware that I’ve not really said anything about what happened on stage. The whole thing hinged on Charity (Jenny Stickland), and thankfully she did do a very good job. She sang and danced well, had a consistent accent and was suitably vulnerable in the role. The rest of the cast definitely did their best and coped well with some of the random noises offered up by the orchestra. At times they fell into the typical am-dram traps of standing in straight lines, talking upstage, talking over each other or over laughter/applause and not always being very discreet about watching the conductor whilst singing, but there can be no doubt that they were trying their hardest.

The whole thing was just too long. Several of the songs weren’t particularly good and had no real relevance to the plot, so should have been cut. The scene changes could have been much slicker. The actors should have picked up their cues quicker at times. And the encores weren’t really necessary. The show finished at 10.30pm, and I think, if all those things had been done, perhaps up to half an hour could have been cut off, particularly if it had started on time.

All in all I was disappointed. I felt that the show could have done with another fortnight’s rehearsal, particularly to make sure that everything off-stage was satisfactory. The lighting operators and stage hands should have known the play as well as the actors, and this didn’t seem to be the case. Apologies to all those within WSMC who put in lots of hard work, but I’m afraid it fell short of the mark. I hope it’ll improve through the rest of your run.

Andrew Carson 11 Apr 2007

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