New Victoria Theatre, Woking – until 19 October 2019
Reviewed by Becky Doyle
4****
What an absolute feel good show from start to finish! I loved every minute. I went into the show having really no idea what it was based on or what it was about. The recognisable tone of Dolly Parton rang out and I was engrossed.
The cast were fantastic, I was taken aback by the voice of Amber Davies who played Judy Bernly. Her solo piece was beautiful, strong and so touching. As someone who had seen her in previous TV shows I had no idea she was so musically and artistically talented. I had two stand out performances and that was from Georgina Castle (Doralee Rhodes) and Sean Needham (Franklin Hart Jr) both had me and the rest of the audience in absolute stitches. Sean in particular had some very daring moves on both the stage and up in the air – which left the first half on a great ‘hanger’.
The stage was set out well and the props and equipment utilised to the full. The lighting, something that doesn’t normally catch me eye, did. It was so colourful and stand out-ish it set the whole mood for the current scene.
My only criticism, and it is a small one at that was that sometimes I found the words of the songs hard to hear or understand due to the volume of the band playing, again only a very small remark.
The ending of the show was by far the best part and I as did many of the others in the audience got involved as much as we could with the last act. I would highly recommend this show, if your like me and didn’t know much about the story it’s easily picked up and now that I’ve seen it and know the background I could easily watch it again with the same joy and excitement as I did last night.