Mayflower Theatre, Southampton – 14 March 2017. Reviewed by Karen Millington Burnet
Wow, what a good evening. Once we had disentangled ourselves from the iconic performances of Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore we were able to enjoy the evening’s performance as much as the original – and even more so for the music. Equal measures of comedy, tension and buckets of sorrow were served up in a fast paced and slick performance.
I think we’ve now cracked the Southampton Mayflower; living in Salisbury, we’re able to enjoy a light bite in the excellent “Pig in the Wall” before sauntering through the lively early evening life of Southampton to the Mayflower which is easy to find, simple to get into and where we always seem to enjoy great seats in the Stalls. Reading a programme full of dark colours in a dim auditorium before the curtain went up was an unnecessary trial – but maybe that’s just my age!
All in all, this evening was another great Mayflower outing. We were bowled over by Carolyn Maitland’s Molly; just a stunning voice and performance – full of energy, genuine emotion and passion. That was, until Jacque Dubois’ Oda Mae quite literally burst onto the scene and almost stole the show as both psychic and comic. The chemistry didn’t quite work between Maitland’s Molly and Moss’s Sam and I attribute this in part to Moss’s relative inexperience; he didn’t quite “get” the body language of loss and grief. In a performance such as this, the absence of a genuine spark between the two lead actors was apparent.
Raspberries to the sound engineers who didn’t do him any favours. The show benefitted from strong supporting performances from Garry Lee Netley’s Subway Ghost and from Tarisha Rommick and Simbi Akande.
Special plaudits must go to the Set designers who produced a masterpiece of props and transitions; almost too clever for the crew who just occasionally could be spied back stage, labouring. The lighting crew must also get special mention for a good effort, especially with the cunning trick of dimming the spot for the ghostly Sam. The only let down was that the spots on the main characters sometimes didn’t quite follow them as they moved around the stage. The music was awesome and the orchestra toiled tirelessly and faultlessly – and sadly hidden completely from the final audience ovation, though thoroughly deserved.
It was just a shame the sound engineers allowed them to overshadow some of the less powerful singing at stages despite Andy Moss’s Sam and Sam Ferriday’s Carl toiling valiantly to be heard in the tsunami of song on a number of occasions. I was wondering how the illusions, which are easy to depict on film, would be undertaken on stage but all worked well and the Illusionist deserves his strawberries for getting this right.
My abiding memories will be of Carolyn Maitland’s Molly tugging at the tear ducts as she journeyed from love to tragedy to farewell. A bright future awaits this stunning talent; no more understudying for her!