Singin' In The Rain: a theatre review!

I'm taking liberties with my blogs today, posting a review in Tumblr of Singin' In The Rain instead of a jazzy picture or gif with OMG I WANT TO SEE THIS AGAIN! And you, my fellow blogspot and Google plus people, and my Wordpress followers, will see a review of a theatre production because I want to gush about the magic of the stage.

Who you can see above is Adam Cooper, tap dancer and ballet star famous for his role as the Swan in Matthew Bourne's revolutionary Swan Lake from the mid-nineties (you can also spot him playing older Billy Elliot in the 2000 film). He was fantastic as Don, the role that I thought no one else but Gene Kelly could schmooze his way through, but boy does Mr Cooper ooze charm and easy grace. I was ready to leap on stage to snog him myself.
What I love about the theatre is that it is innovative and always wanting to make it worth your while to be there, films are often lazy but theatre companies cannot afford to be so because they need bums on seats. So what happens here is IT RAINED ON STAGE. No joke, there was water all over that specially created stage which meant the people in the first few rows of the stalls were in the ‘splash zone’ and you could tell the dancers took some pleasure from kicking the water out.

As well as the amazing set which could hold water, the rest of the props and the set design was brilliant. The Palace Theatre was without a curtain so nothing was hidden from the audience which I particularly love as behind the scenes tasks are often intriguing, plus all the stage hands were dressed in 1920s appropriate garb so it kept the spirit alive even while watching them mop the stage or dismantle lamposts.

What I found quite unusual (or maybe it was because I was closer to the stage than I usually am) was that the Chorus had a lot to do, dipping into speaking parts, taking three or four different roles each, and having to do all the dances. I know this is normal but it was the fact that the Chorus was actually quite small in number - maybe a dozen of them? Regardless I was hugely impressed with them and intensely jealous of their dancing skill.

The main roles of Don, Kathy and Cosmo were all splendid - Don especially. But Jennifer Ellison (from Brookside) as Lina Lamont absolutely stole every scene she's in (she's the one who 'Can't Stand Him!'). It must take so much skill for someone who is six months pregnant and a pretty fantastic singer to sing off-key and in such a high pitched voice.

The whole production was simply fantastic, the costumes, cast, styling...I beamed the whole way through. As I often do when watching the 1952 movie in fact.

So, apologies for the digression from film and TV. It won't happen often as I cannot afford to go to London very often, but be warned, I have tickets for Viva Forever in May so there is gonna be some gushing about the Spice Girls sooner than you'd all like!