The cast of the Robinson’s Brickhouse Theatre Company pulled together a brilliant musical, echoic of Grease or High School Musical, with its school-centred plot of high-school romance and teenage peer groups at war with each other. Full of music from the fantastic era of the eighties, there was a great mixture of songs – solos, duets, group performances – binding the production together in a bundle of song, dance and acting.

Undeniably, there were some very talented performers on stage here, and some brilliant voices. Deputy Headmaster and Maths teacher, Stevie Cocker, played by Alex Franklin, gave some phenomenal solo performances, both singing and acting in tandem to emphasise the eccentricities of his role. It was such a shame that the microphones failed to work properly and the technical side of the performance was slightly lacking with strange overtones of mics fading in and out and not fully functioning. Yet, despite the inconsistent use of microphones, the singing was sustained and actors did not allow this technical fault to cause disturbance to their performances.

"The full-cast dances were definitely well managed and contained amazing energy"

Another singing performance that stood out was the competitive dating proposal of the two central male roles. Harry Normanton and Harry Burke in particular excelled in their ludicrous dramatisation of the Proclaimer’s I Would Walk 500 Miles to a comic absurdity that had the audience in hysterics. The dancing throughout was also really well choreographed, learned and executed. It could have been neater at points, but given the size of the cast and the number of dances that they performed together, I think that the choreography was overall, well done, adding humour to the performance. The full-cast dances were definitely well managed and contained amazing energy, rehearsed to show coherency and consistency across all actors who moved seamlessly together, with little fault or timing error.

The acting, too, was excellent, with some really hilarious comic portrayals of caricatures and stereotypes. Although potentially straying into the offensive in their crudeness, the portrayals of specific characters were consistent and enabled a really enjoyable comic relief in their performance. Feargal McFerrin III, played by Alex Harris, and his little ‘clique-group’ of Laura and Debbie (Elaine Duncan and Claire Hemingway) provided fun and enthusiasm from the beginning. Their comic rendering of ‘geeky’ stereotypes and their over-the-top miming, dancing and reactions were consistently funny, bringing the audience into hysterics at several points. They fully immersed themselves into the roles, taking on their characters fully, even during minor roles or background miming parts.

The use of costume furthered the witty characterisation and were cleverly emphatic of character traits, whilst remaining grounded in the fashion style of the eighties. With classic black clothes and jeans for the ‘cool kids’, funky bright tutus and pig-tails in the hair of ‘funky kids’ and classic ankle-swinger suit for the computer tech-guy and headmaster roles. Costumes really aided the atmosphere of the piece, era-specific, reminiscent of eighties stereotypes and truly enabling the characters to fulfil their roles. These were, at times, exaggerated, but this only added to the comic excess and theme of absurdity that ran throughout the musical.

But unfortunately, this very comic performance is hindered by its run-time. Although the comedy was sustained throughout and the quality of dancing, acting and singing stayed consistent, the entire performance would have benefitted from being shorter, more concise, delivering a smaller snippet of enjoyment, rather than continuing and starting to drag towards the end. This would have also allowed for a polishing of routines and a cleaner overall performance. The comedy sometimes slips too far into the absurd and is, at times, even offensive, becoming cringe-worthy and repetitive in its depiction of stereotypes.

Yet, overall, the performance had great variation throughout, demonstrating some really skilled dramatic performances, some fun upbeat songs and a fantastic live band. With pianos, drums, guitars and a selection of brass instruments, tunes of the eighties wove in and out of the performance, enhancing the atmosphere as well as carrying the audience through the longer scenes, providing a musical continuity during scene changes or pauses.

Review: Cabaret

Overall, the band was brilliant, cast fantastic and very skilled in a range of dramatic techniques – demonstrating some really talented singers, dancers and actors. Costumes and choreography were very clever, matching the aura of the eighties and enhanced the tone of musical comedy. Although it would have benefitted from being shorter, the performance was, on the whole, very enjoyable and a light-hearted watch