Saturday saw me dragged off to the New Alexandra Theatre Birmingham because we had Free theatre tickets. I must be getting old because although I had heeded the alarm bells that were screaming something is wrong, I had allowed to be satisfied with the fact it must be a weak production of a fairly weak plot from a mildly passable film comedy; Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.
Of course, it was my own fault, I had heard the slight delay in Annette’s voice when she told me what the show was but, I had chosen to ignore that because the cast was, from my point of view, a complete bunch of nobodies. It was also ‘smoke screened’ by the fact she had persuaded Adam to go along. I wasn’t even alarmed to find we had to get past a mountain rescue team reach our seats, or even that a gnome would bemoan the lack of leg room, but still I felt uneasy. She was hiding something.
All became clear five minutes into the show when they gushed out into an unmemorable song and dance routine. Did you know it was a musical?I asked. And there it was the slight smug look of satisfaction; I had been conned. Somehow I managed to stay awake ( I’m not sure but the scantily dressed French maids outfits may have helped) to give it a chance to surprise me, but it was all in vain.
The cast were all competent and could reach all the right notes in the right order but, it was a story that should never have been set to music and music that was definitely not of the foot tapping variety. All in all it was the kind of show that gives musicals a bad name. Not one single number that I could recall three minutes after it had ended. I really am glad of that though.
Next time my check list will definitely include; “Is it a musical?”