Trapdoor Productions has returned to the Royal Hippodrome Theatre, Eastbourne with their fourth summer season production, Musicality, taking audiences on a journey from the days of the Music Hall right through to the modern day blockbuster musicals.
Featuring a cast of professional actors, alongside students from the Trapdoor Theatre School, the programme is full of the very best and most famous Music Hall numbers, like Underneath the Arches, A Couple of Swells and even a video performance of Wilson and Keppel’s original Sand Dance, together with musical highlights that include Memory from Cats, On My Own from Les Miserables, and Leaning on a Lamppost and The Lambeth Walk from Me and My Girl.
Compere and performer, Grant Martins, does an excellent job of making the audience feel at home. His interactions are all very natural and he really looks like he is having the time of his life. Also a very talented song and dance man, he sails through Let’s Face the Music and Dance – backed by the very accomplished Musicality Dancers.
The Horrible Hippodrome Homicide is a two part comedy sketch that, as well as being very firmly music hall, is also reminiscent of the early Carry On films, with a script littered with double entendres and character’s with names like Sir Grievous Bodily Harm, Fanny and Little Dickie.
There is also a “Guess the Show” section where a member of the audience has to guess the show that is being acted out, in the manner of charades, by the entire cast. Some are very easy to guess, some a little more obscure but, with the unpredictability of an audience member thrown in, it’s all great fun.
Due to the indisposition of usual cast member Thomas Hackett, Producer and Director Alex Adams stands in and proves that he is a great performer in his own right, with the solo numbers from Cats and Les Miserables and, together with Grant Martins, performing a tribute to Flanagan and Allen.
Nick Hollands is the other male lead and, as well as providing assistance to Martins and Adams in numbers like Daisy Daisy, Don’t Dilly Dally and the Morecambe and Wise theme tune, Bring Me Sunshine, he also works very well in Friendship, from Anything Goes.
As many other seaside resorts have lost their traditional summer season shows in favour of other forms of entertainment, it is great to see that the Royal Hippodrome Theatre is holding on to the traditions that it holds so dear, and that Trapdoor Productions have the ability to deliver just what the Eastbourne audience wants to see.
**** Four Stars
