Book, Music, Lyrics: Karen Strahan
and Jill Walsh
Producers: Karen Strahan and Jill
Walsh
Director: Gordon Nicholson
Musical Director/Arranger: John BlackChoreographer: Michelle Heine
Set Design: Wayne Shepherd
Costume Design: Christine Pawlicki
Q Theatre, Queanbeyan 8 – 17 May 2014
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| Gordon Nicholson-Jill Walsh - Lisa McClelland-Karen Strahan - John Kelly Gaye Reid - Angela Lount |
Reviewed by Bill Stephens
Though original
Australian musicals are not rare, those which manage to successfully capture
the Australian psyche certainly are. “Winging My Way to the Top” is on the verge
of being such a musical, which, after a rather bumpy gestation period, finally
received its world premiere at the Q in Queanbeyan on Thursday night.
It would be
easy to go on about what’s wrong with this show, especially the opening night
performance, but let's concentrate on what’s right
about it.
 |
| Jill Walsh and Karen Strahan |
Karen
Strahan and Jill Walsh have managed to come up with an exuberant show in the
best Australian vaudeville tradition. The characters live. The gags are funny,
often wildly so. The songs are tuneful and catchy and the story has the
potential to be really engaging as it follow the travails of three middle-aged
sisters, who, 20 years earlier, almost made it big as The Diamond Sisters, with
a minor hit song “My Chocolate Heart Has Melted”.
An on-stage
incident during the Tamworth Music Festival abruptly ended their careers and
although Beryl (Jill Walsh) and Ruby (Karen Strahan) have married and gotten on
with their lives, the youngest sister Pearl (Lisa McClelland) has never given
up on her childhood dream of becoming a singing star.
Gordon
Nicholson, who took over the role of director at short notice, also plays
Charlie Cheapside, a struggling furniture salesman and the husband of the
eldest sister, Pearl. Nicholson is a brilliant comic, very much in the long
line of such renowned Australian vaudeville baggy pants comedians as Joe
Lawman, George Wallace Snr, Bobby Le Brun and Lucky Grills.
 |
| Gordon Nicholson and Jill Walsh (Charlie and Beryl Cheapside) |
Rude, crude
and irresistibly funny, Nicholson dominates the stage in all his scenes. He
gets stiff competition from Jill Walsh who is quite marvellous as his garrulous
and gutsy wife Pearl. The innate Australianness of their combative, rough and
affectionate relationship is deliciously captured and very funny to watch. Unfortunately
the strain of the dual roles of actor and director took its toll on Nicholson
who dried on several occasions. Although his experience allowed him to cover
the dries with aplomb, his fellow actors were not quite so skilful and their
confusion was often painfully evident
John Kelly,
as the successful but definitely dodgy investment broker and husband of Ruby
Diamond, Godfrey Goldsmith, teamed well with Nicholson for two amusing songs
“Remote Control” and “The Bronding Song”.
The rest of
the principals are members of successful Canberra professional singing
ensembles, so it is no surprise that their excellent singing, rather than their
acting, is one of the strengths of this
production, especially when they’re backed by John Black’s terrific seven piece
band and classy musical arrangements.
 |
| Jill Walsh (Beryl Cheapside) Gaye Reid ( Phyllis Jones) Lisa McClelland (Pearl Diamond), Karen Strahan (Ruby Goldsmith) |
Gaye Reid was delightfully unconvincing as the
former Solid Gold Dancer, Phyllis Jones, especially in the production number
“Solid Nugget Blues” when she hilariously loses the plot during the frenetic
dance routine. Karen Strahan shines in the title number “Winging My Way to the
Top”, and Lisa McClellan has her best moment with the silly-enough-to-be-a
hit-song “Beep Beep”.
Angela
Lount, adds to the fun as the Goldsmith’s voluptuous French maid and domestic
E.A., Vivyen, and has her own solo “My Name is Vivyen”, but it is when she
joins Strahan, McClellan, Walsh and Reid for possibly the best song in the
show, a beautiful ballad, “All I Have Is Me” that her warm contralto really
thrills.
A troupe of
dancers add razzle dazzle to several numbers and double as barbecue party
friends. However their presence also highlights the lack of dance skills among
the principals who look uncomfortable and ill-at-ease in the song and dance
numbers.
Wayne Shepherd’s
double-roomed setting is attractive, but the actors often appeared cramped in
the first act, and there were clumsy set-changes in the second act. Nicholson’s direction style is very much rooted in his theatre restaurant background, and though he and his production team have achieved a great deal in the short rehearsal period, the show often has a rough and ready vaudeville look, instead of a music theatre polish, and on opening night appeared under-rehearsed. As well, the pace was erratic and there are unsolved dramaturgical issues. Pace and polish will no doubt improve with further performances, and hopefully the dramaturgical issues will also be sorted.
None of this
seemed to worry the first-night audience however, who gave every sign of being greatly
entertained, screamed with laughter throughout, and at the final curtain,
rewarded the show with a standing ovation.
