Sweet Charity

The next Pied Pipers show will be Sweet Charity by Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields. This is to be staged from Wednesday 29th April to Saturday 2nd May 2009 at the ADC Theatre in Cambridge.

Production Team

Production Director - Margaret Thorp
Musical Director - Andrew Taylor
Choreographer - Maureen Gypps

Synopsis

Charity works at a dance club where she has seen only the dark side of life through bad relationships. One day she meets Oscar and believes her luck has changed. When things turn sour, Charity stays sweet and hopeful that someday her ideals will materialize.

For a list of musical numbers see here

Review of Oklahoma! from Combinations

Pied Pipers have been presenting musicals since 1951 but, for some reason this production of OKLAHOMA! was the first for them. This is a great show with many great songs and has remained popular for 55 years. It was clear from the outset that Director Margaret Thorp and Musical Director Andrew Taylor knew what they wanted to acheive with this show and they did.

Oklahoma! has always been one of my favourite films and its certainly a must for me as a stage musical and the opening of the show with Curly singing in the distance and getting closer and closer with Oh What a Beautiful Morning is a 'show setter' for me. Well, when Dominic Liversedge came on the stage it was as if Gordon Macrae had stepped through the celluloid. He has a great singing voice, can act and has the looks too. His was a talented and enjoyable performance. Unfortunately Ceri Davis as Laurie was not strong enough to match Dominic's performance in any area which was dissapointing.

I saw Steph Hamer play Aunt Eller for Festival Players about six years ago. and wondered wheteher it was wise to go for the same role a second time. In 2002 I thougth she was a second Maureen Lipman who played the role in the London production. This time round I was equally impressed if not more so. To my mind Ms Hamer is 'the one and only' Aunt Eller which she proved with an outstanding performance.

Talking about outstanding performances, Rachel Bye as Ado Annie was faultless. The role leaves the actress no choice but to 'go for it' and go for it Ms Bye did sweeping all before her proving a real handful both for her father (Len Packman in great voice) and her young man Will Parker (played with verve by the excellent Matt Gregory).

Alan Hay's interpretation of the sinister Jud Fry fell rather short of expectation. Instead of sinister and threatening we had morose and seemingly deficient which didn't quite gel for me. On the other side of the coin we had a bravura performance by the versatile Michael Flintoff as Ali Hakin. His scenes with Ado Aniie wer a joy and he gained one's sympathy when faced with a lifetime of marriage to Gertie Cummings whose laugh went right thought you. Jo Smith gave an incredibly consistent performance as said Gertie.

Pied Pipers produced one of the strongest male choruses seen for a number of years and well done to them thar farmers and cowhands. The ladies of the chorus were more than a match for them too with lovely voices and some great costumes.

This was a very long show, certainly longer than I reall it being and this in part was down to over-long dance routines. This comment should take nothging awaya from choreographer Helen Thompson-Garner's skill and expertise nor the dream dancers' (Barnery Evans-Doran and Amy McKechnie) obvious talents but the show could have been shorter by 15 minutes ahad the dance routines been trimmed down.

The orchestra under Andrew Taylor were excellent; in fact this production had expertise in all areas; costume, staging, and fighting design (by David McRobb).

Although a member of Pied Pipers for years this was Margaret Thorp's first time directing for them and with Margaret taking over from Rex Freeman as the Company's Stage Director Pied Piper's future looks bright.

Congratulations to all involved - thanks for a great evening's entertainmaent.