Flash Bang Wallop!!

It is nice to go to London again. The last time being the weekend I saw Les Mis and In The Heights, I found it was nearly a year ago (good grief)! Well, putting that right, I went along back to the West End for the day to catch a show which I have been hearing quite a lot about this past year. Produced by Cameron Mackintosh, the show was nominated for 3 Oliviers this year, but failed to pick up any gongs. Nevertheless, I picked up my bag, and as an early birthday treat, went along with my parents to catch the new production of Half A Sixpence, which is currently being played at the Noel Coward on St Martins Lane, after a run at Chichester Festival Theatre last summer.

Based on HG Well's semi-autobiographical novel Kipps, Half a Sixpence follows young shop apprentice Arthur Kipps, as he tries to become A Proper Gentleman in Kent after coming into a large sum of money. On top of that, he becomes torn between two women: his childhood sweetheart Ann Pornick, and the charming middle class Helen Walsingham.

The show was first done in 1963 by David Heneker and Beverley Cross, and was a huge platform for its leading man, Tommy Steele, catapulting him even further into stardom. For this new production, Mackintosh brought in the team which reinvented Mary Poppins, as well as creators of West End-incoming The Wind in the Willows; new songs by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, and a revised book from Julian Fellowes. This has opened a bit of a debate whether you could now class it as a revival because so much is now different to the original, one could argue it is its own thing (perhaps this was one reason why it didn't get nominated for either Best Musical or Best Musical Revival at the Oliviers). Oh well, I am not going to get into that any more, and just go into this version of the show as it is.

I think the best thing to do now, is to go into the areas where the show was nominated, which were all
acting nods; and I am happy to say that I got to see all 3 nominated performers.

Starting with the star of the show, Charlie Stemp as our main character, Arthur Kipps. Him not winning the Best Actor in a Musical Olivier was possibly the biggest surprise of the night, as he was the favourite. Should he have won? I don't know, as I didn't get to see Groundhog Day (who's star Andy Karl picked it up); but I can certainly say he deserved that nomination. He had such energy that I had not seen in a performer in a long time. There was no way you couldn't get behind his Kipps, as he leaped, danced and even back-flipped around the stage with such ease, all the while with a very wide cheeky grin. I almost have no words.

From one enjoyable performance to another, all be it a smaller part than Stemp's Kipps, and that is Ian Bartholomew's Chitterlow. A charismatic personality who tries to help Kipps out of his dilemma, I always had a smile on my face when Bartholomew was on stage. His shared number with Kipps, The One Who Ran Away, was a delight to watch.
Finally out of the 3 nominated actors is Emma Williams as Helen Walsingham, one of the objects of Arthur's affections. I connected with her immediately, and her acting was spot on! In fact, I connected with her (and in a way rooted for her) a lot more than with Rebecca Jayne-Davies' (u/s) Ann (not saying Jayne-Davies did a bad job, she just didn't quite match with Williams for me).

I must also give a mention to the ensemble, as they work so hard in this show - they really do dance their hearts out, especially in the big numbers such as Pick Out A Simple Tune and Flash Bang Whollop.

As I mentioned, this has a lot of new music, the advantage with me being that I barely knew the show before yesterday - I had only heard If The Rain's Got To Fall and Flash Bang Whollop beforehand; and I must admit, those 2 songs aside, I couldn't tell which were the new Stiles and Drewe numbers and which were the Heneker originals! Stiles and Drewe, as I think I mentioned after seeing Wind in the Willows, have a very British sound about them, making them the perfect choice for a show like this. Out of the new ones, the standouts were the cheeky little number between Ann and Flo (played by Bethany Huckle) A Little Touch of Happiness and In The Middle There's Me, hilariously showing Kipps' dilemma.

The sad news is that the show is unfortunately closing on 2nd September this year (ironically, the news came through the night before I saw the show...), so you haven't got much longer to catch this. If you want something which you will have a smile so big, you'll have to have a good ol' knees up in the first pub you'll see, bursting into Flash Bang Whollop (which is very very catchy), then this is right up your alley. If you have a banjo with you, even better ;)

Oh, and stay tuned in a few weeks time as I will be going back to London to see another this-year-Olivier-nominated show, which came home empty handed (got a bit of a pattern going here), so watch this space.......