Reviews

Irish Times critics give their verdicts.

Alice - The Musical, Market Place, Armagh

In the best tradition of family musicals, Alice is a glorious concoction, one part Lewis Carroll, one part Graham Norton and one part Paul Boyd. Boyd has revived the musical he wrote in 1998 for Belfast's Lyric Theatre and given it a flashy 1960s op-art, comic-book treatment. Carroll's magical tale of the self-opinionated, well-educated middle-class English girl who disappears down a rabbit hole, thereby escaping the tedium of her daily routine and the beady attention of a strait-laced governess, has been stripped of its whimsical Victorian charm and reinjected with all the arch wit and musical punch that Boyd's mischievous vision can conjure up.

Within David Craig's cartoony set, the ensemble cast of Laura Hughes, Kevin Hynes, Brian Melarkey, Meith Singleton, Naoise Stuart-Kelly and Tommy Wallace caper and cavort around Elaine Hearty's bright-faced, clear-voiced Alice. It's a bit of a party from start to finish, kicking off with Stuart-Kelly's slinky Cheshire Cat chorus and proceeding through Wallace's gyrating Latino Caterpillar routine, the gentle madness of the tea-party conference, the shrill hilarity of Hughes's manic Queen of Hearts and a big reprise finale that has everyone going crazy. This is a show that reaches the hearts, minds and funny bones of all generations, with punchy storytelling, terrific music and nicely naughty grown-up gags.

Runs here until December 22nd, moving to the Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire, from December 26th

Jane Coyle

Christmas Magic Show, Project Cube, Dublin

It's the time of year when theatre productions aimed at children dominate the listings, so it is particularly appropriate that Dublin Youth Theatre has chosen to enter the fray with a show for younger theatre-goers. This is a funny, well-performed and endearing new piece that, unfortunately, is set for a very short run.

Written and directed by former DYT member Sarah FitzGibbon, it concerns eight wannabe children's entertainers who enrol in the hapless Professor Sludgit's Performance Academy. They range from south-Dublin pain in the neck Ava (Aoibheann McCaul) to the all-mouth-and-no-talent former bus driver Danny (Philip Coyne), both of whom are hilarious.

The show is aimed at eight- to 12-year-olds, the almost impossible to please "tweens", and much of the banter and dynamics between Sludgit's hopeless students is a little too advanced for the younger end of that spectrum.

Their final project is to perform a children's play, and they do: the classic Christmas story of St Nicholas. It was this second part of the hour-long show that really grabbed my young companion's imagination - not only because of Martin Cahill's beautiful and expressive puppets but also because the story was told at a gentle pace and with a sense of fun that invited attention.

As usual DYT comes to the professional stage with the right support, including set designer Marie Tierney, costume designer Ruth Hosty and lighting designer Simon Maxwell.

Ends tomorrow

Bernice Harrison

The Pied Piper, Cork Opera House

A big-band sound and raucous burlesque are the main ingredients of this show, to the enormous delight of the audience. Sifted through this mixture are the considerable talents of Laura Mitchell, as the romantic lead, who is partnered with ease by Declan Wolfe.

There are times when it seems that, whatever musical director Dave "Doc" O'Connor is directing, it isn't music, but the general clamour, with body mikes set to echo-chamber pitch, has an energy that mirrors the frantic activity among the cast.

In terms of work and vitality this colourful show could hardly be improved, but Alan Shortt's script ignores the dramatic, or even comic, possibilities of the original story in favour of what might be someone's notion of topicality, spiced with occasionally crude jokes and gestures.

Commissioned to banish the rats from Leeside, the Pied Piper finds his pay is stolen by the Lady Mayoress, in league with the King of the Rats, but piper, children and love itself are rescued by Dame Dolly Mixture. Such a broad scenario defies the attempt at sophistication implied in performances such as that of Gerry McLoughlin, as the wicked mayoress; the cast in fact consists of a talented group of actors capable of much more than the strenuous antics demanded of them here.

Equally, director Bryan Flynn has shown several times before that he can impose more stringent production values than those demonstrated in this production, with unsteady wigs, crinoline hoops bent and swinging as if escaped from a playground and cues that falter at the switch from speech to song and dance all hinting at a lack of control or commitment.

It has to be said, however, that the Scrooge-like disaffection of this reviewer was not perceptible in the rest of the audience, the younger members of which are probably thick skinned enough to accept the banalities as no more than expected, especially as the little rats steal the show.

Runs until January 9th

Mary Leland