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BrumHour saw Bugsy Malone at the invitation of The Rep.
By Dave Massey twitter.com/BrumHour
Review: Bugsy Malone at Birmingham Rep
⭐⭐⭐⭐Brilliant fun!
Directed by Sean Holmes, book by Alan Parker, words and music by Paul Williams
Blousey (Mia Lakha) dreams of being a singer. Bugsy (Gabriel Payne) dreams of Blousey. But Blousey is having none of it. She thinks Bugsy wants Tallulah (Jasmine Sakyiama). Meanwhile, club owner Fat Sam (Albie Snelson) has his own problems as rival Dandy Dan (Desmond Cole) wants to remove him.. permanently.
Featuring a youth cast with adult supporting performers Bugsy Malone is an absolute gem of a show. Filled with warm gentle humour, lots of great songs and fun characters for many of the young people in the audience this was their first introduction to live theatre and something different to seeing a panto or a “kids show”.
For me, there wasn’t enough mess on the stage. I wanted more splurge, more pie throwing and more foam!
The young actors are the focus of the show and there are three different performers on this tour for each of the key roles. Yesterday, there was a fight for biggest scene stealer with Cherry Mitra as both Babyface and Lena giving us not one but two great characters, Aidan Oti as the ignored Fizzy and Albie Snelson as Fat Sam all putting up a tough fight for the biggest scene stealers of the evening.
The stage features a straightforward angled staircase and the props lower from the rafters and at one point Albie Snelson has to complete his own scene change which adds to all of the fourth wall breaking and audience interaction.
Having the band between us and the vocals is always a bit of a risk as the performers have to sing over the band but here the sound is great and the vocals clear.
Brilliant fun, utterly charming with lots of humour Bugsy Malone is at Birmingham Rep until Sunday 14th August. Book tickets here: birmingham-rep.co.uk/whats-on/bugsy-malone/.
