A show of two halves

“HOT MIKADO”

IT is a little ironic that one of Tameside’s more nondescript public halls has suddenly become the only one the big amateur companies of the area can use.

Mossley AODS has used the George Lawton Hall for years and uses it very well. But the two newcomers, local giants from Dukinfield and Ashton, haven’t taken to the experience quite so easily.

Dukinfield play there this week, with a production smaller than the shows they did at Tameside Hippodrome, presumably to save on costs and to fit the much smaller stage.

This show, “Hot Mikado” — a jazz, swing and bluesy adaptation of the Gilbert and Sullivan original — has fewer chorus members but the main problem is the set, from its cheaply-presented band name fronting the on-stage band, to its mass of curtaining, an archway that serves little purpose and a set of steps that look like a “Blue Peter” project.

Costumes too are a little curious: mostly Forties Americana, as befits the music and the show’s style, but with kimonos here and there (which in practice bear little relation to the rest of the evening).

Elsewhere, the Mikado (a tap-dancing frenzy from Nigel Griffiths) wears a white suit and hat and Ko-Ko (Simon Pickup) looks like an escapee from a golf course in a Wodehouse comedy.

Sluggish

Looks aside, the show itself starts badly and this is reflected in a mediocre first half, with average timing, unsettled performances, too much choreography for the stage and the low-energy dancers, and sluggish singing.

But the company gets its act together (as does the show) in act two and the whole evening comes to life.

It starts with a gorgeous, simple rendition of Arthur Sullivan’s most beautiful song, “The Sun and I” by cute and funny leading lady Laura Bryant, continues with a jazzy “Sing a Merry Madrigal” by Bryant, Lizy Oakes (Pitti Sing), Nick Ward (Nanki Poo) and Simon Murray (Pish Tush), and accelerates through admirable blues singing and comic hammery from Lisa Kay as Katisha, all to great accompaniment from MD Mike Bramhall and his small band.

It’s a shame director Mike Goddard couldn’t get his players to do in the first half what they happily managed after the interval.

PG