Singin' in the Rain!

It's been a while since I updated the blog - apologies for that - I've been very busy looking for jobs and then I went travelling around Europe for around five weeks in total, and went to a wedding! But between all of that, I managed to jump on a train down to Chichester to see their reimagining of the film classic "Singin' in the Rain". It is well documented that the transition of this piece from screen to stage hasn't ran smoothly. There are a few versions which have been mounted both this side of the Atlantic and on the Great White Way, all without much commercial or critical success - would the Chichester production continue this run or raise the bar?!

I've been going to Chichester to see their big summer musical for around five years now, and while I always enjoy their big American musicals which they put on, it always seems like something is missing. 42nd street from 2010 was the best of the bunch leading up to this trip, but that has most definately changed now!

Singin' in the Rain, I can say with much joy, is one of the best musicals, nay.. best shows I have ever seen on the stage! The music was incredible, the dancing sublime, but it was the leading members of the cast that were the highlight - Scarlett Strallan, a performer I have seen only once before in Mary Poppins, was outstanding. Her voice was angelic, her dance moves fiesty. But it was the facial expressions and the acting that set her apart from many leading ladies I've seen - it was like going back into that era! The other leads were also very competent! The direction was excellent - a welcome return to the Festival Theatres Artistic Director - Jonathan Church.

The story to the show is simple - Hollywoods leading silent film stars have to make the transition to "talkie" movies, only the leading lady sounds like a strangled cat - a queue for Scarlett Strallens character to begin to dub for the Hollywood star, and also to fall in love with the leading man!

The costumes, the ensemble, the laugh out loud humour all added to make this a wonderful production, but the best part was during the iconic number (in the film Gene Kelly is tap dancing through the streets). In this production the stage becomes flooded from sprinklers above the stage and during the tap number, the first few rows (and where I was sitting) got soaked! It was extremely memorable and such a pleasant suprise as I was expecting much of the same from the previous musicals at Chichester!

Definately 9/10