Betwixt!

Published Tuesday 13 May 2008 at 10:15 by Paul Vale

Faced with writers block and the breakdown of a relationship, novelist Bailey Howard finds inspiration with the arrival of a new flatmate and a doorway into a parallel fantasy world.

Ian McFarlane’s new musical boasts a selection of lively numbers and a hysterical original story that manages to combine the cynicism of Sex and the City with the fantasy of Wicked. Occasional longeurs are alleviated by McFarlane’s collection of insane characters, including a megalomaniac actor, a disembodied head named Miranda and a pretty but dumb US soap-star.

Leading this foray into an alternative universe is Stephen Fletcher as the novelist Bailey. Fletcher fits his role perfectly, providing the story with the classic everyman and delightful rendering of the show’s signature number, Eyes of a Child.

His love interest comes in the form of the aforementioned Miranda, played with tongue firmly in cheek by Abigail Finley. Finley laps up her role with a cheeky Austrian accent and sharply measured comic timing, singing lyrics such as, “Without you, I’ve got nobody”, bringing the house down.

McFarlane himself plays the gay flatmate Cooper Fitzgerald, foretold by legend as the ‘great queen’ destined to save the land.

McFarlane excels as Cooper and evidently relishes Cooper’s wry asides.

Mark Inscoe manages to dominate the stage, over-acting superbly as the Great Garbo, whilst Amanda Symonds makes a virulent wicked witch Langwidere, though a less successful Nymph Queen.

Kate Golledge’s direction is snappy and incisive, marred only by somewhat intrusive choreography from Lucie Pankhurst, whilst designer Hamish Peter’s simple, colourful set is functional rather than imaginative.