THEATRE REVIEW: 'Bedknobs & Broomsticks: The Musical' (New Victoria Theatre Woking)

 

‘Bedknobs and Broomsticks’ has always been the poor sibling to the similar ‘Mary Poppins’ (also with music by the Sherman Brothers), but it has always been one of my favourite Disney films  (if only to see Angela Lansbury before she moved to Cabot Cove and everyone started dying around her). Therefore the announcement of a stage musical of ‘B&B’ touring the UK meant that I booked a ticket for Woking. Replacing Ms. Lansbury as the trainee witch, Eglantine Price, was to be Dianne Pilkington who I saw in ‘Young Frankenstein’ a few years ago (and who until the lockdown closed all theatres was Raquel in ‘Only Fools and Horses: The Musical’).

Having negotiated the ‘new normal’ of having to demonstrate my Covid vaccination status before being let into the auditorium, I took my seat and flicked through the programme. Soon, the lights went down and we were no sooner introduced to the Rawlins family during the Prologue, then the children’s parents were killed in the Blitz in a sequence that was slightly confusing and much darker than your average Disney musical. However, soon the orphaned children were in the museum in Pepperinge Eye having been evacuated, and following a few new songs (one of which I have later learnt was a Sherman Brothers song cut from the film) we were back to the recognisable narrative with Miss Price picking up the children (and her new broom).

Rightly for a story about magic, it was the stage illusions (by Jamie Harrison) that impressed most, with the flying bed being the highlight, even if it hovered rather than flew. There was also excellent use of puppets, particularly in the section on the Isle of Nopeepo  (However, don’t go expecting to see the football match). The new songs (by Neil Bartram) out-Shermaned the Sherman Brothers, and all the classics from the film were present, including ‘Portobello Road’, ‘The Age of Not Believing’, ‘The Beautiful Briny’, ‘Substitutiary Locomotion’  (‘Treguna, Mekoides, Trecorum, Satis, Dee’), the cut ‘A Step in the Right Direction’, and even my guilty pleasure ‘Eglantine’.

Charles Brunton’s Emelius Browne was as inept as his film counterpart, with the children being led by Conor O’Hara (a recent Mountview graduate) as Charlie, who somehow (similar to Wendy in ‘Peter Pan’ pantomimes) managed to convince as a thirteen year old boy, even when acting opposite two actual children. However, it was Diane Pilkington’s central performance that held the whole thing together.

However, as we approached the ending, Brian Hill’s book took a rapid swerve, with the tone shifting back to the darkness with which the production opened, before the obligatory (if confusing) happy ending. The production was well received by both adults and children watching, and I would certainly recommend it if it comes to a theatre near you

 

 

‘Bedknobs and Broomsticks: The Musical’ is touring until May 2022.

 

Link to production website.

 

 

Sherlockian Sojourns #26: Return to Portsmouth

A further Sherlockian production from ‘Fareham Musical Society’, having enjoyed their version of ‘The Sign of Four’ last year (see here for a brief review), meant that I decided to revisit Holmes’ birthplace, Portsmouth and Southsea.  [My previous sojourn can be found here].

 

Before beginning on the Sherlockian sites that I had missed on my previous visits, on my train journey down I made a brief detour to Cosham and the North Harbour, which contains the main headquarters of IBM UK Ltd, which appeared in the ‘Doctor Who’ story ‘Revelation of the Daleks’, starring Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant. The site is private property so I had to make do with photos from a distance.

  

 

Catching a bus into central Portsmouth, passing ‘Doyle Court’ in Hilsea  (the next building along is ‘Kipling Court’), until I reached Portsmouth City Museum. Having wandered round ‘A Study in Sherlock: Uncovering the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection’  (the temporary ‘You don't know Sherlock Holmes… yet’ exhibition having finished), I checked whether the shop had any new Sherlockian merchandise (which it didn’t), before making my way down towards the waterfront, and 4 Southsea Terrace, where Conan Doyle and his first wife Touie lived here for six weeks in May-June 1896, whilst awaiting the completion of ‘Undershaw’, their purpose-built home in Hindhead, Surrey.

 

      

 

Walking past Touie’s former home, I made my way up Osborne Road and then into Clarendon Road, until I reached ‘Sherlock’s Bar’, which opened in July 2020. The bar is open Thursdays to Saturdays 5pm-11pm and Sundays 12pm-11pm. However, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays between 11am and 2pm they host Spark Community Space’s Cuppa & Cake drop-in sessions. SCS is a local charity, working to reach those who have been left out or left behind, to give people a place to belong, to be part of a community of support, to heal together and to spark back into life. Having taken photographs of the outside of the café, I was invited in for a drink and a cheese toastie for a donation to the charity, which also allowed me to get photos of the inside, including a very impressive portrait of Basil Rathbone.

 

Fed and watered, I made my way towards the spot that I always visit when in Portsmouth, Holmes’ ‘birthplace’. Halfway there, I popped into Southsea Library which had a display in relation to ‘Mr. Doyle’s Class Presents A STUDY IN SCARLET’, a graphic novel produced by the Conan Doyle Collection at the Central Library.

Finally, I reached Bush House. It here in 1882 that Conan Doyle opened his practice of ophthalmology. His lack of clientele left him plenty of time to read, write and he began to publish short stories, but without great success. However, in 1887, he wrote ‘A Study in Scarlet’, which features Sherlock Holmes for the first time. Plaques indicate the site’s literary significance.

    

I then made my way to the outskirts of Portsmouth, and a Public House a short distance from a church hall where in 2019 I saw a double bill of dramatisations of ‘The Man With the Twisted Lip’ and ‘The Dying Detective’. The lounge bar of the Northcote Hotel is decorated with film memorabilia going back to the comedians of the silent era and the most famous of all fictional detectives, Sherlock Holmes. Sitting in the SH corner, I supped on my pint (of Pepsi Max).

 

    

 

Returning to the main road, I caught a bus back to Portsmouth and Southsea Station, before moving round the corner to the Conan Doyle bench, to have another sit down.

 

Grabbing some food, I then made my way to the New Theatre Royal, and took my seat for ‘Sherlock Holmes: The Scarlet Woman’. The show was based on ‘A Scandal in Bohemia’, but another story was woven in and took up a large proportion of the second half. The script by Nick Scovell (who also appeared as Watson) was perfect, and it was great to see him reunited with Jonathan Redwood as Holmes, Grace Campbell as Mary and Alison Dea as Mrs Hudson. This time they were joined by Ben Lidster as Lestrade, Graeme Clements as a wonderful Shinwell Johnson, Roger Trencher as the mysterious Camille (whose true identity was clear to me from the outset so much did he look like the Strand illustration), Alan Backhouse as Mycroft, Paul Denney as the King, and Beth Marshall as ‘the woman’. Very, very good. I will continue to look out for any future Sherlockian shows by this group.

Feeling very tired, I made my way back to the station, then home, arriving just before 1am.

Sherlockian Sojourns #25: 'London's Exalted Circles (and Squares)'

It was time to visit some of the London Sherlockian sites that I had previously missed, or been unaware of until the introduction of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London’s ‘The Gazetteer’. My focus was on two stories, ‘The Noble Bachelor’ and ‘The Second Stain’.

Catching the tube to Leicester Square, then to Russell Square, and passing a blue plaque to Conan Doyle’s friend, JM Barrie (with whom he co-wrote the operetta ‘Jane Annie’ for the Savoy Opera, and who wrote one of the first Sherlock Holmes parodies), I made my way to the nearby Great Ormond Street (‘Great Orme Street) where I took photos of a possible location of Mrs Warren’s lodging house in ‘The Red Circle’ with its mysterious lodger, and the building opposite where the denouement of the story takes place.

A fifteen minute walk, past a blue plaque for Richard D’Oyly Carte (who commissioned ‘Jane Annie’) and Russell Square where John met Mike Stamford in ‘Sherlock: A Study in Pink’, and I found myself at Gordon Square, for the first stop on an out-of-order visiting of the sites of ‘The Noble Bachelor’. Number 226 (which does not exist) was where Mr. and Mrs. Moulton had taken lodgings after Hatty left her wedding breakfast.  

    

 

A ten minute walk past the telephone boxes seen in ‘Sherlock: The Lying Detective’ and I found myself a few steps away from the closed ‘Speedy’s Sandwich Bar & Café’, catching the Underground from Euston Square, changing at the Victorian platforms of Baker Street, reaching Bond Street. From here a short walk brought me to Grosvenor Square, where ‘Grosvenor Mansions’, the residence of jilted bridegroom Lord St Simon.

On the other side of the Square, was where Isadora Klein lived in 'The Three Gables', in ‘one of the finest corner houses of the West End’. #48 has been identified by scholars as the Klein residence, where Holmes and Watson travelled to get recompense for the death of the late Douglas Maberley.

      

Returning to the other side of the Square, and a further ten minutes walk, past Brook Street (where Percy Trevelyan had his practice in ‘The Resident Patient’) brought me to St. George’s Church, Mayfair, the church where Hatty Doran married Lord St Simon and where she was approached by her first husband Francis Moulton.

 

Five minutes later I was at Oxford Circus and catching the Victoria Line to Green Park, and another short walk to Berkley Square, where according to Watson in ‘The Illustrious Client’, General De Merville lived at number 104. It was also here where Kitty Winter attempted to persuade his daughter Violet, to break off her engagement to Baron Gruner. Number 3 has been identified by scholars as the true location of the De Merville residence.

Making my way back to Piccadilly, I turned right onto St James's Street, where a short distance down is the former site of Boodle’s Gentleman’s Club, Langdale Pike’s Club in ‘The Three Gables’.

Continuing down St. James’ Street, I continued onto Pall Mall, passing two possible Diogenes Clubs - #30 & #107  (see ‘Mycroft’s Rails’ for more details), until I reached Oceanic House, the shipping office of the Adelaide-Southampton line “which stands at the end of Pall Mall”, visited by Holmes in ‘The Abbey Grange’. 

 

   

 

Taking a slight detour due to ‘West End Live 2021’ taking place in Trafalgar Square and closing some walkways, I made my way towards The Strand, then down Craven Street, the site of Mexborough Private Hotel where the Stapletons stayed in ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ when ‘dogging’ Sir Henry in London.   

 

Passing the ‘Sherlock Holmes Public House’, I made my way to the Corinthia Metropole Hotel, another possible location for the Northumberland Hotel in ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’, which was also visited by Mr. Melas in ‘The Greek Interpreter’ and stayed at by Francis Moulton in ‘The Noble Bachelor’.

 

At this point the heavens opened, so I sheltered in a nearby bookshop for around half-an-hour. Rain subsided, I made my way to the Victoria Embankment, reaching Richmond Terrace, the real-life ‘Whitehall Terrace’, the home of Trelawney Hope in ‘The Second Stain’ from where the document went missing and made a miraculous reappearance.  The terrace is not accessible internally but can be viewed from the adjoining footpath which runs between it and The Ministry of Defence

Reaching Whitehall, I walked a short distance to Downing Street, where Lord Bellinger, Prime Minister, resided in ‘The Second Stain’.  Security was out in force, so I took a photo from a distance. However, I had previously got some better shots from the Foreign Office (‘Mycroft’s Rails’).

 

Walking along King Charles Street, past the door from ‘The Naval Treaty’, I made my way to Horse Guards Road, and the HM Treasury building, whose courtyard appears in ‘Enola Holmes’ (2020), where Enola avoids Sherlock & Mycroft.  Unfortunately there was no public access, so I had to take a rather ineffectual photo through a locked gate.

 

 

Continuing onto Parliament Square and then Victoria Street, Great Smith Street, Great Peter Street, then Gayfere Street, named ‘Godolphin Street’ by Watson in ‘The Second Stain’. ‘16 Godolphin Street’, was the home of the international spy Eduardo Lucas. Lucas was murdered by his wife in the front room. Under the carpet was a secret hiding place which at one stage held the document. 

 

 

It was then a short walk back to Westminster Underground Station, catching the tube to Earl’s Court for my evening’s entertainment, a comic musical tribute to another famous detective, ‘Express G&S’, which to complete the circle of the day was based on the music of the Savoy Operas.