Skip to main content

Review of Honk Jr. by the Royal & Derngate Youth Theatre at Royal & Derngate (Underground), Northampton

Honk Jr could not be described as high art, a collection of silly songs and corny jokes (Not marmalade dad, WHAT"S MAMA LAID!!!), it was just simply pure fun performed by a mighty band of youngsters, who they themselves appeared to be having high fun while also for so young, staying professional throughout.

Honk Jr. is a junior version of Honk, which in turn is a musical version of the Ugly Duckling. Honk! was written by George Stiles (music) and Anthony Drewe (lyrics) and originally performed in 1993 in Newbury. The junior version is a slightly adapted version with some alterations to characters and songs, but it maintains some of its more grown-up jokes (I haven't been out there since your father and I were courting...and I didn't mean to go that far then!), that are the little bits for the adults and did offer some interesting responses I noted from the audience.

Before I get to the performers, I have to make special mention of the set which was a delight (and latterly I learned a touch of the A Tale Of Two Cities). Clever ideas like the rubber parts of the set allowing the cast to pass through "wood" and the early centrepiece with some of the cast already present (albeit hidden) was well designed allowing the young performers to create different areas of staging as the play moved on. The art work on the floor was also very well realised.

However back to our young performers and what a talented bunch they were for ones so young. All the leads were impressive with Connor Charles Christy as Ugly providing a good honk and a lovely well done transformation scene at the end. Both of Ugly's parents, Aimear Hannah Elson and Curtis Sloan (down the watering hole!) were also impressive, well to be honest pretty much all the cast were. However the stand out performer for me; and was also for one young lad in the crowd as well I think, who cried out "THE CAT" when she returned later in the play; was Zoe Holloway. The perfect young feline performed by one of the shorter cast members, but with a performance above her size. Strutting around proudly as the perfect puss would, she was a delight and the scene stealer whenever she was on stage.

The songs themselves were generally all well performed with an understandable obvious mixture of standards of vocal talents, but all perfectly pleasant and a few talents on show for the future if they keep it up. The musical pieces were all well staged, with the stand out group performances of "The Wild Goose Chase" and "Warts And All" being the highlights.

Overall this was a very well staged and performed version of what is just a silly little feel good musical and sometimes we all want just a good bit of silly in our lives. Even more so us grown-ups!

Popular posts from this blog

Review of Lord Of The Dance at Royal & Derngate (Derngate), Northampton

The stage show Lord of the Dance possibly needs little introduction to most people, as it has become a legend and now, in this touring version, subtitled rather immodestly, 25 Years of Standing Ovations, it reaches a landmark anniversary. Those that do not know of the show would probably well know its spiritual fathers Michael Flatley, and even more likely Riverdance , from which Lord of the Dance sprung with a proper spring in its step. During the interval of the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest, Riverdance hit the world by storm as Michael Flatley and his troop of dancers possibly presented the most famous part of Eurovision ever, certainly of the non-singing variety at least. Here, this touring show brings that same style Flatley created from traditional Irish dancing across the country once again and it is truly something special to see. The concept of the show is simply a battle between good and evil told through dance, and some captivating and stunning songs performed by Celyn Cartw...

Review of Rambert Dance in Peaky Blinders - The Redemption of Thomas Shelby at Royal & Derngate (Derngate), Northampton

The Rambert Dance Company is the oldest such company in Britain having first performed in 1926. However, despite this, this was my first encounter with the group in my ten years of theatre-going. Coupled with this, it was also my first encounter with Peaky Blinders , having never seen the show, and only knowing a few vague things about it. My companion for the evening however was very familiar with the show, allowing some background behind the show. It turns out though,  Rambert Dance in Peaky Blinders - The Redemption of Thomas Shelby needs a little more than a good bit of knowledge of the show, as despite this production having incredible style, there struggles to be a cohesive structure to the show and the storytelling. Much more than other dance shows as well. The first act does a whistle-stop tour of the first five seasons and while it is a feast on the eye, and on the ear, it gets extremely confusing at times. The second act is freestyle and drifts away from the stories tol...

Review of My Mother's Funeral: The Show at Royal & Derngate (Royal), Northampton

The title My Mother's Funeral: The Show is perhaps not the most attractive title for a theatre show, however, this show had great success at the Edinburgh Fringe and now arriving at Royal & Derngate, one of its co-producing theatres, so, let's look beyond the unusual title and see what lies beneath. Abigail is a theatre dramatist pursuing plays that the theatres no longer want. Her "gay bugs in space" saga falls foul of being fiction for a start, something a theatre director states audiences no longer want stating they want gritty, real experiences, theatre with painful truths. So, after Abigail devastatingly loses her mother and finds no money to pay the funeral fees, she pursues the creation of a very personal theatre show. My Mother's Funeral: The Show is gritty and sad, but, also in many ways very funny, if in a dark way. Writer Kelly Jones digs deep into the world of poverty in Dagenham and countless estates across the country. A world of people born in...