Skip to main content

Review of Billionaire Boy at Royal & Derngate (Derngate), Northampton

I feel that like at the start of an official meeting I need to make a declaration at the beginning of this review. I'm not a fan of the work generally of David Walliams, more specifically his adult humour, I find it crude and unfunny. However, Billionaire Boy was my first encounter with his work for children, long since having left that time behind. So, while I had some trepidation with what lay ahead, including of course being surrounded by sweet eating children (and adults) in the theatre, I went with an open mind.

Joe Spud is rich, we are talking real rich. Heir to his father's wealth, created by the invention of Bumfresh, a brand new way of thinking in the loo roll world, he is happily tossed million-pound cheques on his birthday. However, can being rich and having it all bring you happiness? Or do you sometimes just want a friend and not a computer to play games against.

Billionaire Boy is really rather fabulous, there I admit it. It is no coincidence actually that Walliams' main illustrator is Quentin Blake, chief artist for my go-to writer as a child, Roald Dahl. Billionaire Boy is pure Dahl in style, there is no doubt you could imagine these grotesque characters and ideas being penned by the master, and with the proper twinges of morality to thrown in.

Billionaire Boy features some great performances and characterisations from all of the cast, broad strokes in keeping with this being targetted of course at children, but always intelligently performed. Matthew Gordon is excellent as lead Joe Spud, forming a fine balance between a fun character and the inner sadness within him of being alone, and therefore when he embraces his friend Bob (Davy Bell), the awws that come from the audience are no surprise. Bell himself is a splendidly awkward, fat spectacled kid lacking in a true friend, and desperate to grab any new recruits or someone else to come last at running.

Jason Furnival has enormous fun as Dad and is equally enjoying himself as one-half of the bullying Grub twins (pure Dahl characters if ever there was one). As Dad he gets the best moment of the show spectacle wise, but that I couldn't possibly reveal! The character of Raj is brilliant, and Aosaf Afzal revels in it, heavy in a caricature of course, but simply splendid for it. We all know a Raj I think!

Emma Matthews channels more than a little Victoria Wood I feel as her dinner lady Mrs Trafe, serving up the most horrendous collection of food. While Bernard Mensah has less to do in his more minor, but important character Jayden. His dealing with The Grubs though is rightfully and uproariously greeted with enthusiasm by the audience.

Finally, special mention to Rosie Coles in perhaps the broadest collection of roles. Primarily as Dad's Mix 'n' Match girlfriend, but equally as strong as a teacher "The Witch" and the other half of The Grubs. Brilliantly contrasting characters, and superbly performed.

Billed half as a musical, Billionaire Boy just happens to throw in a great collection of songs as well, all good, some of them very good, and it's a credit to their quality that I noted one lad singing one to himself as we left the theatre.

The humour is, unsurprisingly, toilet humour at times, however, like Dahl himself, Walliams, and Neal Foster's adaptation gets the balance right. Also, like all kids shows, there is enough there for the put upon adults in charge of the minors, therefore for every fart joke for the kids, we get a reference to a gold bracelet from Ratners into the bargain.

The set from Jacqueline Trousdale is visually pleasing, using loo rolls as its design feature and had a multitude, seemingly endless, of compartments revealing the different locations we end up in. It's all kept swift by the director, also Neal Foster, and as a result, leaves the audience captivated.

I loved Billionaire Boy despite it not really being for me. It happily reminded me of my childhood and the tales that I read back there, and it is rather pleasing that this style lives on for this new generation.

There is nothing bog standard about this fabulous show.
⭐⭐

Performance reviewed: Thursday 17th October 2019 at the Royal & Derngate (Royal), Northampton.
Billionaire Boy runs at Royal & Derngate until Saturday 26th October 2019.

For further details about the Royal & Derngate see their website at http://www.royalandderngate.co.uk

Photos: Mark Douet

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...