A Small Mind At The Theatre

I arrived at Milton Keynes Theatre to see this touring stage version of ITV comedy hit Benidorm with a distinct lack of knowledge. Having never seen the show, my information stretched as far as knowing it was set in a holiday resort in Spain (the title helps there), and that the humour generally resorted to the cruder end of the spectrum. However, having graced the screens for ten years, it was clear that Derren Litten's show had garnered quite a following, and indeed it was clear from the reception of the audience on the night, that this following was pretty much filling the theatre. The plot, such as it is for this stage show, is very much drafted from an episode of Fawlty Towers , and made a great deal more adult with its humour. The hotel manager, Joyce Temple-Savage (a sharp performance by Sherrie Hewson) gets wind that a hotel inspector is in, and the scene is set for seeking them out and all the obvious cases of mistaken identity. It's thin and doesn't fill ...

Having clocked up fifteen musicals since my first just eighteen months ago I thought I had become used to their shear exuberance at times, but I knew I had to be prepared for Hairspray as having seen the Travolta film version, this I realised was going to be off the campometre. I wasn't quite prepared as a cascade of bright colours, over the top performances and madness ensued. What kept it working for me though as someone who prefers his plays to his sing and dancers was the actual tough narrative behind the big characters. Hairspray in its own unique way tells a very powerful story of prejudice and racial tension of the early sixties. A place where whites and blacks didn't mix on television (the latter had their so-called Negro day once a month) and that the place for the slightly increased in body substance was doing the laundry and certainly not on the TV in peoples living rooms. So in huge, no ginormous brush strokes Hairspray tells a strong tale behind the frilly dresse...