HMS Pinafore I found thoroughly enjoyable! It's a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. Having seen quite a few EUSOG performances over the past few years I have to say it compares favourably. All the cast did a great job, sets, costumes and choreography were simple but effective, and the space onstage was used very well. The orchestra had a couple of tiny slip ups towards the beginning, but these were barely noticeable. The show was typical Gibert and Sullivan, full of colourful characters, incredibly catchy songs, with a suitably ridiculous twist at the end. The script did lack some of the farcicality I have come to expect from a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, but I suspect this is due to it being one of their earlier shows and they had not yet fully found their style which we know and love. All in all, though, a very enjoyable show! Good work!
Beauty and the Beast was a new ballet and I think it was a little unusual, but it was unusual done right! The dancing was very modern in lot of respects, but not modern in a naff way where the dancers just look like they're having a spazz attack on stage! It was thoroughly beautiful, and drove the story forward at a pretty quick pace for ballet! The costumes and sets were very creative and very pleasing to the eye and were used very well, and there were some genuinely funny moments! The main issue I had with it was there were a couple of places towards the beginning where the stage hands had to nip behind bits of set and fiddle about and nip off again. Pretty unprofessional if you ask me! They could have found a different solution to that! Even having a member of the cast duck behind for a couple of seconds would have looked better! And the beast did slightly look as though he was wearing bondage gear... Something that surprised me was that it did not have its own new music. It used various pieces of French classical music. That's not usual is it? I've certainly never seen that before! But despite a few little niggles I had, it was a brilliant evening! Highly recommended!
Spamalot is the Monty Python musical, based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It was what you might expect, ie. very silly! It was interesting for someone like me who knows Holy Grail inside out and back to front to see how they had adapted it for stage. Most of the main elements from Holy Grail's plot were kept (it had a plot??), though I was slightly disappointed about the lack of Castle Anthrax! But other old friends like the Black Knight, Dennis and Tim all had their bit to do. They also added in a female character by giving the Lady of the Lake an actual part in the show rather than a passing reference. They obviously used the songs from Holy Grail and added in a few new ones, along with a rather predictable appearence of a sing-along Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. Musically my favourite part was The Song That Goes Like This, the Lady of the Lake and Sir Galahad's lovesong. Or rather song about lovesongs! It has a lovely tune and the lyrics are hilarious! I was impressed with the cast both vocally and acting wise, despite a little corpsing during the Knights Who Say Ni! scene. But who could blame them. Costumes were great, and so were the sets, which looked distinctly Terry Gilliamesque, although there was not a lot of scene changing. The stage did look a bit cramped though. They were only using a small part of it and could have done with giving themselves some more room, in my opinion. For me the funniest aspect of the show was that they subtly brought in a lot of jokes from Monty Python's Flying Circus that only real afficionados would spot. The topical jokes were quite funny as well. All in all, a very funny and silly night out, and I'm glad I went to see it, but quite honestly, I don't think I would go and see it again.
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