Salad Days - Striling Players
Fri, 9 July 2004, 01:54 pmDon Allen14 posts in thread
Salad Days - Striling Players
Fri, 9 July 2004, 01:54 pmSALAD DAYS started its life in June 1954 at the Theatre Royal, Bristol. It was scheduled to run just three weeks. But Fate - and a London Management - intervened. On August 5th. 1954 it opened with the same production at the Vaudeville Theatre, London, and stayed there for five and a half years, becoming (for then) the longest running musical in the history of the British Theatre with over 2400 performances.
I had never heard of it but ended up seeing it last night with a large group booking. It is a non descript vaudeville musical with a large number of scene changes that would have made sense if the programme had explained the musical's origins.
The set was a back cloth and front cloth painted as a vaudeville cloth and used with good timing for scene changes, however we still had to wait for music or lights for the show to continue so continuity was jerky.
Doing a musical in black tabs is not a good idea as musicals are meant to be bright, colourful events. It would have been better to use pivoting flats with an indoor and an outdoor setting painted on them as legs.
The lead female was excellent, I supsect WAAPA trained as we were presented with a fun character, always smiling, projecting well and moving freely with dance numbers. Unfortunately some of the other cast members were well below her standard and appeared to lack practice.
The lighting was very dark in some corners which was where actors were blocked, so a refocus or reblocking to suit limited resources would overcome the dark corners.
Stirling Players use a multipurpose hall so do not have the benefit of a raked seating arrangement but the seating needs to be moved closer together as too much leg room for the front rows puts the last few rows too far from the stage. Perhaps a measuring stick can be created for optimum spacing. If you have a lot of senior audience, make one or two rows slighty roomier and let them know about them at booking time.
A good effort but not a great show.
Don
I had never heard of it but ended up seeing it last night with a large group booking. It is a non descript vaudeville musical with a large number of scene changes that would have made sense if the programme had explained the musical's origins.
The set was a back cloth and front cloth painted as a vaudeville cloth and used with good timing for scene changes, however we still had to wait for music or lights for the show to continue so continuity was jerky.
Doing a musical in black tabs is not a good idea as musicals are meant to be bright, colourful events. It would have been better to use pivoting flats with an indoor and an outdoor setting painted on them as legs.
The lead female was excellent, I supsect WAAPA trained as we were presented with a fun character, always smiling, projecting well and moving freely with dance numbers. Unfortunately some of the other cast members were well below her standard and appeared to lack practice.
The lighting was very dark in some corners which was where actors were blocked, so a refocus or reblocking to suit limited resources would overcome the dark corners.
Stirling Players use a multipurpose hall so do not have the benefit of a raked seating arrangement but the seating needs to be moved closer together as too much leg room for the front rows puts the last few rows too far from the stage. Perhaps a measuring stick can be created for optimum spacing. If you have a lot of senior audience, make one or two rows slighty roomier and let them know about them at booking time.
A good effort but not a great show.
Don
Re: Salad Days - Stirling Players
Mon, 12 July 2004, 11:16 amWalter Plinge
I must admit I was rather looking forward to seeing this show. Salad Days is a show that I knew by reputation only, and it is rare in the Perth Community Theatre scene to attend a musical that is new, if not to most of the audience, at least to me.
I was warned not to expect a great piece of theatre, but to expect a lot of fun, and it was with this frame of mind that we made the trek.
I must thank the four people preceding me in this thread, as it means that I do not have to write the review that I was dreading writing, but I can use other peopleÂ’s comments as a springboard.
I must disagree with Don about the set. I thought the limited possibilities of the space were well utilised. The use of black tabs to limit the setting, and the use of props and furniture instead worked well in my opinion. It was good to see full use of both the front curtain and the vaudeville cloth to facilitate quick scene changes.
However, I thought that the scene changes could still have been a lot swifter and smoother.
Don seems to know a bit more about lighting than I do, I wasnÂ’t aware of dark spots on the stage, but I will definitely bow to him on that one. What frustrated me most about the lighting was the use of slow fades to end scenes that really should have been quick blackouts. Off the top of my head I canÂ’t remember which ones, but there were a couple of moments where the actors had finished a scene, often on a joke or a punchline, and then had to wait while the lights came down, which somewhat lessened the impact of the scene.
Musically, the show wasnÂ’t too bad. Some of the singers were very good but on the whole the ensemble were a little bit shaky.
I was led to believe that the show was originally written to be performed to the accompaniment of a solo piano. If this is the case, I think it would have been a far wiser move to use an actual piano, or at least make whatever keyboard you were using SOUND like a piano. This also limited the overall effect of the show.
Now comes the hard bit, performancesÂ…
(I didnÂ’t pick up a programme, so I apologise to everyone in the cast for not being able to name you by name)
I must admit it is nice to see Priscilla Busher in a lead role. I have seen her (and occasionally performed alongside her) in a number of shows. Here is a performer with genuine presence on stage, a beautiful voice, and a smile that canÂ’t help lighting the stage and the audience. She danced well and acted the role to perfection. Well done, Priscilla!
The male lead had quite a good voice and was a joy to listen to, but he seems very stiff on stage. This detracted a lot from his good voice, as he almost seemed uncomfortable at times. If he could learn to relax and loosen up a bit, he would have been a lot better and a lot more convincing.
The two mothers were a joy to watch (I know one of them was Karen Staflund). Every time these two ladies were on stage in whichever character they were playing at the time, they were convincing and animated, and their duet was one of the highlights of the show.
The young lad playing Troppo seemed to have a lot of unrealised potential. The role of mute or clown is very difficult in any show where he exists. As he is limited to having no lines but lots to say, his physicality is crucial. Every movement needs to be carefully choreographed with subtlety and nuance. TroppoÂ’s performance, while cute, did not come up to the level required. From occasional glimpses I got the definite impression that he was more than capable of such a performance, and he could have actually competed with Ms Busher as being the star of the show, if he had been guided with a much more definite hand.
Special mention must also go to the actors playing Nigel and Fiona, Uncle Zed, and Asphinxia.
And especially that lovely girl in the chorus with great stage presence, she lit up the stage every time she appeared, and it seems a shame she didnÂ’t get more opportunity in the show.
This show had a lot of potential, but it never seemed to reach it. It needed to be a lot tighter, the slapstick a lot more precise. In fact that seems to be the major problem with the show, it lackedÂ… think of a wordÂ… Snap? Bite? Crispness?
While there were parts of the show that were good, on the whole I actually found it painful to watch, and I am sorry to say that if I hadnÂ’t known one of the cast members I would have actually left during interval.
Of all the reviewers preceding me, my summing up would be closer to DonÂ’s, but harsher. A Good effort, but ultimately not good enough.
Paul Treasure
PS This is MY opinion of the show on the night that I saw it. For all I know, I may have been unlucky enough to go on the worst night of the run (and we all know there always is one REALLY BAD night in any run). If you are deciding whether or not to see this show on the strength of the reviews, I would like to point out that my review now gives the show two positive and two negative reviews. ThatÂ’s fifty-fifty. Go and see the show, judge for yourself, write your own review and post it here.
PPS The seating really is very close together. IÂ’m not a small chap, and neither is the friend I went with. I was practically sitting in his lap half the night, as I thought it was less impolite to encroach on his personal space than the person on my other side, and we both had to crouch way down in our seats so the people behind us could see. The physical discomfort we felt during the show could also have impacted on our judgement.
I was warned not to expect a great piece of theatre, but to expect a lot of fun, and it was with this frame of mind that we made the trek.
I must thank the four people preceding me in this thread, as it means that I do not have to write the review that I was dreading writing, but I can use other peopleÂ’s comments as a springboard.
I must disagree with Don about the set. I thought the limited possibilities of the space were well utilised. The use of black tabs to limit the setting, and the use of props and furniture instead worked well in my opinion. It was good to see full use of both the front curtain and the vaudeville cloth to facilitate quick scene changes.
However, I thought that the scene changes could still have been a lot swifter and smoother.
Don seems to know a bit more about lighting than I do, I wasnÂ’t aware of dark spots on the stage, but I will definitely bow to him on that one. What frustrated me most about the lighting was the use of slow fades to end scenes that really should have been quick blackouts. Off the top of my head I canÂ’t remember which ones, but there were a couple of moments where the actors had finished a scene, often on a joke or a punchline, and then had to wait while the lights came down, which somewhat lessened the impact of the scene.
Musically, the show wasnÂ’t too bad. Some of the singers were very good but on the whole the ensemble were a little bit shaky.
I was led to believe that the show was originally written to be performed to the accompaniment of a solo piano. If this is the case, I think it would have been a far wiser move to use an actual piano, or at least make whatever keyboard you were using SOUND like a piano. This also limited the overall effect of the show.
Now comes the hard bit, performancesÂ…
(I didnÂ’t pick up a programme, so I apologise to everyone in the cast for not being able to name you by name)
I must admit it is nice to see Priscilla Busher in a lead role. I have seen her (and occasionally performed alongside her) in a number of shows. Here is a performer with genuine presence on stage, a beautiful voice, and a smile that canÂ’t help lighting the stage and the audience. She danced well and acted the role to perfection. Well done, Priscilla!
The male lead had quite a good voice and was a joy to listen to, but he seems very stiff on stage. This detracted a lot from his good voice, as he almost seemed uncomfortable at times. If he could learn to relax and loosen up a bit, he would have been a lot better and a lot more convincing.
The two mothers were a joy to watch (I know one of them was Karen Staflund). Every time these two ladies were on stage in whichever character they were playing at the time, they were convincing and animated, and their duet was one of the highlights of the show.
The young lad playing Troppo seemed to have a lot of unrealised potential. The role of mute or clown is very difficult in any show where he exists. As he is limited to having no lines but lots to say, his physicality is crucial. Every movement needs to be carefully choreographed with subtlety and nuance. TroppoÂ’s performance, while cute, did not come up to the level required. From occasional glimpses I got the definite impression that he was more than capable of such a performance, and he could have actually competed with Ms Busher as being the star of the show, if he had been guided with a much more definite hand.
Special mention must also go to the actors playing Nigel and Fiona, Uncle Zed, and Asphinxia.
And especially that lovely girl in the chorus with great stage presence, she lit up the stage every time she appeared, and it seems a shame she didnÂ’t get more opportunity in the show.
This show had a lot of potential, but it never seemed to reach it. It needed to be a lot tighter, the slapstick a lot more precise. In fact that seems to be the major problem with the show, it lackedÂ… think of a wordÂ… Snap? Bite? Crispness?
While there were parts of the show that were good, on the whole I actually found it painful to watch, and I am sorry to say that if I hadnÂ’t known one of the cast members I would have actually left during interval.
Of all the reviewers preceding me, my summing up would be closer to DonÂ’s, but harsher. A Good effort, but ultimately not good enough.
Paul Treasure
PS This is MY opinion of the show on the night that I saw it. For all I know, I may have been unlucky enough to go on the worst night of the run (and we all know there always is one REALLY BAD night in any run). If you are deciding whether or not to see this show on the strength of the reviews, I would like to point out that my review now gives the show two positive and two negative reviews. ThatÂ’s fifty-fifty. Go and see the show, judge for yourself, write your own review and post it here.
PPS The seating really is very close together. IÂ’m not a small chap, and neither is the friend I went with. I was practically sitting in his lap half the night, as I thought it was less impolite to encroach on his personal space than the person on my other side, and we both had to crouch way down in our seats so the people behind us could see. The physical discomfort we felt during the show could also have impacted on our judgement.
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