Date & Time: 5th February, 7.30pm
**SPOILERS WITHIN**
Memphis came to my attention
not through traditional advertising but through social media. Whether I saw it
mentioned on twitter or facebook, everyone who’d seen it, loved it and so it
got bumped to the top of my list; what was this show which had everyone
agreeing with one another? I wanted to avoid knowing any of the storyline or
the songs before I got there. It was quite a treat to watch a show in this way;
a rarity for me.
This lack of knowledge on the
subject matter allowed me to watch the show as a clean slate, with no
preconceptions or expections. Being naturally quite contrary I was prepared to
be the one to disagree with the hype....
... which wasn’t to be
because I loved it, just like everyone else.
It would have been so easy
and safe in the current climate to have made this a jukebox musical (which I have to admit, I assumed it was
going to be). It was a brave move to compose an original soundtrack with
the back catalogue of songs already in existence from this era, but a move that
I think will serve them well.
Brave moves are what this
show is all about, after all. Set in a time and a place of racial segregation; where
black people and white people didn’t mix – let alone their music – one renegade
disc jockey comes along and dares to play “race music” on a white station in
the middle of the dial (the prime location).
This DJ is called Huey
Calhoun and is played by the tour-de-force that is Killian Donnelly, he’s a hyper-active whirlwind of energy that
gives life to this frantic, fast-talking homage to a hybrid of real-life radio
DJ’s of the time. He keeps up this pace through-out the show, though can pull
it back appropriately when the moment calls for it just as well.
Huey meets Felicia (Beverley Knight) after strolling into a
bar where she’s singing on Beale Street. In those times, this was something
unheard of. Black and white people had their own, very separate, clubs and pubs
and never the twain met. Huey isn’t exactly welcomed but hangs about
nonetheless and before long develops a relationship with Felicia, which is
daring but fraught with danger.
I was sceptical about
Beverley Knight, as I always am when a “name” is cast. I had already seen her
in ‘The Bodyguard’ at the Adelphi and though her vocal skills are undeniable, I
don’t remember being blown away by her acting. In Memphis, however, I feel
she’s come into her own. I never thought I was watching Beverley Knight being a
character for the sake of boosting her career; while she was on that stage she
embodied Felicia and portrayed the truth of that character.
The most touching moment of
the show, goes to Tyrone Huntley who
plays a character called ‘Gator’. Hope emanates from Gator where hate could
easily have lived instead. This character has seen horrors that he cannot speak
but his silence is broken after an incident which threatens to drive a wedge
between black and white once more in the form of the song “Say a Prayer” – he
helps bring the focus back to the fact that change is needed and not to let
hate win out.
On the one hand this is a
high energy musical with big ensemble dance scenes and laugh out loud moments
but it’s also a musical with an important message and lesson in history and I
for one came away feeling both uplifted and enriched. I recommend buying the
programme too, well worth the money for the content.
That’s me over and out and there’s just one thing left to say........
HOCKADOO!
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