Cultural Dessert

'Wild Wild Women' by Nola York and Michael Richmond

10 June 2008

At the end of a week where I had been pre-occupied with arguing that the voluntary arts can be excellent, it was a delight to attend an amateur performance that was one of the funniest and most enjoyable evenings in a theatre I've experienced in a long time. On Saturday we were at the Trestle Theatre Space in St Albans - home of the celebrated Trestle Theatre Company - to see local amateurs MeMe Productions perform 'Wild Wild Women' - a musical by Nola York and Michael Richmond. This Romeo & Juliet story set in the Wild West in the 1880s was great fun with some wonderful individual performances and big set-piece ensemble numbers. The show itself was a little varied in tone and the music was mainly in a 1980s rock-ballad style. There were a few problems with balance - some performers being drowned out by the musicians. But none of this detracted from a splendid romp that had me smiling throughout. And the show stealing performance from Dawn Travell as Sister Priscilla included a hilarious death scene to rival Sam Hayward in Little Me (reviewed here in August 2007). Excellent!

Labels: Musicals, Theatre

posted by Robin Simpson @ 1:49 pm