A flying bed flew into Hull New Theatre last night. A flying what? Yes, a bed. Bedknobs and Broomsticks has landed in Hull. My children grew up with this Disney movie so I my curiosity was piqued to see how it transferred to the stage. I wasn’t the only one. This was an auditorium with a mainly grown up audience and just a few children scattered about.
The story is of three children Paul, Carrie and Charlie who are orphaned by World War 2 and are evacuated to the countryside. They are billeted with Miss Price whom they discover is an apprentice witch taking a correspondence course in witchcraft with Professor Emelius Browne.
The Professor ‘unfortunately’ must close the course but Miss Price is half way through learning a ‘Substitutiary Locomotion’ spell. She and the children decide they must go to London to get the remainder of the spell and of course, they employ a travelling spell to a bedknob and we have the flying bed. There was a lot of head scratching going on in the bar at the interval as folk were trying to fathom out just how this bed managed to fly. You can’t see any wires or elevator underneath – perhaps it was real magic!
The group find the Professor who confesses he can’t continue the course as he only has half of the book, having left the other half with the stall holder as he couldn’t afford to pay for the entire thing. The Professor is amazed that the magic spells work as he thought they were just funny words. A trip to Portobello Road and of course a wonderful rendition of the song follows. This was always a highlight of the movie for me and the cast carried this off with great style. They find the book, which isn’t of much use but discover the book young Paul has been carrying around is key to the spell. If only they could read the spell. That means another adventure to the Island of NoPeePo.
The second act began with that lovely song “Bobbing Along on the Bottom of the Beautiful Briny Sea”. The cast come on carrying lit up fish to represent the sea life and The Professor and Miss Price enter a dance competition with the fish. The prize is to meet the King. Alas they don’t win but when the fish realise that no-one comes back from seeing the King, they give the prize to the Professor and Miss Price.
Do you remember that crazy football game in the movie with the animals going crazy? Unfortunately it is not in the stage show and is replaced by a magic show. Realistically it would have been difficult to carry off as all of the animals in this Act are puppets. Nevertheless , the story and plot allow the group to get the pendant off the King and fly home.
The cast for this show is very talented. Young Charlie (Conor O’Hara) is very energetic and has a great character voice and comes into his own several times throughout. Carrie played by Poppy Houghton has a beautifully clear pitch and I am sure that in years to come, we will see much more of this youngster. Paul (Jasper Hawes) displays the right amount of vulnerability with a touch of courage.
The star is undoubtedly Miss Eglentine Price (Dianne Pilkington) whose voice reminded me of a 50’s music film star. Crystal clear and with beautiful diction. She is well supported by Emelius Browne (Charles Brunton) with his comic timing and great voice and together they made a great magic duo.
Bedknobs certainly matched up to its much older sibling and I felt that it transferred to the stage well. The production was magical, stunning and gave me a wave of nostalgia by the end of it. Leaving, the audience were still wondering about the mechanics of that flying bed and all looked happy to have re-lived some of their youth. The show is at Hull New Theatre all week and is definitely worth seeing. It’s for both young and old, and although dark in some places, it will leave a new generation loving the songs we loved.
Bedknobs and Broomsticks is at Hull New Theatre until Saturday 16 April 2022 and tickets can be found here >>
