There’s a great half-term treat at Hull New Theatre this week with that great hit film Bugsy Malone transferred to the stage. My kids all grew up loving the film, its splurge guns, pedal cars and young cast. I was hoping that it would translate well to the stage and I’m pleased to say that it did. It was toe tapping, bright, fun, and with a very enthusiastic young cast.
Featuring such fantastic tunes as Fat Sam’s Grand Slam, Tomorrow, My Name is Tallulah, We Could Have Been Anything, So You Wanna Be A Boxer. It’s one of those musicals where every song is well known, especially if you live and breathe musical theatre.
The movie was so memorable for the splurge guns (kids equivalent of a sub-machine gun) but don’t expect lots of messy splurge from the guns. It’s way too much cleaning up to be sustainable on stage. Instead our guns were noisy and seemed to fire pellets that left the victim covered with white spots as if they’d been shot by a marshmallow gun. It was funny to watch each one stand up after being ‘shot’ and look at the audience with a resigned face and comment “oh no……” as they ran off (some more dramatic than others).
We did get a pedal car. It’s not Bugsy Malone without a pedal car making an appearance. Complete with lights and dancers moving around and on and off the car in a chase scene with lots of strobe lighting. The pedal car is as synonymous with Bugsy Malone as the flying car in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
I loved the ensemble dances in this production. Whether as showgirls or boxers the moves were all slick and you could tell that the cast were all having a blast. It’s not overly complicated choreography and because of this it meant that it was well executed by the cast and looked great to watch. The boxing scene was especially slick with lots of training as our light-footed dancers imitated the light-footed boxers. Costumes were colourful for the girls and the guys looked so smart in their suits.
It was great to see local interest with Marcus Billany (born in Cottingham) playing Bugsy Malone. Billany should be known as ‘Brilliant Billany’ because he was absolutely brilliant, superb, excellent and a great singer, dancer and actor. He has charisma, is handsome and will be a favourite of the girls for a long time to come.
This is a bright and fun show and the cast had the audience whistling and cheering at the finale as everyone stood in appreciation of the children and young adults in this great production.
Running at Hull New Theatre until Saturday with matinees on Wednesday and Saturday. Please remember that evening performances start at 7pm, this is a show for all of the family to go an enjoy together. Lasting 50 minutes for Act 1 and 45 minutes for Act 2, it’s a half-term treat. Don’t miss this fun production.
