Presented by The Hills Musical Company
Reviewed 29 April 2016
In striptease parlance, ‘to go the full Monty’ means going all the way and taking every bit of clothing off. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it means ‘everything which is necessary, appropriate, or possible; ‘the works’ ‘.With the Hills Musical Company’s latest production, The Full Monty, Director Max Rayner has done just that – given the audience the ‘works’ and everything appropriately inappropriate. Rayner has found just about every piece of humour and every poignant moment in Terrence McNally’s book and run with it. He makes the show every bit as bold, brassy sexy and fun as a striptease should be.
Rohan Watts as Jerry
Photo credit: Mark Anolak
Rayner is not solely responsible for the production side working so well: Paula Paterson’s choreography is brilliant and extremely well carried out by the cast. She includes the traditional sexy strip while giving the cast loads of comic gestures in other songs – some of the best choreography this reviewer has seen in an amateur musical.
The musical is based on the 1997 film of the same name with the only change, apart from musical numbers being added, being that it is set in America instead of England. This allows it to be a bolder and brassier than its cinematic counterpart.
Rohan Watts is the ideal actor for the lead role of Jerry. He is likable with loads of talent and goes from being comical to emotive with the greatest of ease. His scenes with young Noah Lane as his son, Nathan are beautifully moving. Lane does well in his role.
Kim Clark & Jenny Scarce-Tolley
Photo: Mark Anolak
Watts is aided and abetted by Kim Clark as largish Dave. Clark is absolutely wonderful in the role, also delivering perfectly on the comedy and the emotion. Njal Venning (Harold) and Macdonald Machingura (‘Horse’) give good support; whilst Timothy Mackie is absolutely hilarious as Donald O’Connor wannabe Ethan; and James Reed is superb as Malcolm.
This production has strong ‘girl power’ as well, particularly in the form of Samantha Francis (Vicki) and Jenny Scarce-Tolly (Georgie). Francis is wonderfully ‘over the top’ in her number Life With Harold but then nicely subtle and emotive, as is Scarce-Tolly in their duet reprise of You Rule My World.
The one disappointment for this reviewer was Jenny Bowen as the pianist Jeanette. This is a great comic ‘character’ role with lots of eccentricities to display. Whilst Bowen sung well, she did not deliver on the humour of what should be a zany old dear; and she looked far too young to have been around most of the names she drops.
This production of The Full Monty delivers and certainly ‘goes all the way’ on providing great entertainment.
Reviewed by Brian Godfrey
Twitter: @briangods
Venue: Stirling Community Theatre, Avenue Road, Stirling
Season: 29 April – 14 May 2016
Duration: 2 hours 30 mins including interval
Tickets: $25 – $32
Bookings: http://www.hillsmusical.org.au/tickets/ or phone 0466 118 153
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