My Monday evening theatre trip took me to the Playhouse Theatre to watch this musical. Luckily this is a theatre I’ve been to a couple of times, I left my phone at work so had no instructions to follow. Annoyingly I couldn’t keep track of the distance I walked either.
My seat was in the Dress Circle, Row K, that prove4d to be problematical once the show started. Part of the action takes place on a raised platform, which was mostly hidden from view from Row K. Yet my ticket wasn’t sold as restricted view, which was a tad annoying.
A short extract from the website, by way of explanation
Louisiana, 1963. Revolution is in the air, though not so much for Caroline, the poorly paid maid toiling endlessly in the sweltering basement of the Gellman household. It’s a fantastical, magical place amidst the piles of laundry and singing washing machines, especially for eight-year-old Noah Gellman who sneaks downstairs to see her whenever he can. Yet a simple gesture to leave more money in Caroline’s pocket is about to test who and how far the winds of change can ever really reach…
Sharon D Clarke plays the lead, Caroline, but she didn’t take part for the performance I saw. Naana Agyei-Ampadu is listed as her understudy. The performances in this show are amazing. But, the show as a whole did very little for me. I can’t really explain why, but it left me rather cold. I saw The Green Book at the cinema the day before and found that very powerful. It may well be that I had in effect a hangover from that. I moved seats for the second half, so could at least see all of the action. I hope if you go and see it you thoroughly enjoy it, it’s getting rave reviews all round.
365 Happy Days 