The cast of Stratford on Stage's latest show, West 'n' Wild.
OPINION
Ilona Hanne reviews Stratford on Stage’s production of West ’n’ Wild, written by Sharon Butterworth. Directed by Helen Snook, with musical direction by Carole Door and choreography by Lynette Wyss. Running now through to November 4 at TET Kings Theatre, Stratford. Tickets available via iTicket.
Take some hairdressers from Nashville, drop them into a small town in the (very) Wild West populated with hillbillies, cowboys, a madam and the sort of baddie John Wayne made a career out of dealing with, and you’ve got some guaranteed chaos.
While that’s the premise behind West ‘n’ Wild, that chaos is almost completely seamless in this production, with the 22-strong cast (plus band members) working together to present a slick production packed with energy, humour and some great one-liners.
Under Helen Snook’s direction, the show is a brilliant piece of entertainment that will have the audience laughing long after the last curtain call.
The opening scene is set, as is a very high standard for the rest of the show, by the appearance of Grannie Annie (Mickie Mills) and her two hillbilly grandchildren Cooter (Marcus Mottram) and Lindy Lou (Sharon Oliver. The trio arrive on stage and immediately have the audience laughing with their antics and the fantastic on-stage chemistry they have together.
When it comes to brilliant acting, Mickie Mills is undoubtedly at the top of the list. As Grannie Annie, she has some great lines in the script, and boy, does she make sure every single one of them counts. She has impeccable comic timing, brilliant physicality on stage, and vocally, her musical number is one of the best performances on the night - getting the audience in the mood for a night of toe-tapping, country fun.
Sharon’s Lindy Lou never gets lost on stage, despite the challenge of acting directly alongside someone of Mickie’s calibre. She also has a great voice, and her song is another one of the musical highlights on the night.
Marcus gives a nicely nuanced take on Cooter, keeping true to the character’s stated lack of thought or brain power, while bringing out a little bit of vulnerability in him as well.
As Poker Alice, Rubeana Reader is in fine form. Her moments of sensing trouble are one of the comedic highlights of the show.
The Nashville hairdressing team of Jenny Dymond (Lotte), Kelsi Bailey (Susannah), Grace Barlow (Carrie Ann), Jack Linton (Phillippe) and Charlotte Frazier (Luna) are all great actors, and this show gives them each the chance to really show off their talents. Jack’s “sensitive gal pal” Phillippe is just perfect, as is Charlotte’s dark, goth-like Luna. Both of them have great comic timing, and they use it well throughout. Grace has a fantastic voice, and both she and Jenny as Lotte bring out their character’s vulnerabilities without losing their strength.
Kelsi’s Susannah gets plenty of deserving laughs for her man-obsessed ways, but Kelsi’s talent and experience makes sure Susannah doesn’t become one-dimensional.
Cynthia is great fun to watch as madam Fancy Adams, and her scenes with Big Jim Nasty (Aaron Booker) are pure brilliance. My plus-one for this review said of Aaron, “He actually really scared me”, and she won’t have been the only one in the audience feeling jumpy when Big Jim walked on stage, so well did he bring his character to life. Cynthia’s Fancy is another example of how talented actors can add nuance and dimension to a role. Cynthia brings out Fancy’s ambition and determination while also giving her a softer side, reminiscent perhaps of Nancy in Oliver Twist.
Fancy has a group of saloon girls working for her, and they bring a great energy to the stage. One of them, Louisa Bouzaid as Ruby, was a stand-out on opening night, and I hope to see her in plenty more future productions. Another actor with a great future in acting is Kauby Ngatai (Wyatt). He has a great voice, as well as a maturity in his acting that seems intuitive rather than taught. Another one of the younger cast members, Connor Barrow, perfectly captured the nervous, scared character of Junior.
As always, the backstage crew did a fantastic job, with Patsy Commerford’s costuming deserving of a whole review of it’s own. From the detailing on Grannie Annie’s skinned skunk to the “fabulous” cowboy transformation of Phillipe, every item worn by the cast adds more to the story. Also adding another dimension is the set design, props and artwork, which really bring the Wild West to life in this show.
The live band is brilliant, as are the backing vocals - a misnomer if there ever was one, for they were anything but background-worthy - from John Bouzaid.
As with any opening night, there were blips, but a few forgotten lines and some missed steps in the choreography don’t detract from what was an excellent production overall. If there was to be any criticism, it’s of funding for the arts - lack of funding means theatre companies like Stratford on Stage can’t always have all the technology bigger groups may, such as lapel mics. Instead, each time a character needed to sing, they had to step forward and take a mic from musical director Carole Door, which was distracting. A lack of body mics also meant some of the show’s great lines weren’t easily heard by all in the audience, with a few whispers around me of “What did they say?” at times throughout the evening.
Overall, this latest offering from Stratford on Stage is everything the theatre group is well-known for - a well-chosen show packed with great local talent that will have you laughing out loud.