🎭 The Creakers
📍 The Lyric, Theatre Royal Plymouth, Royal Parade, Plymouth, Devon, PL1 2TR
🗓 Monday 28th October 2024
⭐️⭐️⭐️
GREAT POTENTIAL BUT NEEDS WORK
This year the Theatre Royal Plymouth has hosted world premieres of THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, which is now thrilling audiences in London's West End, and THE ARTIST and last night it was the turn of Tom Fletcher's THE CREAKERS to be unleashed on the world!
Based on Fletcher's best-selling book of the same name THE CREAKERS promises a magical musical adventure. Unfortunately for me it fell short on delivering this. The production does have its good points and there were elements to love about the show, but overall there are issues and it somewhat feels as if the show is still in development with work to be done.
The plot follows the story of the residents of Whiffington and when all the adults are taken by The Creakers - the monsters under the bed - childhood renegade Lucy takes it upon herself to enter into The Woleb, the underground world of The Creakers, and rescue all the adults.
One of the main issues with the show is the adaptation itself. With so many characters I felt that the story lost its way a little and we never got any real character development or a substantial story arc. Some of the scenes felt too long and lost the attention of the adults in the audience, let alone the children who are no doubt the target audience. With a run time of 2 hours 45 minutes I feel the production would benefit from being streamlined with more attention paid to developing the central characters.
The strongest part of the show for me personally was the opening, with a fun musical number and good choreography and staging. However as the show went on the songs were not memorable in any way. The ensemble numbers were good in the moment but quickly forgettable and the ballads just lacked any real meaning and actually became tedious. Being a fan of McFly and of Fletcher's writing I was surprised by this.
There was a real problem with the sound throughout with levels being completely off and some microphones seemingly not on at all. Some of the cast had great projection so could still be heard while others relying too much on technological aid that it was difficult to understand them. Understandable during musical numbers but not during scenes. After receiving an email from the venue stating there were issues which could not be fixed I have decided to not allow this to affect my overall star rating for the show (usually prolonged sound issues such as this would cause a production to lose a star) but felt it should still be mentioned. I just hope this really was a one-off and that the issues can be fixed as it makes for a less than enjoyable experience.
Some of the cast were really strong but regrettably the lead was weak, lacking the vocal strength to handle the songs given to her and not really delivering a believable character. I wanted more emotion from her, especially in the scenes with her dad.
With all these negative aspects you may be wondering how I landed on a star rating of 3 for THE CREAKERS. Well the answer is that there were some really good elements to the production which cannot be overlooked and I do believe that this show could be really great. I could also see and appreciate the amount of work that has gone into bringing this to the stage.
I really enjoyed the choreography throughout, especially during the ensemble pieces and Tom Jackson Greaves who both choreographed and directed the piece always ensures the stage is used and filled, with the choreography being the star of the show for me. He also manages to firmly make sure that this is a musical theatre production and doesn't blur the lines with pantomime, which often is the case when a show is targeted towards a younger audience.
Andrew Exeter's set is functional and although at times a bit basic it serves its purpose well and I adored Ryan Dawson Laight's costumes which were fun without being silly. The lighting design by Rory Beaton is also a triumph, so the fundamentals of a great production are all here. It's the content itself where a lot of the issues lie.
The standout performance for me came from Edwin Ray, who burst onto the stage with great energy as Piers Snoregan. A consummate professional, Ray is always a joy to watch and he had great projection and diction so the issues with the sound meant he was still clearly understood.
I also enjoyed Iona Fraser as Ella, who did a great job of making her character likeable despite her flaws. Other notable performances for me came from Rakesh Boury, Matthew Caputo and David-Michael Johnson who were all brilliant.
The puppet design by Lyndie Wright was really creative and the cast were exceptional with their puppetry performances. We were promised that we'd be scared, but I have to admit that I found The Creakers themselves to be cute rather than scary!
This review is one of the most mixed I have written for a long time and it is the story itself which is the biggest let down here. I feel there was a lack of tension and terror. Even though it is aimed at children, everything was far too surface level. Children can take something a bit more scary, and with their being an audio recording from Fletcher at the beginning promising we'd be terrified, it was distinctly underwhelming on this front.
The cast worked hard to deliver a good show and I do believe with tightening and developing the script somewhat, and maybe even removing or condensing some of the slower musical numbers, THE CREAKERS could grow into a hit, but its just not there yet.
As always, I encourage my readers to make up their own minds and THE CREAKERS continues performances at Theatre Royal Plymouth until Saturday 2nd November before transferring to London for Christmas. Click here to check availability and to book tickets for Plymouth.
Neill Kovacic-Clarke
All views are my own and I pride myself on being honest, fair and free from influence. Theatre is subjective and it is important to remember that all views expressed are just those of one reviewer.
My ticket for this performance of The Creakers was gifted by the Theatre Royal Plymouth who invited me to watch the show in exchange for my honest review. The fact that my ticket was gifted played no part in the content of my review or the star rating given.
CAST LIST:
Eloise Davies as Lucy; Iona Fraser as Ella; Ally Kennard as Norman; Rakesh Boury as Larry / Creaker King; David-Michael Johnson as Mayor / Bulge; Edwin Ray as Piers Snoregan / Toby / Gruff; Matthew Caputo as Mario / Buzz / Grunt; Timo Tatzber as Daniel / Max / Sniff; Anu Ogunmefun as Mrs Cobblesmith / Buddy / Scratch; Verity Power as Mrs McNab / Brenda / Belch; Kim Healey as Betty / Cassie / Barf; Ed Larkin as William / Mr Grub / Squelch; Liam Dean as Onstage Swing; Alisha Capon as Onstage Swing
RUNNING TIME (approx):
2 hours 45 minutes, including interval
AGE RECOMMENDATION:
6+