Curtains is the musical 'whodunit' about the cast of a failing Boston show that has ambitions for the New York stage via a series of twists, turns and murders. Imagine if Scoobie and Shaggie tried to stage 'Anything Goes' out the back of the Mystery Machine.
Whilst the show had some charming qualities, sadly, in points, it left you wondering if they had intended on murdering the audience with dodgy puns and predictable 'twists'. The performance of Bryan Kennedy was, however, fantastically gay, extravagant and filled with well timed delivery. Strong too was Buster Skeggs, whose feisty character, Carmen, bit with a Bea Arthur/Golden Girls style deadpan.
But the true stars of this performance were often under played, only coming to light as they managed to break forwards in the chorus numbers. I longed for Julia Cave and Stephanie Parker to be given their opportunity to shine, as they both stole the scenes they were in with their bright eyes and "fresh out of drama school" enthusiasm and style. Sadly the more juvenile in the cast were then outshone by the elders in terms of acting integrity, shown as the elders rose to "What Kind of Man", a song that had this cast of critics questioning their humanity. In turn, the youngsters outshone their senior cast as we awkwardly watched older cast members un confidently struggle through chorus dances.
Fiona O'Carroll had her beautiful and subtle "Thinking of Him" solo stolen by the over keen responses of the keen young ensemble,and it seemed that age was not a factor when it came to struggling with maintaining a consistent accent.
At times it felt as if the cast were all masters of one trade, but fell well short of being the jacks of many that musical theatre demands. The space is tiny, and builds an intimate setting, which is both brilliant and awkward. In a space as tiny as this, it's possible for the audience to notice things like when you flash your empty warrant card holder to a suspect or when a supposedly heavy sandbag bounces off you almost as if it was actually filled with foam...
At times the intimacy makes you feel like you are really involved in the action, but in scenes like the sexy Kansasland dance number, it feels a bit more like rudely interrupting a couple's kinky night in. It seems a shame, too, that the choreography felt cramped and contained, not allowing dancers to stretch their legs or fully extend even basic moves. And the moves were basic, probably set in the knowledge that the space would be very restricted, a simple time step needs to develop into a dance routine, not just be repeated until we as an audience can mutter and predict "shuffle, hop, step, step, step, step" along with the actors.
The writing is filled with musical 'in jokes' perfect if you're a musical theatre fan, but unlikely to convert sceptics, with it's main problem being its predictability. Of course someone will be killed in time for the interval and they'll live happily ever after (unless they die).. This is the 'musical theatre' formula, but it doesn't give an audience much to feel clever about.
Credit to the cast, crew and writers, though, the final 'whodunit' finally gave us a twist we hadn't predicted, in a scene that would have made Inspector Morse dead happy.
