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Theatre Review: Happy Days: A New Musical - Churchill Theatre Bromley ✭✭✭

Happy Days
A New Musical
Churchill Theatre Bromley

Review by Cate McAllister 


Thursday 16th January 2014: The three time Golden Globe winning 1974 TV series 'Happy Days' is now a musical, with a book by Garry Marshall who wrote the original series, and lyrics by the renowned  Paul Williams.

1959 Milwaukee, Richie Cunningham (Scott Waugh) is off to college. Arnold's, his family and friends favourite malt shop is going to be pulled down and turned into a famous hamburger franchise. With the help of the community and, of course, 'The Fonz',  will Arnold's be saved ?

Andrew Wright is the director and choreographer, not an easy task trying to get the right balance, his choreography is terrific as one would expect from this 2012 Olivier award winner, but his directing falls short, he leaves some of his principal actors floundering, consequently as soon as dialogue starts the scenes go flat.

However, the mainly young ensemble and supporting actors are excellent. Eddie Myles (Chachi) is a performer to watch. All are great dancer/singers and are accompanied by Gregg Arrowsmith and his band who capture the feel of the 50's music and never overpower the cast.

Ben Freeman (The Fonz) is a very good performer in his own right, but the shadow of Henry Winkler, who was brought in as a creative consultant, looms large and we end up with a diluted performance which is neither an out and out copy nor imbued with subtle nuances.

Heidi Range (Pinky) has a good voice but she needed direction and maybe should look at Stockard Channing for inspiration. Cheryl Baker as Mrs Cunningham, another good singer, did her best in a tricky part.

The reason we go to the theatre is to be entertained  and 'Happy Days' does just that. The audience, with a bit of prompting from The Fonz, were on their feet clapping and dancing to the megamix. Amy Anzel the producer has worked her butt off to get this show on the road, this is the first date of a long tour, I think it will gather a lot of fans, so if Grease is not on, go and see this.

Three stars ✭✭✭




2014 NATIONAL TOUR

SATURDAY 11 – SATURDAY 18 JANUARY (OPENING NIGHT, TUESDAY 14 JANUARY)
BROMLEY, CHURCHILL THEATRE
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