(seen at the afternoon performance on 24th August 2024)
This 2002 West End musical amusingly has music and lyrics written by a group whose name sum up Tim Firth’s plot, “madness.”
Joe (Des Coghlan-Forbes) is 16 today. To impress girlfriend Sarah (Sara Belal), they both break into a high-rise building site to see the view. The police arrive. Sarah runs, Joe decides whether to run... or stay and accept the consequences.
The story explores both outcomes. Running, Joe becomes a successful businessman thanks to criminal friends. Staying, he is branded a criminal and must fight his way back to respectability.
The back-catalogue of “Madness” is crowbarred into the story, the lyrics sometimes altered a little but the spirit of the Camden community the ‘Nutty Boys’ know and love is always present.
National Youth Music Theatre make light work of a convoluted plot, the young cast relating enthusiastically to the material. They are able to deliver strong performances, overcoming the somewhat chaotic book.
Coghlan-Forbes is clearly from the same factory as Charlie Stemp and Jac Yarrow. He can sing, has strong dance technique and most of all a likability which carries his “evil” side with as much sympathy as his underdog one.
Sara Belal is not blessed with such a well-written character, but scores at every opportunity. “N.W.5” in the second act is probably her successful audition for a role in “Six The Musical” at some point.
Joe’s parents are likewise impactful thanks to performance rather than space allotted by their scripts. Abbie Palliser Kehoe is a strong Kath Casey, the wisdom of hard times as a single parent bolstered by her family history and current friendships.
Ryan Cooley as usually absent Dad is excellent in his own small appearances. He knows right from wrong and does his best to pass on hopes for a better future to his son.
In smaller roles still, Freddie Tickle is pure evil as Mr Pressman, Ben Young’s Reecey a stupider but equally menacing proposition - good characterisation from both.
Neat work from Olivia Barrett and Amy Field as Sarah’s friends Billie and Angie, Jacob Cullen and Joe Butler-Smith as Lewis and Emmo – Joe’s friends; and a quick recognition of Nathan Yielder as both Granddad and Headteacher (glad to be shot of the class, by the look of it) to round out the main character list.
It is the ensemble who really do some heavy lifting. With Simon Hardwick’s complex choreography, it would be expected they would find manipulating chairs, canteen trays and (in the major transformation scene) huge umbrellas tricky.
From a rollicking “Baggy Trousers” to a vast “Our House” (with Madness steps, naturally), the performances turn out to be faultless as the vast company fill the stage. Hardwick is going to have to come up with something truly fiendish next year to beat this crew.
As always, NYMT visual production standards meet those of their cast. Libby Todd’s wonderful “London Underground” floor painting and revolving symbol aloft, with ingenious market stalls and a nifty number plate for the car all work.
Costume designer Molly Fraser matches the inventiveness with clear colour schemes to aid us in following the timeline, teen fashions of the era; oh, and some rather spiffing showgirl outfits too.
Nick Evans keeps the pace even, despite the temptation to run one timeline at different speed. Bringing extra humour by pointing up the amusing tributes to “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” and “Oliver!” (the latter’s “Who Will Buy?” will never be the same again) helps keep the less attached-to-the-show songs theatrical, while drilling the cast in outstanding “quick-change” it is a huge technical achievement.
If the sound was not always perfect at this performance, they confused the monkey by playing “The Banana Splits” TV theme tune pre-show (odd, but fun, really), and the show’s book really doesn’t rise to the quality of the producing company, the result is still a delightful 5 star presentation of a 4 star show.
Another success for National Youth Music Theatre, and here’s to their 2025 London Summer Season.
4 stars.