Watford Palace Theatre
27 May – 18 Jun 2005

Alfie – Darren Day
Lofty – Samuel Board
George/Old Joe/Elliot – Ian Conningham
Siddie – Ceri Ann Gregory
Humphrey/Brian – Mark Hilton
Doris/Matron/Nurse/Doctor – Julie Jupp
Gilda – Rebecca Lock
Ruby – Gina Murray
Ensemble – Victoria Nalder, Lee Waterworth
Lily – Corinna Powlesland
Harry/Flower Seller – Michael Remick
Annie – Rebecca Trehearn

Director – Lawrence Till
Designer – Ruari Murchison
Musical Director – Kelvin Thomson
Musical Arranger – John Cameron
Choreographer – Nick Winston
Assistant Director – Kirstie Davis
Lighting Designer – Matthew Eagland
Casting Director – Kay Magson CDG

Alfie Palace Theatre, Watford
Directed by Lawrence Till
Choreographed by Nick Winston

2nd June 2005 The Times Jeremy Kingston

Charming Monster Gets New Lease Of Life ****

Bill Naughton’s well-travelled tale began as a radio play at the start of the Sixties, became a stage play, a novel and then, twice, a movie.

Now its unreformed Casanova of a hero is the roguish heart of a musical, and Darren Day and the team around him make its latest resurrection an engaging and uplifting affair.

Not morally uplifting, of course. Alfie, the bloke whose sole interest lies in pulling birds, lacks all redeeming qualities except the one that is essential for his continuing success: a grin to charm the hind leg off a donkey. Luckily for him, the women he meets in those almost prehistoric Sixties are donkeys all.

Yet Lawrence Till’s production does lift the spirits. John Cameron’s music bounces us along on melodies that cunningly capture the no-nonsense style of musicals from that era. Eden Phillip’s lyrics use a traditional rhyming pattern, but stay flexible enough for variations.

As Alfie, Day’s casually cocky strut and battered cherubic face make him a fine choice for this amoral hero. His stare is knowing, but hints at melancholy; he can insist that he is satisfiedwith his life, but increasingly we doubt it. Day skilfully projects this while whirling the story through his succession of partners, Ceri Ann Gregory and Gina Murray playing the two whoescape unharmed; Rebecca Lock, Rebecca Trehearn and, most painfully, Corinna Powlesland, those he damages.

Ruari Murchison designs a set that seldom contains anything but a bed, or a line of hospitalbeds or a fancy settee. Screens slide across the back of the stage, occasionally indicating a scene in the open air, but for the most part Alfie’s world is enclosed by walls.

Nick Winston’s choreography also picks up the period’s dance style – marching about the stage with arms in the air or on hips; a fantasy tap for nurses on beds and patients waving bedpans.

Cliff Richard’s Summer Holiday is never far away, and I make the comparison to praise Winston’s accuracy.

Unlike the misguided cinematic remake, this version of Alfie doesn’t make the error of straying outside its original period. Every age has its Lotharios, but the soppy readiness of Alfie’s birds to let themselves be trampled over hardly fits the assumptions of today. The show recognises this with two numbers where some of the women celebrate something approaching independence. But, what is on show is Alfie, and everyone involved contributes handsomely to resurrecting the spirit of this reprehensible, awkwardly attractive monster.

The Watford Observer Grelle White

MUSICAL SEDUCES ON OPENING NIGHT ****

The Palace’s stage production of Alfie, starring Darren Day, comes over as comic, stirring and moving.

As a serial seducer of the Swinging Sixties, Alfie needs every bit of Darren Day’s cocky charm and twinkle to survive belief, let alone the sense of political correctness of a modern audience.

The star of the Palace Theatre’s new musical deftly dodges the fine line as he sings, dances and bed-hops his way through a part which could have been a role model for “men behaving badly”, but in a way that would be totally acceptable today.

So, wisely, the Palace production is set in 1960’s period idiom and dress with a modern twist which gives the sparkle of surprise in some fabulous, frequently hilarious song and dance routines.

Hospital beds will never seem quite the same after the Palace Alfie “treatment” Health is Wealth. In a richly layered and textured show of light and dark, Alfie even emerges as potentially mending his ways by the time he belts out his final Look At You.

More weak than wicked and surrounded by women, eager to play and please while pleading for commitment, Alfie charms even as he refuses to listen and love, let alone buy a token bunch of flowers for any of his “birds”.

One of the most stunning scenes in the show is a split stage sequence where two of Alfie’s “victims”, Siddie (Ceri Ann Gregory) and Gilda (Rebecca Lock), simultaneously sing out their laments.

Siddie on the one side with cigarette card collecting husband, George (Ian Conningham) “bored to death with this normal life”. Gilda (Rebecca Lock), with Alfie on the other “longing for a normal life”.

With lyrics used as dialogue, the action is continuous and the company made up of good singers, capable of stirring, like Rebecca Powlesland as Lily in the abortion scene which momentarily slows the action to a lump in the throat moment.

Screens, curtains and clothes-lines provide quick and effective scene and mood changes and, like Nick Winston’s choreography, complements Lawrence Till’s constantly moving action. John Cameron and Eden Phillips’ music and lyrics are made to measure for a musical which encapsulates the classic character and story of Alfie in a way that makes you feel blessed out for a couple of hours.

You leave the theatre light-footed with a smile on your face and that, I suspect, is what this Alfie is all about.

A Sixties musical for the 21st Century with shiny star, Darren Day, in shiny company.