Silent movies take centre stage at the Concordia
THE popular musical Mack and Mabel is being performed at the Concordia Theatre in Hinckley by the Community Guild from February 19 to 24.
The scene is 1920s Hollywood. A time when movies were silent and cinema was magic.
Mack Sennett, “King of Comedy” and creator of The Keystone Cops, discovers Mabel Normand, a waitress from Brooklyn, casts her in his two-reelers and turns her into a star.
So began one of Hollywood’s most tempestuous and heart-wrenching love stories.
But life isn’t like the movies – ambition, dalliance and the impending but inevitable threat of change put unbearable pressure on their relationship. Romance turns to jealousy as stardom invites scandal and deceit.
With a spectacular, soaring score including “Look What Happened To Mabel”, “I Won’t Send Roses” and “Time Heals Everything” Mack and Mabel is a beautiful, touching and ultimately heart-breaking story of two of Hollywood’s greatest icons.
From the moment Mabel first arrived on the set of Mack Sennett’s latest film, she catches his eye and soon afterwards his heart. She becomes his biggest star, but ambition, dalliance and the inevitable threat posed by talking movies puts unbearable pressure on their relationship.
The first musical on the stage at Concordia for 2018 has everything you want from a night out – laughter, pathos, singing and dancing.
There is also the Keystone Cops and the pie in the face routine to enjoy.
There is one knockout number after another.
The original 1974 Broadway production produced by David Merrick starred Robert Preston and Bernadette Peters. It received eight Tony Award nominations, including Best Musical.
Mack and Mabel was first produced in England in 1981 at the Not- tingham Playhouse.
The production starred Denis Quilley as Mack and Imelda Staunton as Mabel; it had a successful run but failed to transfer to the West End.
Soon afterward, British ice-skating team Torvill and Dean, who were based in Nottingham, searched the music library at the local radio station for suitable material for their routines and discovered a recording of the original cast album. When they won the gold medal for ice dance in the World Figure Skating Championships in 1982, they performed to the Mack & Mabel overture.
Later the routine was broadcast by BBC Television during the 1984 Olympics, with the British public demand so great that the album was re-released in the UK, where it reached number 6 on the charts.
For more details on the Concordia show, see the theatre’s website or ring the box office on 01455 615005. It is open on Monday and Wednesday evenings 7pm to 8pm, Saturday morning 10am to noon.