Mobster rules in a messy revival
Bugsy Malone (Theatre Royal, Bath, then touring)
Verdict: A blast . . . with blancmange ★★★☆☆
ALAN PARKER’S 1976 film, Bugsy Malone, was a love letter to the gangster genre: playfully replayed by a cast of kids, with blancmange replacing bullets. Sean Holmes’s touring revival of the 2015 show doesn’t have the firepower of the razzledazzle original. It also seems to be holding back on the blancmange.
Still, there’s fun to be had in the spectacle of talented youngsters play-acting sequinned mini-molls and pint-sized mobsters getting caught in the splurge-gun gunk-fire. Three casts of children rotate, and in the show I saw, Gabriel Payne brought twinkling charm to Bugsy, though he’d need a ladder to get near to smearing the lipstick of Mia Lakha’s soulful Blousey Brown, as invited.
The little performers are bold and brave, and Paul Williams’s score always scores, especially nightclub sweeper Fizzy’s hopeful Tomorrow, delivered by an adorable Aidan Oti, and Blousey’s gorgeous lament Ordinary Fool.
The show’s energy comes from choreographer Drew McOnie’s dance numbers and the mobsters’ hoodlums knockout You Wanna Be A Boxer. The hip dance finale raises the roof — again. But I could have done with more dancing — and buckets more blancmange. ■ for tour dates, visit bugsymalonethemusical.com