Tuesday, 7 June 2011

Betty Blue Eyes review, Novello Theatre

Betty gave me the trots.
Betty Blue Eyes... Ah yes, the musical about a chiropodist who falls in love with a blue-eyed mechanical pig that makes two appearances all evening. It's the lack of pig combined with yawning stretches of inconsequential small town life that make one forget the point of the story until the end when, suddenly, Gilbert (chiropodist) who has stolen the pig (short story, but let's not spoil the only plot twist) foregoes pork on the table to save its life. Sorry, not its life: Betty's life, because, apparently, the pig is rather endearing and unknown to the audience has won his heart somewhere at the back of the stage out of sight while they were listening to dreary exchanges put to dreary tunes.  

In fairness, a couple of the songs in this musical version of the film, A Private Function, are corkers, but two great tunes don't make a great show.  Except... while the Twitterati sighed that Betty Blue Eyes was a pig of a drama, the critics were feting Director Richard Eyre for making a silk purse from a sow's ear. It's a Marmite production: you'll love it or you'll hate it. 

Conclusion: Adrian Scarborough in Gestapo mode as the mad meat inspector, Reece Shearsmith as gormless Gilbert and Sarah Lancashire as his mithering missis, work mediocre material hard to make it enjoyable, but the enjoyment is limited. 

References
Quentin Letts in The Daily Mail 
Show Information, Novello
Betty Fans relive one of the two good songs (bah humbug)
at

2 comments:

  1. JohnnyFox28 July 2011 at 15:26

    bit of name dropping, sorry, but Libby Purves from the Times told me that Alan Bennett had told her he was outraged that 'the pig lives' at the end. I think he wanted the audience given bacon sandwiches on their way out of the theatre ...

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  2. Shyama28 July 2011 at 18:06

    I'm with Alan on that one, though I wanted all pigs slaughtered and cured by the end of proceedings;) Libby gave Betty Blue Eyes a very generous seal of approval. Would she have eaten a sandwich if Alan had had his way, I wonder?

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