That’ll Be The Day at the New Alexandra Theatre Birmingham Review
That’ll Be The Day
New Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham
8 June 2016
Reviewed by Anna Kai
This show is branded “the Nations favourite rock ‘n’ roll show” and I can understand why.
My expectation of a musical was that there was some acting / story within the musical hits woven in, but there wasn’t really acting / a story per sae, (aside from a couple of comedy dialogue sketches) – this was a chronological flow of music from the 1950’s right up to skimming the surface of the early 1980’s, paying tribute to major legends such as: Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, David Bowie, Cilla Black, Whitney Houston etc. Certainly all about music – and wonderful costumes!
The stage set didn’t change throughout the show; the musicians remained mostly in situ. The cast were highly musically talented – I cannot praise enough, both vocally and as musicians – many singing and playing one or two instruments at the same time. The saxophonist in particular was breath-taking, and the drumming throughout really remarkable! There was one really special part where three drum sets were on stage and three drummers attending the stations: What followed was scintillating – a massively enjoyable rhythmic feast with accompanying light show!
It began at 7:30pm and went on until 11:00pm – The audience were tapping / clapping / singing along, and when Status Quo were played towards the end, many of the members got up from their seats to bop along.
The car park (multi-storey) was accessible, well lit and easy to park in, and the theatre offered a reduced price ticket validation service at the concierge desk saving several pounds – £6.00 for the evening. There were no free blue badge spaces within the multi storey (all chargeable) but there were limited blue badge spaces on street. There were two theatre entrances and I was mistaken at first – I went to the entrance closest to the car park, but was promptly directed around the corner to the front of the theatre on a different street. The signposting could have been a little clearer but it wasn’t by any means an issue and the member of staff was very polite, clear and courteous. The theatre itself was traditional in appearance out front and clean inside, with plush décor and (limited during intervals) seating to the bar areas.
The ambience and atmosphere of the theatre was good – but it was very sticky and hot within the dress circle – audience members were fanning themselves throughout the show and commenting to each other how hot it was. The staff were polite and attentive. The bar prices were expensive – £8.00 for a glass of white wine; iced water was available free of charge.
The show started with a bang – excited all of my senses! Rock Around the Clock was the first piece with a medley that followed.
A veritable musical feast continued with short sketches dotted in. I enjoyed watching and listening to all of the numbers, and liked reminding of Top of The Pops, with the visual accompaniments onscreen that followed – very good!
There were cheap sexual gestures within a children’s theme (Andy Pandy and Loopy Lou) which I thought was inappropriate, his continual licking lips to / around her, gyrating hips with pulled back arms, grimacing face, innuendos etc. from an elder man in a child’s suit towards a smiling buxomly ‘innocent’ young woman – with narration from overhead about how he would like to “give her one” and “what do you think she wants?” and his “balls” being “red and swollen”. I didn’t enjoy that part at all and despite a healthy sense of humour, I found it difficult to find this in any way funny – In my opinion sex and children should not ever be associated; the sketch was masochistic and perverse, disrespecting women. Perhaps this is a generational issue or matter of personal taste. The show was hosting the ‘Make A Wish’ children’s charity which I thought added to the strangeness of this particular sketch appearing in the musical – there were charity representatives and bucket / donation collectors at the theatre; hence one might think childlike subjects would be protected and celebrated in such a show, not have their former TV characters sexualised for adult gratification. The sketch had apparently been requested by many of the previous show attendees as a repeat, so people must have like this before.
There were also several tristful / wistful / poignant parts, bringing into consciousness all of our own mortality and the partners / children that are left behind (photographs were shown / played on screen), which I didn’t expect from “Music, Laughter and non-stop nostalgia”.
There seemed to be a focus on stars and their deaths, quite wistful with the accompanying music – e.g. the intro to American Pie the melancholic “the day the music died” with Buddy Holly and plane crash and accompanying photographs, but these parts were quickly followed with more upbeat numbers / medleys. Funnily enough, there was no title piece “That’ll Be The Day” that accompanied the Buddy Holly set, which I was looking forward to hear. Only three Buddy tunes were played – but Peggy Sue was one of them, so I was happy.
There were a couple of microphone / sound issues early on in the first half from some of the cast – mostly from Trevor Payne – moving the microphone away before he had finished speaking / singing / turning theirs head away “come on boys”, and taking the microphone away before the last couple of words of the sentence had ended… also not getting the microphone to the mouth in time for a couple of lyrics after a pause, but I still managed to mostly fathom what was said / sung! The lights were good, but there were several occasions when the lights shone blindingly in the audience’s eyes – it would be great if this could be improved for next time as I had to shield myself and close my eyes tightly shut on a few occasions.
I particularly enjoyed “The Shadows” – the acoustics were amazingly deep, enchanting and rich. One word: Wow. I also really enjoyed Trevor Payne’s Mick Jagger- excellent skits with harmonica and acting and performance! A very funny comedy set on texting and “compo’er speak”. I literally laughed heartily out loud throughout, as did the rest of the audience. Brilliant!
Overall: A really good show – a real Rock ‘n’ Roll affair, excellent vocals with all notes hit, with a trip down memory (& before!) lane. I would recommend the show but I am not sure whether I would pay to return on account of certain parts being (in my opinion) a bit tasteless and tacky.
In short – If it’s Rock ‘n’ Roll you want to see played live, you’ll love this!
Rating: 4/5
That’ll Be The Day is currently on tour around the UK celebrating its 30th anniversary, for more information and tour dates visit www.thatllbetheday.com.
For other shows at the New Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham visit www.atgtickets.com/birmingham.
New Alexandra Theatre, Suffolk Queensway, Birmingham, West Midlands, B5 4DS
