The so-called “movical” (where a movie is adapted as a musical for the stage) is hardly a new thing, but recently it has become very fashionable to take good movie plots and turn them into something new and vibrant for the stage. Stage One Theatre Company describe themselves on their website as “Essex and the south east’s premier musical theatre company”, with productions of everything from Jesus Christ Superstar to Godspell under their belts since the company was formed in 1992. Nevertheless, Big, The Musical was an ambitious project to undertake, not least as it involves a number of child roles.
For those of us who don’t know or have trouble remembering the original 80s movie, the basic plot is that a 12-year-old boy (Josh Baskin) makes a wish at a fairground fortune-telling slot machine and it comes true. His wish is to be big, and when he wakes the next morning, he finds that he has become an adult overnight. Cue an hilarious chain of events as we follow this 12-year-old man-boy trying to make sense of the world around him and, ultimately, find his way home.
The songs in this musical are not tremendously catchy, but they are enjoyable, and Stage One performed them all well, though some of the cast’s voices left a lot to be desired. The dance routines were slick and professional, in particular “Cross The Line” at the end of Act One and “It’s Time” at the beginning of Act Two, which was a complicated routine danced and sung by the youth company, involving a rap and a clever section of body-popping, which had us all entranced.
For those who know the original movie well, the scene with the giant piano in the toy store was cleverly and faithfully reproduced, and Josh and Billy’s complicated friendship rap was also well done, although it would have been good to have seen it more than once.
Stand-out performances came from Jai Sepple (who played Josh as an adult), and Scott Howlett (Billy Kopecki, Josh’s 13- year-old best friend), although sadly Billy’s songs were pitched just slightly too low for Scott’s voice, something which I felt could easily have been remedied to make the whole thing more comfortable for him.
However, the real star performer was Tanya Shields as Susan, a tired toy company executive who falls for Josh’s child-like charms. From the moment she stepped onto the stage and launched into her first song (the brilliantly comical “My Secretary’s In Love”) she had the audience hooked. Her voice would not sound out of place on the West End stage, and she gave incredible charm and pathos to this damaged and manipulated woman, giving us all a lump in our throats as she sang wistfully of “Little Susan Lawrence”.
The second act was not as slick as the first, and the scene where Josh meets Susan’s friends for the first time at a very grown up dinner party should have been quick and funny but was instead painfully slow and wooden, with Jai Sepple and Tanya Shields desperately trying to keep up the pace and, sadly, failing. This was a pivotal scene that fell flat, leaving the second act a little disjointed as a consequence. The transition from Josh as an adult back to a child at the end was cleverly done, but the ending itself felt rushed, and made me wonder whether some scenes which would have made it flow better had been cut.
The use of lead actors as extras in other scenes was misleading, in particular the use of George Greenland (who played the child Josh) in a prominent place on stage in the party scene at the end of Act One. However, for a small company where a lot of the actors were playing more than one part, Stage One managed to reduce the risk of anyone being confused for the most part.
On the whole, I enjoyed this production, and it was particularly slick for an amateur company, showing the versatility and obvious experience of its members.
Stage One Theatre Company’s next production is The Wedding Singer (a musical of the movie of the same name) 6th to 9th May 2009 at the Kenneth More Theatre, Ilford.
