Blondel… but not dumb

Director: Claire Cooper
Blondel is a satirical comedy centred (loosely) around King Richard The Lionheart, the crusades, and his resident lute player Blondel.  Watlington Players selected it as their 2008 musical and I was intrigued.
The chorus were a little thin on the ground and gave the suggestion of being a touch bewildered at times.  The volume reflected the numbers which was a shame.
The four monks (Su Widd, Rachel Johnson, Margaret Mould and Mike Cooke) did a fine job of singing the narration with Rachel Johnson standing out with perfect expressions for lyricist Tim Rice’s gags.
Megan Abbott, Debbie Hiles and Julie Turner were great as backing trio the Blondettes and Susan Power’s brilliant cameo as Fraulein Schwar Zenberger went down particularly well with the audience as did Steve Brookes as King Leopold.
Of the leads, Ian Ding was excellent as firm but fair King Richard, and Matt Kerslake was good value as evil King John.  The comic lead went to The Assassin, brilliantly played by Ian Anderson with The Assassin’s song getting many of the best laughs.
As male lead Blondel Nick Brooks was solid enough and managed well with the difficult tunes.  He looked a little uncomfortable with the light opera style where most of the dialogue is sung and I could not work out why he was wearing jeans and not tights like everyone else.
I last saw Jo Manning in pantomime at Watlington and I thought she struggled with the format.  Her portrayal of Fiona was a coming-of-age performance.  Her beautiful singing voice was ideally suited to the difficult songs.  She worked tirelessly throughout with a range of expressions and depth of characterisation that never faltered and meant that you could not take your eyes off her for a moment.
Congratulations to producer Claire Cooper and her team.

        Stephen Hayter.
        
        6th June 2008