Closing shows quickly is common practice on Broadway but much rarer here, where producers usually hang on in there trying to build an audience. Pulling this terrific show so soon is shameful. Perhaps to prove them wrong, it’s been tough to get a decent ticket in this last week, there’s little discounting and even the midweek matinee, the only show I could make, was packed. It’s great to report though that the cast & crew, working their notice, were way more professional than the producers and put on a great show regardless and deserved their standing ovation.
I couldn’t spot writer Simon Beaufoy’s changes to his 1997 film. Thankfully, the late 80’s setting is rightly kept, because the heart of the play is Thatcher’s Britain. When he sees how much money the Chippendales are making at the local Conservative Club, Gaz mobilises others at his Job Club to take up stripping for cash so that he can pay child maintenance and keep access to his son. You probably know the rest. Suffice to say it works better on stage as a live experience. It’s very funny and deeply moving and for a miners son brings out all sorts of emotions, but it is above all supremely entertaining.
Robert Jones has built an extraordinary abandoned steel works that takes your breath away when the corrugated iron screen rises. The crane moves and sparks fly and there are some seemingly dangerous moments as they manipulate a giant steel girder. Other locations are played out effectively stage front with speedy scene changes. I’ve seen Daniel Evans act a lot but this is the first thing I’ve seen that he’s directed and I think its masterly. He has a brilliant cast with not a weak link in it. I particularly liked Roger Morlidge’s Dave and Simon Rouse as Gerald, and there’s a truly stunning performance by one of the young actors who plays Gaz’s son Nathan.
If Sheffield Theatres had a more committed commercial partner (the actual one is surprisingly uncredited in the programme), I am convinced this could have a long run. The timing is perfect, the production couldn’t be better and, like Billy Elliot has proven, there’s an appetite for entertainment that’s also gritty social realism.
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