Review | Choir at Minerva Theatre, Chichester: 'A feelgood show'
There’s often an enjoyable contrast between the shows at the Festival Theatre and its sister theatre the Minerva.
While the main house is currently being transported to 1920s Hollywood with the toe-tapping Top Hat, those across the road walk into a community hall, complete with that infamous retro carpeting we all recognise.
Choir by Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti – a world premiere – tells the story of Morgan, a wannabe musician who settles for a job as a teacher when her shot at fame misses.
When she realises she still has unfinished business with the biz, she decides to set up a community choir. That’s when she comes across Freddie, a gifted student, and decides to raise money for him to go to music college.
So when The One Show come knocking, having heard about her efforts, and want to film a segment on the choir, Morgan realises this could be her last chance to secure her legacy.
This description of the plot thus far makes it sound like Morgan is the main character; far from it, as the play is really about the ensemble.
The choir is made up of a colourful cast of misfits from all corners of the community, a la Vicar of Dibley: neighbours and best friends Joy and Esther; divorcee and Hannibal Lector lookalike Ken; kooky kleptomaniac Sheila and Anna, a sweet mum with a troubled home life.
Morgan also managed to rope in her former bandmate Paul, who also missed his chance at the big time and now has to settle for doing voiceovers on local radio.
There’s a lot of warmth and humour to be found in these characters and the cast do a great job of ringing out the laughs – particularly the expressive and boisterous Alison Fitzjohn as Joy.
Although one particularly close to the bone joke about Prince Andrew had the audience gasping in shock rather than laughing.
And then there’s the music too: there’s something of Glee in the way the songs punctuate the action, hits including George Michael’s Freedom! ‘90, Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black and Sinead O’Connor’s Nothing Compares 2 U helping to tell the story.
But what’s equally as impressive as the harmonies and vocals when they get it right is the comedy that comes from them ‘getting it wrong’ – such as the forgotten lyrics in Lizzo’s Juice.
I did think the plot was fairly predictable – particularly in its ending as The One Show start making unfair demands of the group in the lead up to their ‘big break’ – and that some of the characters bordered on being too broad, such as Paul, whose unlikely friendship with fellow tenor Ken just about saved him from being the archetypal ‘mean gay’.
James Gillan delivered Paul’s cool cattiness like an AI Princess Diana, which surprisingly worked well – but the scenes involving tenderness and empathy felt less believable.
Ultimately, though, it’s a feelgood show about the importance of groups like these and the sense of belonging and support they can give people.
As Morgan tells the camera during The One Show recording: “We come here every week because we love to sing and we don’t sound right without each other.”
Until August 30.