Son of a Preacher Man

Interval tweet. This is terrible.

Glad you agree.

I was sat there pre-show looking at the preset circular portal set with premonitions of the horrific Wonderland. My gut was right, but this was actually worse, by far.

As a starting point the book is plain terrible, unsalvageable, but it is by no means helped by Craig Revel Horwood's pitiful attempt at direction and uninspired choreography.

YES WE GET THIS IS A DUSTY SPRINGFIELD JUKEBOX MUSICAL - STOP MENTIONING HER!!!!

The entire production is brassic.

What little set there is is flimsy and sometimes pointless (why does half the cafe pop forward by 4ft for a song?!).

Did the band tune up before hand? Didn't sound like. Thats the risk of getting your ensemble to learn to play instruments for the show, for no real reason other than the sake of having something to do for most the show. On the subject of which, if your going to have the cast play instruments, at least get them to learn it before hand - 'Liam' playing acoustic guitar had sheet music on stage for one song!! 

Hammy acting with some very curious and ineffective blocking throughout made the production extremely tedious.

With the singular exception of the vocal arrangement on the song where they danced around with chairs (can't remember the song) I hated everything.

For the first time ever I committed a cardinal sin and - unlike a few near me who couldn't last the duration - left at the interval.
This production is not worth the paper the tickets printed on, let alone decent money from paying customers.

I am really peeved that sh*t like this makes its way onto the professional touring circuit. It's dirge. I've got 4 or 5 genuinely original ideas that would make much better productions but lack the network or the money to get them off the ground and seeing this downright offensively unintelligent production infuriates me.

Can’t disagree with any of the above. I considered leaving at the interval and it was only really morbid fascination that made me stay. Act 2 was worse, if that can be believed. I had to look away from the stage several times, such was the cringe factor. 

And the longest curtain call ever, clearly designed to get the audience to clap along and up on their feet with a Dusty megamix, a handful complied but I looked round and many looked bored.

I feel sorry for the cast, because no one comes out of this looking good. Craig Revel Horwood, hang your head in shame daaaaaahling. A fully fledged turkey 🦃

Out of interest BurlyBeaR where were you sat? Anywhere amongst the bag crunching, crips munching, chit chatting girls in the circle?

No I was front stalls.

There was a huge amount of pointless walking, or rather pacing around the stage. God knows what that was about. Especially difficult with a clarinet in your gob I would imagine.

And constant moving of three tables and chairs.

I think all the movement was a deliberate choice to distract you from the fact that not much else was going on.


Heres another issue I have with the show that has irked me all night.
Its trivial but so annoying.
Arguably Dusty Springfield's most popular song is 'Son of a Preacher Man'. It is so popular in fact that the decision was made to write a musical by the same title, 'Son of a Preacher Man'.
However, the premise of said musical is about the journey of 3 unrelated people who are being helped out in life by a man who's father ran a joint called 'The Preacher man' and who was known as specifically as 'The Preacher Man'. Not just a man, any man, THE Preacher Man.
There is a massive difference between reference of A man who preaches and THE man who preaches. Its the difference between anybody and somebody. Its specific. They f***ed up the very basic reference of the TITLE SONG.

I probably am over thinking it. But still.

Me neither!

This sounds like a complete disaster!

I noticed the reference to Wonderland above- I genuinely enjoyed it; some great songs and a fun way to pass a few hours.

Sat in the interval now, and like Burly thinking what the heck have I just witnessed. Despite the chicken impressions, singing to plastic chairs and the old woman straight out of Monty Python I'm actually enjoying the bonkers-ness of it all.
Oh and there is an awful lot of walking about. I wanted to shout at them during the prologue to just stand still for a minute!

Amusing as it is to read the reviews of this show, I have to wonder where, why or how a show like this attracts the finance to mount a tour and book the sort of venues this show has. Clearly someone is going to loose money on this debacle?