Side Show - Southwark Playhouse

Saw the show on Friday night, I thought it was a bit of a mixed bag.

The book is all over the place, and nobody, except for maybe Violet, gets a proper story. Characters seem to abandon their personality traits entirely, only to pick them up again an hour later (Jake), and I'm pretty sure Buddy and Terry swapped character development for act 2, they seemed to have become each other over the course of the interval and then picked up having dropped their own prejudices and gained each others. There was also too much story that was of no consequence, like who was that boyfriend Daisy had at the beginning of act 2 that was so insignificant he disappeared and pretty much never came back after the first number? And don't even get me started on that awful Texan thing, even the cast looked humiliated to be performing it.

The set design is good for the space, and although I'd never been to the Southwark Playhouse before, I'd say it's the ideal venue for the show. I was sat on the left (stage right) which meant I spent 85% of the show looking at Louise Dearman (no complaints from me), but it was a shame that I had to wait for the girls to spin round before I could work out what was going on with Laura.

Costumes were generally good, but like has been mentioned previously, there weren't really enough of them. The freaks were still dressed as freaks for a while after they'd stopped playing them, and it made their new characters a little more difficult to believe. There weren't really any stand outs in the ensemble, although the bearded lady had the most interesting range of facial expressions. It's interesting to see that Pin Cushion Man was out for quite a while because he tripped over a block on the steps next to me and seemed to quite badly injure himself, so they may be doing the show without him again for a few days.

The saving grace of this show was definitely the lead cast. Haydn Oakley was great, I seem to keep unintentionally following him around all of his shows, he plays that "naive good guy with a touch of snide" character quite well. Chris Howell was fantastic, I can see why he very effortlessly keeps jumping from show to show, he was menacing and quite terrifying as Sir, I really enjoyed his performance and glad he got a chance to come back at the end to grovel and generally look a bit pathetic. The stars of course, were Louise and Laura, who both completely made up for the sheer averageness of every other aspect of the show through their sensational performances. Naturally Louise was my favourite because I could only see the side of Laura's face for most of it, but they were both incredible from start to finish. I agree with what was said before, the performance definitely lagged every time they went offstage, and they had such breathtaking vocals. Friday was one of those shows where the audience was amazing, and L+L definitely thrived off that, certainly towards the end of act 2, I was hanging on their every word. Who Will Love Me As I Am? was one of the most epic act one finales I've seen, it just shows that if you have two exceptional leading ladies, you don't need a cherry picker lift or a giant flag and a cast of 25 to make it work, but this was eclipsed by their beautiful I Will Never Leave You which had audible sobs from just about everywhere in the theatre. If you aren't a fan of the first act, make sure you stay for the second as Side Show is one of few shows that gets better in the second half.

I would say this is very much a 3 star show, 3 star production values, directing, costumes, book, but the 5 star performances from the leading ladies would make me give this 4 stars.

Martello thank you for an excellent review, although for all its faults, iI probably enjoyed it more than you seemed to have. I enjoy a decent production all the more in a small house.

Is funny how the male actors have divided opinion here. I though they did well with half drawn characters and Jay Marsh sang like an angel.

Why though did all the cast need to be miked in this small space? It just shows how the industry has gone. Perhaps Marsh impressed because he didn’t sound amplified.

But this hasn't done anything to convince me that modern Musicals have memorable music. For me the best no in Musical terms was 1 + 1 = 3, a superb pastiche of a thirties no. Too many others nodded at the period before becoming distinctly modern. Nothing really stuck in my mind and some of the lyrics were clunky, I felt like the fish that had been 'plucked' from the Ocean.

Its a great story and a most unusual subject for a musical play. It could have gone deeper into their problems but the situation did keep your interest high. Check out the link below to see how sad the end was for the real twins. Also Todd Browning was thrown under the Bus, a creep in this show in reality he lost his career respecting 'Freaks'.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisy_and_Violet_Hilton

So although there was plenty to criticise I really enjoyed it. Every time the two ladies sang it made up for every thing else.

There's still time to catch a unique show which we would have missed if it wasnt for this thread and TB.

Never heard THAT called that!

Ooh DJ14 you terrible flirt! I'm surprised Louise herself didn't faint to be honest.

And in a train station as well. The FILTH of it!!

That's Bedford for you. I used to work opposite Bedford Midland. Oh, I've seen some things...





(Trains, mostly)

I'm still not recovered from when I took an Uber in LA, tried to shake the driver's hand and he pulled away, insisting on being "fist bumped" instead.

Will have to remember that if I ever meet Louise.

Yes, I thought it was you, mallardo, but I didn't introduce myself, as I thought I was persona non grata since my post a while back about the beaviour of some hen parties that spoil performances for others got me labelled a "misogynist".

Anyhow, I'm afraid this wasn't for me at all. Poor treatment of a story, unconvincing on every level, and while the two leads are obviously talented, I didn't feel there was anywhere for them to go with this piece. (Quite literally too, being stuck together with safety pins.)

A huge disappointment after all the expectation; I'd booked this right at the beginning of March.

I wonder if anyone who has been to see this at The Southwark Playhouse over the last several weeks has noticed a bit of TheatreBoard Representation?

You may notice we have been doing a little bit of advertising there

TM, I'd always go for the original with Emily Skinner and Alice Ripley - it's a classic. But, on the other hand, the show you saw is the revival and it's quite different. If you want to hear what you saw you'd have to go with that one - and it's a very good CD, no question. It's a tough call.

I think the OBC is a must in any cast recording collection. HOWEVER..I think one must have both.

It's almost like deciding between the Chita Rivera vs Vanessa Williams Spiderwoman. Speaking of which, can Southwark Playhouse please make this happen?

Robert Joy who plays Sir on the revivial recording really isnt very good at all. He tends to speak his words rather than sing them. You wonder how he got cast in a big musical.

His partner is Henry Krieger, the shows composer.

They were both at the Southwark production.