Bumblescratch

[shady23]

A new musical by Robbie Sherman about a London plague rat. Debuts with a "star studded" concert at the Adelphi on Sunday 4th September.

So far announced are Darren Day, Michael Xavier and Jessica Martin.

I happen to be in London then so have booked. Seems to be selling well www.bumblescratch.com

[firefingers]

Full cast announced: bumblescratch.com/news/full-13-strong-cast-announced-for-bumblescratch-at-adelphi/

I have also heard a rumour that a cast recording is planned, so someone has a lot of faith in the project. One to watch I think.

[shady23]

I was at the Adelphi tonight, was anyone else?

Not sure what to make of this. Semi staged and mainly sang throughout with not much dialogue. Darren Day was the lead, Bumblescratch, the rat, and to be fair he did a decent enough job of it. But for a "family musical" it was far too wordy and the narrative was confusing. I didn't know what was going on most of the time so the children had no chance. Lots were bored and left at the interval. I was tempted myself as lots of audience members were constantly on phones and talking loudly. Plus it was the temperature of a volcano.

Some plusses, the young lad who was in it was marvelous and there was a good supporting cast. Some decent enough songs too, one very funny one between Darren Day and Michael Xavier ( as Captain Hook Beard!! ) got lots of laughs but Xavier was underused and if you have him in a pirate costume you would put him in every scene.

Not sure where this can go... It seems unsure of its audience. It definately needs to be more child friendly if it wants to open as a family musical in the future.

[dippy]

I was there, thank you so much for your thoughts, they are very similar to mine. I was worried that I had been alone in not really enjoying it since everyone around me seemed to love it but I think that's because I was in an expensive area of the stalls with a reduced ticket from TKTS. They all jumped to their feet but I stubbornly stayed sitting, there was no way I was getting up. I also agree with the pluses you've mentioned. The boy was very good and actually had some good songs and Hook Beard could very easily have been in more of it given the kind of character he actually was. The funny song between Bumblescratch and Hook Beard was great fun but it felt very out of place, it was possibly also the only time in the whole thing I laughed.

I'm glad you didn't know what was going on because at times I had no idea either. As you say it was wordy and the few words that were spoken rather than sung were said very quickly (especially at the start) and it took me a while to understand anything that was said. Not too sure what the point in the story was which I guess really shows you I didn't get it. I liked Perry's story but had little interest in Bumblescratch himself.

I also completely agree about the temperature, so kind of the air conditioning to finally kick in about 10 minutes before the end! 

[shady23]

I think most there got free tickets, judging by the comps queue.

That really annoyed me. No wonder they were cheering!

[dippy]

I had thought that was probably the case. I definitely had people somehow involved in the show right behind me, laughing at things that weren't in any way funny to someone not in the know and so on.

[shady23]

It certainly was not funny in the slightest bar that one song.

[dippy]

Completely agree! I mean how can anything set during the Plague ending just after the great fire of London be funny? Well actually it could be but it really wasn't.

[shady23]

I didn't even get how he set the fire up in the first place.

I had lost the will to win by that point.

I got the get the jewell bit but then a fire happened. For no apparent reason.

[dippy]

I have no idea either, the programme has a crazily long summary (which I'll read in full tomorrow, but feel is something that should not be needed in a programme but self explanatory) says "the city is ablaze due to a fire he had inadvertently started by dropping some 'jiggery pokery' along the way to the tower." There I was not even having understood he started the fire, I thought it was a random rat on the plate behind the bread on the table. I think I'd given up with the story by that point too though, I think I completely gave up when the projection of the buildings was going all fuzzy was horrible, I couldn't stop looking at it even though it made my eyes go crazy. Yes getting the jewel at least made sense.

[shady23]

Not really as what value is a jewel to a rat?

How confusifying!

[dippy]

Well sense in that he was asked to get it and he did. No idea why a rat would want a jewel.

[anita]

I was there too. It takes a lot for me to give a standing ovation .- I didn't either. I thought Darren Day was surprisingly good but Ilan Galkoff was a star in the making. As you say the story was hard to follow. A teenager sitting next to me slept through the whole show.