There was rocking in the aisles last night as Becoming Nancy raised the roof at The Rep.
The audience just couldn’t get enough of storylines that saw a trio of sixth formers triumph against homophobia and racism at a comprehensive school in the late 1970s.
This was a gay and bright musical, but its dark themes accurately reflected what life was like at most ‘comps’ at the time. As the line in the production plainly stated: “If you’re bent or black, you’d better watch your back round here.”
Let’s list a few areas for improvement first: there were too many musical scores, and a couple were too similar; while the main narrative was simple, the temptation to thrash out multiple side stories made it too rushed; and the sound wasn’t always great, with a major mic-speaker issue at one point.
But the ecstatic choreography and sheer excitement pouring out from the whole energetic cast carried the show, which was based around events following David Starr’s casting as Nancy in the school production of Oliver.
For me, Paige Peddie produced the best performance as Frances Bassey (main picture, left), facing daily racial prejudice and a nastily violent attack, then doubling up as a Donna Summer-like nightclub singer. The strength and clarity of her voice made her a stand-out act.
Another great character was Daisy Greenwood as bubbly but broken-hearted Abigail Benson (above, right), and Rebecca Trehearn, Mathew Craig and Genevieve Nicole hit the spots in their secondary roles as Blondie, Sting and Kate Bush (they were also mum, drama teacher and aunt throughout the play).
Joseph Peacock and Joseph Vella worked well together as the coming-of-age David Starr and Maxie Boswell who, against all the odds, had their first gay relationship.
Yet perhaps the biggest shout-out from the opening show last night should be the audience’s wild applause at the end of every song. It was like a Eurovision after-party had arrived at The Rep!
Becoming Nancy runs at The Rep until Saturday 2 November. More details and tickets here.
Main picture: Paige Peddie (Frances Bassey) and Jospeh Peacock (David Starr).
Pictures by Mark Senior.
ENDS
