Tim Firth’s musical Our House was inspired by the group Madness and it’s a good time to bring this out again as Madness are having a bit of a renaissance after their great performance from the roof of Buckingham Palace at the Jubilee Concert in 2012 with this very song. This is one of several musicals created after the successful format of Mamma Mia, taking a collection of songs and weaving them into a story. As a concept it can’t fail, everybody loves the familiar tunes and forgives the plot however unlikely it may be! It has to be said, though, that Our House scores on all counts and the storyline is as engaging as the music.
A “sliding doors” presentation of the young life of Joe Casey describes the choices he made and those he could have made. On one hand he turns to a life of crime to impress his girlfriend Sarah and ultimately finds himself the inmate of a young offender’s institute, followed by prison proper. On the other, after a shaky start he can make legitimate money but finds the world of property and the suited executives within can be more savage and less principled than the underworld of criminals.
Alexis Gerred gives an energetic and exhilarating performance as Joe in both his lives, a master of the quick changes required both in clothes and emotional output. Steve Dorsett as Pressman, the really bad guy of the piece doesn’t short change us and he’s the man you love to loathe; especially with his ditty corrupted from ‘My Girl’s Mad at Me’ to relate to his lovely wife and the even lovelier mistress, Julie, the receptionist, who’s only 19! Daniella Bowen plays Sarah, Joe’s girlfriend in both paths of his life, and she also gives a good account of the different lives she would have led. Billie and Angie (Natasha Lewis and Dominique Planter) and Emmo and Lewis (James Haggie and Alex Spinney) as the couple’s friends inject a nice shot of comedy into the proceedings.
Mark Walters’s edgy urban set is perfect for the action and if at times the music was a little ragged it was more than compensated for by the energetic performance. The crowd loved it and the evening was rounded off by a standing ovation and bopping in the aisles that Madness themselves would be proud of!
Jacquie Vowles