NK Theatre Arts is based at the Forum Theatre in Romiley, near Stockport, and their latest show is the Musical “Bad Girls”, which is based on the TV series which ran from 1999 to 2006 and starred, among others, Stephanie Beacham and Debra Stephenson.
At Romiley Forum, the stars of the evening, in my view, were Terry Halliday, who played the villain prison officer Jim Fenner and Becky Larner and Jenni Wallis, who were the two Julies.
It wasn’t a show for families, in fact for a musical it was quite hard hitting and thought provoking. Earlier in the day, I saw the musical I’d been listening to a debate on national radio about female prisoners.
The discussion focussed on how women were generally inside for less violent and serious offences than men, and how the female of a household being locked up might have more of an adverse effect on any children in the family.
The musical tackled all these subjects, with Jenni Wallis’ character, Julie Saunders, singing a particularly poignant song called “Sorry” to her son, on the phone, who she’d never admitted her incarceration to.
Jenni sang the song with a depth and feeling which brought a tear to my eye.
Jenni’s sidekick, Becky, injected beautiful moments of comedy and her attention to detail, within her acting, was impressive. Terry Halliday as the nasty prison guard pitched his performance just right and led the strong cast with a beautifully balanced portrayal of the manipulative rapist Larner.
There were times when the ensemble of excellent dancers seemed out of place in this otherwise quite gritty show.
A few months ago, I came away from a professional version of Bonnie and Clyde, the musical, feeling that parts of the subject matter didn’t really suit being a musical and this felt the same at times.
Reading her programme notes, though, it’s clear that director Lucy Worthington had been desperate to direct this Am/Dram version of the show and I think she did a fabulous job of it.
NK Theatre Arts seems to have an endless supply of very talented performers and so I’d urge you to support them when you can.
Romiley Forum is a superb venue, which has upcoming visits from superstars like Kerry Ellis and Aled Jones coming up. They have a rich and diverse line-up of events on offer.
NK Theatre Arts will be presenting Ghost the Musical next May, which I’m certain will be of the same high standard as this show so get there and support them if you can.
Bad Girls runs until Saturday, September 28.