Fat Friends - The Musical (UK Touring)
Let’s try and turn a successful series from the TV into a stage musical, must have been the thought at some point by Kay Mellor, writer, lyricist and director of Fat Friends - The Musical. Bring on board Nick Lloyd Webber son of ‘you know who’ with equal musical talent as composer and Karen Bruce with huge choreographic pedigree and surely this cannot fail.
I’m not sure what my immediate thoughts would have been, other than this really shouldn’t work but, I would have been completely wrong and should have been looking for a financial piece of this comedy musical gold, even after the casting of one Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff in a lead role.
So what’s the storyline, somewhat portly northern daughter Kelly (played with wild abandon and golden vocals by Jodie Prenger, looking stunning in a corset !) has her eyes on not only boyfriend Kevin (the seriously entertaining Mr Flintoff) but, a particular wedding dress that she can’t fit into. Betty her mother and played with a dry comedy by X Factor winner Sam Bailey is slimmer of the year at the local slimming club and looks to convince Kelly to join and lose the weight she needs to.
Running said slimming club is Lauren played with understated allure by Natalie Anderson, in an attempt to build rapport with her slimmers she claims to need to lose weight as well but, is really under pressure from club supremo Julia Fleshman (on this occasion an authoritative performance from Laura Mansell) to provide highly successful slimmers that will increase her profits.
Julia provides pills to escalate the weight loss for Kelly but, Lauren catches her at it and reveals her as a cheat with no concern for the health issues that said pills might cause.
Ultimately Kelly gets the guy, despite his reservations after a hen night assignation with a ‘fun boy’ which causes a rift and the fact that he really loves Kelly the way she is, big and ‘beautiful’.
The whole production is one comic, musical masterpiece, the comedy being highlighted by the ever humorous and multi-talented Kevin Kennedy as father Fergus and a sensation of a performance by Rachael Wooding as sister Joanne who has no weight problems and is always quick with a one-liner insult for Kelly.
With some memorable new songs like, ‘Diets are Crap’ and ‘Big and Battered’ about the aptly named Fish & Chip Shop owned by Fergus and Betty, I predict this show will be loved by audiences throughout the tour which runs until 2nd June 2018.
Book Here
I’m not sure what my immediate thoughts would have been, other than this really shouldn’t work but, I would have been completely wrong and should have been looking for a financial piece of this comedy musical gold, even after the casting of one Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff in a lead role.
So what’s the storyline, somewhat portly northern daughter Kelly (played with wild abandon and golden vocals by Jodie Prenger, looking stunning in a corset !) has her eyes on not only boyfriend Kevin (the seriously entertaining Mr Flintoff) but, a particular wedding dress that she can’t fit into. Betty her mother and played with a dry comedy by X Factor winner Sam Bailey is slimmer of the year at the local slimming club and looks to convince Kelly to join and lose the weight she needs to.
Running said slimming club is Lauren played with understated allure by Natalie Anderson, in an attempt to build rapport with her slimmers she claims to need to lose weight as well but, is really under pressure from club supremo Julia Fleshman (on this occasion an authoritative performance from Laura Mansell) to provide highly successful slimmers that will increase her profits.
Julia provides pills to escalate the weight loss for Kelly but, Lauren catches her at it and reveals her as a cheat with no concern for the health issues that said pills might cause.
Ultimately Kelly gets the guy, despite his reservations after a hen night assignation with a ‘fun boy’ which causes a rift and the fact that he really loves Kelly the way she is, big and ‘beautiful’.
The whole production is one comic, musical masterpiece, the comedy being highlighted by the ever humorous and multi-talented Kevin Kennedy as father Fergus and a sensation of a performance by Rachael Wooding as sister Joanne who has no weight problems and is always quick with a one-liner insult for Kelly.
With some memorable new songs like, ‘Diets are Crap’ and ‘Big and Battered’ about the aptly named Fish & Chip Shop owned by Fergus and Betty, I predict this show will be loved by audiences throughout the tour which runs until 2nd June 2018.
Book Here
Comments
Post a Comment