REVIEW | AM DRAM: A Musical Comedy, Curve Theatre Leicester
Photo: Pamela Raith
AM DRAM: A Musical Comedy
Curve Theatre, Leicester
★★★★★
On the tail-end of the Curve’s recent season launch comes their first in-house musical, AM DRAM. Written by duo Alex Parker and Katie Lam comes an incredibly witty, moving and brilliant piece of work that encapsulates the people and passion at the heart of amateur dramatics.
Based on characters the writers knew and loved, we are thrust into the action of Great Osterford North Amateur Dramatics Society (GONADS) as they begin working on their latest production. At the top is officious Chairwoman Honoria (Wendy Ferguson) who appoints ‘professional’ director Max (Raj Ghatak) to make their vision become a reality. In the company is established leading lady Diana (Janie Dee), anxious Elaine (Debbie Chazen) who is desperate to organise a successful curry and quiz night for the cast, gentle Ian (Jordan Lee-Davies) whose looking for somewhere he can escape from his office job and the Karens (Sharan Phull), just wants everyone to remember which one is which! However, newcomer Rose (Laura Pitt-Pulford) is a former professional actress who is about to ruffle some feathers.
One of the characters who particularly stood out to me in this performance was the unforgettable Elaine, played by Debbie Chazen. She did an exceptional job and was effortlessly hilarious throughout it all. I couldn’t keep my eyes off her, there was a particular scene in which Rose celebrates her birthday and she brings in a Colin The Caterpillar cake into mid rehearsal. She brought a gorgeous level of warmth to the community we were witnessing.
Photo Credit: Pamela Raith
The comedy musical has been curated superbly, despite losing the opportunity to bring it to life with a set design. Although you can definitely envision how this production would develop even further and transition through the different scenes. What is lost in the set design is made up by the gorgeous lighting design that allows these characters to really shine in the spotlight. The cast used the round set up of Curve really well, although at times I felt they weren’t performing to all areas of the audience. I imagine this would have been quite a challenge to undertake. What AM DRAM did have though was fantastic characters to do that job of filling the void perfectly.
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AM DRAM is musically strong too! The range of music styles imbedded in the show is brilliant. My favourites were Never Give Up and the last two numbers which really set the bar for how wonderful amateur dramatic communities are. What was even great was hearing the tones of the 9-piece orchestra move us musically through this production.
Such a fantastic way to welcome us back to the Curve Theatre with this show, just brilliant!