I’ve sung the praises of Chichester Festival Theatre before but they’ve had another great season. Two standout productions for me were ‘Oliver!’ and ‘Redlands’.
‘Oliver!’ got a real makeover and came across as fresh and exciting. Not surprisingly, with Matthew Bourne as director, the dance numbers were superb. The new slant on the Fagin character worked well. Not sure about a couple of the new jokes that were added but brilliant performances all round.
I knew ‘Redlands’ was about the Rolling Stones court case in Chichester in the 1960s and was rather expecting a courtroom drama. There were some courtroom scenes but the show was, in fact, a joyous, funny, rip-roaring musical. I wasn’t expecting a teenage Nigel Havers to be amongst the characters ( his father was the barrister who defended the Stones ). Lots of great songs from the 1960s and some very moving scenes between Nigel and his father. Loved it.