Stand By Me Theatre Royal Norwich

To start with, let me get the bad bits out of the way.

The set, which consisted of a roof top that could be viewed from any one of four sides, was a bit on the cheap side. The time it took to swivel the thing round, to go from one scene to another, took far too long for my liking.

The story, to keep it brief, was about a middle aged ex soul singer named Doreen, played by Grace Kennedy, who was just about to hit it big time in a motown group - way back back in 1961. Due to her getting pregnant by a white man, she was forced to leave the group and flee America. She set-up home in England, where she brought up her daughter. Aged 18, the daughter, not knowing anything about her mothers past musical background, suddenly had a passion to become a soul singer - just like her mother once was. Like her mother, she too had dreams of becoming a superstar. Like many parents that have had a bad experience in their lives, she did not want her daughter to follow in her soul singing footsteps. I thought I said I was going to keep this short!

There were some good songs in the first half, but they did not flow as nicely as I would have hoped - due to too many scene changes. I found the story line very easy to follow - and even interesting! Debbie Kurup, who played Ros, the daughter of Doreen, sang a couple of explosive duets with Grace Kennedy.

The second half, in my opinion, had far more life in it, with one or two nice little bits of comedy thrown in by Lee - played by Horace Oliver. There were some good songs, but like the first half, they did not flow as I would have liked - that is until Grace Kennedy hit the stage in her dazzling silver dress. Boy, from then on it was action all the way. She was absolutely brilliant.
If only they had used Grace more throughout the entire production - a great shame. I would not have missed the last twenty minutes of the production for anything.

If I were given the chance to go and see it again later this week, I would, without doubt, return. I guess that's a thumbs up then! Charlie Bettell