ST PAUL’S PLAYERS PRESENTS

THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK

5TH MARCH- 10TH MARCH

 

THE PRODUCTION TEAM

 

DIRECTED & PRODUCED- Liz Blundell & Jane Harrison

MUSICAL DIRECTOR- Debbie Smith

CHOREOGRAPHER- Julia Henry

 

THE CAST

DARRYL VAN HORNE- Shaun O’Driscoll

ALEXANDRA SPOFFORD- Jane Catterall

JANE SMART-Sarah Morgan

SUKIE ROUGEMONT- Kerry McAllister

FELICIA GABRIEL- Kathleen Ashworth

JENNIFER GABRIEL- Lily Blundell

MICHAEL SPOFFORD- Jamie Taylor

CLYDE GABRIEL- Mark Turner

FIDEL-Liam O’Driscoll

LITTLE GIRL- Rebecca McLean

 

CHORUS

MAVIS JESSUP-Jennifer Heeks

MABEL OGDEN-Janet Taylor

MARCY WILLIS- Lois Walten

GINA MARINO- Sarah-Jayne Amos

BRENDA PARSLEY- Laura Love

FRANNY LOVECRAFT- Jill Heeks

EUDORA BRYCE- Jan Huddleston

REBECCA- Jennifer Heeks

GRETA NEFF-Elaine Armstrong

MARGE PERLEY- Toni Spolverino

CURTIS HALLEYBRED- Phillip Armstrong

JOE MARINO- Jonty Pryor

RAYMOND NEFF- Barry Heeks

HOMER PERLY- James Laybats

ED PARSLEY- Ken Thompson

DR HENRY PATTERSON- Phil Warmsley

FRANK OGDEN- Rob Osinski

TOBY BERGMAN- James Laybats
THE SISTERS- Emily Heeks & Sinead O’Driscoll

 

NODA REVIEW

Once again we have a new show but this time one which has to have a theatre which can fly comfortably. If you have any height restrictions, think twice. The magic has to be there and Darryl Van Horne must command the stage. Shaun O’Driscoll gave it a good shot, but although his  lib was not too bad his singing voice was not right. The three witches all have totally different personalities but all are friends, because they are all in a similar situation, I very much enjoyed the performance of Jane Catterall who played Alex. Her solo of “Another Night At Darryl’s “was superbly done as was her flying, albeit limited. Sukie, played by Kerry McAllister gave a sound performance, but I thought Sarah Morgan who played Jane was not right for the part but sang well.

The woman of the show everyone should love to hate and not to feel too badly about her demise is Felicia played by Kathleen Ashworth.  For me she was too nice. I did like the performance of her henpecked husband played by Mark Turner.

Fidel was played like a pantomime character and changed the audience’s reactions to some parts which have a darker side to them but having said that Liam O’Driscoll did well with what he had to do. Both Lily Blundell and Jamie Taylor were excellent as Jennifer and Michael although I would have liked a little more raunchiness from Jennifer, after she had been with Van Horn.

This society has a wealth of young talent and I am sure that one of the smaller girls could have sung the little girl role. Jennifer Heeks, although she has a good voice, was too tall.

All in all, for their first production as directors, I could not think of anything harder to do,  it was a brave try at a very  technically difficult show.