Many people I spoke to asked me ‘how can you do a musical of Jack the Ripper?’ to which I replied ‘I will let you know when I see it!’ I thought the stage was simple yet well planned out. The costumes were very authentic and colourful. You could feel that you were reliving the whole story through the actors. The music was easy to enjoy and understand and everybody who took part acted professionally and looked as though they were really enjoying playing their part. As a first time watcher at Plumley, I really enjoyed the overall entertainment and professionalism shown. I would highly recommend other people to go and enjoy themselves at another of The Other Theatre Company’s productions. A thoroughly enjoyable evening with plenty of laughs. Very professional with authentic scenery and precise stage direction. Beautifully choreographed with great performances from Sarah Sherwood, Rebecca Taylor and Edward Barlow. Last week The Other Theatre Company transformed Plumley Village Hall into the streets of Whitechapel for their production of Jack The Ripper. This musical uniquely combines music hall with the infamous story of Jack The Ripper. The company rose to the challenge of a demanding variety of songs and the harmonies in the chorus numbers were particularly memorable - clearly a lot of hard work during rehearsal which paid dividends in production. The cast were well-rehearsed and well-disciplined, cockney accents were well handled and consistent in both speech and song. Musical direction was in the competent hands of Arthur Taylor, who led an equally competent band and Harry Kennedy’s direction ably combined the comedy with both the more horrific and tender moments. There were particularly strong performances from Sarah Sherwood, Rebecca Taylor and Glen Godson who easily coped with some difficult songs. The show was well dressed with costumes of the late 1880s and the group had also paid attention to appropriate hairstyles and props. Lighting was used effectively to contrast the dingy streets of Whitechapel and the Steam Packet Music Hall, however the lower stage area was poorly lit, leaving some of the action here in shadow. Also, the light columns on stage were not only too modern for the period but also proved to be something of an obstacle and occasionally masked some of the cast. I found the projected silhouette of Jack to be too indistinct to be fully effective. The split set was used effectively but there could have been better definition between the streets and the Steam Packet: the exterior backdrop of a brick wall worked well for the streets but this continued into the Steam Packet which would have benefitted from an interior backdrop. I thought the on-stage audience on the lower stage were unnecessary and occupied valuable space which could have been better used to avoid some staging problems; perhaps the area could have been the stage of the Steam Packet which would have given the opportunity for some more movement in the chorus numbers. Some areas of production did need more thought but overall this was a show presented by a talented company and was clearly enjoyed by both cast and audience alike.
For more information about this production, please see our Past Productions page for Jack the Ripper.