SINGIN' IN THE RAIN AT THE BIRMINGHAM HIPPODROME
Theatre Run: Tuesday 18 March - Saturday 05 April 2014
Performance Reviewed: Wednesday 19 March (Press Night)
Reviewed by Kyle Pedley
Singin’ in the Rain
as a stage musical is something of an oddity on paper – a stage production of a
movie musical chronicling the fictitious production of, somewhat postmodernly,
the first movie musical. The original, now-iconic 1952 film, complete with
beloved performances from the likes of screen legends Gene Kelly and Debbie
Reynolds, as well as a myriad of instantly recognisable sequences and set
pieces that have become etched in film iconography, had tremendous fun with
it’s own movie-within-a-movie approach, as well as having some knowing winks
and nudges to the Hollywood studio system and politics of the time (not to
mention the decades preceding it). It was also a big, vibrant and showy
release, nestled comfortably within the golden Hollywood era of musicals, and
it’s big-budget stylings, high-profile cameos (from the like of Cyd Charisse as
the sultry Broadway dancer) and much-publicised ‘dazzling technicolor’ all part
of the razzmatazz and splendour.
