Congress players rain supreme

SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN, Oldham Coliseum

This best of all movie musicals always seems great fun on screen and stage but the truth is it is also one of the most technically complicated to stage — and not just because the public demands real rain, here delivered.

Each of the main performers must have great comic timing as well as song and dance skills; the set and lighting demands are high and the show also needs a large and energetic chorus.

And that’s before you acknowledge the need for a top-flight band and that the movie, with its ability to cut and fade from scene to scene, is rather roughly transferred to the stage.

Having said all that, Oldham’s Congress players, despite a few lapses and some curious choices, comes as close to nailing the show as any amateur company with this Mike Sammon production — thanks mainly to a central quartet with almost all the necessary skills.

In Gary Jones, the company has a young but personable performer with dance talent, a well-controlled voice and a sense of the energy of the role, which keeps him always on the move.

His partner Craig Dinnewell, as Cosmo, is short and quite stocky but tackles the famous “Make ‘Em Laugh” number with gusto, and displays strong comic timing. As Kathy, Jennifer Caldwell has a sweet voice and sweeter personality; she leads the performance of “Good Mornin’” by the trio about as well as I have ever seen it performed on stage; probably the highlight of the evening. The band is mostly superb and the supporting cast confident and strong.

And I have saved the best till last: Sarah Thewlis as the foghorn-voiced Lina gives a wonderfully comic performance of starry indignation with a wild, fully-controlled accent rarely heard since Jean Hagen’s in the movie; it’s worth the price of admission on its own, even though some lines can be heard only by dogs.

It’s not quite all five-star: the sets and scene changes are often a little clumsy and require long between-scenes pauses; Jean Griffiths’ choreography allied to Gary Jones’s flamboyant style makes the title number seem just the wrong side of camp, and like everyone else, Congress has trouble ending the abruptly-written scenes with any great success.

Nonetheless, this is a terrifically entertaining evening that deserves a wide and enthusiastic audience.