Ian Bartholomew and Tracie Bennett in Mrs Henderson Presents at Theatre Royal Bath. Picture: Nobby Clark
Mrs Henderson Presents continues at the Theatre Royal Bath until 5 September, ahead of a planned West End production.
Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩
Still they come! Musical stage versions of successful films have been all the rage for a while now – think Billy Elliot, The Bodyguard, Shrek, The Commitments, Bend It Like Beckham, the now-in-preview Kinky Boots and many more (there were even plans for a James Bond musical but they were shot down by those who hold the rights). Now we have a Terry Johnson-written-and-directed adaptation of the 2005 Windmill Theatre film Mrs Henderson Presents, which starred Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins, receiving its world première at the Theatre Royal Bath ahead of a West End booking.
It has been argued that the glut is the result of intellectual bankruptcy in the theatre, but surprisingly a show based on lithesome girls taking their clothes off to raise the morale of British and American servicemen during the war offers a powerful, indeed moving metaphor for the spirit of wartime endurance.
First issues first – the good citizens of Bath ARE treated to those statuesque nude tableaux designed by Mrs Henderson and her manager Vivian Van Damm to circumnavigate the Lord Chamberlain’s censorship rules. Indeed, the girls even break those rules by moving downstage in a couple of numbers that are at the very heart of the tribute to the spirit of the Blitz.
All this is totally natural in a show that threatens at the start to mirror the Carry On films, but is quickly transformed by an attractive mix of laughter, tears and the inevitable clash of theatrical personalities.
The authentic backstage life benefits from some fine playing and singing by the principals. Tracie Bennett, who inherited the tile role when Janie Dee withdrew for personal reasons, rightly sees Mrs Henderson as an eccentric white-haired septuagenarian, determined to grow old disgracefully. She has a couple of sparky solos, but the high point of Act I comes from her fractious relationship with impresario Van Damm, made rather less cantankerous than in the film by Ian Bartholomew, and particularly telling when he wears the Star of David to signify Hitler’s persecution of the Jews.
The smaller parts also carry considerably more impact than in the film. Emma Williams, especially, gives a stellar performance as young tea-girl Maureen, eventually persuaded to take off her clothes and tread the boards. Her rendering of the best number in the show, ‘If Mountains Were Easy to Climb’, is stunning. Matthew Malthouse is also fine as her shy stagehand admirer Eddie, while Mark Hadfield is the epitome of Max Miller as the Windmill’s principal comedian.
It is no surprise that the renowned lyricist Don Black has provided the large cast with words that match the message, while the music from George Fenton and Simon Chamberlain is enhanced by the bubbling choreography of Andrew Wright.
Jeremy Brien
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