A scene from The Opinion Makers at the Mercury Theatre, Colchester
The Opinion Makers continues at the Mercury Theatre, Colchester until 9 November, and then plays at the Derby Theatre from 13–23 November.
The Opinion Makers, a new musical comedy, purports to dish the dirt on market research and the whole advertising industry. Writers Brian Mitchell and Joseph Nixon obviously felt they were doing a good job because they have the confidence to call their Act I closer ‘How Did I Get Involved in This?’ One may well ask. That thought must have been on the minds of most of the audience, if not on the luckless players on stage.
Anyway, we are in the office of Fernsby Market Research. It’s the sixties, the company is not very good at what they do, but Mr Fernsby returns from a trip to the good old US of A all fired up with new ideas to make their fortunes. Enter a Scottish businessman whose family has marketed a cure-all lotion for a hundred years. His new American wife wants to revamp the product for the swinging era and Fernsby gets the job. An MP (don’t ask!) thinks that it’s a crime that the original product, Dr Campbell’s Lotion, has changed and starts a campaign to bring it back and –guess what – Fernsby gets the new job as well.
There are a number of quite good performances trying to overcome the desultory material for whom one feels a good deal of sympathy. Julie Atherton is a spiky go-getter who has married the archetypal Scot for his money. It’s a feisty performance, but the writers have her rooting for Fernsby as well, another failure. Justin Edwards as the luckless and somewhat dim Fernsby tries hard, managing to make some of the material amusing, and has one or two good musical numbers. Mel Giedroyc plays Lassiter, Fernsby’s secretary, who tells us that she loves her job, but who is nonetheless walked over by all and sundry.
David Mounfield is the sporran-swinging middle-aged Scot. He gives an energetic, exuberant performance and also plays the would-be Home Secretary who wants to restore Campbell’s to its rightful place in the nation’s heart. Oh, and bring back the death penalty. Daniel Boys makes the most of the unrewarding role of the office drudge Penhall and has a brief exotic moment as the hippy guru who ‘knows’ that the revamped lotion will work.
The onstage band (led by Tom Kelly) does a good job with the score.
The programme notes mention that the authors were inspired by the Carry On movies and the work of the Boulting brothers. Not much evidence of it on the stage of the Mercury Theatre, sad to say.
Hugh Homan
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