Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance – Betty Blue Eyes

Picture: Marc Brenner

Betty Blue Eyes was performed by Trinity Laban Musical Theatre students at Stratford Circus, London.

Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩

Betty Blue Eyes is set in the post war austerity of 1947 at the time of Princess Elizabeth’s marriage to Prince Philip. Meat is severely rationed and people are pretty fed up. Then some local bigwigs secretly breed a pig named Betty for a party with pork… cue for some delightful music from George Stiles (don’t miss the reference to Crown Imperial and the moment when he weaves Beethoven’s ‘Fur Elise’ into the texture) and lots of fun trying to keep the whole piece in period.

The very best thing in this show is Rebecca d’Lacey as Joyce Chilvers (she alternates the role at other performances with Emily Harper), an upwardly mobile chiropodist’s wife. She has an engaging way of tilting her head when she’s trying to dupe another character and a nice stentorian bossy voice. She sings exceptionally well and dances beautifully. She’s about to graduate and I hope we see more of her very soon.

As her husband, who desperately wants a proper surgery, Brendan Mageean warms into the role in the second half when he faces lots of challenges and finds moral resolve he doesn’t realise he’s got. His song ‘The Kind of Man I am’ is really quite moving.

There’s interesting work too from Jenny Coates as his tiresome mother-in-law. Her dementia becomes a gentle, inoffensive joke especially when they’re trying to get her to understand that there’s a pig in the house which must be hidden from the authorities.

Some other roles become stereotypes, but are entertaining in their way: Barney Fritz as the self-interested doctor, Calum Rickman as the tiresome, officious inspector and Kate Claussen as snobby, matronly Mrs Lockwood, for example.

Although they are good at spitting out Anthony Drewe’s witty words (“Cash in a coupon/I’ll put the soup on”) most of this ensemble are better actors and dancers then they are singers and the show includes several memorable dance sequences choreographed by Omar F Okai.

The flashback to the wartime Primrose Ballroom, leading up to the bombing in which Joyce and Gilbert meet for the first time, pulses with energy for instance.

In the pit there’s a first rate nine-piece band led by MD Verity Quade. Stiles’ lovely score is very colourful, full of evocative sounds and vibrantly orchestrated. This excellent band runs with every nuance.

A pleasing show on the whole, then (directed by Elva Makins). I wish, however, that someone had taught the cast the correct pronunciation of chiropodist which has a hard Greek ‘c’ sound at the beginning like chemist, chaos and charisma. It does not start with ‘sh’ like shoe, ship and sharp. In 1947 pronunciation was generally more precise in all social classes than it tends to be now and this error grates.

Susan Elkin