Review: Ghost The Musical at Darlington Hippodrome
Ghost – The Musical
Darlington Hippodrome – 24th September 2024
As a huge fan of the star-studded 1990 film of the same name, I have been desperate to see this staged version for some time. It has toured to theatres near me before but for various reasons I have missed it every time. Tonight I finally got to see it and I can tell you that it was well worth the wait.
This production is a masterclass of transferring from the silver screen to the stage while faithfully keeping all the elements which the die hard fans of the original film will be expecting. One, of course, is the Everly Brothers timeless classic, Unchained Melody. Sometimes, as was the case for Sister Act, some songs cannot be used for copyright reasons but there were no such worries this evening straight from the outset because lyrics from the beautiful love song are emblazoned on the beautifully presented gauze that welcomes the audience to their seats.
The scene in question from the film has been much lampooned since the film was released, I am always reminded of French and Saunders and The Naked Gun whenever I hear Unchained Melody and when the song inevitably appears, quite early in the first half of the show, it is noticeable that it certainly does not take itself quite as seriously as the film does but this is to the benefit of this production. The loving relationship between Sam and Molly, I suggest, is even more evident as they are so comfortable in their relationship as to take the mickey out of each other. It works and makes Sam’s death even more heart wrenching.
Sam (Josh St Clair) is very much the romantic lead and plays the part with great sincerity. Your heart goes out to him especially as he is coming to terms with his new found situation after being bumped off by his friend and subordinate, Carl (James Mateo-Salt.) I don’t believe there was any attempt in the casting to seek out a Sam that resembled Patrick Swayze for the lead role however some of the other parts, I suggest, may have been. Mateo-Salt, for example, had a strong resemblance to Tony Goldwyn who played the part in the movie. He plays the duplicitous role of Carl very well indeed and the audience is very satisfied when he gets his well deserved comeuppance.
Sam’s girlfriend cum widow is played with great ease and sincerity by Rebekah Lowings and you really feel her pain as she mourns the loss of her other half, through the realisation that he may still be with her in spirit when she encounters the force of nature that is Oda Mae Brown (Jacqui Dubois.)
Dubois has the enormously difficult boots of one Whoopi Goldberg to fill, and fill them she does with a performance that shines out from the stage as soon as she makes her very theatrical and magical first appearance. Her facial expressions and movement makes you think that Whoopi herself may well have entered her body were in not for the fact that Ms Goldberg is thankfully still alive and kicking up a storm.
There is one other character that I would have been very disappointed were he to have been cut from the stage show and that is the extremely ill-tempered poltergeist that haunts the New York subway where his life was terminally cut short. Played memorably in the film by Vincent Schiavelli, this role was taken up this evening very effectively by Garry Lee. His looming presence and fabulous voice boomed around the theatre with the help of some sound jiggery pokery from sound technician Dan Samson.
Another memorable moment this evening came from a more kindly ghost played by Les Dennis who helped the now deceased Sam come to terms with his new situation. Les returned in act two as an easily fooled Bank Manager. I’ve seen our Les play a number of parts in a few musicals and I can honestly say that he’s never disappointed.
In order to pull off a stage version of Ghost then there has to be some ingenious stage magic. Ghosts have to walk through doors, things have to move by themselves and audiences these days are savvy to some of the tricks of the trade. I am not going into too much detail as to what happens during this production but suffice it to say that there was at least one effect that I have absolutely no idea how it was achieved and it is worth going just to see that!
The band of seven lead by musical director Jordan Alexander was outstanding this evening and complemented the stunning vocals brilliantly. Of all the songs which were written by Eurythmics star and Sunderland Supporter, Dave Stewart, I particularly enjoyed ‘You Gotta Let Go Now’ which had more than a feel of Randy Newman about it. Oda Mae’s numbers were also brilliant too.
This is a fantastic production with everything you’d want from the story of Ghost. It will satisfy hardened fans of the original film and introduce a whole new legion of fans who go along to see it.