For their late summer production, Walthamstow’s professional theatre company All Star Productions have dusted off yet another classic musical – running at the Olde Rose & Crown pub theatre until 31 August is Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh’s 1962 tale of rags to riches, ‘Little Me‘.
The story deals with Belle, a girl from the wrong side of the tracks who meets over-privileged Ivy Leaguer Noble. Instantly falling in love with him, she decides that to win his favour she will need to become his equal – so her journey to acquire wealth, culture and high social status begins…
Little Me looks at Belle’s life from two directions – the fine-voiced Emma Odell plays the young, impressionable and naive Belle while Julie Ross plays the same character after the years have passed, when she has become a wise older woman and looks back on her life with a mixture of amusement and regret. Playing Belle’s several husbands (including the aforementioned Noble) Daniel Cane’s performance is an absolute tour de force – a pair of glasses, a heavy overcoat or a beret combined with a change in pose or facial expression allows him to effortlessly transform into a whole menagery of ex-husbands. He lampoons a wisened old Scrooge, a French mime artiste, a gormless GI, a German film director and an Austrian prince – all with hilarious consequences. Also worthy of a laugh or three are Alastair Knight and Katrina Dix as the Buchsbaum brothers – playing a pair of grinning Jewish film producers, they give outrageous performances worthy of Mel Brooks himself.
Also worth mentioning is the magic Stewart Charlesworth has sprinkled on the set – using the tiny space to its best advantage he uses a wall of empty picture frames which are filled with images of objects, landscapes and newspaper cuttings that evoke the atmosphere of each scene in turn – a very neat little trick.
Backed by a solid ensemble cast, a neatly orchestrated score and a series of catchy tunes, all told Little Me is a toe-tappingly satisfying musical.
You can catch Little Me at the Olde Rose & Crown on Hoe St at 7:30pm Tuesdays to Saturdays, with a Sunday matinée at 3:30pm. Tickets are just £15 (£12.50 concessions). Get them while they’re hot!