As part of it’s UK tour, Sell A Door Theatre Company’s new production Sincerely, Mr Toad is enjoying a short run at the Greenwich Theatre this week.
Image by Darren Bell
With music by David Andrew Wilson and lyrics by Katie McIvor, Sincerely, Mr Toad is a musical biopic, telling the life story of the fantastically inventive author Kenneth Grahame, who wrote Wind In The Willows. It’s an revelatory story – I for one didn’t know that Grahame was so obsessed with developing the characters of his popular stories that he neglected the needs of his family, particularly those of his son Alastair, who tragically took his own life just before his twentieth birthday. Neither was I aware that it was the interest of President Roosevelt that propelled Grahame’s seminal work into the bestseller list…
Adam Venus is compelling in the lead role (and also bears a striking resemblance to the author), while Keith Jack is wonderful as the fragile Alastair. Also notable are Sarah Borges as Grahame’s exasperated wife Elspeth and Kirsty Marie Ayers who plays Alastair’s gentle companion, Beth. Now in my view, for a musical to be convincing it needs powerful voices, and Sincerely, Mr Toad fits certainly fits the bill. The catchy tunes are carried by a cast where every member is gifted with a great singing voice, and Borges in particular is an eye-opener – she is the most powerful alto that I have heard in a very, very long time. Impressive!
I did find the play a little disappointing in one regard – given that the play centres around the strange creatures of Kenneth Grahame’s fevered imagination we didn’t really see enough of them. There is only one scene where, in his confused state, Grahame imagines that the people around him are the characters from his tales, the cast finally getting the opportunity to put on some neatly crafted masks and scamper around the stage. I really would have liked to have seen more of these sinister creatures…
If you want to catch Sincerely, Mr Toad there are only three more performances in London before it heads off to Folkestone. You’ll find tickets here – it’s a very good excuse to visit Greenwich. You can see what other people are saying about the show by following Sell A Door’s Twitter feed.
