THE CREAKERS

Queen Elizabeth Hall

★★★★

“Gather up your kids and have a good time at The Creakers!”

The Creakers is a musical version of Tom Fletcher’s much loved children’s book of the same name. It’s about a group of kids who have to rescue their parents from a sinister world lurking below their beds. It’s a refreshing change from all the overly familiar panto fare on offer on London stages at the moment. As musical adaptations go, however, The Creakers fails to capture the magic of its original material. That’s not because it isn’t a talented production at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on London’s South Bank. But this version is a cautionary tale in how difficult it can be to adapt a brilliant story in book form, for the stage.

Set in Whiffington, a town with a waste disposal problem as its name suggests, The Creakers tells us about Lucy, a girl who is “different” though we are never told exactly how. Her single Dad is also the town’s rubbish collector, which adds to her problem of social acceptability. Most of the first act of the musical is about establishing the characters in the story, with frequent references to the social pecking order. There’s also a scandal brewing about the rubbish. The Mayor of Whiffington has decided to get rid of the overflowing rubbish by dumping it in the ocean. This is the inciting incident that sets the main story of The Creakers in motion. It turns out that a bunch of mysterious creatures called the Creakers depend on that rubbish for their food, building supplies, and even for their creativity. At night the Creakers emerge from under children’s beds, and feast on the mess and debris that kids (and their parents) have left lying around. Deprived of their sustenance, the Creakers take revenge by kidnapping the parents of Whiffington. Lucy and the kids have to figure out how to get them back.

It’s a good story, and it plays on childhood fears that everyone, child and adult alike, can identify with. The sustainability theme in the accumulating rubbish is a bit trickier, but from a staging perspective, it gives an imaginative set designer and costume designer lots to work with. Andrew Exeter and Ryan Dawson Laight take full advantage. But the rubbish is also a distraction from the main action. That’s Lucy’s goal of extracting the parents from the underground world of Woleb. (Yes, I figured it out.) And it takes the whole of the first act of The Creakers to get to the point where we finally meet these wonderful creatures, and the show takes off.

Despite the slow moving first act, and energetic songs that don’t always advance the action, The Creakers will succeed in winning you over by the end. The performers give their all to the many different roles they are called on to play, and that includes manipulating the puppet Creakers (designed by Lyndie Wright who knows everything there is to know about puppets.) Tom Jackson Greaves manages both the direction and choreography with flair in a space that is really a concert hall, and not a theatre. The small band produces a big sound with the superior acoustics of the QEH, and it was a treat to actually see them in the second act. Lucy (Eloise Davies) and her friends Ella (Iona Fraser) and Norman (Ally Kennard) are the main movers and shakers in the show but there’s a wealth of talent to see in minor roles all undertaken by a seamless ensemble.

If you’re wondering whether you can risk taking your child to a show that deals in accumulating rubbish and monsters lurking under the bed, have no fear. There’s a guaranteed happy ending. And no one will be surprised to discover that the Creakers are, in fact, the Save the Planet warriors we have been waiting for. As one satisfied customer remarked “I won’t have a nightmare tonight—I’ll have a funmare!” So ignore all the dramaturgical quibbling above. Gather up your kids and have a good time at The Creakers!

THE CREAKERS

Queen Elizabeth Hall

Reviewed on 27th December 2024

by Dominica Plummer

Photography by Pamela Raith

Recently reviewed at Southbank venues:

DUCK POND | ★★★★ | December 2024

KARINA CANELLAKIS CONDUCTS SCHUMANN & BRUCKNER | ★★★★ | October 2024

JOYCE DIDONATO SINGS BERLIOZ | ★★★★ | September 2024

MARGARET LENG TAN: DRAGON LADIES DON’T WEEP | ★★★★ | May 2024

MASTERCLASS | ★★★★ | May 2024

FROM ENGLAND WITH LOVE | ★★★½ | April 2024

THE CREAKERS

We’re now on BLUESKY – click to visit and follow

★★★★

“There is a simplicity to the evening that allows the storytelling and the inherent values of its message shine through”

The rain is falling from a dark, wintry sky and storm Darragh is rumbling away in the near distance heralding its arrival across the home counties. But down at the Mill at Sonning, tucked away in a nook by the river, one’s dreams of a White Christmas are being granted – if only for a few hours. Step over the threshold and you are indeed stepping right into the festive season. Just like the ones we used to know.

It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve seen the Crosby and Kaye movie over the years, Jonathan O’Boyle’s revival of the stage version is as fresh as it is familiar. Jason Kajdi and Connor Hughes as Bob Wallace and Phil Davies – the former WWII soldiers turned celebrity double-act – share the same infectious camaraderie as Bing and Danny, but with a more youthful, wide-eyed approach to the world around them. Their bond is a prime example of ‘opposites attract’. Hughes’ Phil cannot get enough of the fairer sex (are you allowed to use that term these days?) while Kajdi steers his character away from love like sheltering from the “unpredictable, irresponsible, unbelievable, unreliable” weather.

The plot, slim as it is, and characterisation (rich as it is) come across with clarity through the fine voices of the cast. The duo recruit sisters, Betty and Judy (Gabriella Williams and Nic Myers), into their act, sweeping the four of them into a tangled romance that forms the backbone of the comedy. They end up in Vermont, New York, at a Christmas holiday lodge run by their old Major General from the army (Mark Curry). The former general sank his life savings into the inn but has fallen on hard times as the lack of snow is keeping his customers away. Hatching a plan to save his business, and restore his self-esteem, Bob and Phil trigger a series of misunderstandings and near break-ups with the girls before realisation and reconciliation comes to the rescue. You get the idea. O’Boyle’s trim and elegant staging will give you a much better idea.

There is a simplicity to the evening that allows the storytelling and the inherent values of its message shine through. Jason Denvir’s uncluttered sets, with David Howe’s lighting are all about atmosphere. This is a show that creates moods rather than spectacle and is all the more heart-warming for these choices. As the sister act, Williams and Myers match the boys’ chemistry, exemplified in the iconic number ‘Sisters’ (also beautifully and hilariously parodied by Bob and Phil). Irving Berlin’s music and lyrics are served well by the core cast and the ensemble who handle the dynamics of the score with ease, from the razzmatazz to the intimate. An unseen seven-piece band perfectly follows – and leads – the highs and lows of Berlin’s melodies and lyricism. All the favourites are all there: ‘Happy Holiday’, Love and the Weather’, ‘The Best Things Happen When You’re Dancing’, ‘I Love a Piano’… and so on. A star turn by Shirley Jameson as Martha, the holiday inn’s housekeeper, lifts her solo number ‘Falling Out of Love Can Be Fun’ into one of the highlights.

The production is in no rush, and the first act shows tentative signs of outstaying its welcome. However, we are in no rush at all for the evening to reach its sugar-coated but deliciously festive and heart-warming finale. We are too busy being drawn into the comfort and joy of the performances. There are no surprises. We know exactly what’s beneath the wrapping. But it is all we could have wished for. It may still be raining outside, but inside the Mill at Sonning it is snowing. Our dreams of a White Christmas have come true indeed. The show is a dream.

THE CREAKERS

Queen Elizabeth Hall

★★★★

“Gather up your kids and have a good time at The Creakers!”

THE CREAKERS

Queen Elizabeth Hall

Reviewed on 27th December 2024

by Dominica Plummer

Photography by Pamela Raith

Recently reviewed at Southbank venues:

THE CREAKERS

THE CREAKERS

THE CREAKERS

WHITE CHRISTMAS

The Mill at Sonning

★★★★

“There is a simplicity to the evening that allows the storytelling and the inherent values of its message shine through”

WHITE CHRISTMAS at The Mill at Sonning

Reviewed on 6th December 2024

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Pamela Raith

Previously reviewed at this venue:

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