A Christmas Musical. The Flying Elephant Company. Burnside Town Hall. 18 Dec 2024
If anything can do the heart good at Christmas, it is the sight of a new generation bursting not only with ace talent but with a serious oomph of initiative.
Last month we saw Ben Francis waving the future’s flag with his stunning Elton John tribute show for one night only up at the Shedley. Hey, now it’s coming to town.
This month, it’s that award-winning Benji Riggs mounting a wildly ambitious brand-new Christmas musical with and for the young.
He’s hired the super-handy and accessible Burnside Town Hall's nifty theatre space for his season - which comes to the stage after a couple of years of devotion from Benji. It’s a corny pun to say he’s outstanding because he is very tall. But he has been head and shoulders above the crowd since he was a prodigy kid and now, as a young man, he just keeps rising as a multi-talented phenomenon. His past credits are legion: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time; The Boy with the Golden Fox; and work with Independent Theatre just this year.
That the inspiration figures in this work are Charles Dickens and Stephen Sondheim shine forth from the show. Yes, it is Dickens-a-la-Riggs with a very neat, foot-tapping Sondheim-esque original score. It all fits together rather nicely, once one stops puzzling about the title. One imagines Book Nooks is just catchy, like the music.
It certainly evoked a vivid and very memorable set design from Adrian Joy - a stage embraced by book-laden bookshelves with a Christmas tree in the middle and, OP, a big armchair corner for the narrator, Seven Parker, the only adult on stage.
The performers all are miked and, while obviously there is not a full orchestra onstage, the excellent sound is indeed orchestrated by writer/director Riggs.
He did not do the excellent choreography, though. He knows a good choreographer when he sees one and this one is Bridget Tran. She has that cast brilliantly drilled. It is a tough little performance space but it is astutely used and the dancing cast is attentive and precise, sharing an infectious look of engagement upon their faces.
The story line is new but also as old as the proverbs. It is the realisation of a granddad's story of secret book spirits animating in a quest to find a little boy’s lost joy. The little boy, beautifully sung by Nemenja Illic, doesn’t get to look happy until the end, of course, but the book spirits reflect all sorts of emotions and are heaps of fun and are exuberantly costumed. Outstanding among them is Sophia Genary, a highly stage-experienced 11-year-old who is clearly going places. Josh Curtis, playing Cecil, also is one to watch. Indeed, full marks to Riggs on the casting: Keira Wubbolts, Harrison James Thomas, Jonathan Snow, Milla Illic, Ava-Rose Graves, and Kushi Choudhari. There are fine and focused performances from each and some marvellous singing. Clearly, everyone has worked really hard, and it has paid off.
Give or take a few inaudible lyrics, Book Nooks is an extremely slick and professional production. It is also bravely mounted at this busy time of the year but it makes for a fabulous pre-Christmas family treat and this jaded old critic loved it to bits and has no reservations in recommending it to one and all - to enhance a really happy Christmas.
Samela Harris
When: 18 to 21 Dec
Where: Burnside Town Hall
Bookings: flyingelephantcompany.com
