Every Single Saturday has been playing at the Glen Street Theatre. It is a musical comedy written and composed by Joanna Weinberg.
It is a great idea, four parents on the sidelines during a football season. The parents are from different backgrounds with different issues. It starts at the beginning of the session with three of the four looking forward to what will happen. As the season progresses you learn more about each parent. Maria de Marco plays a fitness freak with a problem with food and is half starving her daughter who plays in goal. Christopher Horsley is the coach, a former footballer himself he lives through his son, trouble is his son hates football and just wants to dance. Scott Irwin enters the stage a little later, he has just moved back to Australia to look after his son. He knows nothing about him, having had nothing to do with him up until now. He is a conductor and has a few issues to overcome in adapting to become a father. His son, of course, is an excellent player and helps turn the Magpies round. Katrina Retallick plays a single Mum trying to do the right thing by everyone but has a hard time being excepted and who's son spending every game running the wrong way up the field! The underlining moral to the musical being that parents have to let their children be what they want to be, rather than making them live the dream that they wanted. The music on the whole is fairly good with some catchy songs. The set was effective, though I did think it was a shame that you couldn't really see the musicians behind the netting.
My general view of this production however, was that I felt I was watching a production for children. The talking Magpie was amusing but childish. Katrina Retallick looked for much of the time as if she was on playschool with over exaggerated facial expressions, it just seemed very false (sorry)! The other issue I had was the opening was very weak, the song, only sung by three actors just didn't pack the punch that the opening of a musical should. There was no chorus and I think that would have helped lift some of the songs.
I did enjoy the way the musical progressed as the characters enfolded and it did keep you entertained.
It will be playing at Parramatta and the Laycock Theatre during March.
