The Water Babies
Louise Gold starred as: Irishwoman, Mrs Bedonebyasyoudid, and, Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby,
at The Chichester Festival Theatre, Between 17 July to 31 August 2003 (previews
from 11 July)
One member of the acting company, at least, had had
some involvement with this show, prior to the actual production, as the leading
lady herself puts it:
“I did the demo of The Water Babies about
three years. I think that these things usually take that long to get to the satge. It’s a long process, but we have got a really
exciting creative team for it.” Louise Gold to Phil Hewitt, THE
CHICHESTER OBSERVER, Thursday 24 April 2003, p43
In
that interview, Louise goes on to explain how nearly everyone, including
herself, thinks they remember the book, but how she has discovered it is
actually quite a tough Christian fairy story about redemption and love, which
Tom learns about when sent on a journey. She concludes (as only she can)
“But it is also good fun. There is a lot of
scope for humour with the animals. There are a lot of bizarre things that
happen to him” Louise Gold to Phil Hewitt, THE CHICHESTER OBSERVER,
Thursday 24 April 2003, p43
Cast (in order of
appearance)
Tom, a
sweep’s boy - Neil McDermott
Grimes,
Tom’s Master - Joe McGann
Irishwoman -
Louise Gold
George, a
footman - Trevor Conner
Garth, a
footman - Adam Tedder
Mary Jane, a
maid - Alicia Davies
Mrs Drew,
the housekeeper - Nicola Sloane
Mrs Bland,
the cook - Natasha Bain
Maurice, the
butler - Paul Leonard
Ellie - Katherine
O’Shea
Miss Dennis,
her governess - Fiona Dunn
Snail - Christian
Patterson
Caddis Larva
- Steven Fawell
Trout - Natasha
Bain
Yellow Eel -
Fiona Dunn
Frog - Steve
Elias
Otter - Sasha Oakley
Water Babies
Freddie- Trevor Conner
Laura - Deborah Crowe
Poppy - Alicia Davies
Camilla - Fiona Dunn
Gryff - Steve
Elias
Johnny - Kieran Hill
Daisy - Jo Nesbitt
Charlie - Benedict Quirke
Bertie - Joe Shovelton
Izzy - Nicola
Sloane
Tim - Adam Tedder
Lobster - Paul
Leonard
Mrs Bedonebyasyoudid - Louise Gold
Vicar - Kieran
Hill
Mother
Grimes - Nicola Sloane
Grimes’
Master - Adam Tedder
Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby - Louise Gold
Three Cooks
- Steve Elias, Joe Shovelton, and, Christian
Patterson
Ice Babies, Tormentors,
and, Souls - played by members of the company
Uncredited
Ice Babies -
Steve Elias, Steven Fawell, Trevor
Conner, Kieran Hill, Deborah Crowe, Jo Nesbitt, Natasha
Bain, and, Fiona Dunn
Production Team
Music
& Lyrics by -
Book by - Gary
Yershon
Based on “The
Water-Babies” by Charles Kingsley
Original
Production - 17 July 2003, The Chichester Festival Theatre, with Louise
Gold as the Irishwoman, Mrs Bedonebyasyoudid
& Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby
Director -
Designer - Robert
Jones
Season
Installation Designer - Alison Chitty
Lighting
Designer - Howard Harrison
Choreographer
- Jonathan Lunn
Sound
Designer - Paul Arditti
Orchestrations
-
Musical
Director - Caroline Humphris
Assistant
Director - Lucy Jameson
Please click here
for a fairly full review/account of
the show
Most of the cast (in fact everyone except Paul
Leonard) also appeared in the Chichester Festival Theatre’s production
of The Gondoliers For which Jonathan Lunn
was also the choreographer, Caroline Humphris
a Musical Director and of course as both shows take place in Chichester’s main
house, Alison Chitty was Season Installation Designer for both shows
As The Water Babies was presented in
repertory (with: The Merchant Of Venice,
The Gondoliers, and, The Seagull)
the actual dates of the performances were:
Previews on July: 11 at 7:30, 12 at 2:00 & 7:30, 14
at 7:30, 15 at 7:30, 16 at 7:30, 16 at 7:30, 17 at 2:00
Opening Night: Thursday 17 July 7:30
Performances:
July: 17
at 7:30, 18 at 7:30, 19 at 2:00 & 7:30, 21 at 7:30, 22 at 7:30, 23 at 7:30,
24 at 2:00 & 7:30, 25 at 7:30, 26 at 2:00 & 7:30
August: 10
at 4:00, 12 at 7:30, 13 at 2:00 & 7:30, 14 at 2:00 & 7:30, 16 at 2:00,
19 at 7:30, 20 at 2:00 & 7:30, 21 at 2:00 & 7:30, 24 at 4:00, 26 at
7:30, 27 at 2:00 & 7:30, 28 at 2:00 & 7:30, 30 at 2:00 & 7:30, and
31 at 4:00.
Pre show talk on 15 July at 5:30
Post Show Discussion 23 July
This musical had originally been the inspiration of
one of The Chichester Festival Theatre’s
Artistic Directors, Steven Pimlott, who had originally tried to get the RSC to commission it. It might be noted
that over the years Mr Pimlott hired
Towards the end of the season Trevor Conner, Deborah Crowe,
Fiona Dunn, Steve Elias, Steven Fawell, Louise
Gold, Paul Leonard, Jo Nesbitt, Katherine O’Shea, Sasha Oakley, Christian Patterson, Benedict Quirke, Joe Shovelton, and, Nicola Sloane; along with
Louise Gold and Alicia Davies ended
their work on 2003’s Chichester festival season by appearing in a fundraising
show Curtain Up at
Having been one of
Louise Gold and
Louise Gold and
Louise Gold and
The date of the first preview for The Water Babies,
was, by coincidence, 26 years to the day since Leading Lady Louise Gold
started working for The Muppets.
Alicia Davies, Fiona Dunn and Louise
Gold have previously appeared in The
Regent’s Park 70th Anniversary Gala. Alicia Davies was a
member of the cast of their production of Oh What A
Lovely War, Fiona Dunn was in their production of The Pirates
Of Penzance, and Louise Gold was in their production of The Boys From Syracuse.
Louise Gold and Fiona Dunn had
previously appeared together in Of Thee I Sing
Louise Gold and Paul Leonard
had previously appeared together in The
Pirates Of Penzance (Stage Show)
Librettist Gary
Yershon was the Musical Director for Topsy Turvy
and it’s soundtrack album Topsy Turvy (Soundtrack)
Director
Howard Harrison was also the lighting
designer for Mamma Mia, and, Mary Poppins.
Louise Gold has also previously
appeared at The Chichester Festival Theatre in an RSC touring
production of The Cherry Orchard
Coincidentally Louise Gold is not the only
member of her theatrically-oriented family to have played Chichester, twenty
four years ago her mother appeared in George Bernard Shaw’s The
Devil’s Disciple, and George S Kaufman & Moss Hart’s The
Man Who Came To Dinner in
Louise Gold has gone on to appear in Noises Off also under the direction of
Louise
Gold’s work on The Water Babies got mentioned when she and Jason
Carr guested on Dead
By 12.
It should perhaps be noted that Nick Curtis writing in
The Evening Standard managed to muddle up two of Louise Gold’s three
characters. One might also note that Michael Coveney
seems for him to be unusually brief and unwitty,
while Jeremy Kingston has given it, what is for him, an usually poor review
(though he is fairly complimentary, as usual, about the leading lady).
Critics Comments
“Louise Gold as a collection of
characters is commanding and has a fine voice.” Gareth Carr, INTERNET THEATREWORLD MAGAZINE
“The mysterious Irishwoman is played by the
sumptuous Louise Gold, who then breaks loose as Mrs Bedonebyasyoudid
(in frozen ringlets) and Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby
(a platinum blond in pink chiffon, dispensing cuddles).” Michael Coveney, THE DAILY MAIL, 25 July 2003
“Playing the moral poles of Kingsley’s
universe, Louise Gold is good as a prescriptive Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby
modelled on Anne Robinson, and quite brilliant as a bountifully loving Mrs Bedonebyasyoudid, blending the figure of Marilyn Monroe
with the manner of Celia Johnson.” Nick Curtis, THE EVENING STANDARD, 18
July 2003
“Louise Gold shows her versatility and strong vocals
in three roles - the soothsaying Irishwoman, Mrs Bedonebyasyoudid,
the ugliest fairy in the world and her opposite number Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby,
a Barbara Cartland-style vision in pink whose mission
is to dispense love wherever she goes.” Lynn Daly, This Is Brighton And
“Louise Gold, as both fairy godmothers, shows
us what an undiscovered star she is. With her tongue firmly in her cheek she
has radioactive charm.” Simon Fanshawe, THE
MAIL ON SUNDAY, Sunday 27 July 2003
“It is at it’s most enjoyable when in the
latter (camp) mode, particularly in the pinkly polished performance of Louise
Gold as the world’s most beautiful fairy who knows that “love is a necessity
whatever the weather” and offers motherly hugs to Tom on his dreadful journey.”
Lyn Gardner, THE GUARDIAN, Monday 21 July 2003, p18
“But the star of the show is undoubtedly the
superb Louise Gold, as the severe Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid,
and her ultra camp sister (in billowing pink taffeta), Mrs.Doasyouwouldbedoneby,
in what seemed to me to be a delicious homage to
“When it comes to comic loving kindness,
though, you can’t beat Louise Gold. She is excellent as stern Mrs Bedonebyasyoudid, but where she really comes into her own,
quite magnificently, is as benevolent Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby
- a radiant blonde in a pink cocktail dress, her perpetual smile and genteel
tones never quite disguising the bossiness underneath.” John Gross,
SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, 20 July 2003
“Louise Gold as both Mrs Bedonebyasyoudid and Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby,
relishes turning the latter into a Broadway belle.” Robert Hewison, SUNDAY TIMES, 27 July 2003
“Louise Gold is terrific as Mrs Bedonebyasyoudid, the benevolent underwater tyrant
condemned to be the ‘ugliest fairy in the world until people behave as they
should’. Gold later trumps herself with a wonderful portrayl
of a Hollywood-glam sweetly-smilling
love-and-goodness dispensing Mrs Doasyouwouldedoneby.”
Phil Hewitt, THE CHICHESTER OBSERVER, Thursday 24 July 2003, p41 & THE
WEST SUSSEX GAZETTE, Thursday 7 August 2003, p10.
“If Louise Gold was underused in The Gondoliers,
this production put things to right by giving her the chance to show her
versatility with three roles to play - a mystic Irish woman: a severe looking
Mrs Bedonebyasyoudid and her opposite number, Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby, all goodness and love.” Barrie
Jerram, MUSICAL STAGES, Issue 39 Autumn 2003, p29
“Louise Gold kitted out as the Good Witch
Glenda from Oz is expertly amusing as lovely Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby,
but the absurdity of her kindly little act fits ill with the moral structures
of the rest.” Jeremy Kingston, THE TIMES, 19 July 2003
“All misgivings are put to one side though
when, near the end, Louise Gold emerges as ‘the loveliest fairy in the world’.
A saccharine-sweet blond-wigged vision in pink, with tongue firmly placed in
cheek, she sashays her way through a number mocking all the ‘doing to others as
you would be done by’ stuff that had gone before.” John Martland, THE STAGE, 24 July 2003, P10
“Consequently, Mrs Bedonebyasyoudid
appears as a pointy-haired Victorian schoolmarm with her conduct ledger, whilst
her fairy sister Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby (both
played by Louise Gold) has the crisp vowels and formal gowns of Auntie Muriel
from early BBC children's TV.” Ian Shuttleworth,
Written for THE FINANCIAL TIMES
“There's also tremendous work from Louise
Gold, who plays not only the mysterious Irishwoman, with her gnomic
pronouncement: "Those that wish to be clean, clean they will be; and those
that wish to be foul, foul they will be", but is also wonderfully
charismatic as both the strict, governessy Mrs Bedonebyasyoudid and the preposterously sweet and plummy Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby,
dressed as if for a visit to the Queen's garden party in the 1950s.” Charles
Spencer, DAILY TELEGRAPH, 18 July 2003
“The excellent Louise Gold proves a big
asset where unifying the proceedings is concerned. She turns up in a trio of
roles: as the mysterious Irishwoman; as the starchy, mark-book-keeping fairy
Mrs Bedonebyasyoudid; and as her ludicrously syrupy
alter ego, Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby, who here swirls
on, in a blaze of pink and peroxide, like some Technicolor blonde from a
Fifties MGM musical. The latter's simpering song of self-satisfaction at her
own global philanthropy ("When a typhoon destroys
“But it seems that this version shows all
the necessary moments with a bit of moralising and lots of fun (especially the
water babies on their scooters, which made me laugh tears, and the deliciously
comic and charismatic Louise Gold doing the fairies).
Links about The
Water Babies
Chichester Festival Theatre: http://www.cft.org.uk/
See
in particular: http://www.cft.org.uk/cgi-bin/archive.pl#1045216462 for production
details, http://www.cft.org.uk/cgi-bin/review.pl?key=1045216462 for reviews of
the production and http://www.cft.org.uk/extras/waterbabies_pics.htm for pictures
from the production. Also see: http://www.cft.org.uk/ensemble/index.shtml# for ensemble
resumes.
Composer
Whatsonestage.com page about this production: http://www.whatsonstage.com/dl/page.php?page=details&id=T01116358298 and see in particular review, by Stephen Gilcrest, on: http://www.whatsonstage.com/dl/page.php?chan=wos&page=greenroom&story=E8821058781648
The Daily Telegraph, review and a lovely photograph of
Neil McDermott, Louise Gold, and Katherine O’Shea: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2003/07/18/btcs18.xml
The Independent, review by Paul Taylor: http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/theatre/reviews/story.jsp?story=426721
This is Brighton And Hove,
review by Lynn Daly: http://www.thisisbrightonandhove.co.uk/brighton__hove/leisure/REVIEW6.html
The Guardian, review by Lyn Gardner: http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/critic/review/0,1169,1002480,00.html
Ian Shuttleworth’s review,
written for The Financial Times: http://www.cix.co.uk/~shutters/reviews/03038.htm
Theatre World Internet Magazine, reviews for The
Gondoliers and The Water Babies: http://members.aol.com/mouseuk/stage/southrev.htm
Theatre Record: Opposite Prompt: http://www.theatrerecord.info/issue15_2003/opposite.htm
21st Century Musicals page for The Water
Babies (please note, this seemed to be under construction last time I
checked it): http://www.21stcenturymusicals.co.uk/shows/waterbabies.htm
A review by Emma Shane of another
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