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EVERYONE LOVES ME!
Verdict: Quite simply - Brilliant
Edinburgh - C Venues - August 2003
We reviewed Everyone Loves Me when it started its run-up to Edinburgh a few months back. On the strength of that we gave it Best Musical in the Fringe Report Awards 03. The original review is below. We looked at it again in Edinburgh August 03 at the start of Fringe and add the following:
In a word - astonishing. There's a stunning rapport between actors Sarah Choppen and Craig Kerrigan that lifts Everyone Loves Me onto a different dramatic plane. It's especially visible in the blissful number 'Stick With Me'. When they're together, the stage could well ignite.
Craig Kerrigan delivers a remarkable characterisation of ghastly old-time comic Richie King that's illuminated by a profound humanity. He finds within this apparently simple man both depth and the power to evoke understanding and sympathy. The moving Somebody Loves Me?, with Kerrigan's gorgeous voice, sends a shiver down the spine.
The enormous charisma of Sarah Choppen creates a Daisy Craddock who's lovable, glorious, and heart-wrenching. The elegance of her singing and dancing's divine, especially in the delightful I'm So Bad That It's Good. If ever the expression 'a star is born' could be said with a straight face, it's now - with the remarkable Sarah Choppen.
Inspired performances from Claire Jeater and Jody Crozier complete a fine cast.
Cast Credits Edinburgh 03 (alpha order) Sarah Choppen – Daisy Craddock. Jody Crozier – Charlie Conrad. Claire Jeater – Tamara Purchase. Craig Kerrigan – Richie King.
Original review:
Everyone Loves Me! may be one of the best musicals on the fringe this year. It's a magnificent, funny, and brilliant entertainment that grips and delights from start to finish. It's aimed at a more general release in 2003 and has a sell-out Shaftesbury Avenue feel: the financially prudent may care to snap up a £6 ticket now (£5 + £1 theatre membership) rather £50 when it hits the West End.
Daisy’s frankly common, my dear, and booted out of Big Brother. Richie’s a soon-to-be has-been TV host. Charlie’s a media graduate thrusting upwards (in all senses). Tamara’s about to find redemption through The Priory. They’re locked together by their unquenchable ambition to stay on-screen – to which everything, including love, is a ladder.
The outstanding quality of the performances, script, and songs produce a big brash musical, several times the size of its 4-strong cast. They create four characters so hugely horrible and endearing that you may be tempted – against your better feelings - to love them enormously.
Daisy Craddock (catchphrase ‘Oi! You’re not Tippexing my nipples’)’s rejected and dejected: what does a girl do? Appear on fading star Richie King’s Flying Saucer show (Richie: ‘Family fucking entertainment. It’s Fun Fun Fun’). Richie ditched his wife for fairly posh blonde tart Tamara Purchase, but soon enough he’s ‘training’ Daisy in TV technique and marrying her instead. Charlie Conrad’s just left uni, but he’s rising fast, and when Richie’s decline turns to fall, he’s ready to take over Daisy’s education. When Tamara grasps the bottle, he’s in there in every way, turning her alcoholic recovery into yet another opportunity for TV (and sex). All bad things come to an end, and when Daisy’s career goes (literally) down the lavatory, we’re ready to take out a couple of hankies – one for her, one for poor old Richie.
Ah, but you can’t keep a pair of self-seeking shameless egoists down (thank heavens), and Richie and Daisy have a cunning plan. Shameless romantics in the audience who like a happy ending will not be disappointed.
Everyone Loves Me! runs on a well-cut and elegant script by Mark Simms and Paul Tibbey. The same team created the superb songs which include (in order): Make Me An A (Daisy, Cast); Fun (Richie); Stick With Me (Richie, Daisy); I’m So Bad That It’s Good (Daisy); Is The New (Charlie and Daisy); Riding High (Daisy); Everyone Loves Me (Richie); Closure (Tamara); Who Wants To Be Famous? Not Us (Cast).
Sarah Choppen delivers a breathtaking Daisy Craddock. She creates a Daisy who’s both awful and loveable, with a lot of white underwear-flashing, and a superb voice. Choppen’s Daisy is very, very funny, and an unforgettable character. Her singing is magnificent. Her performance is a tour de force of comic acting,
Craig Kerrigan makes Richie King into someone you feel – regrettably – that you’ve known all your life. His Richie’s a loathsome smarmer, and transparently self-seeking - but there’s at least a little of Richie in everyone. He’s a hissable villain, but there’s something delightful about him too – a formidable achievement by a fine actor.
Claire Jeater creates an engaging and funny Tamara Purchase. From Tamara’s irritation at never getting to sit in ‘the big chair’ of Richie’s Flying Saucer, to her shoplifting conviction, Jeater plays Tamara with conviction and fine comic presence - her alcoholic video diary and unpeeling TV hostess of dire show Closure are superb.
Jamie Anderson delivers a very fine characterisation of the ambitious graduate Charlie Conrad. He’s a fine singer too, and his Charlie has the charisma necessary to convince in this complex part. Anderson handles Charlie’s keen instinct for new ways of using old friends en route to the very top, with adroit and funny panache.
Cast Credits (alpha order) Jamie Anderson – Charlie Conrad. Sarah Choppen – Daisy Craddock. Claire Jeater – Tamara Purchase. Craig Kerrigan – Richie King.
Company Credits (programme order) Writers – Mark Sims and Paul Tibbey. Director – Mark Sims. Music – Paul Tibbey. Lyrics – Paul Tibbey and Mark Sims. Musical Director (Arranger and Performer) – Stephen Robinson. Designer – Sam Dear. Lighting Designer – Steve Miller. Choreographer – Jenny Jones, Dena Adams, The Cast. Costume and Props – Jenny Jones, Sam Dear, The Cast. Publicity Designer – Sara Pruce. Administrator – Sam Dear. Producer – Sarah Choppen. Company: Chain Reaction Theatre Company.
END
John Park
reviewed Thursday 5 December / Canal Café Theatre
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2008
www.fringereport.com
