101 Dalmatians at Palace Theatre Manchester
101 Dalmatians: RAWD REVIEWS
WRITTEN BY KEZIAH
‘This show left me feeling underwhelmed and confused.”
My name is Keziah, welcome to RAWD Reviews! I am writing this review because I love write, see theatre and share my creativity.
On the 6th of August I went to Manchester Palace Theatre to see 101 Dalmatians the Musical, staring Kym Marsh as Cruella De Vil, Charles Brunton as Casper, Jessie Elland as Danielle, Danny Hendrix as Jasper, and Linford Johnson as Pongo.
It is about a litter of Dalmatian puppies getting abducted by the minions of Cruella De Vil, the owners must find them before she uses them for a diabolical fashion statement.
To be honest this review is kind of hard to write as the effects where not very memorable, I think the only good effects were used on Cruella which is strange because we are not supposed to be rooting for her.
The stage designs were not bad, I did like the one night time set as they had a backdrop with a moon, a brick designed cut out that looked like a roof and fake stars. However most of the big effects were used on Cruella and there were only two memorable scenes, one being when Cruella has a massive fur coat on and she stands on a platform and there's a bunch of flashing lights, and the other being when Cruella gets electrocuted.
The songs were not the best as I feel like they spent way too much time on Cruella and her songs. I also think they tried way too hard to make Cruella sexy which was a bit strange.
The stage was also chaotic with all the cast on stage and dog puppets. I think they needed to spend more time practicing, however the puppeteering of the dogs was pretty impressive. Another strange part was when the dogs were getting kidnapped. Linda, one of the dogs, sang take me home at a weird part of the scene which didn't fit.
I also just didn't understand the ending, Cruella gets attacked by cats and because she's allergic she drinks antihistamines which turns out is for dogs and because of this she gets weird dog powers and starts crawling around like a dog, and then all of a sudden she's walking normally but still has dog powers!
I think if they wanted to make this work they should have introduced magic at the start and stuck with the crawling or just not used the crawling.
If anyone else knows why Cruella turned into a half dog at the end can you let me know?
One great thing about the show was they brought out a real Dalmatian puppy, Andrew who went with me cried at. I was a bit disappointed as they didn't sing Cruella De Vil, I get copy right but they could have put their own spin on it.
This show left me feeling underwhelmed and confused I would give it a 3 out of 5.
CREATIVE CORNER:
This is a place for Keziah to share any of her creative ideas that are inspired by the show!
Animal cruelty is a massive problem in the UK.
I'm constantly seeing abandoned and scared animals.
I think we as a society should be doing more to help animals who get abused, abandoned and neglected as a lot of people don't really take it seriously.
Watching 101 Dalmatians the musical made me think a bit more about this.
We shouldn't wear animals or use their skin, they are just as important as us!
We should look after animals and help keep them safe.
There is a cat that lives near me and they are never let in to their home which is just heartbreaking, so I give her food and water as they are really skinny, it's little things like that we can do to make a difference in an animal's life.
We can donate to Animal charities, take them in, adopt from shelters and fight against hunting.
I don't have a problem with people eating meat as that's the circle of life, and animals eat other animals, however we shouldn't be abusing them, hurting and neglecting them.
I just think this world needs to realise that we are also animals, we are not superior we are their care givers if, everyone saw it this way the world could be a better place for are animals.