The Adelaide Gang Show is in its 65th season. That’s a wonderful achievement for the organisation. Once again the scouts have rallied to the cause. It’s a major feat to devise the programme each year and amass the huge number of performers and their supporting workers required to present the show. Yet the organisation manages it each year.
The format is familiar to the patrons. It’s a mixture of comedy sketches, gags and brackets of thematically linked songs. This year the title, Well, Well, Well was derived from a wishing well, and the many brackets of music and sketches resulted from someone making a wish. It was a successful theme and our attention was regularly drawn back to the well, as various characters popped their coins into it, stated their wish, and received, via the disembodied voice of the well itself, a usually cheeky and entertaining answer. It was an effective device, and the audience got quite a few laughs from those exchanges.
Indeed, the comedy sketches this year had a clear focus and a crispness of both writing and delivery. Notable among them were the Maths lesson sketch and the Neighbours Revenge. The sketches and well-side gags in Act 1 were especially well-managed.
Technically, the whole production held together well, with a great number of effective scene changes, although some of the lengthier ones could have been covered by the band, or even recorded music. Several of the scenes were played in front of well chosen images – still and moving – projected onto the rear of the stage, and the lighting plot served the performance well enough, although there were a few sluggish cues, particularly those highlighting principal singers.
The musical brackets were lively, joyous and well led by the soloists or small groups of featured singers. The choreography was generally well suited to the action. None of the lead singers were named in the programme, but the Item Directors and choreographers of the big production numbers, especially the opening of Act 1 and the final brackets in both Acts, along with MD Xanthea Jeffrey, did well to produce entertaining and well planned medleys. Credit there to Thomas Laing, who was also the overall Director, Akacia Vanmali, Charlotte, Taylor, Rachelle Bragg, Georgie, Chelsea and Fiona.
The band provided generous support to the singers, and was at its best in the up-tempo numbers and when there was lots of singing and action on stage.
All up, the cast and crew of Well, Well, Well maintained the Gang Show traditions with admirable enthusiasm. The large opening night audience was warmly responsive and well entertained.
