Hot Stuff at Curve Leicester

Posted by Blackett on Oct 5, 2010 in Local, theatre | 3 comments

It seems I am a sucker for punishment. Last Friday I waded through the cold and the rain to pick up a £2 ticket for the public dress rehearsal of Curve’s latest offering, ‘Hot Stuff.’ Come with me as I take you on a journey of what I was exposed to.

First a bit of history.

Back in the day when the main theatre venue in Leicester was The Haymarket, Hot Stuff would be dragged out kicking and screaming to draw in the hen nights, un-cultured and those that enjoy post wedding discos to fund the failing venue and Paul Kerryson’s next Sondheim/Gilbert and Sullivan based wet dream. If you are to believe certain circles, Mr. Kerryson vowed never to bring Hot Stuff to Curve, so its reappearance is a sign of the (sad) times at Curve.

The Story

Some man sells his soul to a poor imitation of Lilly Savage, every one fannys about on stage a bit and sings glorified karaoke from the 60′s and 70′s. Rumour has it the tale of Faust is some where in the mix, who’d a thunk.

The Good

The acting

The singing

The band

The Bad

Pretty much everything else.

The songs are meant to be a mix of classic 60′s and 70′s tracks  but to honest they just feel a little tired now. In a time when they wouldn’t get you through an X Factor audition you should move on. This was the prefect time to jump on the Glee bandwagon, set it in the 90′/00′s and watch as the families, gays, middle aged women and the huge student population come strolling through the door to hear the tunes of Madonna, Gaga, Britney, Blondie, Take That, Westlife, Steps, Pulp, Oasis and the list goes on.

Playing a Gary Glitter song is a little bit iffy, doing a whole medley of his tunes is just horrific and in bad taste.

My heart went out the dancers who were trying their best with what they had to work with, what they had to work with was not good. Things were not helped by there being so few cast members, the stage constantly felt empty.

Ceri Dupree should consider retiring, Lilly Savage did it, so should you. All that spewed forth from her mouth was crude jokes, stolen jokes and just plain awful jokes. She would get booed out of a gay bar.

I would like to review the story but as it doesn’t really exist I can’t

What Curve Has To Say

‘Paul Kerryson directs a brand new production, redesigned for the unique potential of Curve’s performance space.’

If this is a new production I dread to think what it would look like when it got old. As for ‘redesigning for the unique potential of Curve’s performance space.’ I saw nothing that couldn’t have been done on a school stage. Well that’s not exactly fair, there was a second story to the stage, that was used once, at the beginning, for half a second.

What My Friends Had To Say

‘It’s hurting me, it’s physically hurting me’

Notes That Didn’t Make It Into The Main Review

Fat muffin top.

The backing singers are given more to do than the main performers.

It’s like some one threw up the 60′s and 70′s onto a piece of paper and claimed they had created a musical.

It’s like they haven’t seen a pop video, pop act or any other musical in the last 30 years.

To read more about our adventures at Curve here.