Peter Viney's Blog

By Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti
Directed by Hannah Joss
Designed by Anisha Fields
Alexandra Faye Braithwaite – music and sound designer
Michael Henry MD and additional arrangements

The Minerva Theatre
Chichester Festival Theatre

Saturday 9th August 2025

CAST
Laura Checkley – Morgan
Alison Fitzjohn – Joy
James Gillan- Paul
Danielle Henry – Esther
Keenan Munn-Francis – Freddie
Danusia Samai- Anna
Timothy Speyer- Ken
Annie Wensack – Sheila

Our policy is that if Chichester puts on a new play by a writer you’ve never heard of, just trust them. We almost never go wrong in doing so. This is yet another success. The plot of Choir sounds very much like Nightingales which we saw at Chichester in 2018, with a nod to the dance class based Stepping Out which we saw at Salisbury in 2012. There is a continual fascination with groups of diverse people combined in a single enterprise.

Is it a musical or a play with / about music? I asked the same question about Marie & Rosetta at the Minerva just last month. You could ask it about Redlands at Chichester last year. To me a musical has to have a plot driven by songs relating to it, and they’re usually written for it. An exception is the ABBA and Queen biographical musicals, which use existing songs or “found” songs. Let’s just say Chichester is carving a successful path with ‘Is it a musical or not?’ productions. These are very well-known found songs. However, they are not performed to a live backing group. They use a pre-recorded version, maybe the original with vocals removed, probably the karaoke versions. I noticed that some start quietly in very lo-fi as if coming from the laptop on stage then soar into hi-fidelity when the song takes off. I also think a ‘musical’ has to have live musicians.

The setting is a room above a pub. A church hall or community centre feels more likely, but then the function room above a pub allows the cast to go down and get drinks. Large old pubs have such spaces. It uses the thrust stage with a fixed backdrop – until the end of each act, when the backdrop goes and a circular platform is pushed out into the centre thrust stage.

It’s about a community choir who meet regularly in the room, and do choral versions of popular songs.

It’s run by Morgan (Laura Checkley), and she is a college lecturer. The choir was started by her and Paul (James Gillan) and they used to be in a rock band together a decade earlier. Morgan is the teacher, and there are hilarious sections where she tries to improve their performance by getting them to think about lyrics.

The play opens with Paul demonstrating his chops on Queen’s Somebody to Love, and believe me, emulating Freddie Mercury is very hard, and James Gillan does it brilliantly. Paul is the central character. He is gay, and almost 60s sitcom stereotypical with it. He flounces and minces and sulks, so much so that it’s a surprise to see such a rendition nowadays! Paul is the best singer by a mile, and has been in West End musicals, lets no one else forget that he was a professional, though now makes a living from radio voiceovers. If you’ve been in any amateur theatrical group, you will remember someone who has once trod the boards professionally (or is “resting”). Paul is also the most sympathetic character. More later.

We meet the rest of the group. You will never forget Joy (Alison Fitzjohn ), short, very stocky indeed, with Satanist T-shirts and an incredibly fierce attitude. It would be very hard to find such perfect physical casting in other productions AND she can sing. She is neighbours and best friends with Esther (Danielle Henry) who is sweet, hippyish, and a tad wet.

Joy has been tasked with the backdrop painting, what with being good at art and speaking French, and Esther tries to help which causes arguments.

Anna (Danusia Samai) is the middle-class posh one. Only she has a viciously unpleasant domestic life with a bullying husband. Anna ends part one of the show with a blindingly good performance of Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black in full costume.

Then there’s Ken (Timothy Speyer), older than the rest, recently widowed, balding, just happy to be there. They’re waiting for Sheila (Annie Wensack ) who is the main (and very funny) comic performance. She is a compulsive liar and kleptomaniac, and everyone has to humour her, and fail to notice that her ‘home made vegan sausage rolls’ are in Greggs wrappers.

The story revolves around Morgan’s discovery, Freddie (Keenan Munn-Francis ). Freddie wants to go to music college and Morgan decides they will not only invite him to join the choir, but will showcase him (much to Paul’s despair) in a charity performance. Then the One Show get involved and TV cameras will be there.

Freddie is diffident and shy and can only sing while knitting balaclavas. His first attempt at singing You’re All I Need To Get By is deliberately weak ranging to dire. Also, no, he is not as good a singer as Paul, though it is Paul who manages to drag a decent rendition of Nothing Compares 2U out of him. It’s a fine acting performance. It’s hard to sing really badly, get a bit better, then a bit better, then nail a song.

This is all marvellous sitcom material (they could run a series) with the added bonus of great singing. The more serious plot element involves Ken. The One Show producers want him out. He doesn’t look the part. This is an old story. Ian Stewart, pianist of The Rolling Stones, was relegated to play behind the curtains and be road manager too because he looked ‘wrong.’ Pete Best was chucked out of The Beatles as George Martin declared he wasn’t a good enough drummer. It happens. I’ve written a short story about it. I’ve been in teen bands where people were summarily dispensed with, and been among the hanging party. I’ve had to do the same with our ELT Theatre Group in the past.

Morgan tricks Ken into a non-performing role, and it is Paul who is the one who stands up and points out that in the end, the choir is about friendship NOT ambition.

As a comedy with music, it is a first class evening or afternoon out. There was lots of laughter, massive applause after versions of songs and a standing ovation at the knockout ending plus reprise song, which is the one Paul’s been wanting to do all the way through, Primal Scream’s Movin’ On Up.

Within its genre you won’t find much better, but I’m inclined to four stars rather than five. This may simply be we had less than usual to discuss afterwards except ‘fabulous entertainment and performances.’

****

BUT … THE SONGS

I’m back to an old complaint yet again. The songs are not listed in the programme. There is space to credit every member of staff at CFT and every supporter. They do not credit the songwriters, the lyricists and composers, who created the songs, which are occupying much of the running time.

No doubt they paid – these are not songwriters you mess with. Any future company, amateur or professional, is potentially going to have to spend a lot of time on clearances though as these are cover versions, they do not need “permission” but they will require to pay a mechanical royalty. I don’t think that’s replacing a due credit. There are a few fragments, probably too short to require any payment. Sheila recites a couple of lines from the lyric of Where I Lead by Carole King, but no one sings it. Then a line from I Feel Pretty, all sing Somewhere Over The Rainbow, just the one line, there’s the original recording of Donna Summer’s I Feel Love played over a Ken / Sheila slow-motion love mime.

The argument with “found” songs not being listed has been wanting them to surprise the audience. I get that, but (e.g.) The Watermill Theatre always uses found songs and always lists them. On the whole people buy a programme on their way into a darkened theatre. “Is there an interval? Have I heard of the cast? Read the introductory article.” Few would get to read it in detail till afterwards. It’s partly a souvenir. Some would think, ‘that was a great song! What was it? I’ll buy it.’ There were four I didn’t recognize but liked, then I was wracking my brains trying to recall Edge of Seventeen, and who and when, even though I have the Stevie Nicks album Bella Donna.

They cover a wide time range and an eclectic mix of styles. Seven Nation Army is very recent. Somehow they all fit.

As these are songs, not the recorded performances, the writers are the losers rather than the original singers. So as I bought the play text, I’m going to list them. If you want surprise, READ NO FURTHER.

song	writer(s)	original performer
Somebody To Love	Freddie Mercury	Queen
Juice	Melissa Jefferson, Eric Frederic, Theron Thomas	Lizzo
Fix You (under speech)	Martin, Buckland, Berryman, Champion	Coldplay
Seven Nation Army mashup with	The White Stripes	The White Stripes
Sweet Dreams	Annie Lennox, Dave Stewart	Eurthymics
Crazy in Love	Jay Z, Beyoncé, Rich Harrison	Beyoncé
You’re All I Need To Get By	Nickolas Ashford, Valerie Simpson	Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
Back to Black	Amy Winehouse, Mark Ronson	Amy Winehouse
Freedom	George Michael	George Michael
Edge of Seventeen	Stevie Nicks	Stevie Nicks
I Want To Dance With Somebody	George Merrill, Shannon Rubicam	Whitney Houston
Nothing Compares 2U	Prince	Prince Sinead O’Connor
Hotel California	Don Felder, Don Henley, Glenn Frey	The Eagles
All These Things That I’ve Done	Brandon Flowers	The Killers
Movin’ On Up	Bobby Gillespie, Andrew Innes, Robert Young	Primal Scream

So credit where credit is due.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID
Not reviewed at the point we saw it. Press night was the evening before.

four star
Rosie, Theatre & Tonic ****
Livvy Perrett, West End Best Friend ****

three star
Ammar Kalia, The Guardian ***

LINKS ON THIS BLOG

DANIELLE HENRY
Twelfth Night, RSC 2025 (Maria)
The Hypocrite RSC 2017

TIMOTHY SPEYER
Awful Auntie by David Walliams, Birmingham Stage Company 2018
The Alchemist by Ben Jonson, RSC 2016
Doctor Faustus by Marlowe RSC 2016
Don Quixote, RSC 2016
The Witch of Edmonton, RSC 2014
The Roaring Girl, RSC 2014
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, RSC 2011
The City Madam, RSC 2011
Cardenio, RSC 2011

ALISON FITZJOHN
George’s Marvellous Medicine, Birmingham Stage Company 2010