Fringe review: FOOTBALLERS’ WIVES: THE MUSICAL, Assembly Rooms
Photo credit: Alex Brenner
The 2002 TV series Footballers’ Wives was a comic spoof on the lives of the ‘WAG’s’ who attach themselves to the countries overpaid footballers. It is a clever idea to use this as source material for a brand new musical for the Fringe, with music and lyrics by Kath Gotts (who wrote Bad Girls) and to attach Arlene Phillips to the creative team to add some extra sparkle. There is no doubt that the producers intend a longer version to emerge for a wider UK market and this production feels like an extended workshop version, with minimal staging and a focus on the songs. The potential is clear, although we do not feel that it’s all quite there yet.
Ceili O’Connor as Tanya Turner, the club captain’s ambitious wife, is the undoubted star of the show, looking every bit the domineering pushy wife and singing with great energy and sass. Her scenes with Matt Rixon as the chauvinist club chairman Frank Laslett and Gillian Fitzpatrick as fantasist Nurse Dunkley are excellent scene stealers. But we don’t find ourselves really caring about any of the characters and there is no real sense of a football club - this could be a scene from any soap opera or outtakes from a reality show.
The narrative, presumably lifted from six episodes of the first series, feels overcomplicated with a sexy new signing, a stag and hen do, an accident putting Frank in a coma, blackmail, and a threesome press report, each setting up another song. Dear England does football stories much better than this!
The female roles also include India Chadwick as Chardonnay and Leesa Tulley as Donna, the WAG’s of Kyle Pascoe (Tom Bowen) and Ian Walmsley (Oliver Evans). Perhaps with more time, the characters can be developed but in this version, it is hard to tell them apart.
Still, it is fun, with some good songs belted out by the leading cast and the Edinburgh Fringe audience seemed to enjoy it. We just expected a little more after all of the hype in the lead up to the Festival.
*** Three stars
Reviewed by: Nick Wayne