• The Production
• Cast and Crew
• Reviews

The Production

We may now, with hindsight, recognise that to open with Bugsy Malone as a first production was, to say the least, foolhardy.

The musical is written for fourteen year olds, principally boys; we had eight to thirteen year olds, principally girls. The play demands a large multi-level set; we had a small flat floored village hall. The play has one hundred and five characters; we had 37 young people. The play demands twenties costumes; we had none. Add to that the problem of getting people to sing acceptably, to undertake sixty-nine costume changes in double quick time and to seamlessly populate forty-five separate scenes and you have some idea of just how ‘foolhardy’ we were.

However, after a lot of hard work by all involved the show went on in February in front of enthusiastic full houses and was hailed a triumph.

Cast and Crew

Our thanks to GB Scaffolding of Ross-on-Wye for their 'support'.

Reviews

Jo Scrivin in The Ross Gazette

A large, young cast and a relatively small stage could have caused problems in the production of Bugsy Malone by the BareBones Youth Theatre Company at Goodrich. Instead the excellent direction of Dave Baldwin brought the very best out of these talented and enthusiastic youngsters. This was a fresh, exciting and extremely enjoyable performance. It was fast-paced action all the way to the stunning finale, and I cannot say who enjoyed it more, the audience or the actors.

The members of the group are aged 8 to 13 and it was wonderful to see their confidence grow as the show progressed and amazing to realise that this was the first full-length production the group had put on together. The cast, and of course the all-important backstage and front of house crew should all be very proud of themselves for putting on such a fabulous show. Every member of the cast was worthy of praise and it would be unfair to pick out a few actors for special mention as so many of them took on more than one role and they all worked together so well. The ingenious set, authentic costumes and superb props, especially the telephone box, the car and of course the splurge guns, all added to this terrific production. There is no doubt that the capacity audience was full of family and friends who were keen to demonstrate their support, but BareBones Youth Theatre can all be very proud of their performance.

I would also like to add that according to their programme the prime objective of the group is enjoyment:. ”If it isn’t fun to do, don’t do it!” Well the enjoyment of being part of such a successful production was obvious and enhanced the audience’s enjoyment no end.