WOMAN OVERBOARD
Book & Lyrics by Adrian Mitchell. Music by Monty Norman
Venue: Watford Palace 1988
Director: Lou Stein

Cast

Theodore Custer	John Conroy
Stan Stain	Brian Hibbard
Fabian MacRune	Bob Cartland
Lady Diana Featherstonaugh	Fiona Hendley
Annie O’Mara	Lesley Nicol
Merci Balzac	Harriet Thorpe
Sir Richard Hogbucket	Simon Butteriss
Floyd Hogbucket	Ben Thomas
Princess Zamayakova	Fenella Fielding
Miss Camel	Lesley Nicol
Furio Spurioso	Paul Keown

Watford Palace Theatre have really pushed out the boat with Woman Overboard as part of the theatre’s 80th birthday celebration. A specially commissioned musical comedy, a world premiere, big cast and an impressive set in the form of a yacht, set for action both on deck and below in an elegant cabin. What a pity then that what should have been a spectacular showboat paddles along like a showboat to pantoland. Adrian Mitchell has taken a rather run-of-the-mill play by 16th century Spanish playwright Lopez de Vega, who amused his contemporaries with 1500 similar offerings, and moved it forward in time and place, to 1932 on board a yacht moored at Naples.

Focal point of the action is rich bitch Lady Diana Featherstonaugh (Fiona Hendley) who has various hang-ups about men in the right “marriage bracket”. Her rich suitors Sir Richard (Simon Butteriss) and Floyd (Ben Thomas) both have the name she wants (Hogbucket), but her private secretary Theodore (John Conroy) inspires the nearest thing to love the lady is likely to experience. He rubs it in by having an affair with her ladyship's French maid, Merci (Harriet Thorpe). The tangled web consists of minor bits of intrigue and of confrontation, also involving the secretary’s valet (Brian Hibbard) and a Russian princess (Fenella Fielding).

The scene was set for an elegant, fast-moving situation comedy, but the ship remain anchored as if the captain had left the bridge and let the crew each do their own thing. Early lines like “I like to cuddle with my little French poodle” with maid adding something ending in “my Yankee Doodle” turned out to be fairly indicative of the wit. The highlight of the show came just before the end of act one, when Floyd, the unsuitable suitor, breaks into the liveliest song of the show, So it must be love delivered with terrific movement that established fleeting rapport with the audience. There were other enjoyable individual performances, Brian Hibbard as the cheeky valet, and Fenella Fielding as the over-the-top Russian princess.

The props earned applause when two small boats floated alongside the yacht and a big yellow limousine carried the princess to quayside. But this was panto-stuff, as was the melodramatic French maid. In fact, just as you begin to think that all that's missing for this to be a panto of individual sets is a fairy, there is a big puff and a cloud of smoke and, lo and behold, a figure clad in white materialises, the original author, Lopez de Vega - well, no wonder he couldn't stay in his grave!