Side Show

The Hills Musical Company’s latest show Side Show is a musical by Bill Russell (book and lyrics) and  Henry Krieger (music) based on the lives of Daisy and Violet, cojoined twins who became famous stage performers in the 1930s.It is a story about the need for us all to be loved and accepted. It highlights that no matter who we are, unique or ordinary, it is love that completes us all.

Coincidentally, Side Show was one of two shows in 1997 about conjoined twins whose working lives began as circus “freaks” that opened on the world stage.  Chang and Eng, a musical developed by a Singaporean company, featured a well-developed script based on the lives of the Siamese twins, Chang and Eng Bunker. Set in the mid 1850’sthe musical focused on their lives, from their troubled childhood as outcasts, to their journey to New York as exhibits and their settling down with Adelaide and Sallie Yates in North Carolina.

The Hills Musical Company is renowned for strong ensemble performances and does not disappoint with Side Show, where choreography and choral work gives the show a rousing opening when Scott Nell as Sir, the ringmaster of a human oddities sideshow, introduces the exhibits. He is both menacing and powerful as he sets the scene for the show, leading the song Come Look at the Freaks.       

This production clearly draws inspiration from the 2017 musical biopic The Greatest Showman, where human physical difference was both harnessed and celebrated.

The story subsequently focuses on the Hilton sisters' lives from their discovery in the tent show operated by their unscrupulous legal guardian, Sir, through a period of vaudeville stardom and prurient pop culture notoriety sparked by the prospect of Violet's wedding, to a brush with Hollywood personified by movie director Tod Browning, enthusiastically played by Ray Cullen. A bitter-sweet circle, then, from freak show to Freaks.

Director Amanda Rowe has amassed a vocally and physically diverse cast of performers who are all well used, many in multiple roles.

The two female leads both carry and steal the show. Fiona Delaine as Daisy, the flirty fame seeker, and Rebecca Raymond as Violet, the romantically inclined homebody, vocally work beautifully together and also separately. Arguably the two most memorable songs in the show, Who Will Love Me asI Am? and I Will Never Leave You, both sung by Violet and Daisy, are show stoppers.

Costumes for Daisy and Violet are the most correct for the period and it seems that it is there that the costume energy was expended. On occasion the lack of attention to costume detail for the ensemble is distracting, made more obvious by well-chosen costumes for the leads. Presenting the girls as conjoined is a challenge for amateur theatre. Whilst not strongly convincing, the concept held, if a little tenuously. The scene with the ensemble dressed as cupids seems designed to amuse: rather, its costume incongruity discomforts.

Paul Rodda as Terry, the self-absorbed entrepreneur, consistently commands the stage. As his side kick, Jared Frost, as Buddy, gives a warm, vulnerable performance and it is his human frailty that robs the story of its possible “happy ending”.

Stirling Community Theatre is beloved and the companies that use the venue work with limited space to create their shows. The red and white circus tent used for the show’s opening is creatively and effectively moved to build new scenes. The addition of multiple, flimsy oversized timber frames later in the show appears clumsy to manoeuvre, taking up space and often not adding to this musically very polished show.

The band is to be applauded (and was resoundly, on opening night). Once again, Mark Delaine conducts 13 highly skilled musicians whose performance is beautifully balanced, at all times complementing, not dominating the performers and performance.

Nominated for four Tony awards, Side Show has been a show with limited success on both Broadway and the London stage. The show in its opening promises the audience insights into the life of circus “freaks”, but in truth, the writing of the script only offers scant glimpses and resorts to a safe love story with a not so happy ending.

Side Show has limitations in its writing, however the Hills Musical Company offers the audience the best and most energetic version of this show. It is a terrific night out with a talented cast giving their all.

Jude Hines

Photographer: Mark Anolak