Bishop’s Stortford Musical Theater Company putting on Kipps
Flash, bang, wallop, what a show! NODA award-winning Bishop’s Stortford Musical Theater Company is getting ready to dazzle with its production of Kipps – The New Half and Sixpence Musical.
This new work has reinvented the original 1963 musical Half and Sixpence for the modern age and will be brought to life on the South Mill Arts stage for five nights plus a matinee – from Tuesday November 15 to Saturday November 19 – as audiences are given a treat for the eyes and the ears.
The story has been returned to its literary roots – HG Wells’s 1905 semi-autobiographical novel, Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul – with the help of Julian Fellowes, of Downton Abbey fame, paired with George Stiles and Anthony Drewe’s brilliantly infectious new score, which harnesses the David Heneker classics with a joyful verve.
Audiences will recognize many old favourites, like Half and Sixpence and The Joy of the Theatreas well as being delighted by new songs, such as Pick Out and Simple Tune.
Orphan Arthur Kipps, played by BSMTC newcomer Connor Hughes, is an overworked draper’s assistant at Shalford’s Bazaar in Folkestone, Kent, at the turn of the century. He is a charming but ordinary young man who, along with his fellow apprentices, dreams of a better world.
When Kipps unexpectedly inherits a fortune that propels him into high society, it confuses everything he thought he knew about life and forces him to make some difficult choices.
Central to the story is a love triangle between Kipps’ childhood sweetheart Ann Pornick (played by another newcomer, Michelle Hills) and the beautiful and classy Helen Walsingham (Rebecca Faulkner). Both of these young women love Arthur, but which one should he listen to? And who will he eventually choose to marry?
With the help of his friends, he learns that if you want to have the chance of living the right life, you need to make the right choices.
The show has an experienced all-female production team of director Alex Outlaw – at the helm for the first time in her 18-year association with BSMTC – musical director Susie Savage and choreographer Elsa Springham.
“I’m honored to be directing BSMTC’s main production for the first time after being with the company since 2004,” said Alex.
“The cast and crew are creating some amazing work and I know this is going to be a fabulous, fun, exuberant show, interspersed with the most heartfelt, touching moments. I can’t wait for the audiences to experience the uplifting energy that is evident from the start of the show and get swept away in the experience we have all worked so hard to create.
“I’m so excited to be working with Susie and Elsa again. They’re both superbly talented and this whole production hinges on the incredible work they’ve produced.
“We first worked as a creative team on the then BSMTC Juniors production of Thoroughly Modern Millie and we had a ball! We have a fabulous production manager in Charlotte Crosby, who is keeping us all in check and managing the production wonderfully.”
The company has established strong links with fellow Bishop’s Stortford thespians Water Lane Theater Company for Kipps by enlisting the design talents of their chair, Granville Rush, to produce unique and beautiful hand-drawn set projections.
BSMTC chair Charlotte Pritchard said: “After two very successful, smaller cabaret-style shows to help us build back up from the effects of the pandemic, we’re looking forward to seeing our loyal audiences return for the main show this year.
“Kipps is perfect for family audiences – it’s bright, colourful, nostalgic, romantic and, above all, energetic.
“We can promise you a feast for the eyes as well as the ears – the song-and-dance routines will thrill you, as will the beautiful costumes.
“In the words of the new song in the show, Pick Out and Simple Tune, ‘Some say differences can blight us, I say music can unite us. No one’s immune if you pick out a simple tune’!”
* Kipps – The New Half a Sixpence Musical is on at South Mill Arts from Tuesday November 15 to Saturday November 19 at 7.30pm nightly with a Saturday matinee at 2.30pm. Tickets priced £19 (£15 conc for under-16s at Saturday matinee) are available from southmillarts.co.uk or by calling the box office on 01279 710200.
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