Suits

When one heads off to see a show billed as having an all male cast, there are two feelings that immediately come into play; excitement and nervousness.

I say excitement because watching a group of talented boys sing and dance together well on stage can be incredible to witness as an audience member. I say nervousness because if they’re no good, then it’s two hours of wishing you didn’t accept the review.

The premise of the show was simple: Three bands, three genres, one winner. The night offered ‘Perfect 5th’, a 90’s inspired boy band, ‘The Four Tunes’, a motown group, and ‘The Highlites’, singing acapella barbershop.

Knowing the premise of the show, I was looking forward to what the night would offer musically. When I’m not listening to the newest Broadway soundtrack that was burned for me or Sir Bublè the Smooth, these are some of the genres that I’ll have running through my iPod. In terms of a concert offering by a music theatre company, this concept was refreshing and fun to sit through and I was so glad not to be watching another line up of music theatre songs, taken out of context and strung along together by a theme or loose plot.

The lights went down and the performance began. Instantly I recognised the drum solo and first few bars of ‘Nicest Kids in Town’ from Hairspray. As the song continued, the audience was introduced to Corny Collins, played by Tim Addicot, his ‘lovely assistant, Mel’, played by Melissa Trickey and the three bands that would perform throughout the night were named in lieu of Tracy, Fender, Sue, Lou-Anne and Link. For a concert that was meant to move away from the music theatre genre, I actually felt that using this song to set the tone for the night was probably the wrong choice, and this number fell flat in that respect for me.

Our host, Corny Collins, proceeded to do some compare work, introducing the run of the night, the bands we would be watching, and letting the audience know that they would choose the winner at the end. There was an attempt at an audience rove, but this really needed more prior thought and commitment. As the night wore on, Addicot’s Corny Collins got progressively drunker, and I felt that this wasn’t convincing or funny. I don’t know if this was a directional decision, but some scripted humour would have been more appropriate than a host walking out with a glass of scotch and dishevelled suit ensemble. Also, appearing in the last scene totally sober was inconsistent and bothered me. Addicot sang well and few moves he was able to show off showed competence, but I felt that the decision to make a drunken mockery of the Corny Collins Hairspray character was in poor taste.

Mel’s constant costume changes throughout the night were a nice touch and her hair was appropriately over-done. She held the cheese factor up well as the night progressed.

Let me move onto where the fun started. The three bands performed one song after the other and all three were impressive. In general the night started off shaky, but this could be due to opening night nerves. The cast found its groove within a few numbers, and I don’t think I stopped tapping my toes or bopping in my seat the whole time.

Perfect 5th opened the competition with Step By Step and later sang such boy-band hits as I Swear, Girlfriend, End of the Road, Swear it Again and Back for Good. The choreography was perfectly suitable and very funny, however could have been a bit tighter at times. Their themed costumes perfectly captured the essence of the quintessential 90’s boy band. The boy band highlight was a ‘Mash up’ which included N*Sync’s Bye Bye Bye, Backstreet Boys’ Backstreet’s Back, Britney’s Oops I Did it Again and 5ive’s When the Lights Go Out. The mash up was a particularly clever arrangement that left me in awe as they sang all of these songs over each other as the arrangement built up to its end. I loved it! Danny and Robbie Medica were standouts, I must say. These brothers shone vocally and had great presence on stage. Both showed great comic timing, gazing into the audience dreamily, as well as singing impressive vocal runs and showing off strong falsetto.

The Four Tunes were tight and very well rehearsed. I love this genre and thought that they really did it justice. Hits such as Reach out, The tracks of my tears and Who loves You were such joy to watch and had me grinning from ear to ear. Their suave rendition of For the longest time left me with shivers. The Jersey Boys-inspired march through Walk Like a Man was a cheeky touch, and in general the choreography was slick and appropriate. Again, costumes were superb and I loved their jackets in particular. Jonothan Guthrie-Jones was a particular stand out throughout these numbers due to his professional delivery and fun presence, making it look way too easy as he gyrated and showed off his fancy footwork in the Jackson Five’s I Want You Back. Jenter Zlim was a pleasure to watch and listen to with his beautifully smooth and warm vocals whilst Ryan Purdey and Harrison Wall impressively hit some very high falsetto notes.

The Highlites were somewhat hit and miss. They performed acapella throughout the night without microphones, which I attribute to the mood changing within the audience when they performed. Barbershop is no easy feat and vocals really need to be tight. They achieved this in numbers such as Barbara Ann, Wake Up Little Suzie, Welcome to Transylvania, and I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) – yes, they did this in barbershop style – but Mister Sandman and Crazy Little thing Called Love at times presented pitch issues. I wanted more warmth and dynamics from the group as detail such as this would have really set them apart, but I did appreciate re-written lyrical references to the recent Tiger Woods and Lara Bingle scandals. Their costumes were the most diverse of the bands with appearances in kilts, beach wear and traditional tweed hats. Their hair styles were also suitably dorky. A special mention of Glenn Barnett who expertly sang the high falsetto solo in Barbara Ann, and then continued to impress singing the base line in subsequent numbers.

All three bands were interviewed and this was funny for the most part, but bordered on running too long. Guthrie-Jones’ black character and Robbie Medica’s gay subtleties were particularly well received by the audience.

The band was tightly led by Mal Fawcett and really hit the spot. There were some microphone balance issues at times, but I understand this can be hard to monitor when using hand held microphones. Whilst there was no set, my only visual criticism is that the lighting could have been much more exciting. Some of the ballads were lit nicely and the black costumes in Oh love that will not let me go looked great in front of the canary yellow backdrop, as did the white costume ensemble against the lavender backdrop in Back for Good. However, the scope for dynamic lighting in the uptempo numbers could have been explored, especially being a concert genre.

Overall, Slams’ Suits was thoroughly enjoyable, and given my trepidation mentioned about the cast being predominantly male, I must say they did an admirable job. I also implore more companies to think outside the square when presenting their next concert offering as was the case with this one. Maybe next year we’ll see Slams present ‘Skirts’? I don’t know… but I do recommend to anyone with a love for diverse music genres to go down and watch this cast deliver a fun and feel-good night.

Originally from Geelong, Christian has performed in a wide variety of shows including, ‘The Lion’ and ‘The Tinman’ in two productions of The Wizard of Oz, ‘Tommy’ in Annie Get Your Gun, ‘Nick’ in Fame, ‘Marius’ in Les Misérables, ‘Michael’ in The Witches of Eastwick and ‘Billy’ in Anything Goes.
Since moving to Melbourne in 2007 he has performed with Whitehorse Music Theatre in A Chorus Line as ‘Paul’ and as a ‘Wickersham Brother’ in Seussical. He was ‘Eddie’ in CLOC’s Blood Brothers, ‘Austin’ in I Love You Because with SHooSH! Productions and ‘Danny’ in PLOS’s Grease. Christian works as a graphic designer by day.