For the third year running this musical arrives at the Edinburgh Fringe and it’s a slick production put together by the Kingdom Theatre Company and showcasing some great young talent including Lily Martin as the young Helen, who is remarkably the same age (15) as Helen Shapiro was when she shot to fame having two number 1 singles and three other Top 5 hits as a teenager.
She even had the Beatles as her support act in the early days and this production gives us a glimpse into that world from the early 1960s, with producer Norrie Paramor choosing the songs for her, whether she liked them or not!
On the night I watched the show there were technical issues and a delay caused by the previous act in that venue changing settings and not putting them back, all of which is not what you want when everything has to be spot-on, and indeed the gremlins were very apparent at the beginning of the show and continued for a while after – something which could have easily unsettled the cast. Fortunately the whole cast’s professionalism shone through and they carried on regardless, so full credit to them for that.
The older Helen was played by Jacquie Alexander, who narrates the story in view of everyone on the stage, which was a good way of doing it rather than have a disembodied voice used. The hits are all there of course and some new songs written especially for the show. This is a really nice production and Helen Shapiro herself has given it her blessing.
Lily is a natural talent who has bags of confidence and will surely develop her career from here. Her own performance was very convincing and I’m sure she will be on the radar of a lot of influential people over the next few years.
The show is well researched and well worth a visit to enjoy the music and the story of Helen Shapiro.
