Acorn Antiques is not about the goings on in a fictitious midlands antique shop but about a bunch of actors playing in low budget soap. When the sketch started, as part of Victoria Woods "As Seen on TV" all we knew about the characters was what we could glean from their on screen antics. But what we did learn was how much they disliked each other, how unprepared they were, how low rent this particular soap was. At the end of the run came the "making of" episode and here we got a bit more back story on these characters. This like much else Victoria Wood did on this show was way ahead of its time but no less than we have come to expect from her, after all "As Seen on TV" gave us Hetty, the prototype of the Hyacinthis Bucket character and pretty much created the format that French and Saunders did to death several years later, main difference being Victoria's version was way funnier and she wrote everything herself. And of course there are always all those superb musical parodies. Well OK I'm a Victoria Wood fan, no question.
Now I have to say I don't consider Acorn Antiques the musical 100% successful but I'm still not sure why. Having seen the show during its run last year and watched the DVD of that run at several times now I have to say parts of it are excellent. The DVD is great value with a full show with Julie Walters as Mrs O and several songs with Victoria Woods's version of Mrs O, we also get a Karaoke version of all the songs and subtitles throughout. And this is excellent, there's always so much going on in Victoria's stuff that you need to see it again and again to get everything out of it.
The big question is why do it like this? Don't get me wrong its great to see Julie Walters 'aged hoofer' and I love seeing Celia Imrie vamping it up, (how does she manage to bend back so far? strapping girl like that) But as one of the cast says, (of Chorus Line) it's a musical, it doesn't have to have a point. So just an excuse to string a few songs together? To really parody something you have to love it too and many of these numbers are outstanding, "Tip Top Tap" is super and I'd love to see them go at it flat out right the way through. Celia's "Come on Boys" song is superb and Sally Ann Triplet's love song to Mr Clifford is just lovely and has got my eyes wet a couple of times. But all together the show does go on a bit. The first part with Neil Morrisey has the director is maybe a little too much of a good thing. The second half, which for balance parodies the other half of middle England's catalogue of gripes seems to be a bit more pertinent, we are not as far as I'm aware too heavily plagued with left wing theatre directors but we are bombarded with people bitching about the loss of all our traditional high streets.
I suppose what I would love to see is the right vehicle for Victoria Woods' writing. Her Christmas show of a couple of years ago was pretty hot stuff and I'm sure the BBC or any other TV company would snap up 13 more just like it but I fear she's done that format, done the sketch show, done the sitcom format. Maybe a musical film is what would suit her best and then those lovely songs and exquisite performances would be preserved for ever. Maybe an appropriately radical approach would be to ditch parody and play it straight, why not? Oh and give Celia a love song to sing this time!
Now I have to say I don't consider Acorn Antiques the musical 100% successful but I'm still not sure why. Having seen the show during its run last year and watched the DVD of that run at several times now I have to say parts of it are excellent. The DVD is great value with a full show with Julie Walters as Mrs O and several songs with Victoria Woods's version of Mrs O, we also get a Karaoke version of all the songs and subtitles throughout. And this is excellent, there's always so much going on in Victoria's stuff that you need to see it again and again to get everything out of it.
The big question is why do it like this? Don't get me wrong its great to see Julie Walters 'aged hoofer' and I love seeing Celia Imrie vamping it up, (how does she manage to bend back so far? strapping girl like that) But as one of the cast says, (of Chorus Line) it's a musical, it doesn't have to have a point. So just an excuse to string a few songs together? To really parody something you have to love it too and many of these numbers are outstanding, "Tip Top Tap" is super and I'd love to see them go at it flat out right the way through. Celia's "Come on Boys" song is superb and Sally Ann Triplet's love song to Mr Clifford is just lovely and has got my eyes wet a couple of times. But all together the show does go on a bit. The first part with Neil Morrisey has the director is maybe a little too much of a good thing. The second half, which for balance parodies the other half of middle England's catalogue of gripes seems to be a bit more pertinent, we are not as far as I'm aware too heavily plagued with left wing theatre directors but we are bombarded with people bitching about the loss of all our traditional high streets.
I suppose what I would love to see is the right vehicle for Victoria Woods' writing. Her Christmas show of a couple of years ago was pretty hot stuff and I'm sure the BBC or any other TV company would snap up 13 more just like it but I fear she's done that format, done the sketch show, done the sitcom format. Maybe a musical film is what would suit her best and then those lovely songs and exquisite performances would be preserved for ever. Maybe an appropriately radical approach would be to ditch parody and play it straight, why not? Oh and give Celia a love song to sing this time!
