The puppets, and there are lots of them, are incredible. They range from the cute family pets and farmyard favourites to popular wildlife and the completely surreal inhabitants of Sea Star Island. The amazing, Doctor Dolittle can talk to them all.

It is 50 years since Rex Harrison created the role on film. The same Academy Award-winning song writer, Leslie Bricusse is behind the stage version and has written more original songs for this brand new, puppet-led production. There is a consistency to the new music that gives a feel it was always part of the bigger whole, but there is nothing new to rival the catchy, Talk to the Animals which everyone can sing along to.

It’s the song that first introduces us to the eccentric doctor, played with sensitivity and confidence by actor and comedian, Mark Williams. Williams has a gentle yet affirming presence on stage. His character prefers animals to humans, and his interactions with the puppets are where this show comes most strongly to life.

Doctor Dolittle yearns to be able to understand his animal companions better – if only he could talk to them. Hearing his musings, Polynesia the Parrot (Vicky Entwistle) steps in, teaching him the linguistic skills she’s learned over almost 200 years.

During his animal doctor consultations, Williams grunts, squeak and squawks at the animals before telling us what all the barks, neighing and quacking he hears in return mean. His new found understanding sees him conversing with a duck who flew into a ship’s mast while being nagged by his wife, giving an eye-test and spectacles to a short-sighted horse, and getting lessons in speaking more politely by a lobster. I love puppets and I love silly humour, so the two combined had me laughing out loud. But looking around my giddy response was unusual – it’s much more a heart-warming children’s show than a comedy.

Tom Piper’s sketch-book set design gives a nod to the Hugh Lifting’s original story, written in the trenches of WW1 to send some joy back home to his children. The escapism of it all is enchanting and there is a festive moral message at its heart about being kind to everyone, including the animals.

The message is as relevant today as it ever was. The search for eternal youth, a secret held by the Giant Pink Sea Snail, is another fantastical journey many still embark on. And perhaps the magical creatures by appealing to the young at heart have something to teach us about that too.

Doctor Dolittle The Musical is at The Lowry Theatre, Salford Quays from 11 December 2018 to 5 January 2019. See website for full tour details.

Read our interviews with the cast: Mark Williams, Brian Capron and Vicky Entwistle.

The post Doctor Dolittle at The Lowry, Salford Quays, Theatre Review appeared first on Quays Life.

For many of us Brian Capron will always be ‘Norman Bates with a briefcase.’ Famously one of Coronation Street’s most murderous villains, as Richard Hillman he definitely came under the heading of mad, bad and dangerous to know. But his latest project is a million miles away from such dastardly deeds and Brian is thrilled to be joining the cast of the 50th anniversary revival of the family-favourite musical Doctor Dolittle.

“It is charming, uplifting and relevant to today because, without hitting people over the head with it, the message about animal welfare and protecting the environment will really resonate with people,” Brian, enthuses during a break in rehearsals.

“The whole show has been streamlined and has even got three brand new songs that Leslie Bricusse has written especially,” he says, telling me that Hollywood royalty Bricusse has been frequenting the rehearsal room to keep an eye on things. As well he might. After all, he has been involved in Doctor Dolittle since 1967.

Based on the books by Hugh Lofting, who wrote the first of several Dolittle stories one-hundred years ago, the first story was penned in the trenches during WW1. The 1960s movie starred Rex Harrison as the eponymous Doctor and was nominated for nine Oscars, winning two, including Best Original Song for Bricusse’s Talk to the Animals. A UK stage adaptation starring Phillip Schofield premiered in 1998, followed by a US production in 2005. A story that has endured and continues to reach new audiences, in this new production double Academy Award-winner Leslie Bricusse has written the book, music and lyrics. Directed by Christopher Renshaw, Brian is almost as in awe of the scale of the mammoth production as he is of the show’s tip-top creative team.

“It is a big show! We have got a Broadway chorographer and in the number I front called, ‘I’ve Never Seen Anything Like it in My Life’ there are 20dancers – it’s massive,” says Brian, looking impressed and terrified in equal measure.

“We’ve a great creative team and amazing musicians,” he adds, “and then there are the puppets! Think War Horse. The pushmi-pullyu is a double-headed llama that is eight feet high!

“In the first half I play Albert Blossom, a larger-than-life character who is the owner of a circus. He is a bit rough and blousy and I think he probably drinks a lot,” he chuckles, adding that, while in the film Richard Attenborough played Blossom as a Northerner, he is making him a cockney.

“When Doctor Dolittle approaches him, Blossom tells him where to go with his animal, until he sees the pushmi-pullyu! Then in the second half I play, Straight Arrow, who is Chief of an island and is so named because his dad wanted him to go ‘straight to Harrow’! It is a nice contrasting character so I won’t get bored,” he jokes.

Joined by a cast that includes Mark Williams (‘Mr Weasley’ of Harry Potter fame) in the title role and fellow ex-Corrie actress, Vicky Entwistle as the parrot, Polynesia, it is undoubtedly a tale of our times for all the family – and with no stinting on spectacle.

Telling of eccentric Doctor Dolittle and his quest to find the Giant Pink Sea Snail that holds the secret of life and makes the world a happier place, Doctor Dolittle teaches us not only to talk to the animals but to listen to them as well.

Brian is delighted to report that all aboard the good ship Dolittle are indeed a happy and friendly crew. Brian says: “It is such a lovely company. You don’t always get that, but it makes touring life so much easier.”

And what a tour it is! Running for a year, Brian and Mark have signed up for six months, committing to being ‘on the road’ until early May.

“I live in Hove on the South coast and I don’t really like working in the West End because you just get the train there and back every day and it’s like having a regular job. I like touring, but I’m fed up with staying in hotels, so sometimes I take my big six-berth motor home and find somewhere with electric hook-up.”

“And of course we have Christmas at the Lowry, which will be brilliant as we have a lot of friends from Coronation Street up there. My wife will come up as she made lots of friends on Corrie too, and I also did panto last year in Stockport and filmed, ‘Where the Heart Is’ in the North. Being anywhere up this way always feels familiar.”

No stranger to talking to the animals, keen rider Brian recalls growing up on a council estate near Heathrow Airport.

“A friend told me that if you offered to help out at the local stables you could get free rides. I used to muck out 21 horses on my own!”

But it was while presenting for This Morning that he got what he now describes as “the best job I ever had.” Dispatched to Borneo to track and report on the jungle’s orangutans, he quickly found himself falling in love with these beautiful apes.

“I learnt so much. They are amazing creatures; fascinating. Before then I would have said that I was very much a people person rather than an animal person, but that experience changed me. It made me realise what we are doing to these poor animals with palm oil and the destruction of their habitats. As I say, the production doesn’t bash you with the environmental message, but it is there.”

Time to return to rehearsals for his big song and dance number, Brian bids me farewell, but not before he tells me how chuffed he is to be involved in Doctor Dolittle.

“It is a very special show. I think people will be gobsmacked and I am honoured and proud to be part of it.”

Doctor Dolittle is at The Lowry, Salford Quays from 11 December 2018 – 5 January 2019. Visit website for full tour details.

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Mark Williams must have been off sick when the caution to ‘never work with children or animals’ was flagged up. From playing Mr Weasley in the Harry Potter films, which were teeming with kids, he has now signed up to do six months on the road with all manner of crazy creatures as Doctor Dolittle. Frying pan to fire? Not a bit of it.

“I have always wanted to do a musical but the timings just never worked out,” he tells me, explaining how he had been invited to make his musical theatre debut in a number of productions, including taking over from Bertie Carvel as Miss Trunchbull in Matilda.

“I nearly did My Fair Lady recently. I got so close to it, but there were problems with American Equity and it fell though, so when Doctor Dolittle came along I said yes, definitely YES!”

Part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of the original movie starring the late Rex Harrison, there were other elements that piqued Mark’s particular interest in the project too.

“It was a combination of things really, but using puppets that can dance, sing and move in a completely different way adds a whole other layer that fascinates me. In the film it was real animals and then on stage it was animatronics, but this time around it is completely different.

“It also seemed like the right time to do Dolittle again. I don’t think – with all due respect to other productions – that he’s been done justice to, and I think it’s the right time to talk about taking care of animals. Leslie [Bricusse – book, music and lyrics] was really interested in looking again at a new adaptation and we now have the chance to interact in a much more dramatic way. And that superhero skill of talking to the animals really interested me because it opens up a whole other universe.”

I suggest that perhaps looking for a new universe was author, Hugh Lofting’s inspiration when he wrote the original stories from the fetid trenches of the First World War. Mark nods his agreement.

“Like most people he had an appalling time and witnessed man’s appalling capacity for self-destruction and cruelty. In a way Doctor Dolittle is his antidote to that. It’s not just about the animals; it’s about being kind to each other, which is a really basic thing that children naturally understand but that we seem to forget as adults. We become selfish in oh so many ways. But Doctor Dolittle has a philosophy and he’s on a mission, although sometimes he is misunderstood.”

If you’re new to the tale of the charmingly eccentric Doctor Dolittle, in the musical version his challenge is to track down none other than the Giant Pink Sea Snail, a creature that holds the secret of life and makes the world a happier place. By way of stupendous song, dance, puppetry and pageantry, the underlying message urges us not just to attempt conversation with animals, but to listen and learn from them too.

Describing himself as an animal lover (“I am not an animal person to the exclusion of people but I am an animal lover”), Mark says he’s enthralled by animal behaviour.

“We know so very little really. With transmitter technology we have only just found out, for example, what puffins do when they’re not nesting. We have a lot to learn yet.”
But, he promises, there is lots of fun on offer for all the family; from little ones to great-grandparents and everyone in between.

“There are lots of things that kids especially will find hilarious. After all, what’s not funny about a naughty monkey?

“And the great thing is that it is all LIVE! Going to the theatre for the first time for kids is like having only ever watched football on the telly and then going to a match. It happens right in front of you,” he says, stressing that live theatre is a completely different experience to watching, say, a movie.

“This is the real deal and with all the puppetry it will be really exciting,” he adds.
Praise indeed from a man whose career has included some of the highest grossing films of all time and performances at some of our most distinguished theatres. One of our best-loved actors, from leading roles at the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre and Birmingham Rep, Mark has also been on TV presenting documentary series on both Britain’s Industrial Heritage and Explosives, has hosted two series of the quiz show, The Link, and has written and performed in the hugely popular The Fast Show. Familiar worldwide as GK Chesterton’s Father Brown in the hit BBC TV series of the same name, in movies he has starred in 101 Dalmatians, The Borrowers, Shakespeare In Love and, of course, as the Ministry of Magic’s Head of the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts and proud papa of Ron, Fred, George, Ginny, et al in seven of the eight Harry Potter films. With such a cool and credible CV he has plenty to swank about, but that simply isn’t Mark’s style. Funny, warm and amiable, imagining him as the delightfully dotty Doctor Dolittle doesn’t require any leap of imagination.

As for the prospect of the tour and of life on the road he is upbeat – enthusiastic even.
“I was touring way back and have worked away all my life, so it’s normal to me,” he says with a grin. “Besides, it makes home all the sweeter.”

With no need of local guidebooks, he is also familiar with almost all the towns on the tour schedule.

“I have been to everywhere pretty much, either as an actor or through making documentaries or just visiting for pleasure. I love getting out and about; getting the bus and exploring towns. It’s the best thing about touring.”

The perfect pick-me-up and an absolute tonic, I’d advise booking in with this particular ‘Doctor’ without delay.

Doctor Dolittle is at The Lowry, Salford Quays from 11 December 2018 –  5 January 2019. Visit website for full tour details.

The post Mark Williams makes his musical debut in Doctor Dolittle at The Lowry appeared first on Quays Life.

She may be playing a parrot, but former Corrie star, Vicky Entwistle won’t be winging it when it comes to performing in the newly updated 50th anniversary revival of the classic musical Doctor Dolittle.

Arguably one of soaps loudest and lairiest ladies, while she may still be ‘squawking’ in her latest role, there will be no further trace of Corrie’s Janice Battersby when Vicky plays the parrot who teaches Doctor Dolittle the language of the animal kingdom.

Marking the 50th anniversary of the 1967 film of Doctor Dolittle, with book, music and lyrics by double Academy Award-winner, Leslie Bricusse, the production features the same much-loved songs, including the Academy Award-winning Talk to the Animals.

Featuring stunning visual puppetry, and with the book reworked by Leslie Bricusse, it’s easy to see why theatres all over the country have been so eager to book a slice of the Dolittle action – enough venues to fill a whole year.

Signed up to appear for the duration, Vicky admits that having her carpenter husband, Andy, working alongside her makes the prospect of 12 months living out of a suitcase much easier to contemplate.

“He is a carpenter and helps to build our set,” she explains, “I wanted to do the full year was to see all these places that I have never been to before. When I am seventy I want to be able to say ‘Oh, I played that theatre!’ So yes; we’ll be going round churches and cathedrals and attractions and doing lots of walking. We like to have a good old nose around. It’s going to be fun.”

“I am really looking forward to playing The Lowry, which of course is close to all my old Corrie friends. Blackpool is close to home and anywhere up North means we will see family and friends.”

Vicky is no stranger to musicals having played Madame Thénardier in the West End production of Les Misérables. Yet, modestly she insists she’s no expert.

“I also thought that, by doing the whole year, I could learn more. In fact, when they asked me to do this I asked my hubby what was going on!”

The show tells the story of the eccentric Doctor Dolittle who sets off to track down the Giant Pink Sea Snail – the creature that holds the secret of life and makes the world a happier place. Helped by his human companions and an exotic menagerie of animal friends, including the pushmi-pullyu and trusty sidekick ,Polynesia the parrot, the Doctor teaches us not only to talk to the animals, but also the value of listening to them.

“Polly is very old, very wise and extremely funny,” says Vicky, “She’s also quite cheeky. She is the only animal that can speak [human and all the animal languages] and Doctor Dolittle is quite taken aback when he first realises. He thinks he is the clever one, but really Polly is always giving him clues and leading him in the right direction.

“They are just the most amazing costumes. Without giving too much away, mine kind of melts into the puppetry.

“To be a character and to sing, dance and do puppetry? I thought my head was going to explode. By the end of the first week of rehearsals, I was convinced that whenever I heard birds tweeting that they were talking to me!”

Vicky admits to being initially been a tad in awe of the musical’s creator, Leslie Bricusse, who is a double Oscar and Grammy winner, and has no less than eight Ivor Novello Awards to his name. Bricusse, who has written more than 40 musical films and plays and songs, including the blockbusters Scrooge, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Goodbye, Mr Chips, Superman, Victor/Victoria, Home Alone 1 & 2, Hook, Goldfinger and You Only Live Twice, was sitting in on rehersals, and Vicky says having familiar faces in the cast helped her initial nerves.

JVicky is joined on stage by ex-Corrie pal, Brian Capron (Corrie’s dasterdly Richard Hillman), and Mark ‘Mr Weasley’ Williams as the good doctor.

“I had my two pals,” she smiles, “I worked with Mark on Father Brown and with Brian on Corrie, which really helped.”

Having overcome her wobbles at being in the presence of a musical genius, Vicky fell in love with the revised story, and its resonance in today’s throw-away society.

“It is so relevant and the message is clear: you get back what you give out. It is about loving animals and the environment; a sweet message of compassion and thoughtfulness. It is very much a show for all the family and it is very funny. It has got something for everyone and it looks stunning too. I think People are going to love it.

“I want audiences to leave the theatre feeling really elated, humming the tunes and feeling alive. I want them to understand the moral and for children especially to think about the environment and the animals. I am very much an animal person. Animals are ace.”

From what I hear, so too is the show. A word to the wise: grab tickets now. I suspect they’re selling faster than a sprinting cheetah.

Doctor Dolittle is at The Lowry, Salford Quays from 11 December 2018 –  5 January 2019.

The post Vicky Entwistle on playing a parrot in Doctor Dolittle The Musical at The Lowry appeared first on Quays Life.

The new stage production is part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of the original film starring Rex Harrison.

The musical, with book, music and lyrics by double Academy Award-winner, Leslie Bricusse, tells the story of an eccentric doctor who embarks on an extraordinary adventure to find the Giant Pink Sea Snail that he’s told holds the secret of life and makes the world a happier place.

Helped by his human companions and an exotic menagerie of animal friends, including the Pushmi-Pullyu and trusty sidekick, Polynesia the Parrot, the larger-than-life Doctor Dolittle teaches us not only to talk to the animals but to listen to them as well.

This new production is headed-up with a star-studded cast, including Mark Williams as Dolittle, Brian Capron and Vicky Entwistle.

And from this early glimpse of the life-sized animal puppets we have no doubt the incredibly cute pig, monkey and dog will be big stars too before the end of the run.

Doctor Dolittle is at The Lowry, Salford Quays from 11 December 2018 to 5 January 2019.

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