For anyone like myself who knows of the song but not of the story, Copacabana is a world-famous nightclub in New York City and Stephen, (played by Ben Hurley) an aspiring songwriter is transported to a time when “music and passion were always the fashion”!
He dreams of a hopeful showgirl, Lola LaMar (played by Megan Fitzpatrick) who is catapulted to stardom as a Copa girl with the help of Tony Forte (also played by Ben Hurley) who is himself a bartender with dreams of his own. The villainous Rico (played by Michael Lowe) is captivated by Lola’s performance and whisks her away to the Tropicana nightclub in Havana where a mission takes shape to rescue Lola from the clutches of Rico. This has it all, a fairytale story of old-fashioned love, jealously and murder in the entwined lives of Lola, Tony and Rico.
If you were looking for an evening of pure Am Dram entertainment then this was it. The acting was of a high standard with Megan Fitzpatrick cast as the leading lady Lola in her first show with New Venture Players at the young age of seventeen and I am sure it won’t be her last. Ben Hurley was cast as Stephen/Tony and was an extremely strong lead and Michael Lowe played a very powerful villainous Rico was acting beyond his sixteen years. Another young actor, Luke Hereford who at seventeen was extremely funny and memorable in his role as Willy and a special mention has to go to James Stanford for his role of Sam Silver and not letting the fantastically funny wig gags outshine his acting abilities. Everyone in the cast from the Leads, the Copa girls, Copa Mammas/Band to the Chorus all played their parts to make this a very funny and enjoyable production of Barry Manlow’s Copacabana
A perfect production however doesn’t exist as they all have some hiccups and this had it’s share, what with the technical difficulties with some of the microphones, an over zealous smoke machine and the unfortunate slip of Lola’s headdress in the finale but I truly did enjoy the Copa experience from the acting, beautiful sets, fantastic choreography wonderful colourful costumes and who would forget the energy of the songs throughout the show.
Quoting Luke Hereford who “Can’t wait for the glitter” well there was glitter, there was dazzle, there was glamour and it was just fabulous Am Dram at it’s best and I will be booking my tickets for the next New Venture Players production of The Producers that opens March 21st – 26th 2011 with tickets on sale now at the Dolman Theatre Box Office – 01633 663060. BE THERE OR BE SQUARE!
by Debra Johnson
