REVIEW: THE BASTARD SONS OF CATFORD ELVIS by Tim French at The Bridge House Theatre 21 – 25 March 2023

‘Offbeat charm and humour’ ★★ ½ 

I’ve written before about the often epic achievements that directors and theatre owners realise in packing in so much into such a small space. The tiny Bridge House Theatre manages to fit in a full band of 4 in support of The Bastard Sons Of Catford Elvis and, indeed, a show that is fuelled by the music of the late great singer needs ‘proper’ music, right?

Friends Danny (Owen Butcher) and Billy (Rowan Kitchen) are big fans of the King of Rock Roll. Their passion and knowledge is shown by their playing out an early scene quiz on Elvis’ life and times but, additionally, Danny is fuelled by his desire to find his birth father known only as ‘John’. With a Butlins-style rock and roll weekender upcoming and John’s band booked to play, the two decide to go and confront him.

Characters are then introduced and come and go, shuffling on and off the tiny stage (because, as mentioned, the band take up so much space!) with bursts of song, mistaken identity, lots of swearing, a brutal yet golden-hearted bouncer (a winning David Cramer) and the relatively late introduction of a reality TV film crew to act as the conduit to help bring it all together.

There’s a hint of Blood Brothers and a bit of Sunny Afternoon about the whole thing, and the story kind of asks about parenting, responsibility, fulfilment of dreams and ‘second time around’. In truth, I’m afraid there’s some ropey acting and dialogue (at times) and some of the tunes - which all use riffs and lines from Elvis hits (plus a slightly random Blues Brothers-inspired number) - come and go without always landing. The staging is of course minimal and the lighting is clunky and un-adventurous.

As Danny, Butcher gets all the good lines and has a decent go at breaking the fourth wall with offbeat and offhand charm and humour. Rowan Kitchen’s Billy treads perilously on caricature (a bit too Miranda Hart for me) but she can sing and her quieter moments connect with the audience. When the other characters sing together - especially post interval - there is a like-ability and some winning harmonies. And as Lisa-Marie (love interest for Billy), Milly Brann shows that she can go up and down her musical scales.

So, the story is slight and, ultimately, doesn’t add up to anything of any great substance. Thus, you’d be inclined to think that this was an evening and a show best missed.

And yet.

John - Lightning Johnny, in fact - is played by Tim French who has a decent enough singing voice but isn’t the greatest actor. But Tim has come off the subs bench to replace the original lead actor Dave Nelson who had to withdraw due to ill health (and best wishes to him) - and Tim is also the writer and director. What I admire here is his ambition. A 4-piece band. A raft of new songs in a new British musical. A proper go at decent musical segues and transitions. A nice mix of tunes which help move the action forward. A narrative arc - it all goes back to that quiz - which is neat and smart. And an audience that was engaged and left happy.

The script needs, in my view, a tonne of work but I really hope that French keeps revising it and revising it so that it might find a wider and longer life. Good luck - he might just be on to something.....

★★★ ½ for ambition

Produced by: Horizontal Productions

Reviewed by Paul Maidment