REVIEW: The Bastard Sons of a Small Town Elvis by Tim French at Jack Studio Theatre until 4 Nov

‘Music is the production’s main strength’ ★★★ ½

For this revised production of The Bastard Son of a Small Town Elvis, the stage of the LPTM winner of London Pub Theatre of the Year has been transformed into a seedy music pub, complete with four blokes up on the stand playing rock’n’roll.

Danny and Billy are on a sort of low-rent pilgrimage to find Danny’s father. He is a singer, an Elvis Presley impersonator, in a sad pub in a sad out-of-season seaside town, and nothing about the set-up raises any expectation that this reunion will go well. They arrive in the pub with the singerless band already set up and playing. The first of a number of nice surprises this production offers – the band are really good. They look like a band that has been round so many blocks they’ve lost count, happy to play weddings and bar-mitzvahs, with the sort of dead-eyed calculation that enables them to stop halfway through a song if their contracted ninety minutes is up, and yet… Dan Patterson plays discreet rhythm on his keyboard, Kevin Wiremu keeps everyone honest with supple, clean drum patterns, and up-front, Rob Hinton makes nice noises on guitar and Ken Cooke plays a magisterial five-string bass. Nothing flash, just solid, interesting rock’n’roll.

Music is the production’s main strength. The cast all get moments in the spotlight singing, and they’re all good. Even more impressive, Billy (Niall Hemingway),  the mum (Kathryn Haywood) and the pot-girl (Milly Brann) all sing really pretty back-up harmonies. Danny (Michael Gillett) and his dad (Tim French) sing a variety of songs that cleverly pastiche rock’n’roll classics, offering just a suggestion of Blue Suede Shoes or Tutti Frutti with repurposed, plot developing lyrics.

Tim French has a very firm grasp on the show when there’s singing or playing involved. He is much less sure-footed around dialogue. A lot of it is pretty clunky, some jokes don’t really land, and there’s a mismatch between the affable chat of Frank the Bouncer, very well played by David Cramer, and his character’s spite and crookedness. That would have merited development and given Mr. Cramer more to chew on. He has great presence and great timing which was rather wasted.  Molly Brann and Niall Hemingway sounded like people talking to each other as they courted/seduced one another, and their scenes were stand-outs, but very incidental, and much of the rest of the dialogue is very laboured. Tim French has given himself an awful lot to do – writer, director, central role as Danny’s absentee dad, main singer. Another set of ears might have produced a more fluent script, because the good bits were very good. Under-written character development, over-written exposition.

That said, it’s a good-hearted, fast-moving, fun show. It doesn’t demand a lot of analysis, and a taste for 1950s rock stylings is probably essential, but it’s a very good way to spend two hours. And then there’s Ken Cooke’s bass playing that soars into the mix in the second half. A well-deserved 3.5 stars for the whole show, 4 stars for the bass solo.

The Bastard Sons of a Small Town Elvis

written by Tim French

Jack Studio Theatre

Box Office https://brockleyjack.co.uk/jackstudio-entry/the-bastard-sons-of-a-small-town-elvis/

Presented by Bo-Diddling Productions

Tues 31st October – Sat 4th November at 7.30pm

Reviewed by Chris Lilly