Amélie is a musical about a young woman who endeavours to improve the lives of those around her, while neglecting her own – until she meets a stranger as mysterious as she is. The music in the show is complex, with a lot of intertwining harmonies and vocal lines, and both the cast and band do a great job of navigating these. The first song, ‘The Flight of the Blue Fly’, is especially impressive, and the chorus moments throughout are joyful and full-bodied.
‘The Commute Home’ and ‘Goodbye Amelie’ (with an impressive solo by Nathan Cook as Elton John) were other great ensemble songs. Some of the smaller group numbers do struggle to convince, such as ‘Blue Arrow Suite’, which seemed rather slow, though it is still enjoyable. The band are very good throughout, with standouts being pianists Fraser Brown and Alfie Wilkinson, and the violinists/viola Tessa Chan and Charley Davies. A few of the harmonies seemed a little empty, but this was only a small issue when the band was doing so well in the rest of the music.
The cast on the whole were very strong, and the amount of French accents was pretty impressive! Orlaith Day as Amélie Poulain had a clear voice that was perfect for both Amelie’s melodies and character, and portrayed both Amelie’s quirkiness and emotional struggles with poignance and skill. The two mostly solo numbers she had, ‘Halfway’ and ‘Times Are Hard For Dreamers’ were amazing, and she commanded the stage effortlessly.
Her three friends from the café: Gina, Georgette and Suzanne, played by Eve Catanach, Maddy Hicks and Ellie Porter, respectively, were also very talented and worked well together, especially in the ‘A Better Haircut’ number. Two additional highlights are Evan Donninger as Dominique Bretodeau, who had an impressive voice – his duet with Day in ‘How To Tell Time’ is gorgeous, and Holly Atkin as Julien Dufayel is both a talented singer and acts the character of an old man well.
Similarly, ‘old person’ styling can be hard to get right, and I appreciated how it was done in this show, thanks to both Atkin and the costume designers, Kyle Knight and Stan Smith. Will Merritt as Nino Quincampoix also has a strong voice, and works well alongside Day in the last few numbers.
The directing was generally good, although some moments felt weaker. Some of the characters could have perhaps done with more direction and energy, and the blocking in scenes without songs sometimes came across a little contrived and still. However, the choreography was nicely done and I especially liked the motif of people crowding the stage and suddenly falling into line, effectively portraying the running theme of how most of the characters in the show do not know each other beyond a few simple interactions, yet are connected by Amélie.
One of my favourite parts of the show is the set. I absolutely love the photo booth, and how it span to reveal the café table. The balcony added a great dimension, and the fairy lights across the top of the stage felt instinctively French. Set designer Dylan Phelps, with the help of constructors Amelie Lords, Giulietta Alvis, Lucy Davies and Matilda Schlich, did an amazing job. As well as this, the prop design is inspired, especially the Child Amelie puppet.
Furthermore, the lighting design of the show was very nice, paritcularly the use of flashing orange lights to communicate the metro, although I feel the stage could have been better lit in some moments where the actor’s faces were in shadow. The sound design was also good, with a nice balance between the vocals and band, though there were some mic issues to do with them seemingly not being active when the actors first started to sing, which meant some of the parts of the first song were lost. This was solved quickly though and did not majorly arise in the rest of the show.
Overall, this was a show with a talented cast, band and tech team that accurately portrayed the whimsical nature of the show with a lot of emotion. More character direction and dynamic blocking could have been utilised, as well as a little more attention to detail in the light and sound, but these issues did not stop the show from being an enjoyable watch.
Amélie is running until December 14th at the University of Sheffield Drama Studio. Tickets are available here
