Plymouth Theatre Review

Title of Show: Tin Soldier

Date of attendance: 17/04/2024

Venue: Soapbox Theatre

Production Type: Musical Play

Easy to follow: 3/5

Family friendly: 1/5

Must see: 3/5

Tin Soldier is a new show, written and directed by Richard Haighton, about the tumultuous relationship between the two frontmen of The Small Faces, Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane. When walking into the Soapbox Theatre it felt like you had wandered into an underground club; the intimate space along with drinks, chatter and the use of music videos took the audience back to their halcyon teenage years. Perhaps it was a little too packed for comfort but all the best gigs are! 

When looking at the horizon outside the theatre you could see the spot where the legendary Van Dike Club used to reside, and in many ways it was like it had come back to life again! The audience loved the nostalgic ambiance, and even sung along to quite a few of the numbers. Particularly Lazy Sunday. You could see that a large proportion of the audience remembered the Small Faces and at least two said they had seen them play the Plymouth ABC in 1965, so for them this could not have been a more perfect night out. 

The use of music throughout the show was incredibly effective. When I first saw the acoustic guitars laid out on the front of the stage I had fears of re-experiencing late-night parties with wannabe Keith Richards murdering classics, but this was certainly not the case. In fact, it was refreshing to hear heavy rock songs stripped back. A stand-out for me was Sha La Le. The music choices overall were well picked. The only one I struggled with was Al Jolson’s Brother, Can You Spare A Dime? I understand why it was added, but I felt that it wasn’t entirely necessary to the story.

From the script you could tell that Haighton is a musical devotee and aficionado. At times this was a bit too apparent, with some dialogue sounding more like an article in the NME as opposed to natural conversation. Due to the specificity of the subject, audience members without knowledge of the band struggled to grasp parts of the action at times, being unfamiliar with the band’s biography.

The use of swear words throughout was not an issue for me. While some people questioned the need for their inclusion and frequency it certainly added to the rock and roll feel and didn’t distract too much from the action. 

Steve Marriott, portrayed by Dean Melmoth, became repetitive incredibly quickly, giving similar responses throughout the show, such as “Eh?” and “What?”. Steve Marriott, perhaps because of these repetitive responses, was not a likeable character. This was presumably the intention of the writer, but was problematic when a large proportion of the show revolved around this character. Despite this, Melmoth’s singing was uncannily like Marriott’s, which should be applauded, as it was evident he had a good understanding of the character and his vocal style. It can be difficult to portray drunkenness, particularly when it is not for comic effect, and equally difficult to choreograph fight scenes, so it was novel to attempt to do both in a small space like the Soapbox. It was slightly confusing when his character seemed to appear in a ‘Ghost of Christmas Past’ style throughout the latter parts of the show. It was not fully explained as to whether this character was there or not which distracted from the scene and created a sense of disjointedness. This idea could have been better realised with more clarity, to avoid confusion and sharpen the meaning behind these scenes.

The heart and soul of the piece proved to be Anthony Chamberlain’s portrayal of Ronnie Lane. I never used to believe in performances stealing the show at the eleventh hour, but I can confidently attest that Chamberlain did just that! Lane’s deterioration was portrayed with a moving balance of  sensitivity and viciousness, at times becoming very hard to watch. It resonated with a lot of people, and brought a real catharsis to the piece. I would have liked to have seen more of these scenes because they made the piece more than the average jukebox musical and into something with far more substance and grit.

On the whole this was Richard Haighton’s night, and in the writing and directing he has taken risks that many community theatre groups would not think of attempting, which proved to be commendable and impressive. I would like to see more risks like this within community theatre and would encourage this for future works.

I hope to see many more Fast Forward Theatre shows breaking boundaries with their new writing. With a name like Tin Soldier, my personal expectation was a jukebox musical like We Will Rock You or Mamma Mia!!, but what we got was a piece of theatre more more akin to Peter Sykes’ The Committee or Peter Watkins’ Privilege. And do we really need another We Will Rock You? One is certainly enough! 

Review by Sam Crawley

*Gifted / This theatre review was written following a gifted ticket to the performance. However, all opinions and views expressed in this review are entirely that of the reviewer and the review has not been influenced in any way by the provision of the ticket. Our commitment remains to provide an honest and unbiased assessment of the experience.