As the lights dimmed for the start of PRETTY WOMAN THE MUSICAL, on stage at the Wales Millennium Centre this week, I don’t think there was one person in the packed out Donald Gordon Theatre who didn’t know the story and what we were in for.
This show comes with pretty real love and affection and it was pretty clear, from the pretty broad smiles across pretty much every member of the audience, that we were in for a pretty great few hours, and it pretty much delivered on every count.
Of course, coming with so much affection means we all have really high expectations. We also each have our favourite iconic moments from the classic 1990 movie – the dress, the necklace, the shopping trip, the music, and heaven help any show that doesn’t included them.
So, first of all, what did last nights audience think of the production? You may notice the distinct lack of men in our review, mainly because the audience was made up of around 95 per cent plus women. We did though get a chat with one of the stars, ORE ODUBA, who shared his love for Cardiff and the mega enthusiastic crowd.
Don’t expect some modern retelling of this story, revamped for our ever-changing world. This is the Pretty Woman we know and love and all the ‘of the time‘ moments are there, much to the delight of the audience.
If you haven’t seen or indeed know anything about Pretty Woman, it’s a pretty straight forward rags to riches fairytale. Boy meets girls, boy pays girls money to be his escort for a week. Girls falls for boy, girl falls out with boy, and so on.
The cast includes some pretty well known faces from TV but each have gone on to carve out a really successful career on stage. Vivian Ward is the Pretty Woman in the story, played by AMBER DAVIES. Now, Amber may have made her name on Love Island but having seen her in a few productions over recent years, she is very much the real deal on stage.
Julia Roberts thigh high boots are difficult ones to fill but Amber does it with all the charm, wit and sass we love about Vivian.
Edward, the suave, sophisticated, ruthless and pretty selfish businessman who meets Vivian working the streets of Hollywood as he attempts to drive his swanky sports car to the Beverly Wilshire Hotel is played by OLIVER SAVILE. He adds real charm to the role and for me I felt more emotion was put into Edward for the stage show. You could feel his love for Vivian building from the moment he met her on the street.
There’s moments of comedy, brought to life by Vivian’s friend Kit De Luca (NATALIE PARIS), but as in the movie, the story does briefly touch on the situation these girls find themselves in and how money isn’t always the key to real happiness.
The narrator in the story is another TV favourite who has found his home on stage, and was in fact here in South Wales recently in Rocky Horror. ORE ODUBA is HappyMan/Mr Thompson and a few other surprise roles which I won’t spoil here, but they are very funny moments. Ore keeps the story moving along nicely, and also has a couple of ten out of ten dance routines, for those of you who followed him on Strictly.
There’s also some really nice interaction where he and bellboy Giulio (NOAH HORRISON) have some little scene-stealing moments. Noah doesn’t say much but when he’s around he certainly lights up the stage, and very quickly became another audience favourite.
There’s a few of these rom-com movie to stage shows around at the moment, where Pretty Woman differs is that it hasn’t gone down the standard jukebox musical route. This has a proper, and really well integrated soundtrack. BRYAN ADAMS and JIM VALLANCE have penned an instantly catchy set of tunes for the show, with the obvious exception of the Roy Orbison classic ‘Oh Pretty Woman‘, which you’ll be relieved to hear is included in the show.
The songs actually fit really well into the story and don’t tamper with those moments we all want to hear. I’d actually go as far as saying the songs add to the storytelling, particularly in putting more hearty into Edwards’s sometimes cold-hearted character.
The original film is packed with little phrases which gladly remain intact. The moments you love from the movie are all there and throughout the show I could hear whispers around the audience as they waited eagerly for those scenes or lines to appear.
I do want to give credit to the band, who are first class as is the set. It captures all the elements of the movie and throws in a few nice surprises, which again I won’t spoil here. Do pay close attention to the bench towards the climax of the show, I thought it was a real inventive, and witty way to include what could have been a tricky scene.
The rest of the show is a delight. It’s fun and romantic and keeps all the charm of the original movie with the addition of some greats songs. The outfits are very 80s/90s, the story even more so, but that is why we all think Pretty Woman is pretty damn brilliant.
I love the film but I think I actually love this even more and from the majority of the Cardiff crowd we spoke to last night, they clearly feel the same.
Pretty Woman is Pretty awesome and you’d be pretty mad if you missed it. However, you’ll be pretty lucky if you manage to find yourself a ticket.
PRETTY WOMAN: THE MUSICAL is at the Wales Millennium Centre through to Saturday 4th May on its first tour of the UK and Ireland. Tickets for the show are on sale right now but as we mentioned they are almost sold out – HERE.
You can also read our original show feature packed with facts you didn’t know about Pretty Woman and also the show soundtrack for you to listen to – HERE.
