Breakfast at Tiffany's lacked sparkle

Theatre review by Hannah Richardson
Georgia May Foote in Breakfast at Tiffany'sGeorgia May Foote in Breakfast at Tiffany's
Georgia May Foote in Breakfast at Tiffany's

‘Stictly’ runner-up and former Coronation Street actress Georgia May Foote takes the starring role in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, which is on stage at Milton Keynes Theatre until Saturday.

For this touring production, which is her stage debut, Georgia takes over from Pixie Lott in the role made famous by Audrey Hepburn in the film version.

Milton Keynes is the first stop on the tour and, to be honest, I expected better.

By the second night of a professional show, you do not expect random bits of scenery to descend at the wrong time – narrowly avoiding hitting the leading lady – or to see stage hands in black scuttling round the back of the set trying to get some sticky bit of theatrical mechanism to work.

I don’t think it’s fair on a paying audience if a show is not ready on the first night – let alone the second, which was when the press were invited. These wrinkles should be ironed out at dress rehearsal.

The publicity blurb says: “this stylish production is set to capture the hearts of audiences and sparkle like a diamond in a Tiffany’s window”.

But I’m afraid, for me, ‘sparkle’ and ‘heart’ were precisely the two things it lacked.

Based on the novel by Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany’s is set in New York in 1943. Fred, a young writer from Louisiana, meets Holly Golightly, a good-time girl whom everyone falls in love with – including Fred.

Georgia May Foote (who is actually blonde for this production, not brunette) looked very pretty and wore some lovely outfits, but she didn’t get across the warmth or magnetism the outlandish Holly would need in order to get away with her outrageous behaviour and capture so many hearts.

Sitting in the front stalls, we also struggled to make out what she was saying, she spoke so quickly and quietly – which meant we lost a lot of what was going on in the plot.

It may say a lot that, for me, the absolute star of the show was the cat, played by Bob, from A1 Animals.

I actually thought he was a glove puppet when he made his first appearance, he lay so obediently in the arms of Fred, played by Matt Barber. So I got the shock of my life when he jumped down and hopped out through the window, right on cue.

If only the rest of the production had been half as slick.

Box office: 0844 871 7652 or see www.atgtickets.com/milton keynes

Related topics: