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Phil Hopkins
Group Travel Editor & Theatre Correspondent
@philhopkinsuk
11:45 AM 15th November 2017
arts

Full Fat Fun!

 
Fat Friends took its world première bow in Leeds last night promising to deliver more laughs than a churn of rancid milk in a bun factory.

It is the latest offering by local lass, Kay Mellor, who has achieved a lifetime ambition to pen a musical, at least part of it, using her award-winning TV drama as the inspiration.

And, in true sitcom fashion, where a laugh every few seconds is paramount, Mellor delivers lots of them wrapped up in lashings of Yorkshire sauce.

“Diets are shyte!” yells Jodie Prenger as Kelly, the main protagonist, charged with shedding a stone or two in order to get into her bridal dress on the big day. With a fine voice and great timing, she really was excellent as the blunt Yorkshire lass, always championing her dozy, down-to-earth boyfriend, Kevin, aka Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff, perhaps a little less comfortable on stage than his leading lady.

The gags and double entendres flew with more gusto than a diet plan in the wind but, in truth, I did begin to wonder whether this very Yorkshire production would work darn sarf!

Don’t get me wrong, the audience loved it and, genuinely, there were a lot of funny one liners, but they were Yorkshire gags and, sometimes, we can all be a bit self-indulgent round here about our own sense of self-importance…..God’s own country and all that!



Will this musical travel or, at least, have a good shelf life? I hope so, but it will certainly have a Best By date with limited opening times.

Beneath all the humour associated with a slimming club and all its personalities, there are a lot of serious issues. This is a musical not only about love, loss and jealousies, but it has the words ‘Body Image’ running right through its core with the veiled message of ‘it is ok to be who you are, stop fretting.”

The best tonic in the world is to laugh out loud and Fat Friends gives everyone permission to flash the fat and say, ‘sod it, I’ve had enough of lettuce leaves, I’m just going to be normal.’

Former Atomic Kitten, Natasha Hamilton, is Julia Fleshman, the pencil thin slimming entrepreneur who tries to use Kelly’s weight loss efforts to feather her own nest, whilst Natalie Anderson, as Lauren, is obsessed with losing two pounds and finding a good Jewish boy to marry, even though she’s in love with the vicar.

I DID enjoy this musical and I would recommend it because it is fun if a little foul-mouthed at times, however, like an egg timer keeping its watchful eye on the kitchen, this offering will only have a certain amount of time before the sand runs out and audiences decide that Fat Friends is no longer to their taste.

Enjoy now whilst it is in full flavour.

Fat Friends
Leeds Grand Theatre
Until Saturday 2nd December 2017