A Knight’s Tale at the Manchester Opera House is a musical of smiles and light-hearted fun.
This jukebox musical adapted by Brona C. Titley, based on the 2001 film starring Heath Ledger is scheduled to run at the Manchester Opera House until May 10.
The soundtrack has a pleasant infusion of rock classics from Queen, David Bowie, Bonnie Tyler, with a notable added medieval element to their well-established anthems.
Directed by Rachel Kavanaugh and choreographed by Olivier Award-winning Matt Cole, the choreography was the standout feature from this performance.
It provided a buzz around the theatre that encouraged you to sway along, but only added to the visual spectacle.
The set was relatively simple in nature with the borders of the stage area decorated with swords and medieval crests, and a two-tiered design at the back simply heightened the performance and added the immersion into the middle ages.
Prior to the performance, my main question was how the show would negotiate the jousting – this being a core element – and they did so successfully.
The jousting scenes were paced perfectly and each hit was timed with the accompanying song which offered an increased sense of drama.
Moreover, the seemingly ‘hi-tech’ prop horses were guided efficiently by each respective actor and their hard work allowed the audience to see a satisfying gallop from each joust.
Andrew Coshan plays the leading roll of William Thatcher, the hero who jousts himself to glory, and he portrayed him with an upbeat confidence, but his antagonistic counterpart, Count Adhemar played by Oliver Tempsett, added an arrogance to the stage that was both humorous and essential, but nonetheless anchored the show effectively.
Thatcher’s band of friends also fulfilled their roles well, most notably Eva Scott, who played his quick witted mate, What, and had multiple comedic comments that infused a further light-hearted aspect to the musical.
A Knight’s Tale is by no means a production the musical purist should be running to see and at times felt there were songs and jokes shoehorned into the running, but this did not detract from the smiles it left on the audience’s faces.
Main image: Andrew Coshan (William) & Elliot Gooch in A Knight’s Tale, credit Johan Persson
Join the discussion