Almost a year after I watched the movie, Angus, Thongs & Perfect Snogging, an adaptation of the popular teenage girl's book Angus, Thongs & Full Frontal Snogging I found myself at the musical theatre production on a volunteer shift at WYP. Following much the same plot as the film, but with more musical interludes, the play charts Georgia's experiences in young love with sex god Robbie, love god Masimo and best mate Dave the Laugh.
brilliant...
The evening started well with upbeat pop music playing as the audience entered, giving me something to do (dance on the spot) while handing out dance-move fliers and pointing people to their seats. It was like a night out, not an evening at the theatre - this even extended to posters permitting people to Tweet during the performance, which thankfully few people appeared to be doing. As with the film, protagonist Georgia walks a fine line between annoying and cute/funny, mostly straying to the latter side thankfully. Imaginative set design and use of props, breaking some of the 'fourth' wall, made for a fun, loose experience that I'm sure charmed the majority young, female audience. There was also plenty of bawdy humour and references that would go over the heads of the tweenagers, most of which I picked up on and laughed along with. The live music was excellent, very catchy, very poppy, and the whole thing was such a sweet confection it would be difficult not to get caught up in it all (unless you're a heterosexual male perhaps). The highlight of the whole show was a 2 minute, condensed version of Romeo and Juliet (or as the characters hideously call it, Roms and Julz *shudder*), the school play performed by Georgia and co near the play's end. I laughed so much at this I'd have been happy just to pay to see that.
Some of the language irritated me - mainly the way Georgia added '-osity' to the ends of words unnecessarily, to create a language shared by her clique. These moments did feel like an older writer trying to be 'cool' and jarred a bit. I was pleased that most actors had Yorkshire accents though, as Louise Rennison, created of Angus... and co-writer of the stage version is from Leeds. It's churlish to say but Robbie in the play isn't half as hot as Aaron Johnson's portrayal in the movie, one of that adaptation's main plus points.
briefly...
A more pink and fluffy yet accessible night at the theatre I've yet to see. Angus, Thongs and whatever kind of Snogging (what's so offensive about the phrase 'full frontal'?) has an endearing story that clearly skews teenage girl but which contains humour and recognisable moments for all ages.
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