Bill Kenwright’s latest production of Ghost The Musical captivated audiences by getting to the heart of the epic love story at New Wimbledon Theatre this month.
As the curtains rose to reveal the three main characters in the first scene, all eyes were focused on Kelly Hampson – whispers in the audience confirmed she was to be the real focus of most.
Playing the role of Molly, Ms Hampson was standing in for Sarah Harding who was away due to an upper respiratory tract infection.
But Ms Hampson proved herself a worthy of the role, taking to it easily – much less an understudy, she looked like she had been the lead all along.
She was believable as Molly and had chemistry with co-stars Andy Moss (Sam) and Sam Ferriday (Carl).
Mr Moss managed to bring to life the dilemma faced by Sam, initially holding back, he eventually snapped into the role and channelled his inner-Swayze.
This stage version had been revamped and aimed to focus on Molly and Sam’s love story with everything else in the periphery.
The plot did however remain recognisably close to that of the 1990 movie starring Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore.
Many of the popular elements from the movie remained, including the fun exchanges between the character of Sam and psychic medium Oda Mae played by Jacqui Dubois.
Helped by the hilarious introduction leading up to her first appearance, Ms Dubois managed to steal the show quite spectacularly.
It almost seemed as though all the best laugh-out-loud moments were delivered by Ms Dubois and she was instantly likeable and funny as Oda.
Notable musical numbers included Suspend my disbelief/I Had a life where all three main characters were joined by the whole company in an awesome choral end to act one.
The choreography was not complex, nor the set elaborate, perhaps so as to retain the main focus on the central characters.
With more laugh-out-loud moments than emotional, heartbreaking ones, Ghost delivered the unexpected and is for that reason, worth seeing.
Ghost continues to tour around the country with performances in Bristol, Birmingham, Sunderland and Manchester.
