All entries for January 2007

Chicago, Cambridge Theatre

It’s Good, Isn’t It Grand, Isn’t It Swell!

Having seen Connie appear in The Sound of Music, I thought I’d complete the experience by going to see Maria finalist Aoife Mulholland appearing as Roxie Hart in Chicago. It’s one of those shows that I’ve always roughly intended to see, but find myself putting off because it threatens to run indefinitely. Anyway, I finally made it to the Cambridge Theatre and I was very glad I did.

Hot, raunchy, dark and seedy. Most people could testify that this is Chicago’s world. At the same time, however, it’s a very original and inspirational piece of theatre. With a small company that rotates parts and a contained, empty stage space like a gaping black hole, it’s a shining example of good ensemble theatre without any frills.

The cast play dancers, reporters and court officials whilst remaining in one costume throughout and witnessing the action from the edges of the stage. As well as constantly changing roles, the drama is also constantly changing styles as we see marionettes, melodrama and the 1930s musical, along with music that ranges from the tango to the rag.

The band is an integral part of the show, the conductor, Corin Buckeridge, essentially holding it all together. Heavily brass-dominated, they are placed on a raked stand gazing down upon the action. The expressive jazz music is complemented by choreography that is wholly slick and precise. Predominantly done in the style of Bob Fosse, there is that continual dichotomy between the humorous and the sophisticated, with movements which are at once graceful and strangely angular.

Aoife, finally, makes a brilliant Roxie. She is likeable and manipulative simultaneously, sexy and girlish at the same time. Gurgling and giggling, she delivers her monologue about her transition from fooling around to screwing around (which is basically just skipping dinner). She is partnered by Annette McLaughlin as Velma Kelly, at least a foot taller, making a fantastic double-act, with both women being powerful singers and dancers.

The company is made up of thin, toned women and men with swelling pecs in leather waistcoats and clinging trousers. I usually come out of a production like this feeling desperately unfit and inflexible, but I left the Cambridge theatre too uplifted by my Chicago experience to dwell on that. What I had foreseen would be a raunchy, commercial show turned out to be an exemplary piece of theatre.

Anna Brewer : 07 Jan 2007 13:20 |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Wicked, Apollo Victoria

Not a show that’s Popular with me

I was rather excited about seeing Wicked. I had read numerous articles about how this new show, written by Stephen Schwartz, about the history of the witches in The Wizard of Oz, had taken Broadway by storm and was received with a standing ovation night after night. As a big fan of Schwartz’s previous most major musical, Godspell, I expected this to be a dead cert success. It was a show, however, that left me cold.

It is, in its entirety, like a musical Harry Potter, which may be an incentive for a lot of people to go see it. We see Elphaba (Idina Menzel), the eventually wicked witch, go to a Hogwarts’s equivalent and there discover her powers of magic. She is meanwhile bullied for being green, befriended by the ditzy Glinda (Helen Dallimore), introduced to her future boyfriend (Adam Garcia) and seen lobbying for a more just Oz. It’s a tricky story to follow, further diluted by the sub-plot involving Elphaba’s wheelchair-bound sister, Nessarose (Katie Rowley-Jones). Not surprisingly the show has an aimlessness about it, lacking any sense of build-up or direction. We are dizzily transported from school to the Emerald City to poppy fields to Elphaba’s home, and consequently feel seriously disorientated and curious to see how they’re going to wrap it all up.

The cast and production team do al they can with this show-without-an-identity. The costumes are inventively wacky, the chorus throw themselves into every (difficult) number with gusto. Idina Menzel is excellent as Elphaba, having been imported from the States especially to play the part. Not only is her voice both powerful and sweet, but she is also delightfully calm and thoughtful in her presentation of the witch, if rather let-down by her English counterpart, Dallimore, who just totters, struggles with the dance routines, gets on your nerves and looks decidedly pink. The show uses ambitious special effects – a huge dragon yawns at you from the top of the stage – and there is nothing shy in its employment of razmataz.

The songs are very ambitious and often lose the audience when the lyrics and material are as complex as in songs such as Defying Gravity which could be a chapter from a GSCE Science textbook. The more catchy songs, however, like Popular and As Long As You’re Mine go down well, but I just wish there were more of them in the show, to rescue it from the muddy waters it seems to get itself into.

It’s generally a real labyrinth of a show. The storyline and songs seem to wind around its various channels, never seeming to get to its centre. En route, it didactically raises a number of moral issues – being different isn’t bad, loyalty you owe to a disabled family member, what a human is without a voice and addressing the crushing influence of dictatorship.

It’s certainly not a children’s show and the hundreds of children that piled into the Apollo Victoria for the Wednesday matinee left looking just a little puzzled. I found myself frantically eavesdropping on the child’s questions behind me, in a desperate attempt to fathom what was going on.

It’s good to see Stephen Schwartz back on the scene again and I’m pleased for the recognition that Wicked has earned him. I know I am definitely in the minority not being a fan of the show (it seems to be attracting a cult following similar to The Rocky Horror Show and Forbidden Planet), but it contained no ingredient which excited me.

Anna Brewer : 07 Jan 2007 13:09 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

The Sound of Music, Palladium

There certainly is Something Good

Andrew Lloyd Webber really seems to have it made when it comes to The Sound of Music. With every ticket sold for its entire run, a guaranteed queue of hopefuls every night, that resemble a soup kitchen, waiting for returns, and two of the most talked-about stars in the West End (Lesley Garrett and Connie Fisher), all he needed now was a cracking show to go with it. And, I’m pleased to say, he’s got it.

With the likes of Dirty Dancing, Footloose and Spamalot dominating the West End musicals’ scene at the minute, it is refreshing to see a good old-fashioned story for once. And Lloyd-Webber’s production does not attempt anything drastically original, but heartens us with its distinct lack of pretence. Its only real gesture towards the modern technological age is the stage’s huge, eight-tonne circular plain that looks like something extra-terrestrial. This platter of a mountain is dipped and raised as both Maria at the start and the entire Von Trapp family at the end hike across the Austrian peaks. It’s a very good idea, however, it does at times look more like a novel fairground ride.

Connie really does stand out, even with all the hype that has surrounded her since the day that she was announced as the new Maria on BBC1. She conveys the youthfulness that Lloyd-Webber was so adamant about getting, playing the governess as slightly gawky and bird-like. In the film of The Sound of Music, Christopher Plummer falling in love with Julie Andrews is not really a surprise. After all, who wouldn’t, especially when the Baroness Schraeder is such a cow. However, Connie’s quirkyness and awkward manner make her less of an obvious attraction for the Captain and consequently the story becomes all the more compelling. Fisher achieves a wonderful, spontaneous, cheeky rapport with the children, being prepared to make a bit of a prat of herself in front of them, as she runs, skips and throws herself rather too enthusiastically into Do-Re-Mi.

While Alexander Hanson may be a bit of a push-over as the Captain as he passively endures Maria’s criticisms with resigned acceptance like a pupil in a headteacher’s office, we nevertheless are able to see him thaw as he discovers his love for his children and, indeed, the governess. He has a uniquely pure and effortless voice and his rendition of Eidelweiss, I can safely say, is the most beautiful I’ve heard.

The children are a strong seven, though slightly more squeaky than harmonious, and the nuns provide rousing choral numbers, in which they filter up the Palladium’s aisles. As expected, Lesley Garrett’s Climb Every Mountain has the audience in raptures (although it was a shame about the almighty gulp down her microphone before she hit the final note). Her acting is also pretty dire, coming across more as a cockney Agony Aunt than the distinguished Mother Abbess.

Her fans seem unfazed, however, and in the curtain call, half the audience rise to its feet on Garrett’s entrance, the other half on Connie’s (with the exception of one lady who stood up for the Gestapo). In spite of the people nearest me evidently being Lesley Garrett fans, I persistently wait in my chair until Connie’s entrance to give her my roar of approval.

Having waited in that original queue of Maria open-auditions for six hours before giving up and going home, I am relieved now that I did accept defeat. Having seen Connie’s performance, I have to (very reluctantly) admit to myself that I am NOT Maria, and Connie most certainly is.

Anna Brewer : 07 Jan 2007 11:31 |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Merry Wives: The Musical, RSC Stratford

Too much Merriment for one evening

So the RSC have decided to put on a musical. The Complete Works season has obviously been getting a bit much for them and they have approached director Gregory Doran to put on a production where they can have lots of fun, be a bit silly and prove to people that Troilus and Cressida isn’t the extent of their comic acting. And the way they do it? They set some Shakespeare to music, get Dame Judi Dench to sing, put Simon Callow in a fat suit and a parson in long-johns. The result is a bawdy gang show which is, yes, sometimes remotely funny.

You realise why Judi Dench as Mistress Quickly and Simon Callow as Sir John Falstaff have not appeared in more musicals. Listening to their singing, it baffles me why they were so keen to appear in one when it’s so obviously not their forté. Judi is croakier than ever and tries to push out high notes like a steam engine puffing out steam. Simon Callow simply has problems sticking to a tune and Simon Cowell would most certainly have something to say to him.

I recently read Anthony Sher’s book Year of the King, in which he expresses his belief that the character of Falstaff is more successful if played by a slim actor since they play it with their head, rather than their stomach. This argument is proved totally in Callow’s performance where Falstaff IS his fatsuit. He is of an outrageous size (I’m sure Shakespeare never meant for him to be this vast, like something off Supersize Me) and all of his movements, thoughts and dialogue are preoccupied with his obesity. His baring-all in the bath brings the house down but after three hours of this, it simply gets boring.

The music is written by Paul Englishby and lyrics by Ranjit Bolt. There are few memorable songs in the show. It opens with an incredibly dreary number, Let’s Cast Away Care, and seems to, from then on, drift through equally bland numbers and it’s only in the middle of Act II where we get our first rousing number in the country-style Merry Wives in which the cast start doing a Stomp impersonation, banging pots, pans and bin lids.

Thankfully, while Dench and Callow need some throat lozenges and voice training, there are some strong vocals coming from the supporting ranks, namely Scarlett Strallen as Anne Page and Martin Crewes as Fenton. They share a nice duet and a couple of pleasant ballads, the only chance for reflection and a breather in this giddy show.

It blasts along with a drunken energy. Towards the end of Act I as the action descends into pure chaos, it’s like watching a school drama group in lunch break. You consider that this could be the RSC’s on-stage after-show party for the Complete Works. The show ends with the totally bizarre sequence of actors dressed up as fairies and ghouls, with Falstaff as a deer, randily jiggling ladies on his knee. There are some funny moments scattered throughout the production, however, and Alistair McCowan as Frank Ford plus Simon Trinder as the young Slender display very good comic timing, as does the Dame herself.

It’s a strange old show and one that for the RSC, I’m sorry to say, displays a real lack of talent in the cast. Or certainly not talent for this type of theatre. I guess Julie Walters decided it was high-time that she appeared in a musical and so Acorn Antiques was born. Judi clearly felt a bit miffed and so Merry Wives: The Musical came into the world. What we deduce from the experience is that Judi Dench should stick to straight acting and the RSC should stick to straight Shakespeare.

Anna Brewer : 07 Jan 2007 11:02 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

A Moon for the Misbegotten, Old Vic

• Not such a quiet life down on the farm*

The last time I saw Eve Best was when she was playing Hedda Gabler at the Almeida. So, from Hedda the ice-maiden, Best is now playing Josie Hogan in Howard Davies’s revival of Eugene O’Neill’s A Moon for the Misbegotten. What an opportunity for a talented actress like Best to play these two characters of such extremes.

All the critics have said that Best simply isn’t bulky enough to play the part. Josie keeps alluding to herself as a “cow”, a great “beast” of a woman. And yes, compared to some actresses who have played the part, Best is decidedly slender. However, she has caught the lumbering nature of her character perfectly as she stands, feet firmly planted and wide apart. She isn’t necessarily butch, but she is evidently a strong girl – one that I would like to see having a fight with John Steinbeck’s Lenny.

Josie is undoubtedly a buggar of a part. She has to be full of bravado but also extremely vulnerable, the backbone of her disparate family but also a lonely, inexperienced girl just wanting to be loved. Best miraculously manages to capture all of these elements. She wallops her father with the strength of a mammoth and caresses the alcoholic, Bill, with the tenderness of a mother.

Kevin Spacey as Jim no doubt puts his all into this very difficult character, but with so much variety, as he swings from bawling to laughing, from love to lust, that you come out feeling a little bit sea-sick. Throughout the first act, he also has an irritating habit of laughing slap-bang in the middle of most of his lines which not only breaks them up, but makes you feel distinctly like not laughing at the jokes because, damn it, he got there first.

With his weedy build and unconcealable bald patch, it is also difficult to see what it is that makes him the love of Josie’s life. It’s slightly comical also when he tries to rape her – like a flea climbing onto a horse’s back.

Colm Meaney as Josie’s father gives a sound performance, but I keep waiting for it to really hot-up which it never does. Next to the two highly complex characters of Josie and Jim, however, (characters that sound like they could be from Watch With Mother) it is inevitable that the part is somewhat pushed into the shadows.

There are a few other insignificant parts where the actors (quite touchingly) return back on stage for the curtain call, the audience trying to recall where they’ve seen them before. O’Neill’s play needs some serious editing and I think Howard Davies would have been wiser to cut these peripheral roles. Especially that of the English jockey whose scene is as ludicrous as inserting a Punch and Judy sketch into King Lear.

Overall, Davies pulls off O’Neill’s epic play (I can see why it’s not performed more – it’s exhausting to play and watch). My main qualm would be in the design of the set. A sloped, ramshackle old hut (the family home) is set against a huge blue sky which seems to stand for the great hopes of America outside of this isolated farm. The house, however, looks more like a tool shed and you expect characters to emerge with a rake, not alluding to the several different rooms contained within this dwarf of a structure.

The action forced forward to the front of the stage, however, allows you to connect with the intense psychological drama and especially to get totally wrapped up in Eve Best’s performance. I was lucky enough, sitting in the discounted front row, to actually have my seat vibrate every time the petulant Josie stomped barefoot across the stage.

A play worth seeing just to get an insight into the themes that pervade O’Neill’s work (they all seem to crop up in this one) and also for Best’s stunning performance. But don’t go to relax after a long day at work because I can assure you it’ll take your Long Day’s Journey into Night.

Anna Brewer : 07 Jan 2007 10:35 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Caroline, or Change, National Theatre

Kushner’s musical makes for a refreshing Change

As I listen to Tonya Pinkins’s Caroline wading her way through the show’s opening number about putting laundry in the washing machine, and three glittery girls croon over the tumble-dryer, I begin to doubt if this show can actually go anywhere and if, indeed, I’ve come to the right show.

I had understood that Tony Kushner had set his musical in Louisiana at the time of the Kennedy assassination and black Civil Rights movement in America. Exciting stuff and pretty daunting material to cram into one musical, though he had managed to deal with AIDs in his two parts of Angels in America. Kushner here, however, seems to have stubbornly put his hands over his ears to the political reverberations and taken peaceful refuge in the domesticity of Caroline, or Change. Consequently, we get a somewhat sullen maid with an apparent chip on her shoulder, singing to herself in a basement about getting her laundry in the dryer.

So far, it seems that I’m giving this show at the National, which won Best New Musical, a bad press. On the contrary, I have a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

Tony Kushner has deliberately blocked out a lot of the politics of the time just as Caroline the maid tries to block out the radically changing times from her own life. So, we all sit together in obstinate defiance, in a cramped basement, concentrating solely on the loose change which Noah, the young boy of the household, leaves accidentally in his pockets (hence, the double-meaning in the title).

The show has an entirely sung-through score which means that much of it just seems downright bizarre. Whilst Italian opera can pull of the most mundane of lyrics in recitative on account of its florid language, here nothing can be disguised. “No-ah, you shouldn’t leeeeeeave change in your po-ckets.” You find yourself singing your way through interval conversations. “Yes, I think’s it’s veeeeery good, do-n’t yooooou?”

Nevertheless, the arias (if we can call them that in this context) are often pure beauty and there are ensemble numbers whose stirring rhythms make your stomach feel like the washing machine on stage. All the cast appear to have barrel-like lungs, and some vocal highlights come from Clive Rowe (whose one song as the Bus Driver cannot help but remind us of Paul Robeson’s Ol’ Man River) and also from Malinda Parris as, yes, you guessed it, the Washing Machine. Even the young scrawny Noah, the only white member of the cast, holds his own against these full-blooded gospel tones.

There is something heart-warmingly home-spun about this musical without anything being the least bit ropey. Perhaps it’s the three glamorous radio singers who narrate the show, popping up at the most ill-fitting moments with their deliciously crunchy close-harmonies. Or perhaps it’s the simplicity of the set which interlocks like a neat five-piece jigsaw, illuminated at the back by a huge, milky orb, from which Angela M Caesar sings as the very voluptuous Moon.

I am not entirely sure why Tonya Pinkins won Best Actress for her Caroline. I find her just that little bit too consistently grumpy and question why Noah has such a devout affection for her, like an undiscriminating, loyal puppy. Even her voice betrays signs of the show’s closing week, with very telling cracks.

Generally though, this is an extremely innovative contribution to the library of musicals (although I can’t see it being put on much because of the vocal demands on the cast). Just don’t go expecting a political commentary on 1960s black America. You won’t get it, but you’ll surely enough be an expert at working washing machines.

Anna Brewer : 01 Jan 2007 18:16 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem