Forest Bird

Peppa Pig's Treasure Hunt

2012-02-19T13:49:00.000-08:00

Grove Theatre, Dunstable
Sunday 19 February 2012, 10am

Peppa Pig is a phenomenon. I don't know what it is about the little pink creature that will stop V doing whatever she is doing in her tracks and stare, but I can report that the stage production has the same effect!

She not only sat and watched the whole show intently but also, for the first time, sat on her own seat throughout.

Peppa Pig's Treasure Hunt is a simple story about, yes, you've guessed it, Peppa and her friends going on a treasure hunt! Danny Dog, Zoe Zebra and Pedro Pony join her and brother George as they all follow a map which takes them from the bushes to mountains, a wood, a pirate island and home again.

The TV characters are escorted by "Daisy", a friend of Peppa, played by real life actor Charlotte Sullivan, who drives the action and instructs the audience.

On their journey they use a wide range of transport - car, train, pirate ship and hot air balloon - all piloted, of course, by Miss Rabbit who, with her neverending plethora of jobs, is the Peppa equivalent of Myleene Klass.

As the story progresses, there are loads of catchy tunes with plenty of opportunities for the audience to join in with the words and actions and I was particularly pleased that they had worked in the Bing Bong song, my personal favourite.

They also manage to shoe horn a UV light scene into the tale. Peppa idly searches in a rock pool for the treasure - as you do - which leads to a full on under the sea scene with colourful fluorescent ocean creatures floating around a black stage.

It's a real skill to faithfully translate a cartoon onto the stage and make it believable, but this production successfully does it using puppets.

You might wonder if children, who are always very sharp about these kinds of things, would realise and / or care that they were puppets, especially as you could see who was operating them.

However, it does work, and if you've ever seen the adult show Avenue Q, you will know why.

That show makes you realise, even as adults, that while you know how the puppets are being operated, you just forget about it and enjoy the show because the story enthralls you and this Peppa show is exactly the same. The children MUST realise that they are puppets - but it doesn't bother them. It helps that the voice of Peppa is very faithfully recreated by Hannah Lucas.

V never once mentioned the people with their hands up Peppa and George's bum (and believe me she is the sort of child who would mention it!), she was more concerned about where the train and the map had gone and how "that's not treasure, that's a crab!"

"I enjoyed the show" she said.

This is all I need to class the trip as a triumph! It doesn't matter what I might have thought, as long as the person who the entertainment was aimed at, got a lot out of it!

Luckily, I enjoyed it too!

Length

The show was the perfect length for us. A first half of around 35 minutes with a 15 minute interval and then another 25 minutes or so. Given that the TV episodes are usually no more than five minutes each, it is testimony to the power of the character that Peppa can hold a child's attention for a much longer time as well.

Age range

V has just turned two and she sat all the way through it and "got" the story enough to be asking questions about the plot. Basically if your child is at an age where they really enjoy Peppa they should enjoy this version. As always, younger siblings should also do OK - it's a children's show, it's never a completely silent audience!

Other stuff

Merchandise was, as always, pretty overpriced but if you want to get something, I would go for the souvenir brochure / activity book. It's a fiver, which though expensive is not much dearer than a pre-school children's comic these days and it is very good quality.

The spinning windmill lights that are de rigour at a panto, that we paid a fiver for at In the Night Garden, were a wopping £7.00!! Sadly I felt the need to get one as we hadn't brought her comforter "toppy" with us and we needed a back up distraction! I have stopped taking "toppy" with us on trips like this as she doesn't need to sleep but I think I will take it again in the future - it really doesn't do any harm, it's not drink or drugs and it will save us a pile of cash!

As it turned out, she didn't need a distraction as the show held her full attention.

T-shirts are £10, again they are good quality but still pricey for toddler sizes. However, I preferred to get one of these than a toy because you at least get a lot of use out of it.

http://www.peppapiglive.com/index.html

Numberjacks Live

2011-11-27T13:08:00.000-08:00

Grove Theatre, Dunstable
Saturday 26 November 2011, 2.30pm

Wow, wow, wow, wow was all V kept saying as we took our seats and she saw five small numbers on the stage and the Numberjacks logo on a screen - so to be honest, it doesn't really matter what I think!

The TV series is a playful introduction to numbers for pre-schoolers and won the Royal Television Society Award for Best Pre-school Educational programme two years in a row. This is the first time that the CBeebies favourite has come to the stage in their first live mission - called Saving Brain Gain.

The Numberjacks are ten numbers - 0-9. On TV they are animated superheroes who solve problems for special agents, which are children who phone in to report strange goings on.

These problems are usually caused by any one of five Meanies and the colourful number characters then decide which number will help. That's the general gist of it anyway I think!

I will sum up the plot of the live show in the words of my 21-month-old daughter who has been repeating it since we left the theatre - "Number Taker. Number 4 caught in net. Rescued."

Anyhoo - in short, the number 4 was taken, appropriately enough by the Number Taker, and rescued by the Numberjacks, with the help of the audience.

The rescue involved something called Brain Gain which I think means thinking a lot! Apparently the last bit of Brain Gain left in the world anywhere was in Dunstable - which frankly made my head spin!

Personally, as an adult who doesn't really watch the show much (it usually coincides with 'dad time') I didn't always understand fully what was going on and could pick holes a mile wide in the plot - but it wasn't aimed at me so my judgement of this show comes from the look on V's face which was wonder and excitement and her engagement with it which was total!

To be fair, due to the nature of the TV series it is nigh on impossible to produce a seamless transition to the stage, not without a huge budget anyway!

So, the animated characters appear on a screen while two actors, playing characters called Jamie and Astra, tell the story and really throw themselves into it, keeping the action moving and getting the audience involved at every stage, singing, dancing and shouting. When the numbers do appear they are large padded shapes which don't talk but the young audience didn't seem to mind in the slightest.

However, what makes it a good children's show is that there's loads of audience participation - even for the adults - and when things go wrong, it's up to the children in the audience to solve the problems and put things right.

There are also a lot of pantomime elements such as "he's behind you" and even an ‘oh no it isn’t, oh yes it is’ so plenty of things to keep a boisterous audience busy.

Only two of the Meanies actually appear as characters in this show - Spooky Spoon, who keeps mixing things up and the Number Taker, who is exactly like the TV character and the spoon is a kind of puppet which appears to float thanks to the classic puppeteer in black effect.

The only thing I had been worried about beforehand was the fact that there are 'baddies' in this show and that they might be too scary.

I find the Numbertaker rather sinister myself and Spooky Spoon a bit strange but V is not bothered by them on telly so I hoped she would be OK seeing them in the flesh - so to speak. She was - although she still spoke about them all the time - and didn't stop talking about them afterwards and went to bed still talking about Spooky Spoon.

It's not a lavish production and don't expect to see the TV show completely recreated on stage but it's lively and fun and in my experience, if your child likes the TV series and/or enjoys the interactive elements of going to the theatre, it definitely does the job!

Length
Perfect - Each half was just 30 minutes with a 15 minute interval.

Age range
The show is advertised at 2-5 and I think this is fair although there were older ones there - and younger ones too as V is not yet two and was fine. There were even younger ones there who had come with older siblings and there was nothing in it inappropriate for them.

V is now 21-months-old. She last went to a show three months ago and those few months have made a world of difference to her experience. At previous shows, she has always been enthralled but after about 15/20 minutes wanted to run around as well as watch. She watched this show either from her own seat (she looked so grown up - although I did have to hold the seat flap down with my leg to stop her getting folded up in it!) or from my lap and was totally into it from the word go, pointing, clapping, joining in the actions and, in true toddler style, giving 'mummy' a running commentary on everything that was going on! A job at News24 beckons I think!

Other stuff
I think they missed a trick with having no show merchandise for sale. As usual we were expecting to be fleeced and had budgeted for it. In some ways I'm pleased we weren't but pester power means that the show itself could have raked it in.

http://www.numberjacks.co.uk/kids/njlive/live_show.htm

Justin Live!

2011-07-27T13:14:00.000-07:00

Royal Spa Centre, Leamington Spa

27 July 2011 (11am)

Justin is something special!

Well, he has to be if he can get me sitting in the middle of a packed theatre full of pre-schoolers at 11.oo in the morning! Not on my own obv!

Four years ago today I was preparing for our wedding tomorrow with not even the slightest inkling of where I'd be sitting four years later! But there I was - with Mr FB and a toddler - at show watching a CBeebies fave! Who'd have thought?!

OK - I admit that I did get a hysterical fit of the giggles when Justin Fletcher burst onto the stage to an upbeat musical number and shouting "Hello Leamington Spa, are you ready to party?!" And I did mumble to Mr FB, "He's not flipping Robbie Williams, is he?!"

But as we settled into a show of songs and jokes, I saw the look on my littl'uns face and got 'with it', throwing myself into (well singing a little bit and clapping my hands) favourites such as If You're Happy and you Know It, The Hokey Cokey and Old MacDonald - my baa-ing sheep was a particular triumph!

I think if you don't have a child under three, the name of Justin Fletcher will mean diddly squat, but if you do, then he's likely to be a bit of a legend.

He is known for his slapstick routines and a wide range of characters in programmes such as Something Special - which was created for youngsters with learning difficulties but loved by all and Gigglebiz - a kind of pre-school Little Britain. He also won the first BAFTA ever given to a presenter of pre-school programmes for Something Special and in 2008 was awarded an MBE for services to children’s television.

He also voices Tweenies characters and Timmy Time and is pretty ubiquitous on CBeebies.

Indeed, my 17-month-old recognised him immediately on the stage and watched transfixed. Within minutes he was amongst the audience, standing on a chair two rows in front of her, singing and clapping as she looked up at him open mouthed, not quite believing that "Mr Tumble" was just feet away.

Justin has been recorded as saying that most children, including his own niece, think Mr Tumble is a separate character but he hasn't fooled my daughter - "Tumble dancing" she pronounced, even though he wasn't dressed as the clown - not much gets passed her and frankly freckles and a clown nose is not a heavy disguise!

She loved the nursery rhymes and the impressions of Gigglebiz faves (the time demands on a kids show wouldn't allow for full costumes and make-up) and seemed particularly entranced by his four backing dancers, dressed brightly and performing with an enthusiasm that only those in kids' shows seem to have!

He also went through all the animals using the Makaton sign language for children with learning difficulties which is used in Something Special and his slapstick humour had all the kids and a lot of the adults too laughing hysterically.

The show is just a presentation of sheer joy and I take my hat of to anyone who can sing and dance - and smile while they're doing it - at that time of the morning!

For those who have commented that I have changed - I haven't - as sitting in a theatre watching a show that is sold out and full of boisterous youngsters is not usually my ideal morning out.

But I thought the show was great and Justin is "something special" in terms of children's entertainment but I would rather it had been performed to just the three of us!

However, to see my little girl amazed by what she was seeing and not at all phased by three-year-olds running up and down the aisles, made it all worthwhile and I will put up with hundreds of screaming kids any time - just for her!

I am very pleased and proud at how well she's taken to live theatre although I think it will be a number of years before she's ready for Shakespeare as the RSC don't tend to look kindly on members of the audience giving a loud running commentary on what's happening on stage!

But bring on panto season - she's ready!!

Much Ado About Nothing

2011-07-25T13:20:00.000-07:00

Wyndham's Theatre

23 July 2011 (Mat)

Much Ado about Tennant and Tate

It wasn't until I saw A Midsummer Night's Dream by the RSC at the Barbican at the age of 14 that I realised that Shakespeare's comedies might actually be funny. Reading them off the page in the classroom I thought that the words were very pretty but they certainly weren't hilarious. The RSC changed that for me.

Much Ado About Nothing at the Wyndhams will surely do the same for anyone who feels the same as my young teenage self.

It's vibrant, fresh, funny (obv) and a genuine feel good production that is highly likely to bring a smile to even the sourest of faces.

Putting David Tennant and Catherine Tate together as Beatrice and Benedick works superbly. The chemistry they developed in Dr Who continues on the stage (so I'm told anyway as I gave up on the inexplicable plots of that series circa 1983!)

But Mr FB assures me that they made a good team on the telly and they certainly did in this Shakespeare as the comedy revolves around and between them with large dollops of well-timed slapstick in the eavesdropping scenes and fantastic timing and intonation of the lines throughout.

Tennant looks like he is clearly enjoying himself from the moment he enters in a golf buggy and donning a blonde wig and micro mini for the masked ball to the slapstick of the scene where he is tricked into thinking Beatrice loves him - the copious amounts of paint are worthy of any panto! But he also transforms superbly into a man in love - and someone that you would really want to love back!

Tate uses all her comedy talents and timing to the full to cleverly portray a woman who uses jokes as a defence against becoming emotionally detached. She teeters on the edge of looking like she might come out with an “Am I bovvered?” at any moment but thankfully she doesn't - although I'm sure that much of the audience would have howled with laughter in much the same way they did at anything remotely funny David Tennant did, be it spoken or merely a comic glance!

Director Josie Rourke has set the action in early 1980s Gibraltar where dashing Richard Gere in An Officer and A Gentlemen-esque navy officers - presumably high-spirited post-Falklands - trick B & B into falling in love.

I loved the 80s vibe, the clothes I thought I'd forgot, the characters at the masked ball from Adam Ant to Thatcher, Hero's replica Lady Di wedding dress, the music which very cleverly sounds like famous 80s tunes but aren't quite. Who'd have thought that "Sigh No More" and a "Hey Nonny Nonny" to a disco beat would actually work!

The plot, as so often in Shakespearean comedies is preposterous in parts, but the more modern setting actually makes part of it more believable than I have ever seen before.

Beatrice's cousin Hero has supposedly betrayed her fiance Claudio with another man the night before her wedding and because the action takes place mere decades ago as opposed to centuries, it allows for a raucous hen party scene which makes the whole thing more plausible, as Hero's maid, wearing her mistresses hen veil gets off with someone else at the disco!

Among the supporting cast Tom Bateman and Sarah MacRae are an attractive Claudio and Hero and John Ramm is another comic highlight as an actually funny Dogberry played as a jobsworth who thinks he's Rambo!

Sure there will be purists who will scoff and sneer but the fact is the theatre was full and the audience were enjoying themselves immensely on a day when laughter was in short supply elsewhere. It's a lot of FUN and if it gets more people to enjoy Shakespeare then that can only be a good thing!

In The Night Garden Live

2011-06-19T12:56:00.000-07:00

The Pinky Ponk Show

Showdome, Woburn Abbey

18 June 2011 (1pm)

A real trip to a surreal world!

The thought of taking a toddler to the theatre is enough to fill anyone with a sense of dread, especially when you are the parent of a child who is only still for any length of time when she's asleep - or watching In The Night Garden on the telly!

Would the live version have the same soporific effect?!

Well, I am delighted to report that V's long-awaited first trip to the theatre was a resounding success, no crying, no running around at 100mph and, thankfully, no demolishing of the set!

This is probably because the it's not just the show that's for children. The entire theatre, which is an inflatable dome, is designed for children. There is a buggy park, a microwave for heating up baby food and loads of baby changing facilities.

The "seats" are rows of steps which are tiered perfectly so that if an excitable toddler wants to stand up they can still see, and there's also lots of room between the rows for children to move about if they need to. This may sound like a nightmare to some but if you're there with kids you'll understand how good this is and you wouldn't really be there without them would you!

The inflatable showdome also looks exciting as you arrive. I thought it looked like a giant white maggot but Mr FB was kinder as he thought it resembled meringue nests. As you walk in there are projections on the ceiling as the Pinky Ponk flies by and you do really feel like you're going INTO the Night Garden.

The show itself is excellent and children see all the characters that they know and love - Iggle Piggle, Upsy Daisy, Makka Pakka, the Tombliboos and the Pontipines which all appear either as costumed characters or human animations. There is also a Ninky Nonk and Pinky Ponk while the Titifers and Hah Hoos appear as projections on the ceiling and back wall.

The perspective that you get on the telly is reproduced really well. For example when Makka Pakka first appears, he (????) is huge, but when he is in a scene with the larger Iggle Piggle, a smaller puppet is used so you really get a sense of each character's size in relation to each other.

It's all very clever and well thought out and intelligently brings to life the world that is so familiar on the telly. There are also very high production values that sadly are sometimes skimped upon in other shows because it's "just for children".

But the most important question to answer is what did a 16-month-old think of it? Well, she loved it! It really warmed my heart to see her little face as it all began - sheer wonderment at the magic of it all. In fact at one point I even found myself fighting back the tears at seeing her so happy. I had wondered if she would be un-nerved by the noise and lights but not at all, she took to it all straight away.

The show is 50 minutes long which is quite a while for a child of her age to sit for but, amazingly for her - and tellingly - she sat really well for well over half of it and it was only in the last 20 minutes that she wanted to get up. Even then, it was just to stand and watch - and dance - so enthralled was she!

There was also some delightful shouting out on her part which was a joy because it showed how engaged she was with the show. There was pointing, waving, clapping, the shouting out of characters names and bidding farewell to each of them as they left the stage. (I'm sure she'll grow out of this though - shouting out "Bye, bye Hamlet" may not go down too well at the National!

And it wasn't just her. I'm afraid that I couldn't really contain myself either. I cheered when the characters came on and sang along with the songs - and this is from someone who won't even clap along to the music at a curtain call of a normal musical. I have no idea what's happened to me, but I'm not complaining!

As I had done a few interviews on the show in the week before, we were lucky enough to join some competition winners on the stage afterwards to meet the cast. This was the icing on the cake as for V it was like meeting a popstar!

She stroked Iggle Piggle and immediately engaged in conversation with Upsy Daisy - touching the character's nose and saying "nose". Upsy Daisy then also touched her nose and nodded - I think that this may have been V's first attempt at an interview! If so, she's a natural!

I had been really looking forward to this trip but at the same time was slightly worried about how it would go. It turned out that choosing this show for her first taste of dramatic art was a very smart move, and I only hope that it's just the start for her and that a lifelong appreciation of the theatre will follow!

Blood Brothers

2011-05-24T12:00:00.000-07:00

Grove Theatre, Dunstable

23 May 2011

Blood, sweat and many tears

It happens every single time. I have actually lost count of the number of times that I have seen Blood Brothers. I know exactly what is going to happen and many of the lines but I still flipping cry my eyes out.

I am not normally one for multiple visits to shows unless it is truely special or has a particularly impressive cast but I make an exception for Willy Russell's wonderful piece of drama. For I'd rather call it that than a musical. It is a very powerful and emotional play, it just so happens that most of the lines are sung.

So - why is it so special?

Well, although the opening scene hints that it’s not exactly going to be a happy ending, to start with the simple, witty lyrics and lighthearted scenes imply that it is a feel good musical. It draws you into the world of the families it portrays, lulling you into a false sense of security, until it twists in the second half and turns into tragedy. But by then it’s too late - you’re completely sucked in. It really is an emotional rollercoaster!

OK, the plot may sound a bit corny. Set in Liverpool. Twins separated at birth and brought up in different environments, one rich and one poor. They grow up different – but also the same. They meet by chance and, guess what, become firm friends!

But the mothers try to keep them apart because, in fear that she will lose her son, the adoptive mother has told the real one that if the boys ever find out, they will die. It could therefore easily dissolve into cliché and sentimentality but it doesn’t. It’s heartbreaking.

It doesn’t sound very cheery does it? But it is, it’s also very funny!

In Willy Russell’s own inimitable style, the Scouse wit is beautifully timed and some of the most enjoyable scenes are where the adult actors play seven-year-olds in all their innocence. But ultimately it is the humour of the piece that makes the finale all the more shattering.

The character that embodies this change is Mickey, and in this production, as it has been many times before, he is played by Sean Jones who puts in a performance that can only be described as blimming marvellous!

I was so pleased to find that Blood Brothers was coming to Dunstable but I was ecstatic to find that Jones had returned to the cast, for in my opinion he is the best Mickey ever!

I first interviewed him about it in 2004 after seeing his performance and he had already been in the show a while. Since then he has appeared on tour and in the West End on and off for years - to me he IS Mickey!

His transformation from a lovable and witty scally to a man totally broken by his circumstances is nothing short of brilliant! His delivery and timing is flawless, his breakdown heartrending, and it is mostly down to him that I have to scurry through the foyer at the end to the safety of the
darkness of the car park at the end of every show I've seen him in!

In this production Mrs Johnstone is played by Nikki Evans, the 2007 X Factor finalist. As the mother who has to separate her twins so that her family can survive, she put her all into the role and it is clear that in musical theatre she has found a better niche than pop superstardom. And as Leon Jackson won that series, I definitely think she got the better deal - pop superstardom didn't await the winner anyway!

I thought at the start, that showing the end first could spoil things but I was wrong. It just heightens the tension, because throughout the ‘we’re poor but we’re happy’ atmosphere, there is also a foreboding feeling of inevitability, that they are tumbling ever faster towards disaster.

Like the secret that hangs over the families, the Narrator (Craig price) lurking in nearly every scene, not in the forefront, but nevertheless there, also gives you the feeling that the past just won’t go away.

There are other little clues to the final conclusion throughout the show, as the imaginary guns turn to toy guns and eventually real and deadly ones.

On the face of it, one may be tempted to think that it is all about the class divide. It is a bit, but I think it’s more than that. As the two mothers try desperately to keep the twins apart for the rest of their lives, the more they seemed forced together.

It is a good example of self-fulfilling prophecy, showing that if you believe in superstitions enough they will come true, especially, if it’s you that’s made them up in the first place. It’s a good study in how much control we actually have over our own lives.

What playwright Willy Russell has always done so well is combine being critically acclaimed with being populist. This is because he not only puts together well-crafted plays with layers of meaning, he also writes about real people with all their humour and their tragedy.

We can empathise with them because we understand them. In Blood Brothers they may have a firm Liverpudlian voice, with its dry wit and bare humanity, but the emotions that they experience can be recognised by anybody.

Another thing that I like about this as a musical is that you don’t get bits of speech that sound like a cue for a song. The dialogue and the music melt seemlessly into one another as if this was totally natural. This is probably a result of one man doing the whole thing, book, lyrics and music.

And most importantly, after a big "number" as such, the next piece of action starts immediately, there is no interuption for applause which serves to keep the rollercoaster on track with no respite.

The show has been running for over 20 years in the West End and on tour, it simply doesn't date. Even if it is set in the 60s/70s, the costumes are pretty generic, situations, such as umemployment, are still recognisable and the emotions are universal.

Think I'd better stop now - although I could wax lyrical for a few more hundred words given the chance!

Interview with Sean Jones in 2004: http://www.bbc.co.uk/threecounties/theatre/2004/02/blood_brothers_sean_jones.shtml

King Lear

2011-03-20T13:36:00.000-07:00

Milton Keynes Theatre

Saturday 19 March 2011 (MAT)

The king of Lears

I am embarrassed to admit that I spent a good ten minutes at work last week, explaining how the tunes to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Baa Baa Black Sheep and the Alphabet song were essentially the same. (Bet you're all singing them now?!)

I have officially turned into the sort of person that I used to want to slap - very hard - so when one of my colleagues said that he thought I was in desperate need of seeing some Shakespeare, he was relieved to hear that I was actually going to see King Lear this very Saturday! And I was relieved to be going!

This wasn't just any old King Lear. Oh no. This was probably the best version of it that have ever seen. It had the fabulous Sir Derek Jacobi in the title role, the perfect antidote to Cbeebies - or so you would think!

I have seen and loved Sir Derek in many productions in the past including Richard III, Twelfth Night, Lear and Beckett but I have to confess that I couldn't help hearing him in my head saying "Iggle Piggle's not in bed" while he was proclaiming "I am a man more sinned against than sinning" as his chief role in my life at the moment is as the narrator of "In the Night Garden", the saviour of parents everywhere!

But I soon forgot about his other job and remembered that he is a GREAT classical actor - if not the greatest living one at the moment - as I became fully immersed in the plight of this arrogant, cruel yet tortured character.

I had also worried that having three hours sitting quietly in the dark was such a novelty that I may use it as a chance to drop off but when you are confronted by fine actors, skillfully producing a very moving rendition of what is ultimately a pretty harrowing play, the last thing I wanted to do was sleep! Not everyone's idea of a fun Saturday afternoon but my goodness, I needed it!

The play focuses on an old English king who suffers a reversal of his fortunes at the hands of his daughters after he divides up his kingdom amongst them.

What I really liked was the effect of the set which was just dappled white boards. There was no fussy furniture except for the odd stool, and props were at a minimum so your full attention was on the words and the acting. The play could create its own world through the words of Shakespeare and the performances of the actors.

There was no room for mistake or tedium and there was neither because Michael Grandage's production moves at quite a pace with no messing about and the performances are detailed and strong.

The production of course is driven by Jacobi's Lear who clearly shows the contadictions of the character while still managing to gain a certain sympathy from the audience. He is arrogant, self-indulgent and cruel but ends up broken and there's a real poignancy to his decline, his fear of madness is touching and his reunion with Cordelia, played by the wonderful Pippa Bennet-Warner) is tender.

While Jacobi is the natural centre of things, he is fully supported by an excellent cast. Gina McKee's Goneril is cold and calculating but somehow sensual while Justine Mitchell's Regan seems on the face of it to be a bit of a goody goody but at the same time is rather TOO excited by Gloucester's blinding.

Paul Jesson as Gloucester perfectly captures that irony of the man who really begins to see when he loses the use of his eyes and there's a touching sadness to Ron Cook's Fool.

Sadly the phrase "great tragedy" has been used often in these past weeks to mean something undeniably painful. I want to reclaim the phrase. This production is GREAT tragedy, which ironically is incredibly uplifting.

And one of the most uplifting things about this production is that actors of such magnitude are prepared to appear in the regions rather than stay holed up in the safety of the big smoke.

I got home just in time for Sir Derek to announce that everybody in the surreal and enchanting world of the Night Garden was now in bed - the man is a legend!

Great Expectations

2011-02-26T14:06:00.000-08:00

Watford Palace Theatre

25 February 2011

Expectations fulfilled

Charles Dickens is such a fabulous storyteller that the less an adapter does to his work the better so I was pleased that Tanika Gupta kept to the same basic story in her version of Great Expectations - just put it somewhere else.

In Dickens' novel, Pip has an encounter with a convict and is then given the chance to better himself when asked to regularly visit the reclusive Miss Havisham.

He begins to dream of being more than the working class boy that he is and when he is told he has an anonymous benefactor he begins to pursue his dream of becoming a gentleman, because he thinks that this will win him the heart of Miss Havisham's adopted daughter, the heartless Estella.

In her stage adaptation, Gupta has picked up this story and put it down in India during the time of the British Raj of 1861 and in doing so imparts a more specific message than just a critique of the British justice system that Dickens original work is often thought to be.

Instead of being a poor English boy, Pip is now a poor Indian boy - except with a Northern accent!

Magwitch is now a black convict instead of a white one, Miss Haversham is the same but represents colonial harshness and the haughty Estelle is mixed race.

It is the same tale but the emphasis is on Pip becoming an English gentleman, rather than merely a gentleman. Therefore the message at the end is pretty clear. In his desire to move up a class, improve his status and therefore become more socially acceptable, he has left his heritage and cultural identity behind and not been true to himself.

Nikolai Foster’s production for the English Touring Theatre is well-performed and moves on a pace from scene to scene although I did feel that the energy dipped at the beginning of the second half - or maybe that was just mine!

Tariq Jordan handled the role of Pip with great care, skillfully maturing from 12-year-old to young adult, to young adult with a posh English accent! He was rarely off the stage but his performance never flagged.

He was supported by a strong ensemble cast. Jude Akuwudike’s Magwitch commanded the stage in every scene he was in while Tony Jayawardena's lovely, caring Joe Gargery and Giles Cooper’s very posh Herbert Pocket also stood out for me.

Lynn Farleigh’s Miss Havisham was the epitomy of faded glamour and Simone James was suitably irritating in her coldness towards Pip, but still not half as annoying as Becca in EastEnders, a role for which, at the moment, she is chiefly known.

This really is a very interesting and enjoyable version of the tale which also highlights how many of its themes are universal and can be relevant to any place and time. Gupta has also brought out the comedy of the story which is always a winner in my book!

It makes for a very entertaining evening but, as with all stage adaptations of great works of literature, it doesn't come close to the enriching experience of reading the original prose.

Read my interview with Tariq Jordan: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-12430289

Legally Blonde

2011-02-26T12:54:00.000-08:00

Savoy Theatre

24 February 2011 (Mat)

Pretty in pink!

Omigod! Legally Blonde is camp and preposterous but purely and simply a lot of fun! And it's also a vast improvement on the film - and MUCH funnier!

Somehow you can get away with what is basically a fairly ludicrous story if you sing and dance your way through it with boundless enthusiasm while keeping your tongue firmly planted in your cheek! And use LOTS of pink. Everywhere!

"Blonde" Elle (Nicola Brazil) is heartbroken when her boyfriend Warner Huntington III (Simon Thomas) is accepted by Harvard to read law. So she gets accepted there too by doing a bit of work but mostly, it seems, by doing a cheerleader routine! She then goes about trying to win him back, befriending older student Emmet (Alex Gaumond) and Paulette (Sorelle Marsh), a hairdresser obssessed with the Irish, along the way! Even the final case is decided after a lesson in hair care rather than precedent!

The tunes are chirpy, the lyrics genuinely funny, the terrific dance routines embrace a number of styles from a skipping rope number to spoof Riverdance and there are two very cute dogs who do what they're told, much to the delight of an audience who seemed to have never seen an obedient dog before!

Director and choreographer Jerry Mitchell makes sure it's pacy and frothy. As far as the music, by Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin, is concerned, there isn't a big anthem that you remember and I couldn't sing any of the tunes now but they are all really enjoyable and fit the story well. And I can remember what I enjoyed - "Gay or European?" was a particular fave!

As the lead, Nicola Brazil was perky and had bags of vitality and warmth. Sometimes I don't think that understudies get the recognition they deserve. They are not second best, they are often just "not a name" - yet! The same goes for Lincoln Stone as Professor Callaghan who was just the right combination of suave yet harsh.

Sorelle Marsh was the "alternate" Paulette, (I don't know why they don't just say understudy to be honest - I'm sure Denise VO isn't off that much!) and she was fun and sassy. Her falling for UPS man (Chris Ellis-Stanton) was one of the highlights of the show, even if he did steal every scene he was in!

The rest of the main characters also didn't disappoint. Who couldn't have failed to fall for the slightly dishevelled, kind and caring Alex Gaumond? Simon Thomas as Warner as suitably self-centred although I would have fallen for his singing voice every time.

They were all ably suported by a well-drilled and talented ensemble who all looked as though they were having the time of their lives and believe me, this DOES make a difference!

It was also good to see a lot of young people in the audience - even if they were mostly girls! Although I did wonder why two of them spent ages before curtain up, in their seats in front of me, carefully doing each other's make-up. Oh to be that age again, when you make the effort to look good even when the lights are about to go out!

It's funny, feel good and fizzes pink like once of those pink bomb things that you put in the bath! In short, a brilliant pick me up for this day and age!

But the message at the end of "To thine own self be true" is one that couldn't fail to touch me. Elle may have originally followed the path to Harvard because of a man but she followed her heart, and what can be more truthful than that?!

Matthew Bourne's Cinderella

2011-02-24T13:59:00.000-08:00

Milton Keynes Theatre

22 February 2011

Cinders sets stage alight!

I love Matthew Bourne.

He is probably most famous for subverting the traditional and making dance accessible to those who might think it too high-brow. In his Cinderella, he does all this again in great style.

so, forget Pumpkin coaches, Ugly Sisters, little ponies, and, in my view a rather petulant and shallow heroine who spurns the warm-hearted Buttons for the riches and looks of Prince Charming, Matthew Bourne has set his Cinderella during the London Blitz and in doing so has, unlike pantomime, got a story firmly planted in realism with characters that you care about.

In this production, a grey and dowdy Cinders (Kerry Biggin) is downtrodden not by just two ugly sisters but a plethora of stepbrothers and stepsisters, one of whom seems to be doing a very passable impression of David Walliams as he rather unsettlingly pursues her with his strange obsession with sparkly shoes!

The dysfunctional family are led by Michela Meazza's vampish stepmother. She is made temporarily glamorous by a "fairy godfather" or guardian angel (Christopher Marney) and falls for an RAF pilot (Sam Archer) who gets wounded.

It all takes place on another amazing Lez Brotherstone set full of bombed, skeletal buildings. The scene where the bombing of the Cafe de Paris happens in reverse so that the smoking ruins become, once again, an elegant, glittering dance hall is just brilliant - a little reminiscent of the opening scene of Titanic.

In that hall, the ensemble dance almost as if their lives depend on it, high kicking and falling in wild abandonment.

This evocative setting works brilliantly with the sombre score - which was actually written during the war - and if you think that you can't jive and lindy hop to Prokofiev, then you'd be wrong! The sounds of bombs falling and anti-aircraft fire all add to the atmos.

In the lead roles, Kerry Biggin is touching and vulnerable in glasses and a cardy and Sam Archer is full of both tenderness and panache. Angel Marney is just terrific and joy to watch.

Their post-coital love duet was a new one on me because they hadn't "done the business" in any version that I'd seen before! But it really captures the heightened emotional feeling of a time where people knew that life was precarious and so acted on impulse.

Also, in a new twist, after the ball, instead of wandering the land trying to find a foot that fits the shoe, the airman wanders through a world of women of the night and ne'er do wells searching for his lost love before they are reunited in a hospital.

All in all the magical elements of a familiar story are stripped away, leaving a more believable story that still has that fairytale feel.

Bourne says that the show is a tribute to his dad who survived the Blitz but died in 2010. I like to think it's also a fitting tribute to all those who sat through the nightly assaults in their homes across the UK.

Chess

2011-01-26T08:23:00.000-08:00

Milton Keynes Theatre

25 January 2011

Chess not stale, mate. Yet!

Before I start, I just want to explain the 19 month gap in proceedings! The arrival of Forest Chick last February and the 8-9 months before that meant that I have been virtually nowhere or done anything and – what I have done, I haven’t had time to write about!

But now – I’m back! And here’s my first offering since “Never Forget” in June 2009 – a production that I felt sick throughout, and only realised why a week later!

Chess is one of those shows where you have to separate your thoughts about the actual production with your thoughts about the story / concept.

With lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson of ABBA fame, this touring production directed and choreographed by Craig Revel Horwood, looks great, is stylish, has a handful of good songs and very strong performances – but the show itself – well, frankly it’s a bit tedious. I thought that the game of chess was an odd choice for a musical when I first saw it 20-odd years ago and my perception hasn’t really changed.

I’m pretty sure that the game is somehow used as a metaphor for life, about strategies and how one action can affect another but to be honest I wasn’t inspired to consider this like I would an Ibsen, because I didn’t really care!

The Cold War element that was in recent history in the early 80s seemed to be really played down in favour of the love story.

It’s not until about 15 minutes before the interval that the love triangle angle emerges (always a winner!) so before that I was beginning to think that another game might have provided more interest and tension – Buckeroo perhaps!

Nevertheless, because I wasn’t interested in the story for the first hour, I was able to concentrate on the staging which I loved.

It’s all black and white (obv really!) but the costumes and feel are like a cross between Kafka and Tim Burton and are in a bondage type style which I felt updated the 80s musical well, as did the video wall which helps to set the location for each scene. (Or you can look in the programme!)

The performers also play all the instruments as well, something which always fascinates me, and rather than this looking clumsy, which it can do sometimes, it is seamless.

You can definitely hear the ABBA influence throughout, especially as some of it could be Eurovision material, but the handful of good songs really are good – “Anthem”, “Pity The Child”, “Heaven Help My Heart”, “Nobody’s Side” and the most famous, “I Know Him So Well”. The rest is more operatic than rock musical so if that’s your bag, you’ll love it!

There are some very strong performances by the principle characters, with the actors all being solid and experienced performers rather than big names who can’t cut it.

James Fox was excellent in the role of Freddy Trumper, and his performance of “Pity The Child” nearly took the roof off, as did Daniel Koek’s rendition of “Anthem”.

He has an amazing voice and is much better suited to playing Anatoly, a Russian chess player than he was when he played Tony in West Side Story where, if I remember correctly, I described him as being a bit like a school teacher.

Shona White who plays Elaine Paige – sorry, Florence - also had a voice that travelled to my very core.

Luckily the voices deflected from the story – maybe I over analyse things too much but Florence seemed to bin Freddie for Anatoly rather TOO quickly! And personally - I would have stuck with Freddie!

The rest of the cast all provided excellent support although I was a little disappointed that in some of the ensemble numbers I couldn’t always hear the words, which kind of spoiled my main sport in a Tim Rice musical, which is spotting the unfeasible lyrics. But luckily I picked out his rhyming of “consul” with “response’ll” which made my evening!

This is production proves that the show isn’t stale – but could probably be an hour shorter!

But – while I have mixed feelings about the show, whatever I saw on the stage, it was really nice to be out!

Never Forget

2009-06-05T02:34:00.000-07:00

Milton Keynes Theatre
2 June 2009

Never forget the real thing

Never Forget, or the ‘Take That musical’ is possibly the campest musical that I have seen in a long while, and I think that’s saying something! But it’s loads of fun and made me smile a lot throughout!

It’s the story of five lads who audition to join a ‘Take That’ tribute band as a way out of their current lives and problems. It’s the bog standard morality tale that’s often used to link songs in juke box musicals – fame slash love slash lust (insert whichever is most appropriate) comes at a price etc etc etc - but to be fair, this one does have some quite amusing lines!

In any case, to be honest, I really wasn’t too fussed about the story. I actually gave up on it after one of the boys decides he wants to leave the band to pursue a solo career (predictably), and all the others are really upset – but they’ve only ever done ONE GIG anyway by this point, so I felt it was a bit of an over reaction! Instead, I concentrated on the fact that the whole show is really just an excuse to play some of the fab fives’ great back catalogue and I spent much of the show remembering and marvelling at how Gary Barlow had written such fabulous tunes!

The five guys in the lead roles were Mark Willshire as Ash, the Gary Barlow figure, who had a good voice but seemed to struggle a bit with the high notes. Then there was Adam C Booth as Jake (Robbie) who had some of the best comedy lines which he delivered well and was probably the best dancer of the five. I really warmed to Tom Bradley as Adrian, the awkward banker who gradually grows in confidence and this journey provides him with some lovely comic business. And Scott Garnham also gets a lot of laughs as the Spaniard Jose who loves and reveres his mother (as we all should of course!)

Philip Olivier, bless him, as Dirty Harry, is not a singer or a dancer, and he admitted as much to me in a pre-show interview, saying that he had a very hard time learning these skills just for this show. But to be fair he has a good stab at it and plays the role of the stripper who’s not the sharpest tool in the box, with genial charm. But his main attraction of course is his fine physique – and with this he certainly doesn’t disappoint. He gets his kit off within five minutes of first appearing on stage, much to the appreciation of the mostly female audience, myself included!
In reality none of the lead five lads are great dancers, but I gave them the benefit of the doubt and put this down to the fact that the story is about how they had just started out in a tribute band, so were still learning to dance like TT. Ergo, it was all part of the show. However, they were all probably still better than Gary Barlow still is!

The backing dancers were an entirely different story though – all excellent - and I enjoyed Karen Bruce’s choreography too.

It all builds into a grand finale and the obligatory montage of the band’s songs with the audience on their feet, singing, clapping and dancing as if it was the real thing.

But it wasn’t. It was great fun, but it wasn’t TT. Nevertheless, if you love the UK’s best-loved pop band then you’ll enjoy this too –especially if you’re in a Hen Party! However, it made me never forget that you really can’t beat the real thing! Roll on the 4th July at Wembley!

Just one note to prospective audiences. It all starts with a loud note that will make you jump. You can jump, by all means, but please don’t laugh for TEN MINUTES about the fact that you jumped! It’s REALLY annoying.

Little Shop of Horrors

2009-05-17T13:25:00.000-07:00

Milton Keynes Theatre
11 May 2009

Rich dark chocolate factory stuff!

This wonderfully kitsch and camp show which also boasts some great songs is an un-taxing and fun evening, but I have to first say what I spent most of the production contemplating!

Reading the programme before curtain up I discovered that I knew one of the three puppeteers who take it in turns to “work” the man-eating plat Audrey II. The last time I had seen Iestyn Evans was when he was a young teenager who both built and “worked” Audrey II in a local amateur production that I was working on. So, my thoughts during the show were split between being delighted that this really nice young man had developed a very successful career for himself in the world of professional puppetry, a world that he had always seemed destined for and, luckily for him, had worked out – and the horror of realising that I had last seen him 14 years ago – 14 YEARS – OMG!

I also spent a lot of time listening for the bass line in the songs as the bass guitarist had spent a week at our flat in Coventry when the show was at the Belgrade. I didn’t have to listen hard – it was very loud – but very good!

So, onto the show – the stage version of what has become a cult movie - Ashman and Menken's B-movie horror spoof musical, this time produced by the people from the Menier Chocolate Factory.It opens at Mushnik’s Florists on Skid Row, where the struggling proprietor is about to close down. But then, his downtrodden assistant Seymour finds a “strange and interesting plant” which he calls Audrey 2 after his fellow assistant Audrey, for whom he holds a considerable torch. However, the plant soon becomes stranger and hungrier and leads Seymour down a very dark path indeed, because Audrey needs blood in order to survive.

Matthew White's production has lots of charm, even if it’s all quite ludicrous! I don’t know why but I didn’t expect Clare Buckfield to be any good as Audrey, but she is and has a surprisingly strong singing voice too. Alex Ferns has a blast as the sado-masichist dentist (aren’t they all?!). This is a man who does a very good line in playing people who are “not quite right” (I cite Trevor in EastEnders) and in this role he was a man who really looked like he was enjoying himself! Quite over the top but this didn’t matter a bit.

The cast also features the dependable experience of Sylvester McCoy as Mushnik, even though his American-Jewish accent was another “not quite right” thing, but as this also gets laughs, maybe it was planned that way! Clive Rowe is an excellent voice of Audrey II , the plant which grows impressively throughout the show until it dominates the show. He exudes just the right amount of wit, and Damian Humbley as the meek amateur botanist Seymour strikes the right note of indecision and torment that the role requires.

The Ronettes-style trio of Nadia Di Mambro, Cathryn Davis and Donna Hines, who provide the narration have incredible voices, but sometimes the strength of their chords over powered the actual words which was a shame. Also, the all round cast felt a little lacking in number. It was fun having Alex Ferns come back playing many different parts but it would have been nice to have more in the cast so that more could be made of the bigger numbers. However, I guess cost precludes this and the fact that it’s obviously Ferns in all these other parts is a nice touch I guess!

One thing that I must take issue with though – and for this I blame the marketeers and not the production – and that’s that with a tough titty, a cr*p and at least two sh*ts I would argue against the seven-years-old and up label. Couple that with feeding body parts into a plant and you could scar some poor little blighters for life.

But this is a vibrant and fun production with some lovely dark comedy, it’s just that it’s for secondary age and above only I think!

England People Very Nice

2009-04-26T12:03:00.000-07:00

Olivier Theatre, National Theatre
18 April 2009 (Mat)

A great portrayal of human Bean's!

Some people think that Richard Bean’s ‘England People Very Nice’ is racist. Well, in that case they have really missed the point. Just because a play shows racist behaviour doesn’t mean it’s a racist play. What Bean is doing is showing us this behaviour to highlight exactly what it is and that while it’s wrong, how it can come about so easily. But it’s also an extremely funny play and by making us laugh, making us realise that we are laughing at some uncomfortable stuff and by making us question ourselves, he is drumming a point home far more effectively than making a worthy speech. In other words, it’s classic satire!

In showing us the past 400 years of people’s reactions to incomers, he shows us that there have always been racist reactions and sadly, we also see that this will probably always be the case. It’s not about skin colour though, it’s about reacting to different cultures, and how all cultures have been intolerant to each other. In short, those who are already in a place will resent the arrival of new people who seem to be given everything they need.

From the arrival of the French in England to the Irish, to the Jews and finally through to Bangladeshis, the new culture that arrives is resented by the old guard. But what also really comes across is that as time goes on, the so called English people are made up of all the cultures that have arrived in the country and begs the question what is an English person anyway?

The one thing that also came across about why new people are resented is that they are all perceived to be getting something that the people who are already in the country aren’t getting, be it jobs or housing. The Protestants are uneasy about the Irish Catholics, who, in turn, are hostile to the Jews, who feel displaced by the Bangladeshis. Then finally, it’s suggested that they are angry about seemingly preferential treatment being given to Somalis.

The irony is that this is kind of a play within a play because it’s being put on by “inmates” in an immigration centre”. They have arrived in this country and certainly none of them are getting an easy ride – they are in prison.

The device used to show how things don’t change is clever. In the first half the same actors play the central characters in each section. Then in the second half, the same actors play the same characters over a period of about 60 years – without seemingly ageing. It shows that people’s reactions are exactly the same and that some things never change. But what Bean also shows is that in every case, love transcends the racial divide.

Nicholas Hytner’s production is fast-paced and helped by animations by Pete Bishop which move the story along. And though they were from the same kind of school, I enjoyed these much more than I ever did Terry Gilliam’s Monty Python stuff which frankly I found a bit scary!

It’s massive cast, by modern standards, but I’d pick out a few for a special mention - Sacha Dhawan and Michelle Terry as the star-crossed lovers in every phase, Sophie Stanton as a wonderfully brassy barmaid and Fred Ridgeway as a wise old publican.

The jokes are plentiful but it all makes a serious point. You become more and more aware of an Englishman being Daniel Defoe’s “heterogeneous thing”, essentially mongrels, and it is integration that encourages tolerance. As a result, there’s also an implied suggestion that it’s the unwillingness of some communities to integrate that causes dangerous problems, and it is this that is the most chilling message. This is probably where the racist allegations come from. I didn’t see it like that at all but all art is subjective.

There has, and sadly probably always will be racism and intolerance, and because of this there will also always be a heated debate about multicultural Britain. Richard Bean’s play is a timely – and maybe even timeless – contribution to that discussion.

Beauty and the Beast

2009-04-26T11:24:00.001-07:00

Gordon Craig Theatre, Stevenage
16 April 2009

Christmas comes early!

This is a nice little show. It was slick, funny and colourful with engaging performances that delighted the audience.

The cast tell the classic tale with genial exuberance, but in case you’ve lived in a cave all your life with no electrical supplies to have viewed the numerous telly adaptations or the 1991 Disney version, it tells the story of a Prince who’s been turned into a Beast by an evil witch because he doesn’t fancy her. He can only turn back into a Prince if a beautiful young girl falls in love with him. And guess what – one does – eventually!

I am now going to resist the temptation to rant on about the dubious morals of this story, i.e. can men only be Princes if beautiful young women love them? Do only beautiful young women deserve to marry handsome Princes? STOP ME NOW!

My only gripe is that for an Easter show it felt distinctly seasonal, although there is nothing really wrong with that I guess. But this isn’t a panto. It looks like a panto, it feels like a panto, it has goodies and baddies , heroes and villains. The saving grace was that there were no flashing wands! But it also doesn’t have any ‘It’s behind yous’, or a dame, or a song sheet, or a ghost scene, so it’s not a panto - therefore why did I feel like I was watching one?! Maybe it was down to the fact that it was written and directed by the wonderful Gordon Craig panto legend Paul Laidlaw.

But apart from that, it’s also a feel-good show, with a moral – true beauty lies within. This was played out slightly in the casting of the Beast, because even when the talented Wesley Hughes turned into the handsome Prince, he was frankly a tad generously proportioned, but in a normal bloke / comforting kind of way. Nothing wrong with that of course, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a slight double chin. But he was a nice bloke, with a fantastic voice of course, and that’s what matters. And I also think that this was inspired casting because it kept to the theme of the play. Why should the beautiful heroine only ever get to marry those with chiselled features?

The heroine, Belle, was charmingly played by Katie Lavelli and the arrogant Anton, the Beast’s competitor for her affections was played by Nathan Lubbock-Smith, in a very impressive performance that included so much charm and humour that you didn’t know whether to love or hate him!

The good humour and panto-like joie-de-vivre permeated the whole show and the use of familiar songs with slightly changed words added to the illusion. But they were all great renditions and the hilariously camp “Everybody ought to have a maid” brought the house down.

This was an amiable, enchanting evening which proved to be a real audience pleaser and put me right in the mood for Christmas, albeit some eight months early!

Cabaret

2009-04-16T05:47:00.000-07:00

Milton Keynes Theatre
13 April 2009

Come to the Cabaret!

When Mr FB saw the warning in the Foyer that the show contained “elements of nudity”, he literally did a hop, skip and a jump into the auditorium, I kid you not!

And talking of philistines, I am ashamed to also admit that I had never seen Cabaret before, not the film, not the stage show, nothing. But it’s one of those shows that you actually think you HAVE seen, mainly because you know so many of the songs. However, in my defence, I can reveal that I HAVE read Christopher Isherwood’s series of short stories collected under the title Goodbye to Berlin (1939), which provided the inspiration for the play 'I Am A Camera', and subsequently this musical.

So I was worried that I would be let down by some sort of weak story linking these fab songs together, but I wasn’t, and in the hands of this talented company I was actually enthralled.

In the show, Sally Bowles is a performer at the Kit Kat Club in Berlin for whom, along with her fellow entertainers, life is all about shows, drink, sex and trying to get money for essential items such as clothes and booze.

However, this is 1930s Germany and against all this fun and decadence, the rise of the Nazis is ever present and increases as the show goes on.

The excesses of the era are represented in the Kit Kat cabaret songs which are slick, sensual, colourful, amusing and very well executed by the company.

The nudity mentioned is basically all tasteful back views, but that’s not to say that the show isn’t steamy. There are some very highly charged scenes with much canoodling going on between all the sexes, something which bought some hilarious ooohs and aaahs from what was, shall we say, quite a mature audience.

The legendary dancer/actor Wayne Sleep is scarily watchable as Emcee. With a face packed with make-up that highlights not only his eyebrows but his ambiguity, I wasn’t sure whether I was terrified of him or on his side – maybe both! He also has some comic-dancing to do which I have to say was incredible stuff for a 60-year-old. He’s certainly still got “it”.

Samantha Barks was a good Sally Bowles. The acting side of things was competent but not outstanding, however, she certainly knows how to belt out a tune and this show gives her plenty of chance to do just that with songs like, Maybe This Time, Don’t Tell Mama and the anthemic title song. She may have only come third in the BBC’s ‘I’d Do Anything’, but for me anyway, she has certainly come out of it smiling and with a better show to boot! Sally Bowles versus two-song Nancy in Oliver – no contest!

Henry Luxembourg played Cliff, Sally’s American lover, and I am also ashamed to say that, at the first sight of him, I whispered loudly in surprise to Mr FB, “that’s Toby the serial killer from Hollyoaks!” However, he was convincing in that and he’s believable in this, a very different role.

He grows from his initial wide-eyed innocence about the Berlin that he arrives in, through to his revulsion of the Nazis and finally rejection of them and their country.

It is this theme that makes it far more than your average musical and other supporting characters add to the darker themes. There’s Fraulein Schneider, played by the excellent Jenny Logan, whose engagement to Herr Schultz (Matt Zimmerman) is ended by the threat of what is going to happen, and the Nazi presence grows throughout the course of the show.

This culminates in an ending which, to say it is downbeat is somewhat of an understatement. The musical leaves us in no doubt where Nazi Germany is heading and the tableau of naked figures as the final scene drums this point home with force.

I had no wish to clap along at the curtain calls, I felt sad and shattered, but also somewhat uplifted by the fact that I had watched one of those rare things – a musical that really made me feel something. Not since Blood Brothers have I been quite so impressed by this kind of entertainment.

Enjoy

2009-04-16T05:39:00.000-07:00

Geilgud Theatre, London
11 April 2009 (Matinee)

Enjoy without question!

Alan Bennett is without question one of Britain’s best-loved and brilliant playwrights. Alison Steadman is without question one of Britain’s best-loved and brilliant actresses. Both have the most wonderful talent to make the nuances of the ordinary, very, very funny whilst at the same time, make you realise that these nuances are sometimes also very, very sad. So, to experience both in one afternoon, with one acting out the other’s words, is a pure joy!

This is what happens at the Gielgud Theatre in ‘Enjoy’, a play that Bennett wrote in the 80s, and which has rarely seen the light of day since. (Although I did see and enjoy it in Watford two years ago!) It was critically mauled when it was first performed but that hasn’t happened this time around – probably because Bennett was way ahead of his time and people can now relate to it more. In fact, this current production was actually the highest grossing Alan Bennett play in the West End on advance sales – ever!

‘Enjoy’ looks at life in 1980s’ Leeds and how modern life was changing. Some, like Wilf, want to change with the times while others, like Connie, want to hold onto the past – as she comments, “Mr Craven [Wilf] has always been on the side of progress. He had false teeth at 27″!

And that’s the underlying theme for the whole play – not the false teeth, but the disagreement.
Long suffering elderly couple Mam/Connie, (Steadman) and Dad/Wilf (David Troughton) bicker and reminisce about better times in front of a “visitor”, who sits in the corner documenting their life for reasons that become clear as the play moves on.

Mam tries to show this observer that they are acting completely normally, while clearly they are not. She brings out the best china that they never use, an act brutally exposed by Dad. But this simple act of not doing what they normally do hides the fact that they really ARE an unusual family. And while in many plays, the bickering of a couple who have been together for years often disguises deep underlying affection – you get the feeling with these to that they don’t really like each other at all, they are just used to each other!

This is a couple out of love, confined to their home together, despising each other more every day, and wishing their kids would come back and stay. But it soon becomes clear that the reasons that they don't are complex and often very dark.

No one in the play is really what they first appear to be and that makes the whole experience thrilling and completely unpredictable. But it’s also very funny, it’s all laced with memorable Bennett one liners and numerous laugh out loud moments.

He excels at the observation of the ludicrous – although you don’t realise that things are ridiculous until he points them out. Why did I find the line “I always knew he’d be a student – I could see him opening a bank account wearing a scarf” so funny? Because Mr Bennett made me remember those adverts for student accounts and made me wonder why on earth I didn’t think that their portrayal of a stereotypical student was preposterous the first time around!

But like all classic Bennett, one minute you’re laughing and the next you’re gasping in shock. This wouldn’t be Bennett without the undercurrents of more serious issues like child molestation, prostitution, homosexuality and wife beating. But all of these issues make the narrative much more real and hard hitting, however surreal it gets.

As the play draws to a close there is an Orwellian Big Brother feel to proceedings and you could see why people in the 80s might not have got it. These days the audience is far more used to the idea not only of clinging on to your childhood and a better time but also people watching you as you live your life!

Alison Steadman is wonderful as she changes from being hilarious to moving in the space of a sentence and she is complemented perfectly by Troughton as Wilf. They both give the production a chemistry and pathos it truly required to make it work.

Carol Macready is Mrs Clegg in a riotously funny, but sadly quite brief, scene, just as she did at Watford, and Josie Walker as their brassy and seemingly hard-hearted daughter Linda also reprises her role with great aplomb.

Is it uncomfortable viewing? Sometimes yes – not least because both Mr FB and I could see, in Connie and Wilf, a potential future of forgetting what each other has said, rubbing each others frail limbs and reminding each other when to go for a wee (the memory loss part is already there!) But is it satisfying viewing? Absolutely no question!

Star Wars: A Musical Journey

2009-04-10T16:29:00.000-07:00

O2 Arena
10 April 2009

Going over to the Dark Side!

Fans of the Star Wars series will absolutely love watching their beloved 12 odd hours of films condensed into two hours of best bits with John Williams fabulous score played by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with singing from the London Concert Choir.

And those, like me, who aren’t fans of Star Wars will love it for exactly the same reasons!

In my opinion, cutting down 12 hours of ridiculousness to just two can only be a good thing. And as I was assured by my Star Wars fanatic husband that they had cleverly picked out the very best bits to tell the story as well – this kind of proves my point really – that only one sixth of it was ever vaguely interesting, because the story, such as it is, could be told in well under half the time! But, despite this, I’m still not sure exactly why and who they were fighting but Harrison Ford was quite fit when he was younger!

I also now know that Luke and Leia were brother and sister and that Darth Vader didn’t end up as Luke’s dad because he shagged his mum while she was with Anakin in some kind of starry love triangle, I found out that Darth WAS Anakin - still not sure exactly how and this happened though! And there was I thinking he was Dave Prowse the Green Cross Code man – “Feel the Force Luke – and look both ways before you cross!”

Now I’ve got that off my chest, I have to say that this is a very enjoyable way of watching the films, and one that should have been employed from the start! One thing that you can’t deny about the series is the fact that the music is fantastic. And hearing it like this, with the Royal Philharmonic in full view and scenes from the films on the big screen behind them, is not only quite breathtaking, but you really begin to see what a skill it is to both score a film and then musically direct the orchestra. You have to write the right music for the action which then has to be played with exactly the right timing. So whatever I think of the film is actually quite irrelevant as this is probably the one and only time that I have found watching any of it remotely interesting! And the Star Wars fans in the audience - i.e. most of them - absolutely lapped up every minute of it!

Anthony Daniels, aka C3PO, narrates the whole thing, introducing each section and explaining what’s going on (a Godsend for me!) He also lapses into his character occasionally which brought howls of delight from the devotees. (For goodness sake - he's only an actor - he goes to the loo like all of us!) The story is explained using excerpts from the films, not in chronological order (I am reliably informed!) but showing clips from all six to illustrate a point. I found this a great way of telling me what was going on and I did see a chink of the light after only - well - 32 years! Meanwhile the fans found it fascinating - mainly because not only do they go into ecstasy at the smallest clip of the films WHENEVER they see them, here they could show their "superior" knowledge by pointing out which bit was from which film. (Yawn!)

The orchestra plays Williams’ score which has been specially chosen to fit the action on the screen and illustrate the particular mood that that part of the story brings. This was the fantastic part for me, listening to live and loud soaring music whilst watching how effectively it went with the action.

It’s a performance like I have never seen before and never thought I would want to, but in appreciating the skill that went behind putting music behind these iconic films, it was all strangely uplifting! Have I gone over to the Dark Side? Have I seen the light? Well no, not exactly, only a chink in the plot department, but I have learned stuff from the evening that will at least allow me to appreciate something about them in the future. The plot is still rubbish though!

One extra point - being up very high in the Arena I discovered that my new mini binoculars are a real boon! Roll on Michael Jackson!

Waiting for Godot

2009-03-19T09:26:00.000-07:00

Milton Keynes Theatre
16 March 2009

Much ado about literally nothing!

I love Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot but I don’t think I’ll ever truly know what it’s about – and that, I guess, is part of the joy of watching it.

But I have to say that in this wonderful production, as well as wondering, yet again, what Samuel Beckett had in mind, I was completely mesmerised by the fact that I was watching some of the country’s greatest actors – on the one stage – at the same time!

You’re usually lucky to be watching one – but to get Sir Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Simon Callow and Ronald Pickup altogether was just such a privilege, it’s simply the only word you can use! In fact, you would only have to write a part for Simon Russell Beale – oh yes, and Anthony Sher - to get the full house of the UK’s top performers in my book!

But first – what’s the play about? Well, if I could answer that I would have made my name as a respected academic years ago, because any kind of discussion about what Waiting for Godot "means" usually ends up as a tangled mess. Audiences and critics alike have tried to do it for years, so I’m not going to attempt a solution here – just give a few random thoughts about what I like to think it’s about, because that’s really what I think Beckett wanted to achieve – people talking about it! So, job done Sam!

The action of the play – or inaction anyway – centres on Vladimir (Stewart) and Estragon (McKellen). Two men who appear to be tramps, but no one really knows who they are. They mess around affectionately, bickering and arguing like some old married couple who have been together so long that everything that needs to be said has been discussed! But no one knows where they have come from, or where they are going. All we know is that they are waiting for someone called Godot. Into their world comes the brash Pozzo (Callow) holding his servant Lucky (Pickup) on a rope, and they are brought messages from Godot by a mysterious “boy”. And nothing really happens throughout, but you are still glued to your seat for two hours!

I love this play because you can watch it over and over again and still get different things out of it. For me, Sean Matthias’ production highlighted the idea that the characters are all performers and Vladimir and Estragon are more of a double act in this production than I’ve ever seen before, right down to the scratching of their heads in a Laurel and Hardy-esque fashion.

And Stephen Brimson Lewis’s fabulous set depicts them waiting in a kind of dilapidated old theatre with boxes, wings and a fly tower so that you can imagine that perhaps the two once used to work there as a music hall act. Callow’s Pozzo is dressed as a circus ringmaster who drags Lucky around like the organ grinder’s monkey. To compound this theatrical idea, as Mckellen and Stewart actors take their applause, they also shuffle along to Flanagan and Allen's Underneath the Arches, while, on this particular night anyway, the audience stood to applaud in a well-deserved ovation.

Some commentators have focused on the religious imagery of the play. The characters talk of the crucifixion and Christ but it has also been suggested that Godot is really God, and that the tramps attitude towards the elusive character – partly hope and partly fear – represents the state in which many Christians live.

As for me, well, I like the religious argument, but I also like to see Vladimir and Estragon as two characters who are representing us in our own lives, whichever faith we follow. They are quite literally messing around waiting for something of note to happen and to be honest, sometimes that’s exactly how I feel myself! It manages to squeeze out comedy and pathos from the idea of boredom – something that it’s all too easy to identify with!

Whatever you think about the play, the fact remains that there is very little action. As the characters say on more than one occasion - “Nothing happens”. Therefore, you have to rely on the actors to make the fantastic word play come alive and in these four, I don’t think you can get better. The performances are outstanding.

McKellen and Stewart portray both the ease and frustration of a longstanding friendship that is mesmerising as they ponder and contemplate. Callow provides the perfect foil as the loud man of action who never actually achieves anything for all his bluster. Lucky only has one speech, but, as a mixture of words and expressions that seemingly bear no relation to each other, it is surely the most difficult to learn and portray ever written! It would be tempting to learn it by rote but, in Pickup, you can really hear the thought processes working as if he had only just thought up the whole thing!

Special mention must also be made of 11-year-old Gabriel Steele who is sharing the role of “boy” with another youngster. On only a day’s rehearsal, including just one run through on the stage, he was a natural, appearing completely un-phased by his illustrious stage companions and delivering his lines clearly and confidently. Definitely one to watch!

When this play first appeared on stage in 1955 (what a shock that must have been to audiences used to a diet of Coward and Maugham!) Kenneth Tynan ‘got it’. He wrote in the Observer that it has “no plot, no climax, no denouement; no beginning, no middle and no end. It arrives at the custom-house, as it were, with no luggage, no passport and nothing to declare; yet it gets through as might a pilgrim from Mars.”He believed that it did this because it proved that a play was basically a means of spending two hours in the dark without being bored. He was right, as far as Godot is concerned anyway (read last week’s Pack of Lies review!), and over 50 years later he still is, because this play with these performers is a theatrical triumph!

God of Carnage

2009-03-19T09:10:00.000-07:00

Richmond Theatre
11 March 2009 (Mat)

"Don’t let the title put you off!"

I saw Yasmina Reza’s play in the West End last year and thoroughly enjoyed it. But much as I love Ralph Fiennes and Tamsin Greig, I think I enjoyed the new cast in this touring production more. For not only have they shaved off about ten minutes in this “straight through” 90 odd minute play, making it much tighter and pacier, they also have the absolute master of the one-liner - Mr Richard E Grant - in the production who is one of the best in the business at delivering ultimate put downs and sarcastic asides.

And that’s just one of the joys of this fascinating play about the relationship between two couples. The title God of Carnage doesn’t really convey a feeling that there will be a lot of laughs but the play actually conjures up plenty and they all come out of what is an enthralling study of the human condition and reactions.

The action begins in the living room of a middle class French couple (Roger Allam and Lia Williams) whose child has been hit in the face with a stick by another boy, which has resulted in two of his teeth being removed. They are joined by the parents of the culprit (Grant and Serena Evans) who have come round to discuss the situation. It all starts quite gently as both couples are a little nervous, but it’s a wonderful slow burner and eventually the angry recriminations come out, which also highlight the weaknesses in each of the couple’s own characters and relationships.

It’s like Art, Reza’s first success in the UK, in that what begins as a low key discussion builds into an all out battle, this time between the sexes, and the fact that you go straight through the play without a break adds to the build-up of intensity.

After a nicey, nicey start, all the characters begin to cast off their inhibitions and release formerly hidden insecurities. In doing so they seem to validate the pronouncement of Grant’s character that The God of Carnage – or primitive aggression - is unstoppable once the genie has been let out of the bottle!

Joining Grant in the cast to release that particular genie are Lia Williams, Roger Allam and Serena Evans and the four provide a great evening (or afternoon) of entertainment!

Don’t get me wrong because I love Fiennes, and Ralph, if you’re reading this – which I accept is highly unlikely – I think you’re fab and you were great in this – it’s just that this part is just made for Grant because in all honesty his character Alain is like a new Withnail - bitter, cynical and seemingly unaware of everybody else’s feelings, or if he is aware, he doesn’t care!

In the rest of the cast, Roger Allam’s transformation from being friendly and tolerant to raging is hilarious, but at the same time sad, while Lia Williams, who has been seen to relish emotionally volatile parts in the past, doesn’t disappoint as Veronique, a highly emotive woman who wears her heart close to the surface. Alain’s wife Annette, played by Serena Evans, has been living in the shadow of her husband for too long and her release is a joy to watch as, like Veronique, she becomes just as aggressive as her spouse, if not more!

So, don’t let the title put you off. This is an extremely funny play that, like all good comedies of manners, gives you a very satisfying amount to think about as well and I left the theatre particularly concerned that a minor bicker about who was going to make the tea could escalate! But another bonus is that there’s plenty of time to go out for dinner afterwards too which is always a bonus in my book!

Pack of Lies

2009-03-15T12:58:00.000-07:00

9 March 2009
Milton Keynes Theatre

Good story but not tightly packed!

I’ve never found the seats at the Milton Keynes Theatre to be particularly uncomfortable before. And I saw High Whitemore’s Pack of Lies a few years ago and thought it was a good story. So why did I find myself shifting around in my seat for more or less the entire two hours duration of this show? Well, in short, I think it’s because this production needed a big kick up the proverbial behind it!

It’s still a good story.

In short, a bloke, Mr Stewart (Daniel Hill) turns up at the house of Bob and Barbara (Simon Shepherd and Jenny Seagrove) and their teenage daughter Julie (Corinne Sawers) to ask if they can use their home as a surveillance house. After a bit of persuasion they agree, but it turns out that their house is being used to watch their best friends, Peter and Helen Kroger, (Peter Slade and Lorna Luft – yes – Judy Garland’s daughter, no less!) who live across the road, because the powers that be believe that they maybe KGB spies!

It sounds unbelievable that this could happen in a normal suburban street, but it did and the play is based on the true story of the Krogers’, which was quite a famous one in 1961.

The strength of this play is that it sensitively shows the impact of the spy world on a normal family and makes you think about how you would feel if you discovered that everything your best friend had told you about their life was a complete lie and that your friendship was therefore based on nothing. Barbara is devastated by the revelations and Jenny Seagrove’s performance makes this palpable.

It’s quite a sad play in this way but there are also some laughs, many of them coming from the performance of Lorna Luft who is a brash but friendly and incredibly likeable Helen Kroger, a performance that makes the outcome all the more heartbreaking. And Simon Shepherd’s Bob is a good mixture of knowing what is the right thing to do and discomfort at doing it.

The problem is that it’s soooo slow and, on the night I saw it anyway, needed lashings more oooomph! However, if you’re enjoying it you can say that the slow pace is the turning of the screw, the tension building, the claustrophobia. If you’re just shifting around in your seat – it’s just slow!

There is also a feeling of inevitability – you know what’s going to happen, because they keep telling you. They tell you everything, all the time, so much so that you begin to think there must be a massive twist, and to be honest, I think that it would have been a lot more entertaining if there had been. If Mr Stewart turned out to be not who you thought he was, or Bob and Barbara were MI5 or their daughter the real Russian spy, but none of them were, so it all left you feeling rather deflated by the end, thinking “and” – but by then it’s all over. Maybe I watch too many films!

It’s all very interesting and the performances are good – but – just talk a bit faster!

The Convicts' Opera

2009-03-15T12:12:00.000-07:00

7 March 2009
Warwick Arts Centre

Bawdy fun and food for thought!

I LOVE plays within plays – there are so many layers, so many questions as to who exactly the audience is and does life imitate art or vice versa. It makes my head spin, so fancying a bit of theatrical dizziness, I jumped at the chance of seeing director Max Stafford Clark’s re-imagining of John Gays The Beggars’ Opera, written by Stephen Jeffreys and co-produced by Out of Joint and the Sydney Theatre Company.

The Beggars’ Opera is not merely seen as the first musical. Set in the underworld of 18th century London, the criminals vices mirror those of the rich and as such is a powerful satire of the time. It is, in itself, also great fun and packed with romance and intrigue and this new twist just adds to the entertainment.

In this re-working, it’s all set on an 18th century ship where, a group of convicts on their way to Australia, put on the show which depicts the life that they are leaving far behind. In doing so art begins to mirror life and confusion between artificial construction and reality runs riot.

There is also a wonderful score which combines the folk tunes of the original with fun reworkings of modern classics including "Sailing", “Those Were The Days”, “500 Miles”, “You’re So Vain”, and “I Fought the Law”.

Forget about why a ship’s captain would let prisoners stage something so subversive, and you will enjoy it very much because it is an inventive and enjoyable romp with some great performances from a top ensemble cast.

Top in my book was Juan Jackson who begins to identify fully with Macheath, the character he has to portray. And my enjoyment of his charismatic performance has nothing to do at all with the scene where he displays his perfectly toned and outstanding body in a small pair of swimming trunks – honest! He had a fab voice too!

But I also enjoyed Ali McGregor as the lovestruck Polly Peachum with an arsonist alter-ego packed with attitude and Glenn Butcher as the slightly camp director trying to mould this group of outcasts into a company.

The Convicts’ Opera is a pile of bawdy fun but alongside the actual journey across the world, there is also a spiritual journey for the convicts as the transformational power of drama works its magic.

Then afterwards, spend the entire journey home arguing with your husband about whether the swimming trunks scene was strictly necessary. For the record, I thought it was. And Mr FB is heading for the gym! Bless!

The Tempest

2009-03-10T06:30:00.000-07:00

RSC, Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon
24 February 2009

Not all message and metaphor

I was a nymph in The Tempest when I was about 12. It was an all-female production, but sadly not in the all-male Swan Lake sense, where having all the parts played by one gender enhances the production by providing new insights. It was an all-female Tempest because I was at an all-girls school and needs must!

There really was nothing new about my school production at all it was as traditional as it comes, except for the rather fetching (not!) pink nylon dress that I had to wear! These kinds of experiences can taint your view of Shakespeare for life, but luckily, the existence of the RSC and many other forward thinking and exciting companies are our theatrical saviours.

The RSC’s latest production of The Tempest, directed by Janice Honeyman, is in collaboration with the Baxter Theatre Centre of Cape Town and is just one example of how a 400-year-old play can have exciting new life pumped into it. It’s a spectacular riot of colour, innovation and emotion, that shows that Shakespeare is just as relevant today as it ever was.

Instead of being set on some non-descript fantasy island, the action takes place on an African isle. Looking at the play as a study of colonialism is a popular view, but this setting takes the idea further so it appears more to be about South African apartheid. This is most clearly shown in the relationship between John Kani’s magnificently dignified Caliban who declares "This island's mine" and Antony Sher’s tormented Prospero who tries to control and abuse him. Other notable performances come from Atandwa Kani as a captivating Ariel and Tinarie Van Wyk Loots as a beguiling Miranda.

However, it’s not all message and metaphor because as well as having these creditable undertones, the production is also reminiscent of The Lion King. The warm lighting takes you to a desert type location, the puppets and ethnic costumes are a riot of colour and the frenzied dancing and singing to the music of an on stage band is fun and uplifting.

This is a magic new take on Shakespeare’s last play and a great birthday present! (Thanks Mr FB!)

Boeing Boeing

2009-03-05T07:21:00.000-08:00

Wimbledon Theatre
19 February 2009 (Mat)

Flying out of reality!

I love watching a good meaty drama on the stage, looking at motivations, characters and whether or not there are metaphorical messages to be gleaned, something to tell us about how we live – or should live – our lives. Philosophical points to be made. Coming out exhausted, but at the same time morally or spiritually uplifted - I love it!

But at the same time, there is much to be said for simply having a laugh and not having to think too much, just enjoying an entertaining couple of hours in the theatre with not too much to think about on the way home other than the fact that you must go and see more comedies because they make you feel good!

And that’s what Boeing Boeing does. The subject matter of one man trying to keep up with three fiancées without the other finding out and other characters unwittingly drawn into the deception, is classic farce and one of which there have been many variations of over hundreds of years. But if people didn’t enjoy that sort of thing, then people would write more plays about it!

Marc Camoletti's play uses the fact that all three are of different nationalities to get much of its comedy, showing that the Brits will still laugh at stereotypical portrayals of other nationalities despite being told that they shouldn’t. Meanwhile, protagonist Bernard studies the airline schedules to keep the girls apart which makes for a good farcical device. The result of all this of course is much confusion and a lot of running about through doors but thankfully no one loses their trousers! However, as with all of this genre, you just know that it will all be resolved in the end, and of course it is, but I think that the good thing about Boeing Boeing is that throughout, I was never exactly sure how they were going to sort it out.

The three fiancée characters, although somewhat stereotyped, were all well portrayed. Sarah Jayne Dunn was fresh from Hollyoaks and in her first stage role as a glamorous all-American gal was competent and, strangely for the subject matter, convincing, even in her American accent! Thaila Zucci was the gorgeously emotional Italian Gloria, and Josephine Butler’s Gretchen got most of the laughs as a delightfully overbearing German with hilarious pronunciation!

Susie Blake’s years of stage experience were on show in a lovely understated performance as Bertha, the grumpy, deadpan housekeeper who has to fit her own cleaning and cookery around the different nationalities.

Real brothers Martin and John Marquez as the serially betrothed Bernard and his long lost cousin bounce off each other perfectly and the timing of the whole cast was quite breathtaking throughout, matching some of the extreme physical humour and racing plot!

I loved the set – simple, minimal, stylish and white except for the introduction of flashes of three kitschy colours for each girl.

It’s all very silly but funny and pleasurable and if I can steal /paraphrase what a lot of actors say these days when plugging their shows “just what we need to cheer ourselves up in these difficult times”. And if there is a message to be gleaned from this show, well, for me, it’s to go and see some more comedies because sometimes, you’ve just got to have a laugh!

Three Days of Rain

2009-02-08T12:05:00.000-08:00

Apollo Theatre, London
7th February 2009 (Matinee)

Bring on the Rain!

Forget five days of snow, Jamie Lloyd’s engrossing production of Richard Greenberg’sThree Days of Rain took me well away from the travel difficulties of the past week!

Now, I’d better get something out of the way first. If you have read my review of The Common Pursuit at The Chocolate Factory last year, you will know that I have somewhat of a penchant for the lovely Nigel Harman (of Dennis in EastEnders fame!) and to be honest it was his appearance in this play that first attracted me into buying (sorry, BEGGING my husband to buy) the tickets.

To his credit, and my amazement, bless him, my long suffering spouse not only got us tickets, but got them in Row B where, if I wasn’t more socially aware, I could have reached out and squeezed his peachy cheeks! The temptation was great, I have to say!

I mention all this because I need you to know that while I find the Harman one of the most desirable men to walk the earth, I am always honest about his acting performance. Just being gorgeous doesn’t mean you can act, ( I won’t cite any cases here for legal reasons!) but thankfully, and in a totally un-biased way, Nigel CAN do the business!

In the end, the afternoon was a triumph, not just because we both really enjoyed the production, but, because after a very impressive performance, hubby has finally conceded that Nigel was, and I quote with trembling fingers “very good”. I thought he was a lot more than that frankly, but believe me, if you’ve heard what he’s said about him in the past, this represented a MAJOR change of heart!

Nigel was excellent and so were his two fellow cast members. The presence of the fantastic James McAvoy and the lesser known but equally impressive Lyndsey Marshal, completed a well matched and excellent trio that brought the world of the play to life and made for a more than satisfying afternoon!

So what’s the play actually about? Well, it basically explores how the private worlds and actions of one generation both affect and are reinterpreted by the next . The first act opens on a drab, long un-inhabited loft space in Manhatten in 1995. Into it walks James McAvoy as Walker who has found out that it was the place where his wealthy, but monosyllabic, architect father, Ned, lived and worked. Walker is reuniting with his sister Nan, played by Lyndsey Marshal, for the reading of their father’s will, to find out who will receive Ned’s main legacy - an iconic house designed with his late business partner Theo.

Joined by Theo’s son Pip, played by Harman, who gains more than expected from the will, they discuss all that has happened in the past and discover Ned’s diary which contains the mysterious words ‘three days of rain’, the only clue to the truth about their parents’ past, because sadly, Walker and Nan discover that the man who didn’t say much through speech, was no more forthcoming via the written word.

I don’t want to give away too much about what happens as it will spoil the entire thing for you, but suffice to say, in the second act the actors are in the same place but in 1960, where they play three different characters from the previous generation - both of their fathers and a mother - and we are given some sort of explanation as to what happened there, and why Ned might have written his will in such a way.

It’s basically a family drama, something irresistible to audiences and therefore writers alike! The children and their parents share some characteristics and not others, and in the second act you can see where the progeny came from in quite an Ibsen-esque “sins of the fathers” way, but without the syphilis!

I found the whole thing to be totally engrossing and not because I was staring at Nigel the whole time, it was the whole package that enthralled me! James McAvoy was brilliant as both the “troubled” Walker and the less forthcoming Ned, really bringing out the different problems and insecurities that both had. I think that without going into the nuances of his acting, the fact that I wanted to reach out and hug both, is testament to how he made me feel – and that’s what acting is all about!

I enjoyed Lyndsey Marshal’s performance as Nan and Lina as well, (despite my bristling when she hugged Nige!). Her measured and mostly calm Nan was a good contrast to the wilder, more unpredictable Lina but again you sympathised with both.

Nigel played Pip, an actor in the play who, ironically for Harman, is playing the eye candy in a TV soap. He is more brash and confident and gets most of the funny lines which he delivers with excellent timing. And I’m sorry about this but I have to say that he spends a fair bit of time getting wet in the rain and I couldn’t help my mind wandering and imagining him in the shower first thing in the morning! But back to his performance!

His second role, as Theo, is similar to that of Pip in the first act, but whereas Pip seems happy and comfortable in his chosen career, Theo’s frustration at his creative block is painfully palpable. And the fact that most of this happens in the rain is just a bonus!

The great thing about this production is that is provokes much thought and discussion about exactly what happened, and for someone like me, who always rather anally checks the times and dates mentioned by characters to make sure that they match up, it gives you much working out to do!

There are also so many echoes of the first act in the second that it makes you really want to see it again to makes sure that you get absolutely everything! In fact, yes, I think I really MUST see it again! And if maybe Nigel could remove a few more items of clothing when out in the rain .... then so much the better!! Sorry!

Oedipus

2009-02-08T05:12:00.000-08:00

Royal National Theatre
3 January 2009

No gimmicks required!

After seeing seven pantos this season, and getting swept along by their unending cheeriness, the National Theatre’s production of Sophocles Oedipus was quite an antidote. Cheery it most certainly isn’t, but absorbing, emotional, tragic and generally fulfilling as a piece of theatre, it most certainly is!

There is a wonderful bitter sweet feeling of tragic inevitability. Bitter because the characters are heading towards their own destruction and there is nothing they, nor us, can do about it. And sweet because its content and structure is a perfect example of true dramatic tragedy.

Much of the success of Jonathan Kent’s production, as it is with any production of such a classic, is dependent on the performance of the tragic hero and Ralph Fiennes is a superb Oedipus. His disdainful arrogance at the start is brilliantly contrasted by his crumbling to a mere husk of a man as he slowly realises where he has come from and what it means.

No one stares quite so well as Fiennes – he literally looks right through to your soul. His eyes have always been amazing (remember Quiz Show!) it’s a real shame that he has to gauge them out in this!

Clare Higgins, as usual, is also outstanding as his ill-fated wife slash mother and her collapse as she recalls the horrors of her past is heart wrenching.

The chorus are a darkly and contemporarily dressed troupe who also often break into song, but not in a “let’s all sing a song about this” musical theatre way, but in tunes, created by Jonathan Dove, that enhance and contribute to the atmosphere.

I also loved the starkness and simplicity of Paul Brown’s set which meant that your attention wasn’t taken up by effects and extravagance, you just have to concentrate on the words. And in doing so, after 90 minutes straight through, you feel both exhausted and exhilarated.

It is a wonderful contrast not only to the lavishness, sparkle and glitz of panto but also to many other productions of the moment who need gimmicks, effects and lavish sets to draw people in.

If you just put on good plays with great actors you don’t need to mess about – and the full theatre at the National after a credit crunch Christmas proved it!

Robin Hood

2009-02-08T05:02:00.000-08:00

Birmingham Hippodrome
21 December 2009 (Matinee)

In the hood!

I think we saved the best until last, without realising it of course! They say that in hard times people need glamour, and if this is true, then The Birmingham Hippodrome at Christmas is the place to be.

Robin Hood is a massive panto. Huge. It is the panto that the credit crunch forgot! And while you can easily argue that the small local pantomimes are best for sheer charm and effort, I can honestly say that if you throw enough money at something, and add an awful lot of sequins and sparkle, then the truly gargantuan pantomimes are just brilliant too – and they don’t come much better than this!

With firework displays, a robot, exciting magical illusions, glitz, glamour, fabulous musical numbers with excellent song and dance, and an amazing, if somewhat surprising ice skating number – with an ACTUAL ice rink (well done stage crew!) this show had everything that a family audience could possibly want!

John Barrowman is a wonderful and heroic Robin Hood who has far more boundless energy and infectious enthusiasm than I’m sure the actual folk-hero ever did! Barrowman is a seasoned performer, a fabulous musical theatre star and popular actor – but surely he was born to be in panto! He is bezzy mates with the audience from his first entrance, kids love him, dads don’t feel threatened by him and all the women think they can “turn” him!

He also shows that he can turn his hand to anything by reprising his skills learnt in Dancing on Ice on the aforementioned rink, even if there was the odd wobble - to the delight of the audience!

Elsewhere, other excellent performances vie for supremacy and challenge Barrowman well! There’s the hugely talented ventriloquist, Paul Zerdin ( Will Scarlett) who has many incredibly clever solo slots, and, in an inspired move, Don McLean’s Friar Tuck has to dress as a woman to help Robin’s plans, thus allowing McLean to showcase his panto dame proficiency in a panto that might not otherwise have had one!

The sets are marvellous, the costumes sparkle, the Merry Men add handsome charm and every one of the many pennies ploughed into this is money well spent – as is the price of your ticket!

Jack and the Beanstalk

2009-02-08T04:39:00.000-08:00

Alban Arena, St Albans
20 December 2008 (Matinee)

Rock on boys! We're having a ball!

To be honest, I wasn’t full of hope about this panto, but I was really very pleasantly surprised.
Cannon and Ball never really made me laugh in the 70s and 80s, when I pretty much laughed at anything. And to prove this, I will admit that I was more a Little and Large girl!

But to be fair, I did laugh at them in this, mainly because their years of stage experience and working an audience really showed. They have an enthusiasm that ripples through to the audience, their sense of silliness is a sublime tonic for a credit crunch Christmas and their skill at audience interaction is honed and polished.

The biggest laughs in panto seem to come when it looks like things have gone wrong. People in panto know this and as a result the “going wrong” is all meticulously rehearsed. If this was the case for this show, then the mistakes looked so realistic that I heartily congratulate the rehearsal process! Cannon and Ball played up to them gloriously and had the whole audience in the palm of their hands. Rehearsed or not, this is what it’s all about!

Thankfully, the rest of the cast do not flounder in their wake. Barry Hester is a excellent Dame Trot and there are good solid performances throughout, including Ricky K as Jack and an effervescent Karen Jeffs as Fairy Courgette.

My only criticism was having the Mr Bean character which seemed entirely superfluous to the whole plot and a completely pointless addition to the cast. If the producers added him in because they were worried that Cannon and Ball were the only “names” in the cast, then their fears were foundless!

The past few years of panto at the Arena have been fairly dire as a string of TV stars have been sent in to get bums on seats. Cannon and Ball really showed them up and are testament to the fact that experience does count for something – thank goodness!

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

2009-01-09T02:25:00.000-08:00

Swan Theatre, High Wycombe
18 December 2008

Hi-ho, hi-go to another Snow White we go!

Another day, another Snow White, and while Snow White at the Grove was excellent, this week just got better and better because Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at the Wycombe Swan has everything that a panto could ask for – except a dame! But as someone who always needs a dame, I was surprised to discover that this didn’t matter a bit – praise indeed eh?!

Glitz, glamour, comedy, song and dance with a charming Snow White with a pure voice (Lucy Sinclair), a handsome Prince, in the form of Sam Kane who also directs and an evil villain played by Sam’s elegant wife Linda Lusardi.

It’s slick, fun and unusually for a panto, at times highly original. Mostly these days, you just enjoy the execution of the familiar panto conventions like the ghost scene. And while these were very well done too, there were also scenes that I hadn’t seen in panto before, such as Muddles aping the Queen behind her full length mirror and the part where he is turned into a frog and involves a rock, a large mat and his green tights falling down!

Muddles (Kev Orkian) was genuinely funny and a huge hit with the audience, especially the kids. Sam Kane is a fitting Prince and this character was in the story far more than usual in order to show his great talents as an actor, dancer and of course singer. What a voice he has!

Linda Lusardi is excellent as the Wicked Queen and there was a delicious sense of irony as the rest of the characters continuously called her things like ugly old hag when she is clearly absolutely gorgeous, and looked simply fabulous in her elegant costumes.

Lucy Sinclair did all that is asked of the title role, she was sweet and innocent and sang beautifully and meanwhile, the seven dwarfs provided a good deal of the comedy, gently mocking themselves.

It’s all a lot of fun with a feel good factor that you only get from a close company who are clearly enjoying themselves – the only thing missing was Sooty and Sweep (see Grove Theatre below!)

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

2009-01-09T02:18:00.000-08:00

Grove Theatre, Dunstable
16 December 2008

Bear-ly concealed delight!

After the disappointment of Peter Pan not really being a panto, with no dame and too much plot, it was absolutely fantastic to get back to traditional pantomime in Dunstable.

Watching Snow White I laughed out loud again and I have to say that this was mainly due to an orange bear and a squeaky dog. Yes, Sooty and Sweep – my heroes! Who could think that two small hand puppets (sorry for spoiling the illusion kids!) could be so funny. Well, obviously as a devotee (and owner of their DVD Wet and Wild Water Fun!) I knew this, but it was a pure joy to see it all confirmed on stage!

Richard Cadell has recently taken on the Sooty and Sweep mantle from the Corbetts. He made a loveable Muddles and the two furry animals were his pals. Sweep’s rendition of Nessun Dorma was hilarious, Sooty of course didn’t say much but stole the show!

There were others of course in the show. Letitia Dean was an elegant Wicked Queen, who was also delightfully camp at times. And to my delight there was a Dame. There isn’t normally one in Snow White, and Dame Donut was a little superfluous to the story but hey, it was a dame so what the hell! Her clothes looked a little shabby and weren’t as creative or outrageous as Paul Laidlaw’s in Stevenage, but I was past caring – as long as the bear came on again soon, I didn’t mind!

All in all, great festive entertainment, just like pantos should be!

Peter Pan

2008-12-15T15:08:00.000-08:00

Milton Keynes Theatre
8 December 2008

No flash in the pan

Right. The first thing that I want to say before I start is that this is certainly not a bad production. It is slick, colourful and looks expensive. It has good voices, lively dance routines and some nice comedy. But it’s not a panto! It’s simply a family show taking place at Christmas. The second thing is that it stars Henry Winkler (aka The Fonz) and it is this that makes it all worthwhile!

What you need in a panto are the following elements. Good Fairy comes on from stage right, followed soon after by the villain stage left. Cue cheers and boos respectively, right from the start.

Then there’s an all singing all dancing village scene to set the story. The hero comes on, the comic comes on and then the dame, who appears in an ever more ludicrous costumes as the show goes on.

There’s a ghost scene and a slapstick scene with copious amounts of gunge. Then the hero gets the girl, the villain gets his come uppance and all’s right with the world. Cue big glitzy ending!
But Peter Pan is NOT a panto. It is actually very dark and, for a panto, there’s too much plot, so much so that some of the nuances of the original charming story are lost in trying to “panto it up”. For example the whole Tinkerbell poisoning / do you believe in fairies scenario takes seconds rather than bringing out the poignancy of the fairy’s jealousy throughout the show. And it takes a good 20 minutes for them all to get to Never Never Land in the first place, because we have to get through that tedious scene in the bedroom. As such, it takes an age before we can boo the villain Captain Hook.

And, while this production does all this admirably, for those expecting a traditional panto, it’s a bit of a let down, and to be honest, I got a bit bored at times.

Thankfully the presence of Henry Winkler as Captain Hook saves it, as you perk up whenever he appears. He is fantastic and, with great timing, knows how to work the audience. It is telling that the best part of the whole show is the few minutes when he “does the Fonz”. It is worth the ticket price along for those of an age who remember this iconic role. But the fact that this takes place in a short front of stage scene that has nothing to do with the actual plot speaks volumes for the suitability of the show as a pantomime.

I enjoyed Winkler’s performance so much that at the end I wanted him to win. I ended up cheering him not booing and would much rather have seen Peter Pan end up in the crocodile’s jaws. I mean, Louisa Lytton was a sweet Pan but she was just Louisa Lytton really, and I would have been more than happy for Hook to have been victorious.

There was of course the traditional sing-along near the end, led by Andy Ford’s hapless Smee, but this was followed by the end of the story back in the bedroom in London which brought everything down again.

In short, this is a big production which, if you treat it as a Christmas show, is absolutely fine but if you’re expecting a pantomime, then it is only Henry Winkler that will satisfy you.

Jack and the Beanstalk

2008-12-15T14:32:00.000-08:00

Gordon Craig Theatre, Stevenage
5 December 2008

Is is good, oh yes it is?!

The Gordon Craig at Stevenage is renowned for its colourful and traditional pantos and Jack and the Beanstalk is no exception – it’s even got a genuinely funny script. I quite simply enjoyed it from beginning to end.

The legendary Paul Laidlaw, who plays Dame Trot, also directs and he has assembled an excellent cast to make the familiar story come alive. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again as he does it at Stevenage for about the 15th time - Paul Laidlaw is an absolutely fantastic dame. He knows exactly how to work an audience, is the perfect mix of comic turn and faded glamour and with the best legs in the business to boot, he can do no wrong!

In his first ever pantomime, David Spinx (Keith Miller in EastEnders) makes an excellent pantomime villain as Fleshcreep. In fact, he gets it just right – villainous enough to make you boo, but just a tad likeable as well so that his transformation is believable!

Ben Nicholas (Stingray in Neighbours) returns to Stevenage as Jack after his role as Buttons last year. He’s an extremely talented young chap – he sings and dances well and has good comedy skills. All in all he’s a very creditable hero!

Kate Burrell is charming as the slightly ditzy but feisty Fairy Sugar Snap, Paul Burling is excellent in the comedy role of Jack’s brother and his ability as an impressionist adds to the fun.
Completing the cast are the lovely Claire Huckle as Princess Tamara and the versatile Scott St Martyn as King Neil.

The audience always love local references, which of course this show included, but what they really enjoy are the jibes at neighbouring towns. Therefore the likening to the Giant’s land being a place that’s “desperate, desolate and dangerous”, just like Biggleswade, went down very well!
There are also lots of opportunities to shout out with cheering and booing a plenty. What I really liked though, was that instead of the usual song sheet before the final transformation scene, that usually entails four terrified looking kids being made fun of on the stage, Dame Trott and Billy led each side of the audience in a medley of snippets of popular sing along songs that everybody knew. The kids thing only works if you’ve got at least one hilarious child who hopefully doesn’t realise how funny he is and/or you are related to one of them! This way, by belting out tunes such as "Is this the Way to Amarillo?" and “She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain”, we all had fun!

Best joke: Loads – but for me I loved: Jack: I’ve just been kissed by a fairy. Dame Trot: Welcome to showbusiness! Writer Paul Hendy also gets the absolute most out of the name of Princess Tamara such as “Will you marry Princess Tamara” – “No, I’ll marry her today” et al and ad infinitum

Highlights

1.) David Spinx rendition of “I Predict a Riot”. He sang, he played the guitar and was surrounded by great dancers – this was real rock and roll and I loved it!

2.) Paul Burling’s impressions were really pretty good and his “supposed” 100 cartoon impressions in a minute was excellent – although there definitely weren’t 100. I won’t quibble though!

3.) Paul Laidlaw’s Dame.

Most importantly, Stevenage’s Jack and the Beanstalk is a real ensemble production where each actor makes sure this is one of the slickest and best panto productions around. So, is it good? Oh yes, it is!!

The Nutcracker - Northern Ballet Theatre

2008-12-08T06:51:00.000-08:00

Milton Keynes Theatre
25 November 2008

A cracking evening from NBT!

I don’t think you can beat seeing The Nutcracker around Christmas and I found the Northern Ballet Theatre’s production to be a wonderful start to the season, before having to launch myself into pantomime heaven – or is it hell?!

I’ve always loved Tchaikovsky’s ballet music and, as a homage, walked down the aisle to the Soldiers’ March from The Nutcracker so, for the second time in a just over a month, the MK Theatre played host to some of my wedding music (see Carousel below!) I was a thrown a bit when the Soldiers’ March wasn’t done by the soldiers, but incorporated into the Christmas Eve party instead but, as we seemed to get a lot more of it, I was more than happy with that!

The unforgettable Tchaikovsky score is of course the highlight of the evening, but it was all imaginatively interpreted and slickly executed by this popular company. I particularly enjoyed the Mouse King's battle and the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, accompanied by dances from other countries including China, Spain, Arabia and Russia.

Done well, the whole piece has a dream-like quality and should convey a feeling of utter escapism and in this, the NBT doesn’t disappoint!

Now, you’ll hate me for this cliché but, on what was a very cold night, I left the theatre feeling very warm-hearted as The Nutcracker once again worked its magic on me!

Carousel

2008-12-08T06:25:00.000-08:00

Milton Keynes Theatre
13 October 2008

Carousel spins on and on and on ....

I was brought up on the film Carousel, and have seen and enjoyed it immensely quite a few times on the stage, but I can’t for the life of me remember it being this long!

Time Magazine called it "the best musical of the 20th century", and while I feel that this is going a bit far, I have always liked that fact that in dealing with the doomed attraction of Julie Jordan for Billy Bigelow, the story moves away from the frothy romantic comedy much loved at the time, and deals with issues like domestic violence, all set against a fabulous Rodgers and Hammerstein score and lyrics.

It may just have been a bad night, but in Lindsay Posner’s production I found myself shifting about in my seat very early on. Billy and Julie must have been sitting on a bench for a good 40 minutes falling in love – a short amount of time in real relationship terms, but in musical theatre ones, interminable! “If I Loved You” is a beautiful song, but I just wanted to shout “get on with it” and became convinced that either previous productions must have cut bits, or that these two were dragging it out unnecessarily.

I have to say though, that the singing and dancing in the show, with choreography by Adam Cooper, was top notch. Jeremiah James as Billy and Alexandra Silber as Julie had strong voices and of course you can’t fault Lesley Garrett - it was just the bits in between that seemed to drag!

Nevertheless up until Billy’s early demise, the plot is at least believable and in many ways timeless. It’s after the wonderful “You’ll Never Walk Alone” that things go awry. I never really understand why Billy does what he does and his return to earth seems pretty pointless. But it’s the dream-ballet that really grates. I know that they were de rigueur in films at that time, but it seemed to last for an eternity and I think that it really could be dropped in this day and age – even if it’s choreographed by Cooper - sacrilege I know!

The highlight of the show for me was Nettie singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone”. It’s long been a favourite for many reasons – not all of them footballing ones – and a soloist sang it at my wedding so I always look forward to this moment in the show. To have Lesley Garrett singing it was a bonus, my only criticism being that it was very short. I think they could have doubled it, and cut some of the ridiculous clam bake stuff instead!

Garrett herself pours her heart and soul into the role of Nettie, it’s just a shame that it’s such a small part. But it does have the best song, and you could tell that she also thoroughly enjoyed “June is Bustin’ Out All Over” with the accompanying chesty dance moves – possibly a homage to her Strictly Come Dancing days!

All in all, I’m really not too sure how to some up the production. The score is fab, the singing and dancing is great – it’s just about half an hour too long. But if you can handle that, then it’s absolutely fine!

Absent Friends

2008-10-13T09:33:00.000-07:00

Watford Palace Theatre
7 October 2008

Absent Friends bring present laughter

Alan Ayckbourn is one of the most prolific and widely performed English language playwrights and this play is a great example of why this is.

Absent Friends takes place in real time and shows a group of friends who get together for tea one Saturday afternoon in order to cheer up one of their number who has just lost his partner. It turns into a tense afternoon as many things are revealed and the cracks in the various relationships begin to show.

Colin is the one whose fiancée accidentally drowned, but instead of being morose, in Ian Targett’s portrayal we see an almost constantly happy man who is delighted to have had such a good relationship, even though it was short lived.

By contrast, the other couples’ relationships are seemingly hanging together by very fine threads and it only takes the catalyst of Colin’s happiness to cut them.

Di (Abigail Thaw) is an archetypal seventies woman, a wife and mother who does what is expected of her and, by way of reward, is walked over by her erring husband Paul (Jonathan Guy Lewis).

Evelyn is a humourless and sullen young mother , superbly played by Clare Lamb, who barely speaks to her hyperactive husband John played by Dale Superville, who can neither sit still or switch off from work.

Meanwhile, the childless Marge, is there without her husband as he is ill in bed, as usual, but it soon becomes clear through a series of phone calls that he is not happy at all at being left alone. Sally Ann Triplett brilliantly portrays this character who, while being the funniest to watch is also the most tragic, and this encapsulates the ethos of the whole play.

As usual, Ayckbourn is capturing a slice of life, where people are making the best of things and great humour comes from their interaction as they try to relate to each other. But at the same time it is tense and painful and their underlying sadness is palpable. You laugh and cheer when Di tips a jug of cream over the odious Paul, but at the same time you know that she has come to the end of her tether. I was very aware of laughing and being aware of their pain at the same time – quite an uncomfortable feeling but the mark of true tragi-comedy.

Much of this play is firmly of its time. Some of the attitudes in the play are firmly stuck in the seventies, such as how the men see their women, while on a lighter note, the décor and costumes provide a wonderfully nostalgic trip with enough static on the stage to light up Watford and enough swirly wallpaper to make your head spin!

But, unlike the wallpaper, other issues are timeless, such as the different ways that people grieve and the difficulties that others have in relating to them.

There’s also a strange kind of message in the play that Colin’s short lived but ultimately tragic relationship was extremely happy , while those in long term relationships are miserable. It’s almost as if he’s saying that long term relationships can never be happy and that familiarity breeds contempt.

But if you want a night that provides you with both a good laugh and a lot to think about - Absent Friends is for you.

Love's Labours Lost

2008-10-06T10:39:00.000-07:00

Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon
4 October 2008

Love's Labours win through!

Much as I love Autumn Saturdays in front of "Strictly" with a homemade curry, hen turning over to X-Factor just to talk about how contrived and rubbish it is, you really can't beat Stratford instead!

Love's Labours Lost is a weird one – as a play that is!

It many ways it is typical Shakespearean fayre with various characters having secret slash inappropriate loves, letters ending up with the wrong recipients and lovers donning disguises to woo the objects of their desire.

Basically the story is that the King of Navarre and the nobles of his court vow to study, fast, sleep little and see no ladies for three years. However, of course, this would make for a pretty boring play so of course the writer has to have the Princess of France arrives, together with three ladies in waiting – one for each nobleman. And guess what? The Lords discover their resolve is more difficult to keep than they first imagined.

In many ways it is predictable, until that is, things start to get wrapped up – or not! It is thought to be one of Shakespeare’s earliest comedies which perhaps explains why it has an ending that begs a sequel. It doesn’t end up with everyone living happily ever after with the most appropriate partner like the majority of his comedies do. Instead, the females ask the men to wait a year for them. Playing rather unusually hard to get for a Shakespearean comedic woman! Maybe Shakespeare always meant to write a sequel – maybe he did pen one – maybe it’s lost! Questions, questions – the Bard never fails to get you talking!

Basically it’s an exuberant comedy which explores the power of love over reason and Gregory Doran’s witty and elegant production is certainly an enjoyable romp.

It is also certain to have good audiences, not necessarily because it’s a chance to see a rarely performed play, but because of one David Tennant in the cast. He plays Berowne, one of the charming and witty noblemen, in what must be quite a relief from the brooding of Hamlet! And he does so with style and panache delighting an audience packed with his fans who only know him as Dr Who and those who know that he was acting at the RSC well before he set foot in the tardis! But note to some Tennant fans: It is NOT necessary to laugh at absolutely everything he says, just because he has an amusing expression on his face! Although when he and his fellow noblemen, Sam Alexander (Dumaine), Tom Davey (Longaville) and Edward Bennett as Navarre dress up as Russian Cossacks to woo their ladies, they are all genuinely laugh out loud funny!

Tennant is delightful throughout, but this is most definitely not a one man show. The ensemble cast are just that, and look as though they are having a whale of a time to boot!

But special mention must go to Joe Dixon who brought the house down as the lovesick Armado and his servant Moth, played by Zoe Thorne. They were hilarious and, as Mr FB pointed out, as a duo they bore a striking resemblance to the Krankies, although after looks, the similarity ended. This pair were funny. The Krankies aren’t!

The elegance came from the ladies including Mariah Gale as a sophisticated Princess of France and a beautiful Nina Sosanya as Rosaline, who with an air of graceful feistiness proved the perfect partner for Tennant’s Berowne. It just felt weird that at the end they weren’t all matched up to live happily ever after. The characters are told to wait for one year – as an audience we have had to wait over 400! But that’s just the play. Shakespeare is not always perfect, but his comedies are a laugh when brought to life on stage like this and this one is fandabidozee! Well worth missing "Strictly" for - and we got home in time for Match of the Day!

Evita

2008-10-02T10:10:00.000-07:00

Milton Keynes Theatre
30 September 2008

You Must Love This!

Despite my best intentions in the past 30 years or so, I had only ever seen the film of Evita, in which Madonna played the title role. And I have to say that I think this is the only film that she ever showed an ounce of acting talent despite her whole life being a performance. But I digress. I knew I liked the music, so really wanted to see it on the stage – and I wasn’t disappointed!

Evita depicts the story of Eva Peron and her journey from poverty stricken rural Argentina to Buenos Aires where she pursued a career as a stage, radio, and film actress before becoming the second wife of President Juan Peron and serving as the First Lady of Argentina from 1946 until her death in 1952.

The musical of her life shows Andrew Lloyd Webber in his hey day and this, I feel, is down to the fact that the genius that is Sir Tim Rice was the lyricist. Without Tim, I think it’s fair to say that ALW just does pretty tunes. The mix of humour and drama that Rice’s lyrics inject into all the musicals that the two of them produced together, make them some of the best shows we’ve ever had – and Evita is no exception.

The lyrics are packed with references to Eva being an actress and that her life is a show, one big pantomime. She was therefore the perfect person to have a show written about her, and this musical highlights her use of style and manipulation of image to the end.

The fact is that Eva Peron is not a person you can really feel for. Power hungry, manipulative and fiercely attention-seeking, she was not a woman’s woman and for all the good that she is supposed to have done, there is a strong suggestion that many of her dealings were somewhat shady. So why, at the end, as she did her last broadcast, did I find a tear trickling down my face? Well, it seems that the performer in her had seduced me as well as all those Argentinians many years before.

This of course was down to the performances of a strong ensemble cast and in particular that of Louise Dearman who plays Eva. It had been quite a leap for her from selling programmes and showing people to their seats when she worked front of house at the Milton Keynes Theatre to being on the stage. But she now has audiences on the edge of those seats as she brilliantly conveys Eva’s journey from ambitious 15-year-old to being first lady of her country, still ambitious but dying of cancer.

A huge voice comes from the tiny Louise and she superbly shows the real person behind the hard mask and touched the vulnerability in all of us. And small as she is against the more statuesque and hugely impressive Mark Heenehan’s Peron, the chemistry between the two was palpable in a way that the mismatched Tony and Maria wasn’t in West Side Story a fortnight ago.

Another star of the show is Seamus Cullen. He was the slightly unkempt looking one with bags of attitude in BBC TV’s Any Dream Will Do, but now that “edge” is being put to good use in his role as Che. And I have to say that I think he is far more suited to this role than that of the frankly rather annoying Joseph! His voice is pure and clear and in this narration role, he holds the whole thing together with humour, anger and panache.

Special mention must also go to Nikki Mae as the Mistress on her professional debut. The song “Another Suitcase in Another Hall” is a classic song and she performs it with feeling. I do feel that it’s odd that this character just appears, sings a fab song then both of them – her and the song – disappear again, apart from a couple of lines of tune later in the show. It’s as if Rice and Lloyd Webber wrote the song, thought it a good commercial piece so decided to shove it in one of their creations! I won’t complain though – it’s a great song!

And this is a great show, well-performed which touches the emotions and sends you off into the night thinking that maybe there is a human being behind even the most odious public figures!

Ivanov

2008-09-30T23:17:00.000-07:00

Wyndham's Theatre
27 September 2008

Branagh's back - and it's magnificent

I always think that the best acting performances are when it doesn’t look like acting. Instead it’s as if you are peeking through a window and taking a sneaky look at a slice of someone else’s life. And this is exactly what I felt when watching Kenneth Branagh in the title role of Chekov’s Ivanov.

Tom Stoppard's new version of the Russian’s early play, directed by Michael Grandage is also a fine example of something that is not just your average revival of an old play, trotting out the words with no new insight or surprise. This is an eye-opening version that makes you realise that some 19th century problems still have resonance today and probably always will. It also shows the dual nature of life and how its tragedy and comedy do not just sit side by side, the co-exist.

And it wasn’t just the references to the financial situation that brought knowing laughter from the audience, it’s the portrayal of a man with problems that could easily be transferred to the 21st century.

Ivanov has been described as “Hamlet with a mid-life crisis” and indeed there are many references to the Dane throughout the play.

But instead of being paranoid about his mother’s new husband, this man is heavily in debt and has fallen out of love with his sick wife and is instead attracted to a younger woman.

Every night he escapes to his neighbours, the Lebedevs to whom he owes money. But this only makes him feel more guilty when Sasha (Andrea Riseborough), their 20-year-old daughter, throws herself at him.
The play deals with both his heroic and un-heroic struggle to do something about the mess his life has sunk into. He therefore has an “everyman” quality about him, having to deal with problems that are subjects that still have to be dealt with today.

Kenneth Branagh brilliantly deals with what is essentially the breakdown of a man in a performance that is both moving and hilarious at the same time. You really feel for him at the same time as wanting to shake him. However, you also know that he feels what he feels and there is nothing that anyone can do to get him out of and as such is an accurate portrayal of what is essentially a mental illness.

Basically, his dissatisfaction with life is shown to be more than just boredom. The real tedium and monotony of life are portrayed brilliantly by the other characters when they assemble in Zinaida’s (Sylvestra Le Touzel) living room to play cards, sip vodka, gossip and complain about the monotony of their lives. But against all this, Ivanov’s situation is clearly more serious and shows the difference between feeling a bit low and being depressed, something that can be very difficult to grasp.

He is also, for the most part, honest about his feelings although this doesn’t do him any good either. In fact, in the end he goes from hero to zero in a trice as when he fails in his efforts to do the right thing he ends up doing it wrong.
It all sounds a bit depressing doesn’t it? But the play is, in fact, hilarious and this is largely due to Tom Stoppard’s fantastic adaptation which brings the language right up to date while still setting it in the late 19th century. It is a lesson in how people’s problems don’t change but also shows the humour in Chekhov and as his aim was to “show life plain”, it shows the humour in life as well. It is a stark reminder that you can be utterly ludicrous but tragic at the same time – a nod towards today’s celebrity culture as well! Branagh’s Ivanov knows that he is being ridiculous, but his feelings of guilt and shame are still palpable.

And just like life and just like all the best plays, you can swing from laughter to despair in a second and there is no better example of this than the final scene. And Branagh does it all naturally with superb timing.
The play goes some way to answering the question of whether Chekhov’s plays are comedies. The answer to this, as Stoppard eloquently puts in the programme is, “Is life?” and what’s clear in this, is that in showing this particular slice of life, well then yes, life is!

Great as he is, this production isn’t all about Branagh though. It’s an excellent cast with fine performances from the aforementioned Sylvestra Le Touzel as the domineering Zinaida, Lorcan Cranitch as Borkin and Malcolm Sinclair as Shabelsky to name just three.

And what can you say about the lovely Gina McKee who plays his tubercular wife Anna Petrovna, a woman who in this portrayal is as forlorn as she is beautiful and I want to be as beautiful as Gina McKee. Mr FB says yes, she's beautiful but she’s a stick. I tell you - I really wouldn't mind being a beautiful stick. And I really, really wouldn’t mind seeing this fantastic production again! It’s the perfect example of everything that theatre should be.

West Side Story

2008-09-17T09:02:00.000-07:00

Milton Keynes Theatre
16 September 2008

50 years young!

It’s been 50 years since West Side Story hit the stage, and I swear that, as a show, it just gets better and better with a soaring and emotional score that fills your heart and Jerome Robbins original choreography lovingly reproduced and truly standing the test of time.

It’s therefore always a worry, when you go and see a production of a show that you love, that it will live up to your expectations and thankfully, this anniversary show did – mostly!

It is essentially a very good production. The dancing is top notch, especially from the men. Robbins’ powerful balletic moves capture the mixture of youthful exuberance with underlying violence and this company’s troupe of men really do it justice.

And there are also excellent voices throughout, which made me bask in the wonderful music and yearn to get up on the stage and join in!

The set is versatile, if a little noisy at times, and the interaction between the Jets and the Sharks, and the animosity between incomers and “natives” made me really mindful that we face the same problems today.

My main bug bear with this production was that I didn’t really “get” Tony and Maria. The show itself doesn’t really give a lot of explanation as to why they fall for each other so quickly, you just have to accept that it is a lightening bolt/love at first sight moment, but it is possible to accept it – I’ve done it before! The fact is that it’s easier to accept if the chemistry between the two is so electric that you can’t fail to see why they were attracted to each other. The problem here was that there really wasn’t much of a connection between the two of them.

Daniel Koek as Tony has a beautiful singing voice, really powerful with a gorgeous tone that I could have listened to all night – but he looked much older than Maria and dressed a bit like an insurance clerk, or, as one audience member said more insightfully, a teacher. Now, I’m not saying that people can’t fall in love with insurance clerks and teachers instantly, I’m sure you can, but when your Maria looks about 13, the relationship looks and feels a little inappropriate!

Sofia Escobar as Maria also had a fantastic voice and looked really sweet, but I wasn’t convinced that she loved Tony. It wasn’t that she wasn’t trying, it just wasn’t there. Sometimes actors go well together, sometimes they don’t, it’s not their fault. I’m sure that individually they are a great Tony and Maria but together they were in their own little worlds and not each others.

But while I was a little disappointed by the main pairing, the show itself is a wonderful night with a young, exuberant and talented cast. I particularly enjoyed the performance of Jayde Westaby as Anita and, after seeing Clive Francis in The Dresser at the Watford Palace last week, was delighted to see that his young son Harry was following in his talented footsteps in the role of Baby John.

All in all, it’s a good production of a classic, and despite some casting deficiencies, it still shows West Side Story up as a show that makes many newer musicals look thin and uninspiring.

The Dresser

2008-09-11T15:34:00.000-07:00

Watford Palace
9 September 2008

The show must go on

I love backstage plays and plays within plays. From Kiss Me Kate and Noises Off to the more metadramatic Rosencrantz and Guildernstern and Travesties of Tom Stoppard, I enjoy the analysis of actors and their craft both with and without an audience and discissions about whether therefore, we are all acting in some way and as such are all audiences to someone.

Ronald Harwood’s The Dresser is a totally absorbing look at a slice of backstage life in a provincial World War II theatre as an actor/manager strives to take theatre the length and breadth of war torn Britain.

It focuses on an egocentric actor/manager known as Sir, although he clearly hasn’t been given a Knighthood as he constantly rails against those who have, and it looks at the relationships between him and his wife, the rest of the company and most importantly with his devoted dresser Norman.

As the play opens, Sir has been taken to hospital after apparently suffering some kind of breakdown. His wife, who is also the leading lady, and the stage manager Madge want to cancel that night’s performance of King Lear but Sir turns up having discharged himself and in a state of near collapse. The two women are even more determined to cancel but Norman is equally as determined that Sir should go on and we watch what happens as Norman persuades, cajoles and bullies his charge into making up, getting his costume on and making his way to the stage.

As Sir, Clive Francis brings the arrogant, infuriating and yet still likeable character alive in all its complexity. He mostly seems to be in a state of utter despair, driven by unknown forces and wallowing in it too. He can’t even remember his first line in Lear until the mere mention of a full house by Norman brings him to life. The whole play is based on Harwood’s own experiences as dresser to Sir Donald Wolfit and it does seem to be a classic portrayal of the acting profession, someone riddled with “issues” and uncertainty and needing an audience to truly exist.

Graham Turner is superb as a camp Norman who plays a submissive and protective role when dealing with Sir, although is clearly still in control. Then when coming between his boss and the rest of the company he turns spiteful and defensive. It’s clear that just as Sir needs an audience, Norman needs Sir to give meaning to his life and at the mere suggestion of this not continuing, his insecurities flow out in a bitchy tirade. I found it to be a very moving performance.

Sarah Burger, who plays his wife in the eyes of all but the law, gets the frustration of an ageing leading lady still playing Cordelia exactly right while the unrequited love of Stage Manager Madge for her boss is palpable - but this is really Sir and Norman’s play and it is their central bond that is most absorbing. Cleverly, Harwood mirrors elements of the association between Lear and The Fool in this relationship too which makes this an ultimate play within a play.

Director Di Trevis manages the balance between comedy and pathos and I liked the way that Ashley Martin-Davis’ set showed us what was happening in the wings while we could also see the action on the stage where Lear was taking place, although the scene changes between the two were a little clumsy.

But this is nit-picking in what is a good and thoughtful night out at the theatre.

A Slight Ache

2008-08-06T12:43:00.000-07:00

National Theatre
28 July 2008

A title which describes my post-show brain!

It may or may not have been appropriate for us to go and see a play about a married couple grown stagnant in their relationship on our first wedding anniversary! But as I would happily watch paint dry if SRB (Simon Russell Beale) was doing the painting and, through The Alchemist, Spamalot and Major Barbara, I have converted Mr FB into doing practically the same, going to see A Slight Ache at the National was the perfect thing for us to do!

The addition of theatrical A-lister Claire Higgins added to the enjoyment. And then there’s the fact that it is only just over an hour long and starts at 6.00pm, which meant that we could enjoy to the full Mr FB’s surprise present of a night at The Howard plus a fantastic meal - the sum total of all these factors therefore made this something of a theatrical elixir!

Pinter’s play itself starts with middle class couple Edward and Flora (SRB and Higgins) at breakfast on a hot summer’s morning. They kill a wasp in the type of brilliantly timed and worked piece of business that SRB always carries off so well, and argue about which flower is which in the garden – trivial every day conversation that is frighteningly realistic.

They then invite a mysterious match seller (Jamie Beamish) into their house and talk to him, or rather at him, as he never makes a sound. I assumed that this figure was some kind of symbol of what was “rotten” in their marriage, and that his silent “dialogue” was the ultimate Pinteresque pause! But you’re never quite sure. I think that in this way, the play would probably work better on the radio, with the exception of course, of having this delicious duo on the stage!

They are, of course, excellent with SRB at his irascible best and a matronly but ultimately doting Higgins. Is she doting on the silent stranger in a way that she hasn’t been able to with her husband in their long marriage? And top marks to Jamie Beamish in the demanding silent role, challenging not least because under a balaclava and heavy coat on a humid July evening he must have practically melted away!

I was also pleased to see that the set (by Ciaran Bagnall) mostly consisted of different types of chairs. I felt vindicated! Some years ago whilst working on an amateur production of ‘Betrayal’ I made up some horribly pretentious argument (because I was studying English and no one else had, ergo I had to try and say something clever!) to do with the fact that Pinter was “all about the chairs”, and that characters behaved according to where they were sitting and the type of chair they were on. I left the National partly pleased, but mostly horrified, that the rubbish soft furnishings theory that I had made up “for a laugh” may have had some substance to it! But then again, you can get away with a whole load of cr*p when discussing Pinter!

I enjoyed this short play. It made me think, and I like to think, even if it does make my brain ache! We were also able to discuss, over our anniversary dinner, how we would do all in our power not to end up in that kind of relationship – and how we would never invite balaclava clad strangers with no conversational skills into our home!

Hamlet

2008-08-05T10:30:00.000-07:00

Royal Shakespeare Company, Courtyard Theatre, Straford-upon-Avon
26 July 2008

I won’t do a predictable “to go or not to go” title!

When writing about my latest trip to the RSC, I do not feel the need to do my usual “did Shakespeare really write the plays?” pre-amble – I will just launch straight into it and say, unequivocably - David Tennant is an outstanding Hamlet!

The official press night isn't until 5 August, so my comments on Tennant's performance and the rest of Gregory Doran's new production may be premature, but I don't think that much will change – and a good job too!

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is considered to be THE role, the one that all actors want to test themselves with, and presenting him in a way that preserves its sparkle and potency is a challenge. But all too often though, he is portrayed as doing an awful lot of brooding, so much so that you just want to say “for goodness sake pull yourself together man”. In fact, very often the character is played as a certain “type”, princely, tormented, soldier-like etc.

But what Tennant does is find all his facets, all the different moments and plays them all to perfection. He makes Hamlet’s tormented soul highly likeable with a sense of comedy about his madness. It’s more of a personal struggle with how he feels rather than out and out insanity and one that you can totally understand and believe in. As a wronged son he almost reverts to being a petulant child who has had his Playstation taken out of bounds. But there’s also sensitivity, sadness and anguish. You are with him all the way, totally hooked by his emotional journey and as the character took his final breath I shed a tear. I’ve never felt like that about Hamlet before!

But it also must be said that while Tennant is superb, it’s not all about him. It’s a wonderful company and an excellent production. Hamlet is a great story. Compared to some of the history plays it’s easy to follow and when it’s well-told, as it is here, it’s an exciting thriller.

Oliver Ford Davies is a lovely old Polonious, often going off into a world of his own, saying the words as if for the first time and pondering over what he is saying. Patrick Stewart’s Claudius is firm and manipulative but gorgeous and together with Penny Downie’s beautiful Gertrude, you can easily see why the two of them got together! In fact, I want to be Penny Downie, beautiful in an ethereal way, elegant, poised and able to carry off gorgeous but unforgiving silk dresses. Moreover, I want to be Penny Downie in Hamlet as in the space of two minutes, David Tennant kisses her and Patrick Stewart massages her shoulders!

And I have to admit that I spent a good deal of the evening just thinking how blimming lucky the whole cast was to be in this production.

The set is quite simple, and mirrored to reflect the holding a mirror up to nature quote and indeed it’s a quote-tastic play, there are the very famous ones of course but also odd phrases such as “single spies”, “murder most foul” etc and so many more that you suddenly remember how influential Shakespeare was in the language that we speak today.

I also can’t write this post without mentioning the Dr Who posse which made for a very different audience and quite a lot of hysterical screaming at the end. You can’t get a ticket for love nor money and much of this is down to David Tennant’s role as the infamous TV time lord and people wanting to see their hero in anything. Add to this Patrick Stewart’s Star Trek fame and Oliver Ford Davies’ Star Wars background and it’s a sci-fi fans heaven!

I am NOT a sci-I fan, ergo there cannot be a sci-fi heaven, it is all hell in my book, and pointless to boot (What is the dark side when it’s at home anyway?!) so I was just excited and delighted to see some of our greatest stage actors doing their stuff. My husband on the other hand loves all that space slash fantasy rubbish so for him it was double bubble, great actors AND heroes, but we both recognise that the viewing public are lucky to be able to see actors like Tennant on prime time TV.

And, while I was able to scoff at all the people asking where the toilets were, he enjoyed watching the geeks in front of us when Patrick Stewart said something like “Let it be so” and they all started laughing and nudging each other. Apparently, this was half way to his famous Star Trek quote “make it so”, they were practically puce with excitement at the mere mention of the “so” word!

I have to say that while part of me felt like whipping out my programme collection to prove that I am at that theatre an awful lot, whether or not there’s a Saturday night TV star on show, most of me thought that if it gets more people at the theatre, that can only be a good thing. And when they are actually there to watch fine actors, rather than karaoke stars who have been voted into the role by the public (sorry, “I’d Do Anything”!), then so much the better!

If you’re going to see Hamlet, you know that you won’t be out of the theatre much before four hours but at about three hours, 45 minutes, this production flew by all too quickly. It was a real privilege to be in the theatre, made even more special by the fact that on this particular weekend, a year ago, we were married – despite my husband’s love of Dr Who!

The Millionairess

2008-07-29T23:09:00.000-07:00

Shaw’s Corner
25 July 2008

It’s a Shaw thing!

We did it last year week before our wedding and we’ve just done it again to start off our anniversary weekend and I honestly don’t think that there’s a more perfect way to spend a summer’s evening. Watching a George Bernard Shaw play at Shaw’s Corner!

I love open air theatre and to see a play performed in the grounds of the house where the playwright lived and most probably wrote that same play is very special indeed.

Shaw’s Corner is the epitomy of this experience. Plays are only put on there a couple of weekends in a year and the late July showing always celebrates the anniversary of GBS’s birth – this year being the 152nd. This July’s offering was The Millionairess, one of Shaw's final plays, written in 1935 when he was 79, and turned into a film in 1962 with Peter Sellars and Sophia Loren, although it was drastically altered for the big screen. A good thing I think, as my husband said it was the worst Peter Sellars film ever!

In true Shaw style, the comedy is spekling, but the capitalist character in the story is portrayed as a monster. In this case it’s the flouncing Epifania Ognisanti di Parerga Fitzfassenden (Amanda Sterkenberg), who, when challenged by an Indian doctor to work and pay her way rather than live off her inheritance, gets her hands dirty for about a minute, before discovering a vocation for management rather than ordinary drudgery! Fair play to her I say!

Most of the heroine's problems are caused by her father fixation but the issue is hardly helped by a rather dim husband (Jonas Cemm) and opinionated would-be lover (Martin Durrant). But with both, she makes it clear to them who is boss, almost killing the non-lover with her martial arts skills. It is only when the penniless doctor (Stephen Chance) comes on the scene that she almost meets her match, but in the end, doesn’t quite lose. Is Shaw saying that ultimately the poor are onto a loser when faced with the rich bosses? Probably, and much as I love the work of Shaw, I also think it’s a bit rich that he bangs on about Socialism when he lived in such a nice big house. It’s easy to be a Socialist in those circumstances isn’t it - Tony Blair?!

In this setting you don’t really worry too much about the staging which is why this review is more about the event and the setting than the play. The actors perform on the long fairly narrow patio at the back of the house so there’s only room for a few chairs and a table and basic props and there are only a couple of doors that can be used as exits and entrances as the actors appear from the house itself. But it doesn’t matter, you just sit back, eat your picnic, enjoy your surroundings and listen to the words, which are of course, the all important thing.

I love the clientele there too. It’s quite funny watching people, I’d hazard a guess that many of the audience all read the Daily Mail and listen to Radio 2 and furthermore, many of these go to an event like this in the same way as they’d go to the village fete or the local pony club horse show. It’s an event that they do as part of their year, rather than because they have a great interest in theatre. Consequently, for some (and I stress for some) the picnic is the most important thing and much thought is put into the most trendy sandwich fillings, “posh” nibbles and the supermarket that does the best wine deals.

Meanwhile, those who are listening to the show demand absolute silence. The mere hint of a rustle of Rock Salt and Balsamic Vinegar oven baked hand-cooked crisps has heads spinning round like The Exorcist to see the offenders. And woe betide anyone who dares not to turn their phone off! And fair dos on that point by the way. At this particular performance, one woman spent a good deal of the second half popping Pringles tubes and fishing huge party sized packs of crisps from her ruck sack. I thought the woman in front of me was going to implode and I’m sure she’s suffering this week from the crick in her ever-spinning neck. Then, horror of horrors, crisp woman’s mobile rang. Now, if that was me I would be mortified and immediately fall on it and switch it right off. Unfortunately, the saturated fat queen’s fingers were a little clumsy (i.e. chubby) and it took an age. Then, she didn’t actually turn it off or put it on silent and of course, the person calling left a voice message. Durrrr!

But apart from this racket which, to be fair, didn’t last the entire evening, the only other thing to break the silence of a perfect summer’s evening was the words in the play. And when they have been penned by GBS, there’s absolutely nothing to complain about!

Eurobeat: Almost Eurovision

2008-07-16T04:06:00.000-07:00

Milton Keynes Theatre
14 July 2008

You can feel the beat!

With more man-made fibre than you could shake a stick at, more cheese than Tescos, an audience in an excited frenzy and some of the most irritatingly catchy tunes you will ever hear, Eurobeat is plainly and simply a “right laugh” from start to finish! It is utter nonsense, but a more brilliant piece of twaddle I haven’t seen in a long time!

Writers Craig Christie and Andrew Patterson have put together a wonderful homage to the love it or hate it institution that is the Eurovision Song Contest. The actual contest itself has now become so ridiculous that it is impossible for anyone to take it seriously, so the time is absolutely right for this glorious spoof!

From wooden hosts with strange caught-in-the-headlights looks in their eyes who make totally unfunny jokes, to glittering costumes, literal dance routines, nonsensical lyrics and predictable tunes, it is camper than Butlins and incorporates everything that we know and love (or hate) about the competition! And what’s the biggest seal of approval this show can have – well it’s all introduced via a special video message by Mr Eurovision himself – Terry Wogan.

Mel Geidroyc and Les Dennis play the hosts for the evening, in the guise of former pole-vaulter Boyka and wig-bearing children's TV host Sergei. And they got douze pwan (sp) from me! With chemistry as glittering as their spangly outfits, they were clearly enjoying themselves as much as we were. Their comedy backgrounds served them both well as they made the non-humorous quips hilarious in their un-funniness with well-timed one-liners and saucy double-entendres.

And what got the biggest cheer of the night? Boyka, while whipping the crowd into a frenzy of cheering said, “imagine you’re watching Britain’s Got Talent and Simon Cowell has just strangled Amanda Holden”! The audience erupted whilst looking fondly at her lovable ex-husband. “Amanda who?” said Les, with perfect timing! What a man? What a legend!

The ten acts they introduced included every Eurovision cliché you could think of and the fire-hazard quota increased with every number as the nylon crackled off the stage! Some of the highlights were Estonia with their scantily clad boy band whose man-kinis left very little to the imagination, the UK’s warbling duet who were not always in perfect harmony, Russia’s Lycra-clad KG Boyz and Germany’s lyric-less electronic dance number.

The audience are a key part of the show in this interactive extravaganza as it really is a competition! Right from the moment you walk in you can feel the excitement building as you are given a badge which shows which country you will be supporting. After that you can buy (at reasonable prices) a flag to wave and clackers to clack to help you cheer your song on, and then when you’ve heard all the songs, you text (at no more than the normal cost of a text) your top three songs to a special number so that the crowd, just like the real thing, actually play a part in who wins the evening!

You really can’t help but get sucked into it all! I am normally the one who sits, arms folded, as everyone around me claps along to the music and gets up and dances at the end. I normally hate that kind of involvement but something overtook me during this show and there I was, clacking my clackers and cheering on Sweden, my chosen country for all I was worth – cheering anything that moved - in fact as it turned out. I honestly don’t know what happened – it just did!

The second half of the show includes the now standard mid-show Eurovision entertainment with Mel Geidroyc inexplicably dressed as a turnip, followed by the results from the juries, who appear on a big screen just like the real thing and seem just as hapless!

The show perfectly captures the sheer madness of this competition as it shows restraint, never taking the lunacy too far. It’s camp and corny with lashings of bonhomie.

It was a huge hit in Edinburgh last year and is now on its way to the West End where it is set to enjoy cult status. Don’t spend time Making Your Mind Up – get a ticket now!

Brief Encounter

2008-07-16T04:04:00.000-07:00

The Cinema, Haymarket, London
13 July 2008

A pleasing encounter

Staged in a West End cinema on London’s Haymarket, and therefore boasting the comfiest theatre seats in the capital with a slot on the arm of your chair to hold your drink to boot, Brief Encounter is an imaginative, inventive and rather charming theatrical experience.

The iconic 1945 movie was based on a Noel Coward one-act play, Still Life. Now the two have been melded by Emma Rice and the Kneehigh Theatre Company in a multimedia show which is an interesting and inventive hybrid of the two!

The basic story is still there. Laura is a respectable suburban wife, and Alec is a married doctor. They meet at a station buffet, and fall in love over the course of a few meetings but their relationship is doomed never to last.

But enhancing the story in this production is back projection which articulates the characters’ hidden emotions and front projection that in a practical sense allows the characters to get on and off of trains. Both of these imaginatively add to the feeling of being in a cinema.

There are also other relationships in the buffet, brasher, humorous and more relaxed ones which provide a good contrast to the central coupling and highlights a middle class stifling of emotions. And the action is also interspersed with Coward songs which are played in front of the curtain in a music hall style.

Before the production there is a band and singing in the aisles and company members dressed as period usherettes guide you to your seats. During the interval there is more entertainment and spoof cinema adverts from the period selling products such as La-di-dah's Lard! I guess this is to give you a feel of what Laura and Alec might have experienced on one of their illicit meetings at the flicks. Indeed, as the play opens, the couple are watching from the front row.

They argue that the relationship can no longer continue whilst on the screen Laura’s dependable husband pleads with her to return. She then seamlessly walks “through” the screen to appear with her husband. And this sets the scene for the whole production, a mix of media that holds your attention throughout.

And if you can’t get David Lean’s film and Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard out of your head, you will after a couple of minutes as Naomi Frederick and Tristan Sturrock make the parts their own.

To reproduce Brief Encounter as a straight theatre adaptation or to perform Still Life, there is a real danger that it would appear dated and completely irrelevant to today.

By switching between live action and film footage, and between emotional pain and music-hall exuberance, Kneehigh highlight the passion beneath the self-control and using up-to-date theatre techniques gives it all a more modern feel. Besides, everyone knows what happens so you may as well have a bit of fun with it! This has the best of all worlds – and comfy seats as well!

Mary Poppins

2008-07-13T02:32:00.000-07:00

Birmingham Hippodrome
10 July 2008

Mary Poppins flies!

What would Mary Poppins do? That’s the new mantra of myself and my husband when looking after our young nieces after going to the first night in the national tour of this wonderful and heartwarming show!

I really cannot fault this stage version of Mary Poppins! In this production, the story of the outwardly prim and proper nanny who turns a pair of rather annoying middle-class kids into something more palatable is colourful, spectacular, fun and just completely joyful, from her first appearance in the Edwardian house, to her climactic exit over the auditorium at the end.

Yes, it’s true that I sat through the whole thing with a sense of awe, wondering exactly how they fitted all the scenery back stage and whether or not the credit crunch had passed it by as each new fantastic effect or costume appeared, but I also left the theatre with a big smile on my face, almost longing for the panto season to begin as it left me with that same warm and cosy feeling that you get at those special Christmas shows!

The stage effects as things collapse and fall off walls and are then re-instated are superbly worked, the statues that come to life show excellence from the dancers playing them, the changes of scene from grey London day to colourful fantasy world are seamless and the flying is magical. Yes – it’s professionally efficient, but it’s not just about the workings of the stage, it is atmospherically warm and exciting too.

It looks fantastic, and not just in its design and costumes. The staging of the ensemble numbers is superb which is only to be expected from the wonderful Matthew Bourne who is both choreographer and co-director.

It would be easy to go overboard with a number like Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, but in Bourne’s skilful hands it is a highly effective piece where the word is spelled out with hand movements rather than there being a lot of leaping about. Brilliant!

Similarly, the scene where the toys come alive in the nursery could have come straight from his Nutcracker or Edward Scissorhands and the fun exuding from Step in Time which includes the marvel of Bert walking upside down around the proscenium arch, is exactly what you want from a musical spectacular.

Caroline Sheen in the title role is “practically perfect in every way”, revelling in the mixture of firmness and kindness that the part requires and Daniel Crossley as Bert is a pleasing combination of mystery man and cheeky chappy.

What I like about this story is that amongst the magic there is a lesson to be learned. Mary Poppins is not the sickly sweet goody, goody carer that she could be turned into. She’s quite harsh with her charges but in doing so is firm but fair. It’s actually a fantastic example of how childcare should be approached – although modern day parents don’t have such an amazing bag of tricks – both literally and metaphorically!

Afterwards we looked back on an incident earlier in the day when we took one of our nieces to the park then, after promising the four-year-old an ice cream, we realised that neither of us had enough change to buy it. This, as you can imagine, was a disaster. The youngster’s quivering lip led to Mr FB running – yes running - back to the car to scrabble about for the pound we use for shopping trolleys and then running back looking rather pink and sweaty.
“What would Mary Poppins have done?” I said piously as we drove home from the theatre, “she would probably have explained firmly that we had no money and then taken her home with no sickly sweet treat but then found something for her in the fridge instead.

“We should have been firm and not given in” I added sagely.

“Pah” said Mr FB.

“Mary Poppins would have magicked up the flipping pound, wouldn’t she?! Pulled out a wad of notes from her big bag like a dodgy plumber!” he added.

This is true! Making things fly across the room or suddenly appear from nowhere is enough to capture the attention of even the most obtuse child, but no matter. While we may not have the carpet bag of tricks, we do have one fabulous treat at our disposal. A trip to see Mary Poppins should keep the little darlings quiet and enthralled for a couple of hours at least! This is a great show!

Come on Jeeves

2008-06-19T06:53:00.000-07:00

18 June 2008
Gordon Craig Theatre, Stevenage

By Jeeves, where's the fizz?!

Well, I liked the costumes!

And the set was nice!

But I have to say, and I KNOW it's a cliche, but, about half way through the first half, I really did find myself thinking about what I would have for dinner the next night! And to be honest, I really don't know what to say about this production!

Firstly, the plot - I can at least outline that I think!

In this story, Jeeves (Richard Pocock) is without Wooster, which is a bit like Pinky being without Perky. But it's explained away by Wooster being out of town and Jeeves only being "on loan" to the Earl of Towcester (James Cawood).

This Earl is struggling to maintain both his crumbling Towcester Abbey home, and a secret gambling habit and most of the play is based on the fact that he he has to keep this information from his fiancée Jill (Myfanwy Waring), as well as his visiting sister Lady Monica (Judy Buxton), and her husband Lord Rory (Derren Nesbitt). Yawn.

The rest of the story is based on wealthy American Mrs Spottsworth, played by the legendary Anita Harris, who has been brought to the ailing home by Lady Monica with a view to her buying it.

Jeeves, played by Richard Pocock is of course always on hand to help preserve sanity amongst it all.

That's about it really, but it's all rather long-winded and as the first half is basically all about setting up this scene and as this takes more than an hour, I think you can get my drift! It's so slow, it's like being behind a tractor in a 70mph zone.

I did an interview with the legendary Anita Harris before I saw the play and she said that it was "lovely, relaxed and safe" and this to an extent is true but I would say that for "relaxed and safe" read "a bit boring" really!

She also says that it's a funny play rather than a comedy and yes, it's vaguely amusing in places, but not "funny" in the true sense of the word - i.e. it makes you laugh! There were some polite chuckles in places but that's about as far as it got. PG Wodehouse is said to be one of Britain's greatest literary humorists but I think it's fairly safe to say that this is not him at his finest.

Jeeves has some nice lines but in general this play should have sparkling repartee - in reality it just had a light fizz.

What made this night really interesting was that it was a signed performance and this inadvertantly provided the funniest moments for me. Because the signer didn't really seem to understand what was happening either!

When I wasn't pre-occupied by tomorrow night's dinner, I glanced at her because she seemed to be providing most of the action and interest, but even she seemed to be somewhat under-employed! I think she was actually paraphrasing - there were a lot of gaps between the odd flick of the hand!

The cast were OK and did their best to eek out the chuckles. James Cawood as the Earl of Towcester is a daffy kind of toff, just like Wooster in fact, and Richard Pocock's Jeeves has good stage presence and delivers well, the few good lines that I enjoyed.

Anita Harris’ clairvoyant Mrs Spottsworth was glamorous and did a very good Charleston, but was, dare I say it, a little bit hammy! Sorry - Anita, I think you are fabulous but this role really didn't do anything for you. For me the stars were Judy Buxton and Darren Nesbitt as Lady Monica and Lord Rory because they were the ones who were responsible for the spartan amount of laughs with their well-timed delivery.

But the main problem with this production is that I really didn't care about it. I didn't engage with the story, didn't feel anything for the characters and couldn't really give two hoots what happened.

It all felt a bit tired and a bit dated and was ultimately rather disappointing. 1930s drawing room comedies can be sparkling - this was just dull. But the costumes were nice!

Relatively Speaking

2008-06-17T07:42:00.000-07:00

Relatively Speaking
16 June 2008
Milton Keynes Theatre

The joy of the well-made play!

If there's anything that will make you give up any thoughts of ever writing a play, it's seeing one like this!

Alan Ayckbourn's 'Relatively Speaking' is so fantastically well-constructed that it made me want to cry - both with the pleasure of watching and the pain of it being something I could only hope to aspire to! And this was his FIRST major hit - it wasn't even written after loads of practice! Of course he's now written more than 60 plays and is one of Britain's most popular playwrights.

This one though was written in 1967, and while the plot is quite complex to explain, it is so beautifully laid out that the audience is able to work out what's going on little by little, at just the right pace, just as they need to. The characters of course are always a step behind and deliciously so too.

Basically, after a month long romance, Greg wants to marry Ginny. But Ginny’s former lover, Philip, who is a much older married man, is still sending her chocolates and flowers. Ginny also wants to get back the love letters she has sent to him before she can marry Greg.

One Sunday, Ginny tells Greg she is going to visit her parents but she doesn't want him to come as they wouldn't be expecting him and it would throw them. Finding an address on a cigarette packet Greg follows her to the house and it turns out that the inhabitants weren't expecting either of them! And unfortunately Greg arrives first!

What follows is a mixture of both joyous and excruciating exposition in a meticulously contructed play! It is quite simply a fabulous spider's web of misunderstandings where the sparkling dew hanging from it is the brilliant dialogue of cross-purposes that never flagged. The genius lies in the way that situations are only partially revealed and the two characters who are basically in the dark about their partners other lives, find out about them bit by bit.

I spent most of the play with the words, "Just TELL them" on the tip of my tongue, while marvelling at the mind who constructed the whole thing!

The cast of four in this production add to its excellence. Peter Bowles is superb as Phillip. He is a veteran and master of comedy but, even more than the perfect timing of the words, sometimes just a look or a raised eyebrow from him speaks a thousand words. He is indeed a national treasure. Diane Fletcher as his wife Sheila also turns in a flawless, assured performance.

Of the younger two, Robin Whiting as Greg is an enjoyable innocent, who always has everybody's best interests at heart and Siobhan Hewlett's Ginny clearly shows the quick thinking needed to deceive, something that Greg really should have taken heed of!

Designer Paul Farnsworth has created two wonderful sets for this production with the garish 1960s colouring of Ginny's bedsit, complete with posters of icons of that time, being in complete contrast to the beautiful Buckinghamshire country house garden, all of which ensures that the production is as enjoyable to
look at as it is to listen to!

In a telegram to Alan Ayckbourn after the play opened at the Duke of York's Theatre in 1967, Noel Coward wrote:

“All my congratulations on a beautifully constructed and very, very funny comedy I enjoyed every moment of it”

I couldn't put it better myself!

See How They Run

2008-06-12T05:30:00.000-07:00

10 June 2008
Gordon Craig Theatre, Stevenage

Blasts from the Past!

Great comedy is based on a loss of dignity, and while some of my nights out in the past may not have been that funny, I'm sure they caused someone great amusement!

But seriously, people in authority being brought down a peg or two or people in situations where they have to behave well and being made to look foolish have been the staple of comedy writers for centuries and that's why the vicar as become such a popular character in farce, especially when their trousers suddenly appear around their ankles!

So to eek out maximum fun from his wartime farce See How They Run, Philip King has given us not one vicar but FOUR - and also thrown in a Bishop for good measure!

This typical farce is a comedy of mistaken identities. Set in the village of Merton-cum-Middlewick, the proverbial "chaos ensues" when it becomes besieged by an escaped prisoner of war, a visiting priest, an actor, a locum priest and a policeman - all at the same time!

Meanwhile, parish spinster Miss Skillon makes a call to the vicar to discuss what, to her mind, is a far more pressing matter as she is outraged by the dalliances of the vicar’s wife, and of course gets embrolied in the action.

The publicity says that the resulting confusion provides an "hilarious" evening. Well, it is amusing certainly, and quite charming and genteel, but side-splitting it's not. I think this is because it is a play of its time (1945), and it was this fact that made the whole experience something that was almost moving for me rather than one that made me cry with laughter.

The first half spends a lot of time setting the scene, when it seemed that every statement is laboriously setting up something that will happen in the future. I found it a little slow but I produced a wry smile when former actor, Lance-Corporal Clive Winton (played well by Emmerdale's Dale Meeks) has to swap his army uniform for vicar's clothes and remarks that he's been in enough plays to know that when somebody swaps clothes bad things happen! I liked the fact that the author was acknowledging his devices! But, that aside I was beginning to shift around in my seat.

Then I spent the interval reading the programme notes and really thinking about it a bit more.

The writer Philip King was conscripted in the Second World War and wrote See How They Run in his spare time, which is quite a feat in itself under the circumstances. It was first staged in Peterborough in 1944 and transferred to the Comedy Theatre in London in January 1945. Now imagine. Two cities filled with service personel and war weary civilians desparately looking for some form of of amusement, something to make them smile in those dark days that were often filled with little hope. Imagine a comedy play about a vicar and his wife, a bishop, a soldier, a policeman and an escaped POW. These characters would have struck chords of recognition amongst those audiences but instead of reading about them or dealing with them, they were invited to laugh at them and not take them as seriously as they had to in real life. It must have been quite a relief.

And so, as I imagined people flocking to get even just a hint of laughter in otherwise dark days I felt a pang of guilt in finding it less funny than the more in your face comedy that I am used to. I began to be charmed by it and admired it as a product of its time with affection rather than judging it against modern comedies.

Added to this nostalgic feeling was the fact that many of the parts were played by actors who have formerly appeared in some of our best-loved TV sit-coms and shows.

There was Hi-De-Hi’s Jeffrey Holland as the bumblingly innocent stand-in vicar Arthur Humphrey, and Guy Siner who starred as Lt. Gruber in ‘Allo ‘Allo who played the escaped German POW and who drew a roar of laughter from the audience when one of his lines in this play was "Now, listen very carefully"! Then there was Michael Sharvell-Martin from No Place Like Home as the Bishop and Emmerdale's Frazer Hines.

Whatever you think of the subject matter, good farce needs good timing and physical agility and this cast certainly had those, especially in the second half. And if you love preposterous situations and nostalgic wartime farce, you'll love this portrayal of a preposterous situation in a nostalgic wartime farce!

It was basically an evening of inoffensive comedy, that made you yearn for the simple laughs we had in the 80s and also, when you thought about the context of when it was written, made you feel quite humble.

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat

2008-06-10T06:05:00.000-07:00

9 June 2008
Alban Arena, St Albans

I Closed My Eyes .... And Can't Stop Humming!

Joseph and the Amazing Technicoloured Dreamcoat is a bit like Marmite. You either love it or you hate it, and just as I am rather partial to the yeast extract based spread, I have always enjoyed Joseph!

In a nutshell the story is as it is in Genesis and if on the off chance you're not familiar with it, the basic story is thus.
Jacob has 12 sons but favours the youngest Joseph, seemingly just because he liked his mother the best! Joseph has irritating dreams and annoys his brothers by interpreting them as signs that he will end up greater than them. The final straw comes when Jacob gives Joseph a rather snazzy coat!

The brothers plot to get rid of annoying Jo, quite understandably in my view, and he is eventually sold as a slave bound for Egypt where, after a spell languishing in jail, he finds the greatness that he dreamed about as an interpreter of the Pharaoh's dreams.

After some ridiculous scam with a golden cup that I still don't fully understand, Joseph, who is supposed to be the hero, is eventually vindicated, but for the most part I totally sympathise with the brothers! And Jacob’s parenting skills leave a lot to be desired – I didn’t think you were supposed to single out one child for special treatment!

In realising his dreams, Joseph appears as conniving, insensitive and arrogant as some of the best in “The Apprentice” so I’m really not sure what the religious message of this tale is anymore! And to cap it all, the dreams that he has to interpret aren't exactly challenging, he just has to use a bit of common sense!. One is about a baker who is carrying loaves of bread and birds come down and eat it all. Hmmm - now let me see - maybe something not very good is going to happen?!

But nevertheless, in this Rice and Lloyd-Webber musical the story manages to find great form, due to Tim Rice's genuis lyrics and Andrew Lloyd-Webber's incredibly catchy tunes. It is a feast of highly entertaining song and dance numbers in very different styles, from country and western to Parisian and gospel to Hawaiian.

This re-telling of the Biblical story of Joseph, his eleven brothers and the first ever fashion faux pas - the coat of many colours, marked the beginning of the legendary partnership of these two and it's hard to believe it’s over 40 and still going strong - a little like me!

I love the genius of Tim Rice's lyrics - any man who can rhyme "pyjamas" with "farmers" or write the following:
"He's the greatest man since Noah, It only goes to show-ah!" - deserves a knighthood in my book - and thankfully he has already got one!

And I love Lloyd Webber's annoyingly catchy tunes that I am still singing - "Close Ev'ry Door to Me", One More Angel", "Go, Go, Go Joseph" and "Any Dream Will Do" to name but a few. Although by the fifth reprise of the latter, it IS becoming a little wearing!

The cast can take a lot of credit for the joie de vivre of this production. They put in an energetic performance and looked as though they were genuinely enjoying themselves throughout!

Over the years the title role has been played by many famous names, Darren Day, Phillip Schofield, Donny Osmond and of course the wonderful Jason Donovan. In this touring production, Craig Chalmers took on the role. He was one of the finalists in BBC TV's 'Any Dream Will Do', losing out to eventual winner Lee Mead, who got the West End gig. And, not being funny, but you can see why Craig has been confined to the provinces. He gives an enthusiastic performance, and has a winning smile and a lovely voice, but it's just not as strong as Lee's. Also, his acting skills aren't that strong.

There are two other reality 'rejects' in the show as well, so it seems that all is not lost if you don't win the coveted West End role.

Tara Bethan got to the final 12 in 'I'd Do Anything' and while she wasn't Nancy, her clear strong singing voice filled the arena in the demanding role of the Narrator, which just goes to show that, just because you've got a good voice, it doesn't mean you're right for every musical role. Tara left the BBC show with doubts over her being able to do eight shows a week. On this evidence, I can't see a problem!

Antony Hansen was one of Craig's colleagues in the 'Any Dream' final and played the usual hip-shakin' Elvis style Pharoah with style and he also took on the role of one of the eleven brothers, all of whom looked different (I suspect that dad Jacob was a bit of a randy old dog!) and fairly bounded on stage every time they were required.

The production itself is, as you might expect, very colourful with some humorous touches such as a talking camel, inflatable sheep and a goat on wheels. The set is simple and not as lavish as the West End but just right for something that has to be packed up every week!

If I have any criticisms it was that the sing and dance-along finale, where they almost did the whole show again, went on a little too long, although it did give the wardrobe department the chance to showcase no less than THREE different styles of coloured coat. It was as if they couldn’t decide what to do in the production meeting so said “Hell – let’s just use all of them!”

But basically, the show is cheery and fun from start to finish – it’s Joseph – what more can I say?!

The Taming of the Shrew

2008-06-06T08:05:00.000-07:00

5 June 2008
RSC at the Courtyard Theatre, Stratford

Kiss Me Kate. And that's an order.

Stratford-upon-Avon is a wonderful place, and it’s not simply the fact that it’s the place to go for all things Shakespeare! It’s HOW on earth they’ve made it the place to go for all things Shakespeare. Because the whole legend has been built upon precious little evidence!

Shakespeare was born in Stratford and he died there, on the same date (but different years obviously). And that’s about it! He didn’t seem to spend much time there in between and there isn’t that much detail about what he did anywhere else either! His whole life story is based on sentences like “well, we think he was here then, so he might have visited this place or that place. His ‘birthplace’ in Stratford is only the place he might have been born and the date of his death is only the date when he might have died. William Shakespeare is buried there, but who was this person and what did he do? The only evidence we have of his writing is six signatures, so we know that he could write his name and that he did it six times! How do we know he wrote all those plays and sonnets? The original Hamlet for instance was only some 70 pages long. Between the 16th century and now it has become a five hour epic. Who did that? Well, this is a debate that has raged amongst scholars for centuries and frankly I can add no more to the debate, except to look around in wonder, every time I go to Stratford, about the huge industry that has been built on what is essentially hearsay!

But I’ll go along with it too because, down by the river in Stratford, when you spot it through the tourists and throngs of Americans, it is one of the most beautiful places you can be, and watching a play at the RSC there, is sublime. Whoever wrote the plays, however many people were involved in the process and however they have evolved over hundreds of years, what we have now are a collection of plays that say something and provide hours of enjoyment and discussion.

And The Taming of the Shrew is a play that certainly provokes discussion, especially if you go with a partner! The way that Petruchio “tames” the headstrong and wilful Katherine into being a dutiful wife is something that isn’t a very satisfying denouement in this day and age and you even wonder what Elizabeth I would have thought about it when it was written?

As Mr FB pointed out, it’s the only Shakespearean comedy he’s seen where he felt that there should be another scene. The one where Katherine lets on that she only let him think she was obeying him for a quiet life and really it was she who was in control and pulling all the strings – more like a modern day marriage! (I added the last bit!) I had already let him know that despite our two names being similar to theirs, not to get any ideas!

But whatever the rights and wrongs of the story, I enjoyed the RSC’ treatment of it, albeit brutal.

‘Dr Legg’s in it’ I remarked to Mr FB, amused by the fact that even the RSC had resorted to casting ex-soap stars. Although Leonard Fenton’s role was a very different kettle of fish from what was served up at the Gordon Craig (see last post!).

It’s a very lively opening where a stag do arrives in what appears a kind of Eastern European stag do heaven. From the shenanigans, emerges a drunk Christopher Sly who is persuaded to watch a group of travelling players perform the comedy. This they do in the traditional style, so that anyone dismayed by the modern opening was immediately appeased by boots and cloaks. But there is also some very clever use of props to dress the set, designed by Francis O’Connor, with models of Italian buildings that open up to be tables and the travellers truck that reverses onto the stage to collect the players.

The rest of the comedy is then performed with the usual Shakespearean suspension of disbelief to extract comic effect. For example, no one bats an eyelid that the sisters Katherine, and Bianca, expertly played by (Michelle Gomez and Amara Karan) were of different ethnicity, yet when the brilliantly funny Keir Charles as Tranio, dressed as Lucentio, needs someone to stand in as his father, he chooses a black man and maximum comic effect is made from the fact that he tries to speak with a Caribbean accent!

But while the Commedia del Arte influenced slapstick is highly enjoyable, the darkness of the play’s subject is brought right into focus by Stephen Boxer’s excellent cruel Petruchio who treats Katherine with violent brutality, starving her, dressing her in rags, depriving her of sleep and physically striking her. But she still becomes the dutiful wife. In fact, Gomez’ Kate is not just tamed, she is destroyed. She suddenly becomes cold and obedient in stark contrast from her opening scenes.

Walking back to the car provided us with the usual discussions that are a mark of a good experience. Was this a play of Shakespeare’s time or was he ahead of it? And why, if Shakespeare was so forward thinking, did he not see a time when women would be equal to men? But then, I guess that’s the point, they aren’t really. And when at the end of this production, all the characters reverted to contemporary dress, it can be seen as a sign that men’s dominance over women is neverending. After all, there are relationships now that are built on fear and where one partner is submissive because of the controlling nature of the other. I'm just glad I'm not one of them!

Daisy Pulls It Off!

2008-06-06T08:01:00.000-07:00

3 June 2008
Gordon Craig Theatre

Daisy, Daisy, Give Me An Answer Do!

I’ve got to be honest. As always, Ian Dickens has got a good cast together and produced a slick production, but I have to say, the question that I want an answer to is, what is the point of Denise Deegan's play?!

The title makes you think it’s going to be a slightly risqué romp, a good old-fashioned farce, but it’s not. It’s amusing, but the main joke runs out after about five minutes and you spend the rest of the two and three quarter hours wondering if anything new is ever going to happen and if we will ever get to the ending, which frankly you can see coming from early in the first half.

The main joke is that it is all set in a girls boarding school in 1927 and all the characters say spiffing and scrummy and other such Enid Blyton-esque phrases in every sentence. As the school girls are played by much older girls it is vaguely comic for a couple of pages, but when you realise that this isn’t going to be the glorious send-up of those kinds of scenarios that the Comic Strip did so brilliantly in the 80s, but merely a recreation of something like Fifth Form at Malory Towers, you know you’re in for a long night. Now don’t get me wrong, I loved Enid Blyton, I devoured her books with relish. But I was seven at the time.

The story centres around Daisy Meredith, who as an ordinary girl at an ‘elementary’ school wins a scholarship to the ultra posh Grangewood boarding school. She’s poor but clever so guess what – despite her one friend Trixie, the rich girls hate her and so they play jolly japes on her, although they are not always jolly and she ends up on the brink of expulsion until, guess what, she saves the day and, guess what, they find out that she is not what they think. Yawn.

How they don’t know this from the start though is impossible. As soon as they start talking about missing heirs and long lost fathers early in the first half, the denouement is galloping towards you faster than Desert Orchid, it just takes an age to get there!

Daisy is charmingly played by Carly Hillman who used to be Nicki de Marco in EastEnders and Trixie by Julia Mallam who was Dawn in Emmerdale, so if you like seeing your ex-soap stars in the flesh then Ian Dickens, as always, has done a good job. I also liked Kim Hartman (Helga in Allo Allo) as the firm but fair headmistress and Ben Roberts (Inspector Conway in The Bill) as the enigmatic music teacher. They are all very good in these roles, don’t get me wrong! They deal with what they are given on the page extremely well, it’s just what they are given that I find wanting!

I have to try and be objective though. The audience around me seemed to be enjoying themselves so who am I to say? There’s obviously a niche for this production so if you’re in a family with daughters between the ages of seven and ten or you’ve never grown out of Upper Fourth at St Clares, wizard wheezes and midnight feasts, then this will make excellent viewing. If you don’t fall into that category, I wouldn’t waste your money!

Fat Pig

2008-06-06T07:58:00.000-07:00

29 May 2008
Trafalgar Studios, Whitehall, London

Food for Thought!

Neil La Bute has added to his plays about body image with an interesting take on, to put it bluntly, having a fat partner with a great personality!

And what I liked about it was that, as well as being very witty, there was always that dark uneasy undercurrent beneath that made you really think about the situation. He also doesn’t take you down the road that you expect at the end, which I think was a far more truthful way of dealing with the subject.

Tom (Robert Webb) meets the big, beautiful, intelligent and funny Helen (Ella Smith). They have an instant attraction and start to date, but although they begin to fall in love, Tom feels that he can’t tell his work colleagues Carter (Kris Marshall) and Jeannie (Joanna Page), of whom the latter had been having a casual relationship with him.

I was so pleased that Robert Webb, one half of Mitchell and Webb, didn’t just do his popular Peep Show slash comedy act. As he veered between being the sensitive and understanding boyfriend who knows what the right thing to do is, but just can’t quite do it, he proved that he really is a very good actor indeed.

Kris Marshall as always gave a solid and well timed comedy performance as the lad about town for whom a woman’s appearance is everything and Joanna Page was good as the slim but spurned ex-girlfriend, although her character is very difficult to actually like and her American accent often sounded as though it had come by way of Barry Island, just like her Gavin and Stacy character.

But the performance of the night goes to Ella Smith as the girl who can’t believe that someone likes her just for her. She feels that her weight will always be an issue and as the play unfolds she is proved right. Her combination of bravado and sadness is quite heartrending and you just want to Tom to stick two fingers up at the others and do the right thing. But does he?

I don’t want to give it away so you’ll have to get down to Whitehall to find out. But I feel it’s more than worth it to see a top cast in an entertaining play that keeps you guessing.

And what’s more? I even know which one’s Mitchell and which one’s Webb now!

The Common Pursuit

2008-06-02T15:54:00.000-07:00

27 May 2008
The Chocolate Factory, Southwark Street

In Pursuit of Nigel!

Every girl has a fantasy and Nigel Harman is mine (apart from Sean Bean that is …. Oh and Gary Lineker!) But Mr K thinks the Harman is, and I quote, “a c**k” and not the love god that I know him to be! In fact, when I first suggested that he come on a theatre trip to see the aforementioned extremely talented and versatile performer – to see Guys and Dolls back in 2006 - he said that he would “chuck maltesers at his podgy face”, followed by the classic and predictable “he’s probably gay anyway”. Sigh. Just remember who I married!

Nevertheless, he got through the sighing and eye-rolling that characterised my Guys and Dolls experience and began to understand that everyone has a ‘crush’ or as I put it ‘a celebrity buy’ i.e. one person in the public eye you are allowed to be unfaithful with. Well, to be fair Mr K hasn’t agreed to that per se, but seeing as Nigel is never going to ask me, it doesn’t matter!

I should point out that he was the one who told me that Nigel was in The Common Pursuit at The Chocolate Factory in London’s Southwark St, and as it had an excellent cast, including James Dreyfuss and The League of Gentleman’s Reece Shearmith, he agreed that we could go. I had the tickets booked within about ten seconds!

The great thing about these Fringy venues is that there’s every chance that you will bump into the cast in the Foyer. And yes, you’ve guessed it! As I walked up to the Box Office to collect our tickets, who should walk out of a side door, back lit to make him appear as some kind of God – which of course he is – and walk straight towards me? Yes – the Harman! OMG I whispered to Mr K who, when he realised what was happening looked completely panic-stricken as I am not known for my composure when faced with a love God! But breathing normally, eventually, I nonchalantly got our tickets while trying to ignore the delicious breeze caused by Nige passing just inches from me.

But onto the play!

I first saw this Simon Gray play back in the 80s with Rik Mayall, who frankly could read the phone book and I would howl with laughter. This latest production by Fiona Laird turned out to be a witty and engaging evening, enhanced by the site of the Harman of course!

Look. I’m sorry. I am a serious theatregoer honestly, I don’t normally go on about men like this but goodness me – I really can’t help it in this case!

The play starts in 1986 when all the characters are Cambridge undergraduates about to launch a literary magazine with high intellectual standards.

After that each scene moves forward by a few years until we get to 1986, after which it goes back to the beginning so that we can view their first meeting with the benefit and poignancy of hindsight.

Over time their initial hopes and ideas have faded and friendships have become strained or betrayed. It has witty dialogue and laugh out loud moments but underneath, there’s a sadness as everyone either sells out in the end, or has to compromise or fails to meet their own high standards.

For me, the star of the show is James Dreyfus, a brilliant actor who is so much more than the series of camp, and admittedly very funny, characters that he is known for on the telly. As Humphrey he is sharp, dry and immensely hard on himself. You laugh one minute and feel his intense pain the next.

Ben Caplin is a moving Martin, a troubled but decent man who lives through the lives of his friends before following a route that can destroy the friendships that he holds so dear. And Robert Portal’s Stuart is a suitably irritating, yet still sympathetic character.

As you might expect, Reece Shearsmith provides good comic support as the chain-smoking cynic, but what of Nigel?!

Well, as Peter, the philandering, womanising don who forgoes his talent in order to mass produce popular history books, it seems that he has developed a good sense of comic timing and a nice line in fairly tight trousers! That’ll do for me! But when he is forced to look at the mess he has made of his life, there’s an intensity in his eyes that took me back to young Dennis in Eastie!

This is ultimately a sad piece that shows how innocence and hope for the future dwindles with time, but told in a witty way that makes its climax all the more poignant.

The Jersey Boys

2008-06-02T14:09:00.000-07:00

21 May 2008
Prince Edward Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue

Oh What a Night!

With Liverpool not in the Champions League Final there was only one thing to do on the night when the two teams that I despise most went head to head to become Champions of Europe – and that was go to the theatre! Well, as I didn’t want either of them to win, which sadly wasn’t an option under FIFA rules, the only remedy was to do something else completely.

And what could have been more different than The Jersey Boys - a musical biography of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons.

This show has had a lot of coverage on various TV shows so I was keen to see it, but, not being a big fan of Juke Box musicals I was reluctant to shell out for it. So when I was invited by a PR company, Mr K and I were only too happy to accept - the date was just a bonus!

And we were so glad we did, for we were treated to a great musical experience. Instead of this being a string of hits, loosely held together by a flimsy plot, The Jersey Boys is more like Buddy because it actually tells you a decent story. Yes the plot is still a mechanism between the hits but for someone like me who wasn't familiar with the Four Seasons story, I was hooked to the end. And unlike Buddy, where you know at the start what's going to happen, I didn't know what the denouement would be.

But while the story is interesting and followed the Italian-American boys from New Jersey from their beginnings, through their hits and their connections with the mob, the music was sensational. As the four leads sung their way through hits such as 'I Can't Give You Anything', 'Sherry', 'Big Girls Don't Cry' 'Walk Like a Man' and 'Can't Take My Eyes Off of You' the toes tapped with increasing frequency.

The leads were highly competent. Ryan Molloy gives an excellent imitation of Frankie’s distinctive and high pitched voice and is a strange combination of charisma, sexual magnetism and weed! It’s an excellent performance, as was that of Stephen Ashfield as Bob Gaudio. I was particularly delighted to see Stephen who I had last interviewed and then watched on stage about four years ago when he played Jack in the Watford Palace’s production of Mother Goose! He had brought tears of joy to my eyes when he sang ‘Never Forget’ – something that is not supposed to happen while watching a panto – and it was a real pleasure to hear more of his voice – especially in Oh What a Night! It certainly was!

Glenn Carter is handsome bad boy Tommy DeVito, the dodgy one who starts the band off and then nearly destroys it and Philip Bulcock is wonderful as “the Ringo of the band”, the one who never seems entirely comfortable with the whole set up. It's all sung, danced and staged well and the whole ensemble are well drilled.

This may not be Shakespeare, Ibsen or Blood Brothers (the king of musicals in my book) but it's lively, enjoyable and takes your mind off the football, so may be a perfect andedote to England's non-appearance in Euro 2008!

On heading out into the London night air and picking our way through the mound of those lethal carriage-on-the-back-of-bikes things (who GETS IN one of those?!) we completely forgot to find out who won the big game! In fact, it was only as we heard a chant of 'United' that our hearts sank. Does that mean we wanted Chelsea to win? No way, so we just concentrated on humming our way across Waterloo Bridge!

It had been an excellent evening and as proof I am now the proud owner of Best of The Four Seasons CD - who'd have thought?!