The Common Pursuit

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

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?!