The British Theatre Academy’s production of the Caribbean-inspired Little Mermaid adaptation, Once On This Island is an enchanting show with dynamic, heart-wrenching performances, energy in spades and a glorious uptempo score.
‘Ria Jones’ Norma Desmond has to be one of the finest musical creations of the decade’: SUNSET BOULEVARD – Touring ★★★★★
A packed house at the New Wimbledon Theatre rose as one to salute Ria Jones’ bow at the close of Sunset Boulevard and with good reason. Jones remains magnificent, her definitive, decaying diva capturing Norma Desmond’s long-faded Hollywood majesty.
‘Ria Jones gives a powerhouse performance’: SUNSET BOULEVARD – Touring ★★★★
Ria Jones, so resplendent when she stepped into Norma’s shoes at the Coliseum in 2016 (we were lucky enough to be at one of those shows is once again in the title role and she gives a powerhouse performance.
SUNSET BOULEVARD – Touring
The musical, based on the 1950 Billy Wilder film, with music composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, depicts the close-knit working relationship that both characters form, and the dire consequences that manifest from their alliance with each other.
SUNSET BOULEVARD – Touring ★★★★★
There is a magic that pervades Nikolai Foster’s production of Sunset Boulevard, and it flows from leading lady Ria Jones. Twenty-six years after creating the role of Norma Desmond for Andrew Lloyd Webber at the composer’s Sydmonton Festival, Jones now leads the show and never has a casting been more perfect.
THE BRAILLE LEGACY – Charing Cross
There’s a magnificent story behind The Braille Legacy. Louis Braille, the blind French boy who applied himself to developing a language of tactile dots that brought literature to the sightless.
RENT – Touring
There is plenty of energy and spectacle in Bruce Guthrie’s 20th anniversary production of Rent, but it is too careful and just too clean to fully persuade.
RENT – St James Theatre
St James Theatre, London
*****
Music, lyrics and book by Jonathan Larson
Directed by Bruce Guthrie
The cast of Rent
This 20th anniversary production of Rent is a heart wrenching piece of theatre that beautifully touches on the key themes of love, loss, addiction and the fear of living as HIV positive. It is engaging, touching and thought provoking.
Performed countless times across the globe, Rent can often descend into a self-indulgent performers’ showcase. Bruce Guthrie’s take on the show however is heavy on integrity, with the director exploring the psyche of each character, making the performances both believable and relatable. Alongside, Lee Proud’s mesmerizing choreography fits perfectly with both style and era.
Amidst a stark and rough scaffolding-based set and with the full orchestra on display, Anna Fleischle’s designs create an edgy feel that is aesthetically challenging, leaving one to focus on the drama.
Mark Cohen as played by Billy Cullen is beautifully watchable, embodying his character’s drive to succeed in his work but also constantly sending out the signals of his desperate need to be accepted by his friends. Ross Hunter’s silky, effortless vocals as Rodger Davies are a joy. His performance engages throughout, convincing in the chemistry that sparkles between him and Philippa Stefani’s Mimi. Stefani may have just transferred over from In the Heights but here she’s a completely different woman, displaying a stunning depth and emotional range. Her unravelling on stage is almost elegant, depicting her character’s agonising flaws as she struggles with her addiction and its dangers.
Lucie Jones’ Maureen is an unconventional gem. Her cooky, charismatic and confident charm is so suited to the character that she doesn’t struggle once to deliver on Maureen’s obvious sexuality and allure. As always, Take Me Or Leave Me brings the house down with stunning vocals from both Jones and Shanay Holmes as Joanne. Their delivery is entirely narrative driven rather than just being the shouting match that the number can so often suggest, as they make the song an intimate and passionate breakdown of a relationship between two fiery women.
Now virtually sold out in London, the production is soon to tour and for both Rent-heads and newbies it’s a treat. The entire company are outstanding – vocally, choreographically and emotionally.
Reviewed by Charlotte DarcyRuns until 28th January 2017 – Then on tour. Tour details herePhoto credit: Johan Persson
ALLEGRO – Southwark Playhouse
The first thing to say here is that yet again the producer/director collaboration of Danielle Tarento and Thom Southerland has come up with a beautiful show, full of charm, of energy and of near perfection by the committed cast in the singing and dancing. And not in any formulaic way – Lee Proud’s original, urgent […]
The post Allegro (Southwark Playhouse) appeared first on JohnnyFox.
ALLEGRO – Southwark Playhouse
Allegro is the third musical born from the long standing genius that is the duo of Rodgers and Hammerstein. While neither their most successful piece, nor their most daring and despite it being a somewhat lacklustre story, Allegro still holds all of the charm and sophistication associated with R&H musicals.
ALLEGRO – Southwark Playhouse
So why haven’t many Rodgers and Hammerstein aficionados heard about it and why has this never been performed in the UK? Is this forgotten musical best placed as just that or have we been missing an absolute gem?
ALLEGRO – Southwark Playhouse
This least known Rodgers and Hammerstein musical is finally given an opportunity to shine in Thom Southerland’s production which proves that it is one that deserves to be seen.
GREY GARDENS – Southwark Playhouse
Making its European premiere, Grey Gardens is a blend of fact and fiction that tells of Edith Bouvier Beale, aunt to and her daughter Edie. What sets this family apart is that the two women were respectively aunt and first cousin to the woman who was to become the world’s First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
Closing Review: GRAND HOTEL – Southwark Playhouse
I hated Grand Hotel at the Dominion in 1992. It seemed confused, distant, under-scored and under-lit and there wasn’t a character I could engage with. As tickled up by Thom Southerland at Southwark Playhouse, it’s the exact opposite – you really can feel like a fly on the wall of a luxury hotel as the […]
The post Review: Grand Hotel (Southwark Playhouse) appeared first on JohnnyFox.
GRAND HOTEL – Southwark Playhouse
Okay, so I’m a little late to the party, you’ve probably already read a number of reviews of Grand Hotel all raving about it. I can honestly tell you though that they’re all wide of the mark… It’s even better than suggested!
GRAND HOTEL – Southwark Playhouse
There is a gorgeous trinity almost akin to a planetary alignment, when producer Danielle Tarento, Thom Southerland and choreographer Lee Proud work together, and in tackling Grand Hotel’s dark and desperate depths they again achieve artistic success.
The Producers – Review
Churchill Theatre, Bromley
****
Music and lyrics by Mel Brooks
Book by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan
Jason Manford and Cory English
The headline cast of The Producers is almost a who’s who of today’s popular entertainment scene. Jason Manford, Louie Spence and Phill Jupitus all take principal roles alongside the lesser known (but nonetheless industry greats) Cory English, David Bedella and the stunning Tiffany Graves. They lead a company that delivers flawless performances as they dust off Mel Brooks deliciously dated musical.
The 12 Tony-winning musical wowed Broadway in 2001, but of course the original yarn was spun by Brooks in his 1968 Oscar winning movie – and it is to that film that this touring revival pays homage. The onstage newspaper headlines scream of BJ and Vietnam as shyster Broadway producer Max Bialystock, so richly defined by Zero Mostel in the 60s, slicked-back hair and red smoking jacket, is neatly caricatured by Cory English. Back in the day Gene Wilder defined the nebbish (google it) that is frustrated accountant Leo Bloom. In 2015 Jason Manford (a surprisingly big fella in the flesh) makes the most of his lumbering features to define Bloom’s wondrously hopeless inadequacies. Manford’s anxiety-ridden Bloom seriously exceeds expectations.
The story could be neither more tasteless nor more famous. As humble clerk Bloom realises that were a show to prove a guaranteed flop then amoral producers could sell its rights many times over and embezzle the investors’ cash. Bialystock pounces on this stroke of (criminal) genius and takes Bloom into partnership. Sourcing possibly the worst script in town, Springtime For Hitler written by a crazed former Nazi and hiring Roger De Bris, a disastrous director to helm it, failure is a certainty. Until of course De Bris delivers a Fuhrer who’s camper than Christmas and the Broadway crowds go wild…
Cory English has previous as Bialystock, having played the producer on Drury Lane and he masters the ways of the wily granny-shagger with aplomb, his 11 o’clock number Betrayed being a particular treat. Mel Brook’s Borsht Belt comedy roots (google that too) are manifest in Bialystock’s corny patter, as his unique style merges Sid James’ Carry On smut with a wry sense of self-deprecation that’s as New York Jewish as pastrami on rye.
The biggest butt (pun intended) of Brook’s gags is of course Hitler and the Nazis – and what better way to humiliate a truly evil force than to laugh at it (With a momentary pause to sadly wish “if only” that could be the case in today’s troubled world). Along the way however and in alphabetical order, blacks, gays, Irish, Jews and Swedes are all mercilessly mocked in a show that makes for one big guilty pleasure.
David Bedella’s De Bris is a high priest of high camp. Preening and pouting, he is poured into his dress – and gives Hitler just the right touch of manic megalomania too. Louie Spence as his posturing assistant Carmen Ghia has a modest role but milks it magnificently with a movement that is as technically brilliant as it his hilarious. And whoever thought of Phill Jupitus to play the Nazi Franz Liebkind deserves the Iron Cross. The comedian’s (rarely seen) fat, pasty, lederhosen-clad legs add visual genius to the deluded German. Be in no doubt, Jupitus cannot sing and his almost solo number, Haben Sie gehört das deutsche Band will stay with me for a long time.
Meanwhile, leading lady Tiffany Graves’ blonde bombshell Ulla simply steals her every scene. Graves’ accent is wonderfully caricatured, her singing sensational whilst her dance and cartwheeling/backflipping movement is jaw-dropping. Sporting fabulous tresses (kudos to wig mistress Sally Tynan) Graves is every inch the (not so dumb) Swedish Blonde.
Magnificence elsewhere from Lee Proud’s choreography, with the big numbers of Along Came Bialy (complete with denture wielding tap-dancing geriatrics) and Springtime For Hitler evidencing a company well drilled in dance routines that blend professional precision with immaculate comic timing. And look out for the unexpected nod to the Vulgarian (aka Germanic) Doll On A Music Box routine from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as the Springtime number kicks off.
Bravo too to Andrew Hilton’s nine-piece band who give Brooks’ compositions the bold and brassy treatment they deserve.
The Producers’ producers have clearly piled their cash (or their investors’ ?) into the cast and it shows as Matthew White directs a magnificent 5* flawless troupe. But the un-inspiring scenery wobbles, the tank-gun helmets of the dancing Nazi showgirls look like they are Blue Peter inspired cardboard creations and unforgivably, Hitler’s moustache fell off in his big number Heil Myself! Bedella to his credit gamely played on – but where were the professional production values? The show’s future audiences deserve a little better.
As entertainment, this touring production of The Producers provides a sensational night out at the theatre. Top notch actors, delivering top notch routines. It makes for one of those rare nights when cheeks will ache from grinning. If you love comedy and musicals it’s unmissable. Brilliant, irreverent, hilarious and all performed by one of the best companies on the road today.
Plays until 14th March, then on tour.
Review: Carousel (Arcola Theatre)
Reviewers often struggle to find adjectives to describe yet another fringe musical we’re obliged to see on your behalf. For Carousel at the Arcola, we have only three: good, good, good. Good #1 because producers Morphic Graffiti are making a name for taking ‘classic’ material and re-working it for smaller scale acoustic productions. You don’t […]
The post Review: Carousel (Arcola Theatre) appeared first on JohnnyFox.
Review: Carousel (Arcola Theatre)
Reviewers often struggle to find adjectives to describe yet another fringe musical we’re obliged to see on your behalf. For Carousel at the Arcola, we have only three: good, good, good. Good #1 because producers Morphic Graffiti are making a name for taking ‘classic’ material and re-working it for smaller scale acoustic productions. You don’t […]
The post Review: Carousel (Arcola Theatre) appeared first on JohnnyFox.