13th Apr2015

Olivier Awards – Theatre

by timbaros

images-358Theatre’s big night took place last night at London’s Royal Opera House and it was Sunny Afternoon – a musical about The Kinks musical group – that took four awards at the ceremony. A View From The Bridge, which started it’s life at the Young Vic and which is now playing at The Wyndham Theatre, took three awards including one for Mark Strong for Best Actor. In the highly contested Best Actress in a musical, it was Katie Brayben taking the gong for playing songwriter Carole King in the newly opening musical Beautiful. The show ended with special award winner Kevin Spacey singing Bridge Over Troubled Water with Memphis the Musical’s Beverly Knight.
Complete winners below.

SPECIAL AWARDS
Sylvie Guillem and Kevin Spacey

BEST ACTRESS
Penelope Wilton for Taken At Midnight
Theatre Royal Haymarket

images-359

BEST ACTOR
Mark Strong for A View From The Bridge
Young Vic & Wyndham’s Theatre

BEST ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL
Katie Brayben for Beautiful – The Carole King Musical
Aldwych Theatre

BEST ACTOR IN A MUSICAL
John Dagleish for Sunny Afternoon
Hampstead Theatre & Harold Pinter Theatre

MASTERCARD BEST NEW MUSICAL
Sunny Afternoon
Hampstead Theatre & Harold Pinter Theatre

VIRGIN ATLANTIC BEST NEW PLAY
King Charles III
Almeida Theatre & Wyndham’s Theatre

THIS MORNING AUDIENCE AWARD
Wicked
Apollo Victoria Theatre

MAGIC RADIO BEST MUSICAL REVIVAL
City Of Angels
Donmar Warehouse

BEST REVIVAL
A View From The Bridge
Young Vic & Wyndham’s Theatre

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Angela Lansbury for Blithe Spirit
Gielgud Theatre

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Nathaniel Parker for Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies
Aldwych Theatre

BEST DIRECTOR
Ivo Van Hove for A View From The Bridge
Young Vic & Wyndham’s Theatre

BEST NEW COMEDY
The Play That Goes Wrong
Duchess Theatre

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MUSICAL
Lorna Want for Beautiful – The Carole King Musical
Aldwych Theatre

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MUSICAL
George Maguire for Sunny Afternoon
Hampstead Theatre & Harold Pinter Theatre

WHITE LIGHT AWARD FOR BEST LIGHTING DESIGN
Howard Harrison for City Of Angels
Donmar Warehouse

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Christopher Oram for Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies
Aldwych Theatre

BEST SOUND DESIGN
Gareth Owen for Memphis The Musical
Shaftesbury Theatre

XL VIDEO AWARD FOR BEST SET DESIGN
Es Devlin for The Nether
Duke of York’s Theatre

BEST THEATRE CHOREOGRAPHER
Sergio Trujillo for Memphis The Musical
Shaftesbury Theatre

AUTOGRAPH SOUND AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC
Ray Davies for Sunny Afternoon
Hampstead Theatre & Harold Pinter Theatre

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN AN AFFILIATE THEATRE
Bull
The Maria at the Young Vic

BEST NEW OPERA PRODUCTION
The Mastersingers Of Nuremberg
London Coliseum

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN OPERA
Richard Jones for his direction of The Girl Of The Golden West, The Mastersingers Of Nuremberg and Rodelinda
London Coliseum

BEST NEW DANCE PRODUCTION
32 Rue Vandenbranden by Peeping Tom
Barbican
&
Mats Ek’s Juliet And Romeo by Royal Swedish Ballet
Sadler’s Wells

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN DANCE
Crystal Pite for her choreography in the productions of The Associates – A Picture Of You Falling, The Tempest Replica and Polaris
Sadler’s Wells

BEST ENTERTAINMENT AND FAMILY
La Soirée
La Soirée Spiegeltent

Category : Theatre
Tags : , , ,
Off
04th Mar2015

Beautiful – Theatre

by timbaros

Will you Still Love me tomorrow. I feel the Earth Move. You’ve got a Friend. These are just a few songs written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin that are included in the new West End Show Beautiful – The Carole King Musical.

While Carole King might not be known to the younger generation, anyone 50 and older know her, and her music, very well. In the 1960’s she, along with her husband Goffin, wrote dozens and dozens of hit songs including The Locomotion, You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling, and Up on The Roof. Beautiful tells the story of King’s life, how when she was a young girl and sold her first song to music producer Don Kirshner, to meeting her songwriting partner, and partner in life, Gerry Goffin, to being a single mother as well as a very very successful singer and songwriter. In Beautiful, King is played by the energetic Katie Brayben, from the piano playing right down to the curly hair, the resemblance is very good.

Beautiful covers King’s life from age 16 to the age of 29, when she’s at Carnegie Hall performing ‘So Far Away’ – a hit single from her mega-selling and multiple grammy winning album Tapestry. It’s just Brayben and the piano on stage. The show then goes back in time, the time when teenager King (Brayben) is at home in Brooklyn wanting to go into Manhattan to sell songs to Kirshner, but her mom tells her that she’s not going into Manhattan all by herself. When King does get to Kirshner’s (played by Gary Trainor) office, she meets people there who will be the key players in her life. She meets Cynthia Weil (Lorna Want) and Barry Mann (Ian McIntosh), a songwriting couple, but more importantly she meets Goffin (Alan Morrissey). They start a romance, but King gets pregnant so her and Goffin get married. He loves her, and they literally make beautiful must together – they are at their best when writing songs, and they write some of the biggest hits of the 1960’s. But over time Goffin starts to feel like he’s being tied down and wants to take advantage of their new celebrity status, while King wants them to go home at the end of each day and spend time as a family. It’s a stressful situation for King, and it doesn’t help that Goffin is having mental problems to go along with his infidelity. And this is the plot of Beautiful – the relationship between King and Goffin and their very close friendship with Weil and Mann. But in between this storytelling we get great musical performances by the ensemble in the show – the actors who play the musicians that King and Goffin write songs for. And this is when Beautiful comes alive. The ensemble really lets it rip, and brings life and color to the show when they perform songs such as 1650 Broadway Melody, Some Kind of Wonderful and On Broadway, among others.

Beautiful is a female singer, songwriter, mother, daughter, an American, and British-born Brayben does a fine job in portraying King. Recently seen in American Psycho, Brayben can sing and act, and can hit all the notes, and like King, Brayben writes her own music. Her hairstyle changes throughout the course of the show, most of these styles, however, make her look much older than the character she is playing. Morrissey is fine as Goffin, excited about their love yet still not sure that’s he’s happy or not in their relationship. Want and McIntosh are excellent as their best friends, and even more so when they provide emotional support after King’s breakup of her marriage. The staging of the show is fine, moving from living rooms to recording studios to Kirshner’s offices – but it’s Peter Kaczorowski’s lighting that literally and figuratively lights up the stage. If only the book of the show was as good. By Douglas McGrath, the book is very mundane and not very dramatic – sure we care about King’s life but give us more of the music and razzle dazzle and less of their bickering and conversations. It’s a musical that should be a musical, yet Beautiful plays more like a drama show with bits of music thrown in. But the show redeems itself when near the end, Brayben (as King) and the ensemble bring down the house with the song ‘You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman” – it’s a moment when you realize that King really is the greatest female songwriter of all time.

Category : Theatre
Tags : , , , , , , , , ,
Off
28th Feb2015

Gods and Monsters – Theatre

by timbaros

James Whale was famous for directing the Frankenstein films. But he’s also known for being the subject of the hit 1996 film Gods and Monsters. Now it’s a play, produced for the first time and currently playing at the Southwark Playhouse theatre.

The play, as well as the film, deals with the platonic relationship Whale has with his gardener in 1950’s Los Angeles. Whale, played by an excellent Ian Gelder, and in the film played by the Oscar nominated Ian McKellan) is a man of older persuasion, a bit lonely who only has his housekeeper Maria (Lachelle Carl) to keep him company. One day along comes young reporter Kay Joey Phillips) who wants to know all about the Frankenstein films. But for every tidbit of information that Whale gives to him, Whale cheekily demands that he takes off a piece of clothing. But reminiscing, not only about his films but also about the time he served in the army reminds him when of he when he fell in love with a fellow soldier. And unfortunately, not all is well with Whale, he’s got some sort of medical problem, which is confirmed when he goes to see his doctor (Will Rastall).

Enter the new gardener Clayton Boone (Will Austin). He’s young, virile, sexy, muscular (perhaps a bit too much), and of course Whale takes a shine to him, asking him into the house for a cup of cold iced tea. Soon enough Whale invites Boone into the house for lunch, then he asks if Clayton would pose for him, as Whale enjoys painting. But Boone makes it clear that it’s only the face that Whale will paint as Boone won’t be taking off his shirt or pose, as he says, “In his birthday suit.” But of course eventually Whale gets him to do so, first topless, but then near the end of the show, in a very dramatic moment, at Boone’s insistence does he take off all of his clothes, asking Whale if this is what he wanted, while Whale is in the midst of one of his attacks. Whale gets his chance to seduce Boone but is unable to do so, and it appears that Boone wants to be seduced. Whale gets his wish, a wish that he has pined for, but is unable to do anything.

Russel Labey, writing an original script for the stage, does a good job incorporating the relationship Whale has, or would like to have, with these young men who come in and out of his life. Labey also smartly executes the wartime flashbacks Whale has that include both Phllips and Rasall playing the younger Whale and his love interest. This production is very well done in it’s small space, and it is Gelder who carries the show. He’s almost a dead ringer for McKellan, very believable in the part and even more so when he’s up to seducing the young boys. The rest of the cast is strong as well, though once Austin takes his shirt off its hard to imagine anyone having bigger muscles than him – to say its a bit distracting is an understatement. The male nudity in this show is not gratuitious – all of the young actors get naked – it’s all part of telling Whale’s story. Gods and Monsters is a well done production – not quite four stars but worthy enough to see.

Gods and Monsters is playing up until March 7th. To buy tickets, please visit:

http://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/the-large/gods-and-monsters/

Category : Theatre
Tags : , , , , , ,
Off
28th Feb2015

Superman – Theatre

by timbaros

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no – it’s Superman the Musical.

Playing until this weekend at the Leicester Square Theatre, Superman is not just a musical but it is also a comical look at the man we all know and love as the saviour of Gotham City, preventing disasters and capturing criminals.

Originally produced for the Broadway stage in 1966, and coming directly from Ye Olde Rose and Crown Theatre where it played last year, it’s transfer to the West End brings with it a set made up of cardboard props, and a cast who mostly struggle with the all encompassing singing, dancing and acting.

Craig Berry plays Superman. Sure, he’s got the look down – the black gelled-back hair and the chiselled chin, but Berry just doesn’t have much stage presence for playing such a larger than life character. Sure, the costume fits him, but that’s about it. Michelle LaFortune doesn’t fare much better. Her Lois Lane is bland. LaFortune can sing, but it doesn’t help when she forgets a line or two.

So what’s the plot you ask? We should know it as we’ve all seen those Superman movies. Lane is in love with Superman but not with Clark Kent, who works with her at the Daily Planet, and you see Clark Kent is actually Superman! Another man in the office – Max Mencken (a good Paul Harwood) – is the office lethario and vies for Lane’s affections, though he’s with Sydney (a good Sarah Kennedy), a clueless co-worker who’s looking for love in all the wrong places. However, when Mencken teams up with Dr. Abner Sedgwick (an excellent Matthew Ibbotson) to devise a plan to turn Superman into an ordinary mortal, one who would obey Dr. Sedgwick’s every command, things don’t look too good for Superman, and it is Lane who happens to fall in love with Dr. Sedgwick’s assistant Jim (Charlie Vose), and forgets all about Superman.

Superman plays like an amateur production (a high school production) with a few talented members of the cast (Harwood, Kennedy and especially Ibbotson), but it’s the ones who aren’t as talented that bring this show down. And the backup dancers do their darndest, all trying very hard to keep things moving (especially the adorable Christine Harris), but they just can’t save this production. Music by Charles Strouse with lyrics by Lee Adams help the show move along, but the end just doesn’t come soon enough.

Category : Theatre
Tags : , , , , ,
Off
27th Dec2014

John – Theatre

by timbaros

press a_24 performer_hannes langolf_photographer_hugo glendinningThe term ‘John’ is a word associated with a man who visits prostitutes. It’s also the name of the central character in a show with the same name.

John, now playing at the National Theatre, is an extremely unique theatre experience. The first half of the show is about a man named John. He’s had a hard life, classifies himself as straight, but he goes to gay saunas. The second half of John takes place in a gay sauna where we continue to hear John’s story as well as the stories of other patrons in the sauna, including the owners. So John is a story about men, sex, love, intimacy, and real life.

Lloyd Newson, who conceived, directed, and choreographed John on behalf of DV8 Physical Theatre, had three researchers go to say saunas primarily in London and asked patrons if they were willing to be interviewed. Newson conducted the interviews with just a handful of the men, but one man in particular, John, stood out. And it became clear to Newsom that John would be the central character in his new play.

So the first half of John tells his story. He came from a very disturbed Northern background where his father was a rapist and his mother was an alcoholic. He’d been married, had lots and lots of girlfriends, and two children. He also has a criminal record with 2 convictions. He’s been in prison (where he discovered his homosexuality), homeless for a time, but he turns his life around by getting a degree at the Open University. He goes to saunas to connect to men, not necessarily in a sexual way but more in an emotional way. He wants to be normal, be part of the middle class, be part of a community. And his life is portrayed on stage in a unique way – a revolving stage that revolves as the story is told. Also more unique is that the actors perform physically movements with their entire bodies. They twist and turn and go sideways and bend. And what’s fascinating about this is that they continue to do this the entire show, while at the same time telling the story, bending and moving. So we get a glimpse into John’s life as told by him and he and his fellow actors revolve and bend and tell a story that never once gets boring.

The second half of the show takes place in a gay sauna. There is a very well choreographed bit when three actors constantly undress and dress, several times, but it’s very interesting in how it’s done – it’s al choreographed in a way so that their clothes are moved by another actor to a different area only to be picked up by one of them to get dressed again, and the process repeats itself. We get to meet the owners of the sauna, who tell stories in what they find and put up with in their sauna. ‘They’ tell us that once they found someone dead, a young Portuguese man, and that his mom wanted to pay a visit as she wanted to see where her son had died. They also go into detail about at times finding ‘poo’ in the sauna. It’s actually quite funny when they describe where and how they find it, even in the jacuzzi. There’s also an attendant who gives us a rundown of what’s in the sauna: gloryholes, sling room, so as the stage turns around, we see more of the sauna and more of it’s ‘patrons’. Another man says that he doesn’t care that he’s being reckless or not. And like in any sauna, the men walk around and around and around, ignoring the ones they don’t want to be with and ignoring the ones they want to be with. But it’s the physical movement in the show that makes it very unique. The actors are moving, constantly, in tandem with each other. It’s ballet without the pointy toes.

But John is ultimately about gay men and gay saunas, intimacy and them searching for something they’re not too sure about. And while this show could’ve only been about John’s life story, or a separate show about saunas, John is a show that is so unlike anything you will have seen this year. Kudos not just to Andi Xhuma who plays John but to the entire cast (and Newson) for putting on a show that is really hard to describe but definitely needs to be seen.
John is playing at the National Theatre until January 13, 2015. To buy tickets, click here:
http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/john

Category : Theatre
Tags : , , , ,
Off
06th Dec2014

Made in Dagenham – Theatre

by timbaros

Made-In-Dagenham-2-Photo-Credit-Alex-James-1Gemma Arterton is terrific as a mother of two small children who rally her co-workers to strike for equal pay in the West End’s newist musical Made in Dagenham.

Rita O’Grady (Arterton) works in a Ford factory in Dagenham along with some very colorful co-workers. These include tiny Sandra (Sophie Isaacs) who has a huge singing voice, wanna be airline pilot Cass (Naana Agyei-Ampadu), and sassy Barbara (Sophie Louise-Dunn).

Management at the factory have deemed the women unskilled workers, which means lower and not equal pay, and they are not happy about it. So Rita becomes the unexpected spokeswoman for the group, affecting her relationship with her husband Eddie (Adrian Der Gregorian), who is not happy that his wife is practically never home now to mind him and their adorable two small kids.

Rita is mentored by union rep Connie (Isla Blair), but when she gets sick, it’s up to Rita to attend official union meetings, meet government officials, and, ultimately, to speak at the Trade Union Conference, is at the end of the show.

Made in Dagenham doesn’t veer too far away from the film of the same name that was released in 2010. But the film worked much better as it was able to take the story to a real factory, to show the women protesting outdoors, to meetings in government building, making the era that it represents (the late 1960’s) more realistic. There are quite a few faults with this musical stage version: a plot about Rita’s son being caned in school goes nowhere, jokes by Mark Hadfield playing a buffoonish Prime Minister Harold Wilson are so bad – and mostly misogynistic, and Isaacs, who has such an amazing singing voice, only gets to sing one song in the beginning of the show, and she is wasted during an awful bit in the show that is supposed to be a car commercial. And the American boss of Ford (Steve Furst) is portrayed as a singing cowboy, complete with cowboy hat and and a good ole U.S.A. song called, appropriately enough, ‘This is America,’ just plain awful.

However, Rupert Gould’s sets are amazing. The reproduction of a car factory is always in motion, down to the very minor details, including the nuts and bolts that go into the cars. The acting by the whole cast is very good, but what they are given to work with is a musical with not one memorable song (music by David Arnold), and a book (by Richard Bean) that doesn’t have much of a story.

Category : Theatre
Tags : , , , , , , , , ,
Off
29th Nov2014

Run – Theatre

by timbaros

B3dL60NCYAARNOb.jpg-largeFour interns start new jobs at an unnamed investment bank. They work long, hard and crazy hours, perhaps too long and too hard as one of the interns dies from exhaustion.

Run, now playing (up until Saturday) at the New Diorama Theatre in Regents Place, is based on the true story of 21 year-old Moritz Erhardt from Germany. He was interning at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and worked 72 hours straight, and was found dead in the shower at his Bethnal Green flat.

Playing the four interns in the bare bones production of Run are Al Jarrett, whose character got the internship because his uncle works at the bank; Joseph Sentance plays a smart recent Cambridge graduate new to London; Beatrice Scirocchi’s character is a cold backstabber from Bosnia who will stop at nothing to get ahead; and Charlotte Watson plays a prim and proper professional, yet haunted by the death of her younger brother years ago from a heart murmur.

The four interns are thrown into an office environment, an environment that is new to them. Some of them thrive, while one of them makes an almost career-ending mistake, yet they are all interning for the same reason – to get a permanent job at the bank, and they will do whatever it takes to get the job done. In Watson’s character’s case, she looks like she will be the one who will outshine the others, but when she starts taking pills to stay awake, she literally (and figuratively) runs herself into the ground, extremely exhausted, yet she still goes back to work on very little sleep. And ultimately, ending with tragic consequences.

Run is all about the story, and the acting. And wow – all four actors are excellent. Jarrett gives an impassioned speech when he’s reprimanded by his boss – it’s a speech that will leave you breathless. Scirocchi is cold as ice because she wants a job very bad and will even turn on her fellow interns to get what she wants. Sentance is perfect in his role – he’s a natural on the small stage, and no doubt he’s bound for bigger and better things. Yet it’s Watson’s performance you will remember hours and perhaps days after you see the show. She literally runs herself down right before our very eyes, she’s tired and she knows and feels it, yet she still works far into the night, at her desk, typing away, eyes glossed.

Run is an incredible piece of work in a very tiny theatre. Kudos to the Engineer Theatre Collective who actually spoke to many people working and/or interning in the financial sector to put this show together. It’s an exhilarating piece of work, stripped right from today’s headlines. Drop your plans for tonight or Saturday and go see this show.

Tickets can be bought at:
http://newdiorama.com/whats-on/run

Category : Theatre
Tags : , , , , , ,
Off
23rd Nov2014

Ghost Stories – Theatre

by timbaros

Ghost-Stories_2836007bWe are advised that Ghost Stories contains moments of extreme shock and tension and that it is unsuitable for anyone under the age of 15. Also, the theatre strongly recommends those of a nervous disposition to think very seriously before attending.

Well, I wouldn’t go that far in saying that Ghost Stories is the scariest show in town (that gong would go to Henry IV Part 1 purely because it is so boring), but Ghost Stories will take you on a ride where a few times you might jump up off your seat but there is absolutely no extreme shock and tension anywhere in the show.

It starts promising enough with our narrator (who runs down a dark aisle hitting punters on the shoulder as he heads to the stage) Professor Goodman (he’s not a real professor but is actor Paul Kemp) who shows the audience a photograph. It’s a simple photograph taken many many years ago of two couples standing and basically having their picture taken. But Professor Goodman explains that there’s more to the photograph then meets the eye. As he zooms in on the photograph, we see a leg and foot behind one of the men, and also one eye peering out from behind the same man’s right hand. It’s a very eerie and unsettling moment for the audience as it is hypothesized whether there is such a thing as ghost. So Ghost Stories starts promising enough and segues into three ghost stories that happened to real people. These ghost stories are re-enacted and are intended to scare the audience even more.

The first story involves Tony Matthews, a security guard who is all alone in a remote location. He radio’s a fellow security guard who’s in another building – a new security guard who happens to Russian who doesn’t speak English well. But things start happening to Tony. The lights flicker and there is a knock on his door. He goes out to investigate and to make sure the locks on an adjacent building are locked. The audience sees an apparition of a little girl, but Tony doesn’t see it. He goes back inside to radio the Russian but can’t get through – the radio strangely has stopped working. He goes back outside and one of the locks from one of the doors has come undone, so enters the room. And in this room is where he experiences the ghost face to face.

The second story is scary as well but is not pulled off. A young man, Simon Rifkind (Chris Levens) is late getting home after a night out and he suddenly hits something in the road. It’s effectively a prop on the stage that looks like a car, very effective. He stops, but decides to drive on. He’s not too sure what he hit but he’s happy with his decision to leave the scene of the crime. But then his car break down, leaving him stranded in the middle of nowhere, in the dark. He call for help, which is on it’s way. He waits in the car and there is a knock on the window. He can’t see what it is, neither can we. But after a few minutes he is face to face with what appears, to the audience, a fake monster on the top of his car.

The last story has Mike Priddle (Gary Shelford) as a father in his soon to be new baby’s room. He’s a businessman, always on his mobile phone. And when he sends a text, he goes ‘swoosh’ and glides the phone in the air, which gets annoying by the second time he does it. Anyway, yes, you can see this one coming, he sees ghosts in the room, not just ghosts but something that levitates in the crib, and then he too come face to face with an apparition.

As Ghost Stories goes into it’s last story, it becomes less and less scary. Sure, the first story was scary, and the second just a bit, but by the third story we become more immune to the surprises that take place, and by the time the show is over Professor Goodman is taken off the stage by a ghost and lies in a hospital bed, to be taken care of by Dr. Rifkind. But then he’s not in bed, he’s back on the stage.

Category : Theatre
Tags : , , ,
Off
01st Nov2014

Memphis the Musical – Theatre

by timbaros

Memphis, 2014, Credit: Johan Persson/Memphis was the birthplace of, and a magnet for, so many world famous musicians and singers, including Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Percy Sledge and Wilson Pickett. It is also the place where Elvis Presley lived, and died. Memphis is so synonymous with music that it’s only fitting that a musical would come along with the same name – Memphis.

Just opened at the Shaftsbury Theatre in London’s West End, Memphis the Musical is a look at a time when Memphis the city was not what it is today – sixty years ago it was very very different. Blacks were still seen as second class citizens, nightclubs and cinemas were racially segregated, and inter-racial marriage was illegal. Radio stations also discriminated – each played music for a specific audience, and racial integration was purely not allowed. This is explored in Memphis the Musical when white musician Huey (Killian Donnelly) falls in love with black female singer Felicia (Beverly Knight).

Huey works as a stock boy in a department store. He visits Delray’s – a black rock and roll bar where he is the only white person – and falls in love with the music, as well as taking a shine to Felicia, who sings at the club her brother Delray (Rolan Bell) owns. Back at the store Huey asks his boss if he can play music over the store’s loudspeakers. His boss agrees, and soon enough customers like what they hear and buy the records in droves. But the boss doesn’t like the fact that Huey played black music, so he gets fired.

Having realized that he really loves this music, Huey applies for a job as a DJ at various radio stations in town but at one station he sneaks into the DJ booth and plays the music that he thinks people want to hear – the black music. The music, and him, are a hit, and his romance with Felicia heats up, much to the dismay of Delray, and Huey’s racist mother Gladys (Claire Machin).
Huey wants to play Felicia’s first song at his radio station, but before he is able to he gets into a row with his mom, and the record breaks, and Felicia runs out and they realize that keeping their relationship together is going to be difficult. Things get more complicated for them when they are seen kissing by a group of white men, who proceed to beat them up, rendering Felicia’s face very bloody. It’s expected that everything works out between them and they live happily ever after. But it’s the journey of getting to the expected that makes Memphis the Musical worth watching.

From the art deco department store to Huey’s living room, to the interiors of Delray’s to the lone radio DJ booth on stage – it’s a set that works very well on the small stage. The backup dancers do their damndest to entertain us – and they do. There’s lots of them on stage at the same time, and it’s amazing that they don’t hit each other while swinging their arms and legs. And it wouldn’t be a very good musical without the excellent music, done by Bon Jovi keyboardist David Bryan, who collaborated with Joe DiPietro. Both Bryan and DiPietro won Tony Awards for this show’s music when it premiered first on Broadway in 2010. However, it’s Knight who gets top billing, and she doesn’t disappoint. Knight, who last year starred in the West End’s Bodyguard, shows us here that she has perhaps found another calling – from being a top pop singer to being West End’s newest diva. This girl can sing! The stage is hers and hers alone. She is able to belt out blues, rock and gospel and still amaze. Donnelly, who was the only good thing in the very dull The Commitments, looks very comfortable in his role as Huey. But he appears to be just going through the motions. Sure he can sing the socks off of us, but he looks like he’s not making much of an effort. He’s a natural on stage but he needs to be more than that, he needs to take it a few notches higher. But at the end of the day it’s Knight’s show, so go see and hear the West End’s newest Diva – Beverly Knight – she’s fabulous.

Category : Theatre
Tags : , , , , ,
0 Comm
01st Nov2014

The Curing Room – Theatre

by timbaros

RLP_0207Seven men, stripped naked, perform in the shocking and brutalistic The Curing Room, now at The Pleasance Theatre.

These men, all English actors, are literally exposed in the 90-minute play that will shock some, enthrall others, but will leave the audience gasping at what their characters endure in the course of the show. The Curing Room is not for the faint at heart, it includes scenes that you will have never seen performed on a theatre stage before. It’s a form of theatre that pushes the boundaries between the actor’s confidences and the audiences comfort levels.

It is 1944. Seven Soviet soldiers have been captured and imprisoned by the Nazis. They are held in a sort of ‘Curing Room’ – a room used to store and preserve meat. All of their possessions have been taken away, including their clothes, and they are totally abandoned by their captors. It’s just seven men, on a bare stage, who have to endure the pain and agony of being cold and hungry and facing certain death in a room that is several hundred yards below ground. And as these soldier’s don’t have their uniforms, they still follow the military structure that they were trained to do. But their dire circumstances lead several of them to defray from this and survival becomes the only thing that counts. And this survival includes hunger. Tempers flare, they fight, they tell stories, they sleep, they get sick. And after one of the soldiers dies, the rest of them have no choice but to resort to cannibalism. They initially wrestle with their conscience whether this is the right thing to do, but as they get weaker they realize this is the only way to survive. One by one they die, but will anyone be alive when it is time to be rescued?

The Curing Room stars seven men who are very brave to be naked on stage for the entire length of the show. But the intent is to see beyond the nudity and focus on what the men are going through. A few of the actors stand out – mostly Harvey Robinson as Senior-Lieutenant Harvey. He shows the most emotion and determination of all the men, but will be survive? Robinson looks like he will be perfect on Game of Thrones – he’s got that steely, rough nordic look and excellent acting ability. Newcomer Matt Houston as Private Georgi is a revelation. He’s young, tall and thin yet he comes into his own and turns out to be one the smartest. He’s excellent. Thomas Holloway as Private Yura is also very good. He’s a bit slow and is always asking about his mother, not realizing that she’s probably dead. Joao De Sousa has superbly directed a play, written, invented and created by David Ian Lee that succeeds in being horrific, violent, brutal yet different, imaginative and groundbreaking.

The rest of the casts names need to be included in this review just because of their willingness to go expose themselves and their emotions on a theatre stage : Will Bowden, John Hoye, Rupert Elmes, and Marlon Solomon. The Curing Room is a bold and shocking play. It tells a story that many of us know about from history – mainly how the Nazi’s imprisoned Jewish people, and others, and left them to die. And cannibalism was rampant in WW2 as forced starvation was a policy inflicted upon the people of the Soviet Union by Stalin. As horrific as it sounds, it’s reality.

The original version of my review appeared on http://hereisthecity.com/en-gb/2014/10/30/the-curing-room-review/page/1/

Category : Theatre
Tags : , , , , , , , , , , ,
0 Comm
04th Oct2014

Evita – Theatre

by timbaros

images-264The Dominion Theatre in London’s West End was home to We Will Rock You for what seems like an eternity. And the statue of Freddie Mercury was a permanent fixture on Tottenham Court Road. Well, Freddie and We Will Rock You have since left, now to be replaced by a much much better show – Evita.

Evita is a show that is the complete opposite of We Will Rock You. We Will Rock You was loud, Evita is elegant; We Will Rock You was stupid, Evita is smart; and We Will Rock You was awful, Evita is excellent. No two shows could be any more different. And it’s a shock to think that We Will Rock You lasted 12 years while Evita will run for only 7 weeks – until November 1st (White Christmas takes up residence at The Dominion after Evita closes).

Evita has been shown in the West End twice before. It debuted in 1978 (with Elaine Paige) and then returned to the West End in 2006. I did not see the 1976 version but was lucky enough to see Elena Rogers perform as Evita in the 2006 version. But this version of Evita is so much better than the 2006 version. What makes this version of Evita so good? Well, where do I start; first and foremost the acting, then the singing, the costumes, the set design, the music, the score, basically from start to finish Evita is a show.

Portuguese Madalena Alberto is a revelation as Evita, She cannot only sing, she can act and perform as well. Sure, she may be tiny (at 5’6) but when she sings, she sings. And when she acts, she can act. Alberto, who made her stage debut in 2005 at the Old Vic in Aladdin with Sir Ian McKellen, proves that she’s now a West End diva to proudly stand alongside the rest of them.

Evita is a classic production from the minds of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber. It’s a story that most of us are familiar with – the short life of Argentina’s most loved woman – Eva Peron. Evita the musical takes us through her life – from her time as a young model to when she met her future husband – Juan Peron – in 1944 when he was a Colonel. Two years later he becomes president of the country, and Eva becomes a much loved first lady. But this Evita the musical starts on a somber note – it starts with Evita’s casket in the middle of the stage, people walking by paying their last respects, with a huge photo of her on top. It’s a chilling way to start a musical but it’s very effective and sets the tone for what to expect at the end. Alberto, as Evita, becomes, right before our very eyes, a queen, wearing breathtaking dresses and jewelry, beautiful. And Alberto is given many chances to display her voice, especially in the ‘Don’t Cry for me Argentina’ solo, she owns it and brings the house down. Wow. And it’s a sad day as she gets sicker and sicker, again, right before our very eyes, to the point of death. Alberto’s image as Evita will stay with you long after you leave the theatre.

Marti Pellow is the narrator Che, who reflects the voice of the Argentine people. He does an excellent job throughout, always there but never in the scene. He’s also been given many a solo, and in one he’s especially good at he is holding a note for the longest time – it’s actually amazing.

Ben Foster is just as good in his short role as tango singer Magaldi – the man who was Eva Peron’s first love, and the man who supposedly brought her to Buenos Aires. He’s got a great voice – too bad Evita throws him away like a bad penny before the end of the first half – and he’s gone.

Everything about this production is lush. From the music to the aforementioned costumes, to the Argentinean-styled sets to the choreography, it’s all very sumptuous. And all the other favorites are sung: ‘On This Night of a Thousand Stars’ to ‘You Must Love Me.’ While there are a few moments that left me scratching my head ( a scene with dancers holding mirrors made no sense, and one of Alberto’s big numbers segues into another number, thus robbing her of the applause), it’s a production that has to be seen. And I am very happy that Evita got We Will Rock You kicked out of the Dominion.

Category : Theatre
Tags : , , , , , , ,
0 Comm
20th Aug2014

My Night With Reg – Theatre

by timbaros

images-228My Night With Reg takes us back to the time in the mid-1980’s when gay men were rapidly getting sick and dying even quicker from AIDS.

Now playing at The Donmar Warehouse Theatre, My Night With Reg’s titular character – Reg – is not played by an actor. He exists only in the background, and he’s the man all of the characters have been with but can’t have, because he’s the boyfriend of campy Daniel (Geoffrey Streatfield). There’s John (a very good Julian Ovenden), whose secretly having an affair with Reg. Then there’s gay couple Benny (Matt Bardock) and Bernie (Richard Cant). They’ve been together for so long they get on each other’s nerves. Benny confesses that he has had sex with Reg a few times because Reg can’t get enough of his cock, and Bernie confesses that he’s slept with Reg once, just once, and that it was very good.
And who do John, Benny and Bernie confess their predilections to? To Guy (Jonathan Broadbent). Guy is plain looking – he looks and acts older than what he actually is, he’s not in good shape, and he’s just not that attractive. Yet, when the three men confess their affairs with Reg to Guy, he says “am I the only man that Reg hasn’t slept with?” Well, the answer is yes because the other character in the play, Eric (Lewis Reeves), a sexy young man from Birmingham who Guy has hired to paint his veranda, confesses to being with a man ‘just the one time’, and even though Eric didn’t know the man’s name, Guy knows that it was Reg.
My Night With Reg covers the span of four years, with all of it taking place in Guy’s flat, decorated in the way one would expect from him: modern with a touch of European style. The veranda is the piece de resistance, and where Eric spends most of his time painting. Three scenes make up My Night With Reg (without an interval). Scene one starts with the song “Every Breathe You Take,” which Eric is listening to on his headphones. Meanwhile, colorful flashing lights pulse on the edges of the stage like a 1980’s disco. John has gone to visit Guy, and Guy reminds him that it’s been nine and one half years since they last saw each other. John is the handsome one. A never ageing gay man, with a sexy body, who has family money yet no real ambition in life. Daniel shows up to see the men, and makes a beeline for John, all so affectionately touching him and kissing him. Eric, meanwhile, is in the background, innocently painting away, yet all so sexy.
It’s scene two where the real emotions (and the confessions) take place. Guy decides to have everyone over, and it’s here that Reg’s getting around becomes apparent. Bernie and Benny bicker as usual, and Eric finally becomes one of the men, joining in on their conversation. Meanwhile John is feeling raw, especially after telling Guy that he’s in love with Reg, so Benny takes him out to the veranda for some unseen escapade, while Bernie is in the kitchen. And Guy is not able to confess to John that he’s been in love with him for years, since they were in college together.
And unfortunately, just like in the 1980’s, gay men die of AIDS, including Reg. Though he’s not seen, his presence is felt throughout the play, and even more so near the end, when the characters mourn his death. Both Daniel and John break down, and John doesn’t have the heart (or the guts) to tell Daniel that he had been sleeping with Reg. So we’re left with innocent Eric and not so innocent John at the end, enjoying each other’s company and then some, with John reminiscing about friends come and gone.
Kevin Elyot, who wrote My Night With Reg, unfortunately passed away in June after a long illness. So it’s a tribute to him that his play still stands up 20 years after it was first produced, at The Royal Court Theatre. Back then, in 1994, gay men were still dying from the AIDS virus, and many lost friends and lovers –  this was right before the introduction of the drug cocktail combination that has saved so many lives. So is a play like My Night With Reg still relevant? We’ve seen these types of characters before, but in the intimate setting that is The Donmar Warehouse, we feel like we’re in the same room with them, listening in on their conversations, and being a part of the gang. And while there’s unnecessary gratuitous nudity near the end (not that I’m complaining), it’s the acting that is what this show is all about. There’s not one false note among the six men. Especially good is Ovenden as John, who’s in Downton Abbey. His character goes through so many emotions, and Ovenden carries his torch for Reg throughout. Broadbent stands out as Guy, unloved but always in love. Director Robert Hastie keeps the play’s pace going throughout, and by the time it’s over, you don’t realize that one hour and fifty minutes have gone by without an interval. Do you want to go see My Night With Reg? Book tickets now before it’s too late.
Category : Theatre
Tags : , , , , , , , ,
0 Comm
13th Jul2014

The Colby Sisters of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – Theatre

by timbaros

images-205Five sisters make up The Colby Sisters of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which is now playing at The Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn.

India, Willow, Gemma, Garden and Mouse are their names, and they’re all very beautiful women. Some of them lead a charmed life, and a couple of them don’t. Coming from a wealthy and famous family (though we are not told exactly how wealthy and what they’re famous for), they all live on that island called Manhattan. Gemma (Charlotte Parry) is the wealthiest of the sisters, and everywhere she goes so does her maid/p.a. Heather (Ronke Adekoluejo. Willow (Claire Forlani) is the oldest of the sisters, grounded, smart, and easily likeable with 2 sons, though her husband is not working so she needs a handout from Gemma.  Garden (Patricia Potter) is the unstable one who can’t accept the fact that her husband is having an affair and wonders what she could have done to keep him. India (Isabella Calthorpe) is in a very happy relationship with an artist, so she has no issues. And then there’s Mouse (Alice Sanders), the youngest of the bunch, she’s a free spirit who will go with any man who simply smiles at her, she’s acts innocent and dumb, and is a bit adventurous.
So there you have it, the five Colby Sisters of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania now living in Manhattan.
The show begins with the women getting their dresses for a photo shoot and dresses that will be worn to an upcoming fundraising ball. India agonizes about her financial situation, Garden agonizes about her cheating husband, and Mouse continues to rhapsody about the many men that she meets. All the meanwhile, Gemma walks around with a not a care in the world – with Heather tagging along a few steps behind. The sets are very minimal, which I think is to match the minimal script. A living room, a ballroom, a closet, a tennis court (smartly done) and an almost bare stage backdropped by picture frames take us through 75 minutes of these woman’s lives, and one event that should change them forever but doesn’t. The event (I don’t want to give it away as it’s a key plot point) is meant to shock the audience and to make the woman pause to think about their lives, but moment’s later they are back to wearing their beautiful dresses with their sunglasses on, in a way to avoid or to welcome the paparazzi. And that is pretty much the show. Sure, the acting is very good, especially from Forlani (Meet Joe Black, NCIS: Los Angeles) and Potter (Holby City), the rest of the woman are playing caricatures of women we’ve seen portrayed on film and stage for many years; the socialite, the depressed wife, and the free spirt. And poor Adekoluejo, not only is she relegated to playing a maid and p.a., but in between scenes she is the one who moves stuff around on the stage! Writer Adam Brock seems to have watched a lot of Sex and the City to find personalities for the women, and some of the scenes don’t just come across as realistic. And it would have made for a more complete play if we knew more about the women and how they got from Pittsburgh to Manhattan. But the Set Design by Richard Kent will catch your eye as huge picture frames beautifully backdrop the show, and for a few minutes one of the picture frames shows them women as young girls, in happier times, as a family, with each other. This is the part of the show that stuck with me, and nothing else. And at the end of the show Mouse says “Nobody knows us, they think they do, but they don’t.” Yes, that’s correct, after seeing show I still don’t know who the Colby Sisters are.
Category : Theatre
Tags : , , , , ,
0 Comm
05th Jul2014

Chelsea Handler – Theatre

by timbaros
images-203You either love her or you don’t love her. America’s most biting talk show host – Chelsea Handler – is coming to London.
Promoting her new book “Uganda Be Kidding Me”, Handler is most well-known for her eponymous television show on the E Entertainment Channel Network, Chelsea Lately, which she’s hosted for seven years. It’s a fast and funny talk/comedy show where she and three other comedians (and her Mexican sidekick nugget Chuey Bravo) discuss, and make jokes of, the day’s news. The second part of the show is where Handler interviews celebrities – A-list celebrities – and most of them seem to be friends of hers (Jennifer Aniston, Charlize Theron, Eric Bana, the list goes on). And as Handler is Los Angeles- based, she rubs shoulders with these people at parties and other events in the Los Angeles area.
Chelsea Lately airs at midnight here in the U.K., a bit late for some, but it’s worth staying up for.
Handler has written five books, all bestsellers, including her funny titled second book “Are  You There God, It’s Me Chelsea.” Her new book, “Uganda Be Kidding Me”, immediately topped the best sellers list when it came out.
Handler has been all over America promoting the book, and now she’s coming to the UK. Handler will be in Dublin on Friday, July 11th, and on Saturday July 12th she will be appearing at London’s Palladium Theatre. There is still tickets available for both shows, so if you are a fan of hers, or not, now’s the time to experience Handler’s sarcastic and edgy humor in a no-holds-barred live setting. And you won’t be seeing much of Handler after September, she has decided to end her talk show. What’s she going to do next? She’s signed a contract with Netflix to have exclusive rights to her next television show. She’s said that Netflix is the cutting edge new kid on the block, so she’s going to them. Chelsea, we will miss Chelsea Lately!
For tickets to the Dublin and London shows, click here:
Category : Theatre
Tags :
0 Comm
Pages:«1...678910111213»
« Previous Page — Next Page »