Backbeat is the new Beatles musical which covers the early period of teh Beatles success story, mostly in Hamburg where John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Pete Best and Stuart Sutcliffe entertained the nightclub goers in the Reeperbahn district. The main focus of the show is Stuart Sutcliffe, the “lost” Beatle, who played incompetent bass guitar but was an art school friend of John’s and an ambitious young painter. The show follows Sutcliffe’s relationship with the German photographer Astrid Kirchherr – who was responsible for the Beatles’ mop-top haircuts and some superb early images of the group. It also depicts Lennon’s angry feelings of rejection, and McCartney’s relief that he has got John back.

This article titled “Backbeat – review” was written by Lyn Gardner, for The Guardian on Tuesday 11th October 2011 18.08 UTC Does London need another jukebox bio musical? No, and it doesn’t get one either in this intelligent, multilayered and often touching account of the Beatles’ early days in Hamburg and Liverpool and the “lost” Beatle, Stuart Sutcliffe. The epitome of cool, Sutcliffe was John Lennon‘s art-school buddy and a gifted young painter who abandoned the group for art and the love of Astrid Kirchherr, the photographer who took some famous moody shots of the band and originally styled their mop-headed, collarless look. Sutcliffe died aged 21 of a brain haemorrhage, just as the Beatles were on the brink of success. Based on Iain Softley’s 1994 movie, Backbeat is – despite all its raucous energy and high levels of amplification – often quite downbeat. It’s all the better for it. More a play with songs than a fully fledged musical, this is not a show threaded through with familiar Beatles’ hits: a brief glimpse of John improving on Paul’s faltering attempts to write Love Me Do is about the closest we get. Instead we see the boys in their Hamburg days when they were essentially a covers band playing in a seedy nightclub, perfecting their sound and skills on hits such as Twist and Shout and Please Mr Postman. The music is delivered with some panache that does eventually lead to the inevitable dancing in the aisles, but it’s a mistake to think that Backbeat is about the music or is indeed the verifiably true story of the early days of the Fab Four. In David Leveaux‘s moody, often painterly production it is much more about art and ways of seeing. There is a small, quiet scene where Sutcliffe contemplates the changes wrought by a lighthouse beam. Oh and it’s about love, in particular the love between Andrew Knott’s arsey antagonistic Lennon, who claims that all art is “dick”, and Nick Blood’s charismatic Stuart, who sees the band as a diversion and is forced to make the hard choices about who he should be with and what he should do with his life. “You’ve got to let me go,” he tells John, and it’s as if he is trying to disengage tenderly from a lover. It’s a small show wrapped up big for a West End theatre, and there are moments of clunkiness in the handling of the ensemble in the Hamburg scenes. But it’s always visually arresting and, finally, a little bit heartbreaking too.

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Ghost The Musical started previews in London this week at the Piccadilly Theatre with Caissie Levy as the leading lady. Caissie Levy stars in Ghost the Musical Ghost has been a great hit with the Manchester audience during its pre-West end run and one of the firm favourites of everyone who has seen it is Caissie Levy. Caissie plays Molly Gordon, the female lead of the show. Caissie is a Canadian with a gorgeous voice and good acting skills. She needs them both during Ghost. This is a very demanding role as Molly’s character goes through an amazing range of emotions as the show progresses. We saw Caissie on the West End stage last year in the visiting Broadway production of Hair. Although Hair is a very much an ensemble piece I felt when I watched it that Cassie’s performance really stood out. She played the idealistic Shelia with real conviction and her voice rang out in songs like Good Morning Starshine. I think this bodes very well for her performance as Molly. Caissie’s other most famous role is probably as Elphaba in Wicked in the Broadway production.  In recent interviews she has drawn parallels between Ghost and Wicked. She felt that the range both of vocal skills and acting required of Molly and Elphaba were rather similar. When asked she agreed it was possible that, like Wicked, critics would not like Ghost and it might be a show that would appeal more to audiences. This wasn’t true of the Manchester critics who gave the show  great reviews but London can be harder to convince. Caissie has a gorgeous voice and I thought you might enjoy a sample:

Theatre review of Irish Blood, English Heart – Trafalgar Studios, London

This article titled “Irish Blood, English Heart – review” was written by Michael Billington, for The Guardian on Wednesday 4th May 2011 22.04 UTC Darren Murphy is clearly a generous man. We go to the theatre expecting one play and he gives us at least three: a psychological study of sibling rivalry, a social portrait of the London Irish and a meditation on the nature of narrative. But, although some would argue that nothing succeeds like excess, I would gladly have settled for half. At first, we seem to be in familiar theatrical territory. Two brothers converge on the Southwark lock-up where their father, an emigre Irish cab driver, apparently killed himself. Con is the struggling one who followed his dad into the cab trade and whose wife, Peggy, dreams of opening a restaurant. The other brother, Ray, is the success story who has written a bestselling novel and TV film that cannibalises the family history. While Con is anxious to honour the dead dad, Peggy’s main aim is to extract compensation from Ray for appropriating their lives in a piece of fiction. Behind the play lurks the formidable shadow of Arthur Miller: the fraternal rivalry is straight out of The Price, and lines such as “A man is more than the worst thing he’s ever done” strive to achieve a Milleresque resonance. But I feel Murphy’s real preoccupation is with stories and their ownership. Does one, he implicitly asks, possess the copyright on one’s own life? A comedian once expressed his bewilderment to me that it was the author, rather than the subject, of a biography who got paid; and it is such a provocative issue that I wish Murphy had explored it in more detail. Instead, he gets carried away with the brothers’ re-enactment of past familial wrongs, and even introduces a totally implausible fourth character to remind us that the dead father was himself a monstrous fantasist. I will say this for Murphy, however: he gives his actors plenty to chew on and, in Caitriona McLaughlin’s nicely cooked production (which transfers from Southwark’s Union theatre), they clearly relish the emotional feast. Ian Groombridge exudes a nervy anxiety as Con, seeking closure on the disordered narrative of his dad’s life. Howard Teale has the right sheen of success as the brother who has adopted the name of Ray Suede and whose whole career is a form of self-invention. Although Con’s wife is marginalised in the later stages, Carolyn Tomkinson invests her with a fractious energy. In the end, the play seems to suggest that the Irish capacity for fabrication and storytelling needs an element of formal restraint. Though it is a perfectly valid message, I wish Murphy had followed his own good advice.

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Derby theatre review.

This article titled “Be My Baby – review” was written by Alfred Hickling, for The Guardian on Thursday 5th May 2011 21.00 UTC The 1960s are so firmly associated with sexual liberation that it’s easy to forget the generation of unmarried mothers who never had it so bad. Illegitimate children were often born secretly in church-sponsored homes, before being given up for adoption. There’s very little research on the subject: until the 1970s, such facilities remained an undiscussed yet ubiquitous phenomenon. Amanda Whittington, who was the first writer to give this subject dramatic treatment, is an undiscussed yet ubiquitous sort of writer. There’s rarely a point at which a regional playhouse isn’t performing one of her plays, and the text of this one has quietly slipped on to many GCSE reading lists. It must be hard for today’s teenagers to fathom a period of history in which sex education was delivered not so much through teachers as through Ronettes‘ singles. Yet Whittington cleverly coats the bitter pill of her characters’ experience with the sugared naivety of popular girl-group routines. The story focuses on Mary, a well-to-do 19-year-old whose single indiscretion has landed her in a dour dormitory with only her portable record-player for comfort. Given the current tendency of female singers to emulate the lacquer-and-lashes look of 1960s pop stars, she has a surprisingly contemporary style: very up the Duffy, one might say. Esther Richardson’s sensitive production features fine work from Emily Alexander’s ever-optimistic Dolores, Jenny Hulse’s distressed Norma and Michelle Jate’s jaded, been-here-before Queenie. But the evening belongs to Jessica Clark’s exceptionally poignant Mary, who begins the play no more than a child and heartbreakingly ends up leaving without one.

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Theatre review of Proof. New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme

This article titled “Proof – review” was written by Alfred Hickling, for The Guardian on Sunday 24th April 2011 16.44 UTC Two shows in, and already the New Vic’s repertory season is reaping the benefits of a permanent ensemble. Actors with relatively little to do in the Rivals now appear in David Auburn’s intellectual teaser about madness and mathematics. Auburn’s 1998 drama was inspired by a passage from the memoir of the mathematician GH Hardy, who observed that “in a good proof there is a high degree of unexpectedness, combined with inevitability and economy”. Hardy was writing about hard sums, though he might have made an astute drama critic. Catherine’s college career has been interrupted by the necessity of caring for her late father, a burned-out professor of calculus whose genius became a torment. An eager grad student is now scouring the professor’s notebooks for any lingering flashes of insight. Among the gibberish is what seems to be one final, perfect proof. Only it doesn’t appear to be the professor who has written it. If there’s a flaw in Auburn’s reasoning, it’s that it simply becomes impossible to believe that the calculation can fulfil claims to be the theoretical link that will bind all branches of mathematics together. But Gwenda Hughes’s quiet, meditative production draws performances of impressive depth from Michael Hugo as Hal the endearing geek, and Emma Noakes as the troubled Catherine, clearly haunted by the possibility that pursuing her father’s methods may lead towards his madness. Above all, it’s a chance to appreciate some fine acting in a complex, cerebral play that might be difficult to programme in isolation. There’s life in the old repertory system yet, and here’s Proof.

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Theatre review of The Passion played in Port Talbot, Wales over Easter.

This article titled “The Passion – review” was written by Lyn Gardner, for The Guardian on Sunday 24th April 2011 16.48 UTC The once a decade passion play by the German town of Oberammergau may be the most famed around the world, but it’s hard to believe any version can have the heart and soul of Port Talbot’s one-off, multi-platform production, which played out over the Easter weekend. Co-directed by and starring the Welsh town’s favourite son, Michael Sheen, this spectacle of angels on fiery bicycles, ghosts, snipers perched on the roof of the shopping centre, and shrines to lost futures was so much more than just an epic piece of street theatre. Hewn with tenderness from the memories of locals, and largely performed by them – with a little help from a fine band of professional Welsh actors, and interventions from local heroes such as Paul Potts and the Manic Street Preachers – this final production in National Theatre Wales’s launch season, created in collaboration with Wildworks, was like watching a town discovering its voice through a shared act of creation. Fact and fiction, myth and memory, rumour and reality, even the living and the dead stalk side by side. I’m prepared to bet that over the last three days, Port Talbot was one of the happiest places on Earth. Beginning on Friday on Aberavon beach, Owen Sheers’s story tells of a town in thrall to a sinister and heartless corporation, ICU, who puts profit before people in its quest to plunder the town’s resources. But when the Company Man arrives on the beach to make an announcement and a suicide bomber makes a move, catastrophe is only averted by the intervention of a softly spoken loner with no memory. He is later revealed as the Teacher (Sheen), a local man who 40 days earlier disappeared but who has now returned. As he gathers followers around him and becomes a focus for the Resistance, the Teacher is perceived by ICU as a danger who must be removed at all costs. The Gospel of St Mark is the template, but everything is given a neat twist. The Last Supper takes place in the Seaside Social Club, the garden of Gethsemane is a patch of housing estate grass, God the Father becomes a roofer who knows that sometimes one slate must be sacrificed to save a whole house. The hand of Wildwork’s visionary Bill Mitchell is everywhere in a show that may be on a vast scale but it understands that it is not the grand narratives but the small stories of individuals that glue the theatre and community together, and it rewards its audience’s patience with a gift. This production is transforming and uplifting, and Port Talbot’s future starts the very second The Passion ends.

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A Review of Ecstasy at the Hampstead Theatre

This article titled “Ecstasy – review” was written by Michael Billington, for The Guardian on Wednesday 16th March 2011 00.17 UTC Mae West liked a guy who took his time, and Mike Leigh certainly exercises that privilege in this 2¾-hour play originally seen at Hampstead in 1979. But, although there may be occasional longueurs, Leigh gets there in the end by offering a devastating portrait of the solitude that haunts many of the inhabitants of a teeming city like London. In the brief first act Leigh shows Jean, a Brummie girl who lives alone in a Kilburn bedsit, having joyless sex with a married man (played by Daniel Coonan) whose wife suddenly bursts in upon them. But the bulk of the action shows a boozy party that takes place later that night in Jean’s cramped room. Her fellow celebrants comprise a married couple, the rosy-fingered Dawn and her feckless Irish husband Mick, and the rather sad Len, a building-site worker lately abandoned by his wife. The four of them carouse, sing raucous songs and reminisce about old times. Only when Dawn and Mick have departed do you realise the extent of Jean’s desperation. Leigh’s chosen method of creating plays through extensive rehearsal, and allowing actors to research their characters pays off handsomely. In particular, you slowly get to understand the nature of Jean’s plight. We see her alone in the first act, constantly diving for the gin bottle she keeps secreted in her wardrobe. Even during the party, she is frequently morose, plaintively sings Danny Boy, and has a brief argument with Len, who seems her one hope of salvation, about the vital contribution Pakistani immigrants make to our culture. But the virtue of Leigh’s approach is that you get to know all the characters in detail: in his way, Len is as bereft as Jean, in that he disguises his solitude by claiming he is “footloose and fancy free” and attempts to compensate for his sexual shyness by singing a rude Lincolnshire folk song. One problem with any Leigh revival is that new actors have to inhabit characters shaped and moulded by their originators. But the current cast, under the author’s direction, do an excellent job. Sian Brooke captures perfectly Jean’s wan adjustment to the single life, and the misery of spending her days as a garage-cashier staring at a brick wall. Craig Parkinson also conveys the nerdy niceness of the hapless Len, and Sinead Matthews and Allen Leech as Dawn and Mick are a totally plausible married couple locked together in a state of quarrelsome desire. And behind the portrait of individual desperation lurks a wider point about a society, six months after Mrs Thatcher’s elevation to power, that has nothing much to offer but a savourless materialism. It may be a long play, but it’s a good one.

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Theatre reviews for The Wizard of Oz, Million Dollar Quartet, Great Expectations, And the Rain Falls Down. See also previous Wizard of Oz Review

This article titled “The Wizard of Oz; Million Dollar Quartet; Great Expectations; And the Rain Falls Down – review” was written by Kate Kellaway, for The Observer on Sunday 6th March 2011 00.04 UTC We’re off to see the Wizard, and whether he is wonderful or not is going to depend partly on Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s reworking of Frank Baum’s book and of the classic 1939 movie. Danielle Hope, auditioned on the BBC’s talent show Over the Rainbow, is also making her debut as Dorothy. And, at the Palladium on the first night, the buzz is unmistakable. But we start by dropping in on a humble Kansas chicken farm where there is nothing more eventful to report than a broken incubator. No wonder Dorothy wants to leave home. This is also where we first clap eyes on the charming Toto, a white Cairn terrier, who deserves a review to himself (I hope there were treats offstage). Toto survives the yellow brick road, a circular treadmill, and is only occasionally understudied – when the going gets tough – by a stuffed toy Danielle Hope’s Dorothy deserves offstage treats, too – for her marvellous performance. If there is a problem, it is with the script. So many of her lines are plaintive, and the unvarying tone of high-pitched petitioning becomes an irritant. But, as a singer, she is perfect. Her voice has warmth, delicacy and power. She starts with the decent, if also-ran, new number “Nobody Understands Me” but we do not have to wait long for ‘”Over the Rainbow” which she offers in a centred, direct, affecting way. It is wonderful to watch her tilt her face upwards, allowing her voice to take off – as if letting out the string of a kite. Michael Crawford has cast himself as her protector. In his benign incarnation as Professor Marvel (the Wizard’s earthly alter-ego), he is encountered outside his caravan about to eat a sausage (which is nicked by Toto). He shows Dorothy magic lantern slides and sings “The Wonders of the World” (by far the best of the new numbers) about pyramids, the Eiffel tower, humpback whales… And he reminds us that he is a bit of a wonder himself, engagingly good at conversing his way through a song. Pots of gold, at the end of the rainbow, must have paid for Robert Jones’s spectacular sets, offset by Jon Driscoll’s virtuoso special effects. A fantastic cyclone transports Dorothy out of Kansas. An airborne cow, random masonry and Dorothy’s house – like a disintegrating matchbox – are hurled into the void. This effect is such a tour de force that Oz seems Toy Townish on arrival, a comedown – in every sense. But the emerald city brings a return to form: a green light district with art deco details, tipsy angles and the Wizard’s alarming residence. The good witch (Emily Tierney) is good – a magical air hostess. The bad witch (Hannah Waddingham) is bad (in a good way). Her “Red Shoes Blues” (another new song) is witty, full-blooded and magnificently performed. As the scarecrow, Paul Keating is poignant, merry and a natural at collapsing. Edward Baker-Duly’s tin man is excellent too, with rusty voice and echoing chest. David Ganly’s cowardly lion, in caramel catsuit and 60s mane, is sweetly camp, coming out with the line: “I’m proud to be a friend of Dorothy’s.” And Jeremy Sams’s direction is undaunted throughout. This show knows where it is going, as surely as if Dorothy had satnav to guide her home. Million Dollar Quartet focuses on 4 December 1956, when Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins were together at Sun Records, Memphis, Tennessee. This creates an opportunistic excuse for an almost non-stop performance of their hits. This jukebox musical plays so safe it ought to be dangerous, but a fresh cast, directed with pizzazz, by Eric Schaeffer, saves it. Ben Goddard, as Jerry Lee Lewis, is a sensation: manically musical. Michael Malarkey has an admirable stab at Elvis (an impossible undertaking). Robert Britton Lyons (the only cast member imported from the US) convinces as Carl Perkins. And Derek Hagen exactly catches Johnny Cash’s brooding quality. The “story” is held together by record producer/narrator Sam Phillips (a capable Bill Ward). I took one of my teenage sons along. He has had no experience of blue suede shoes, great balls of fire or of hound dogs – at least, not musically speaking. “The music was great,” he said. Tanika Gupta’s intrepid idea is to transpose Dickens’s Great Expectations into 1861 India. Sensibly, she keeps Memsahib Havisham (Lynn Farleigh) recognisable: an ancient bride-in-waiting but also daughter of an East India company trader. Pip (Tariq Jordan) is a likable lad who leaps out of the guava trees of his childhood into a challenging Calcutta adulthood as a nouveau riche English gentleman. Colin Richmond’s design attractively suggests an India of sunlight, silk and calico. But keep your expectations modest too: for all its promise, the surgery on the novel has been violent. Its staccato dialogue rings false. And, oddly enough, the abbreviations do not rescue the show from its longueurs. And the Rain Falls Down is conceived by talented theatre company Fevered Sleep (directed by David Harradine) and aimed at three- to four-year-olds. There is a cloud, like a bathmat, on the floor. Other clouds are pinned on a washing line. The show is, in case you couldn’t guess, about rain. It is beautifully simple and intermittently torrential. Two actors get drenched. The woman (Karina Garnett) adores it. The man (Carl Patrick) is a more cautious anorak-wearer. There is much umbrella innovation: little ones are equipped with see-through brollies and invited to splash about. Eventually there will be an umbrella rainbow. The audience, at the show I attended, split into land-lubbers and water babies. Several landlubbers were crying heartily not wanting to go over – let alone under – the rainbow.

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The Wizard of Oz stars Danielle Hope and Michael Crawford.

The Guardian’s Wizard of Oz Review after the opening night on March 1st 2011 at the London Palladium. For more Wizard of Oz reviews see the Wizard of Oz London blog or the Wizard of Oz Facebook page.

This article titled “The Wizard of Oz – review” was written by Michael Billington, for The Guardian on Wednesday 2nd March 2011 00.53 UTC The Victorian theatre of spectacle is alive and well, and residing at the London Palladium. But although this adaptation of the Frank Baum book and the 1939 movie, with additional songs by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, is quite an eyeful, it’s somewhat lacking in humanity. I came out feeling blitzkrieged rather than charmed. The star of the show is undoubtedly the set and costume designer, Robert Jones. The Kansas cyclone that whisks Dorothy into a dreamworld is evoked through vorticist projections (the work of Jon Driscoll) that betoken chaos in the cosmos. The Yellow Brick Road is on a tilted revolve from inside which poppyfields and labyrinthine forest emerge. The Emerald City is full of steeply inclined walls suggesting a drunkard’s vision of the Chrysler Building lobby. And the Wicked Witch of the West inhabits a rotating dungeon that might be a Piranesi nightmare. Not since 19th century Drury Lane melodramas can London have seen anything quite like it; one has to admire the director and co-adaptor, Jeremy Sams, for marshalling the effects. But the story and the people get swamped. Danielle Hope shows a natural, easy presence as Dorothy, but can’t hope to compete with the scenery. Even Michael Crawford, playing both Professor Marvel and The Wizard, seems slightly subdued, and misses a trick by not highlighting the latter’s resemblance to PT Barnum whom he once played. Only two of the cast transcend the spectacle. Hannah Waddingham makes the Wicked Witch a pointy-chinned ogre who at one point flies over the audience’s heads with an elan that Spider Man might envy. David Ganly notches up a first by making the Cowardly Lion explicitly gay and announcing “I’m proud to be a friend of Dorothy.” Of course, there are the songs; it’s good to be reminded of such classics as Over The Rainbow, We’re Off To See The Wizard, and Follow The Yellow Brick Road. The additions by Lloyd Webber and Rice are also perfectly acceptable. Dorothy is given a good plaintive opening number, and Red Shoes Blues, sung by the Wicked Witch, has a pounding intensity. But, as a film scholar remarked to me, the movie was a story with songs rather than a full-blown musical. That delicate balance has been changed, and an essentially simple fable about the importance of individual worth seems overblown. I suspect in the end the show will be critic-proof and people will go to see both the winner of the TV talent contest and to luxuriate in the sumptuous visuals. But the paradox of the evening is that it suffers the same dilemma as the Tin Man: it might have been so much more if it only had a heart.

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A new addition to the range of musicals on offer for London theatre breaks The Donmar Warehouse has announced full casting for its British premiere production of The 25th Annual County Spelling Bee, beginning performances February 11th 2011, with an official opening on February 21st, for a run through until April 2nd 2011. “If you win the Spelling Bee, one’s life improves from A to Z.” Music & Lyrics by William Finn. Book by Rachel Sheinkin 11 February – 2 April 2011 Only those blessed with an extraordinary ability and love of language qualify for the Putnam County Spelling Bee. But there can only be one winner and with a place in the national final at stake, emotions run high, hopes are quashed and dreams are broken. Dust off your dictionary and prepare yourselves for the spelling challenge of a lifetime in William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin’s hilarious Tony Award-winning musical. This riotous musical comedy is guaranteed to have you cachinnating (use it in a sentence, request a definition?). The Spelling Bee cast will feature Chris Carswell (as Leaf Coneybear/Carl Dad), David Flynn (William Barfee), Hayley Gallivan (Olive Ostrovksy), Harry Hepple (Chip Tolentino/Jesus), Katherine Kingsley (Rona Lisa Perretti/Olive’s Mum), Maria Lawson (Marcy Park), Ako Mitchell (Mitch Mahoney/Dan Dad/Olive’s Dad), Steve Pemberton (Vice Principal Douglas Panch) and Iris Roberts (Logainne Schwatzandgrubenniere), under the direction of Jamie Lloyd. Read more: http://theatrebreaks.co/wiki/The_25th_Annual_Putnam_County_Spelling_Bee

“Like Grease and Legally Blonde, it has a vaguely academic context.”

This article titled “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee – review” was written by Michael Billington, for The Guardian on Tuesday 22nd February 2011 02.09 UTC Given the Donmar’s exemplary musical track record, it is a bit of a shock to find them importing this flimsy, vacuous diversion. Like Grease and Legally Blonde, it has a vaguely academic context. But William Finn’s music and lyrics and Rachel Sheinkin’s book have little of the brio of those shows and seem unsure whether they are satirising or celebrating a peculiarly American institution. The pretence is that we are in a high school gym watching a competitive spelling bee. To add verisimilitude we are asked to stand and recite the pledge of allegiance and four audience members are invited to join the contest. It says much for the bravery of my colleague, the Evening Standard’s Henry Hitchings, that he agreed to participate and he acquitted himself with dignity and style. But much of the spontaneity and fun goes out of the proceedings when the four volunteers are eliminated and all we are left with is a remorseless whittling away of the survivors: it’s a bit like The Weakest Link without the laughs. I presume the intention is to show that spelling bees are a way for American kids to shed their hangups by exhibiting their verbal prowess. So we have the unloved fat boy, the disconsolate over-achiever, the poor kid pining for her mum on a spiritual trek to India and the guy with uncontrollable lusts who at one point sings “my unfortunate protuberance seems to have its own exuberance”. But the highly forgettable songs seem to be imposed on the action rather than arising organically from it and many of the jokes are just as arbitrary. In a heavily American show, that assumes we know the difference between the Red Sox and the Yankees, it seems implausible for a high school kid to tell us that “Nick Clegg is after the alternative vote – but what about the straights?” The best one can say is that the cast in Jamie Lloyd’s production works with unremitting energy. Katherine Kingsley, who made a big impression in Aspects of Love, lends the contest’s co-host a honey blonde vivacity and Steve Pemberton as her colleague has the fake omniscience of the smug quizmaster. And, among the contestants, David Fynn as the bumptious know-all, Hayley Gallivan as a lovelorn loser and Harry Hepple as the guy with the erectile issues make their mark. But it’s hard to warm to a show that, for all its would-be scholasticism, embodies the progressive infantilising of the American musical. And, when Christ appears in a vision to one of the struggling contestants and declares “this isn’t the kind of thing I care about”, he speaks for a good many of us.

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Recommending Love Never Dies Theatre Breaks Love Never Dies is Andrew Lloyd Webber’s not exactly  sequel to Phantom of the Opera. I saw it in previews, liked it very much but was not quite ready to recommend it for theatre breaks fans. I wanted to see if the show settled down and to let ‘his Lordship’ make the inevitable changes a preview period brings. Now the show has settled and people are happily booking their Love Never Dies theatre breaks and having a great time. ** Book Love Never Dies Theatre Breaks ** The Story of Love Never Dies Set on Coney Island, New York some 10 years after the events of Phantom, Love Never Dies is a more grown-up story of love. It has lost some of the teenage fascination with the Gothic that is such a huge part of the power of Phantom and in its place there is a much more human set of characters. There are plenty of places online where you can find a synopsis of the story but my advice is to go to the show without any preconceptions and enjoy it for what it is, a powerful piece of theatre, full of spectacle and gorgeous music. Love Never Dies  Music I just adored the music. Some people thought there were not enough memorable tunes but my house rang to much whistling and humming for days after we saw the show. I think the music is more interesting and I actually enjoyed it more than Phantom (gasp!).  Speaking of the gorgeous music just listen to the divine voice of Sierra Boggess: Click here to view the embedded video. Oh and how about the utterly wonderful Ramin Karimloo: Click here to view the embedded video. And that’s without mentioning the great performance of Summer Strallen as Meg Girey! Love Never Dies theatre stage set I thought the set was mostly wonderful. There’s good use of back projection and special effects but it’s the Art Nouveau aspects that just blew me away. Some of the sets looked like exquisite pieces of Art Nouveau jewelry or spectacular Tiffany lampshades. At times I was reminded of the film set of Moulin Rouge, but then I loved that too! It made a wonderful backdrop for the passionate story. A big question:  One show or two? I know people were worried that they haven’t seen Phantom and would find it hard to follow the story. In our party we had someone who had never seen Phantom and she said that within the first ten minutes she had worked out enough to make sense of what was happening. She didn’t feel that not knowing the back story spoiled her enjoyment at all. Having read all the fuss about certain bloggers and forums I think there have been more problems with the devoted ‘Phans’. They’ve had to let go of their preconceptions about what the Phantom could be like and his relationship to Christine. People were too quick to judge a show that was still being ‘tweaked’ and seem to have forgotten that Phantom had its share of problems when it opened. I’ve seen both shows and I think the ideal solution is a double show theatre break. No one is offering one yet but there are rumblings from one or two of the agencies. Never fear as soon as they are available I’ll let you know! ** Book Love Never Dies Theatre Breaks ** a

Sister Act the Musical - Mixed Reviews The critics have given their  opinions of Sister Act the Musical and they don’t seem to be quite sure. Ratings vary between 4* and 2* . Have a look for yourself and see if you agree: Evening Standard (****) – “It’s been done before, the reasoning might have gone, so why not do it again? Put a singing nun centre stage in a musical and watch the piece climb every mountain … Whether or not divine intervention is involved, it’s a wimple-wibbling, habit-forming triumph … Before Peter Schneider’s production builds up the unstoppable head of momentum that led to the quickest standing ovation I’ve ever seen on a West End first night, there are some dubious early moments. Once we find Sheila Hancock’s delightfully droll Mother Superior (‘God has brought you to this place: take the hint’) waiting for Deloris, sorry, Sister Mary Clarence, things take a distinct turn for the heavenly. Alan Menken’s attractive, gospel-inflected score kicks in … Helped along by Anthony Van Laast’s energetic choreography … There can be no disputing the evening’s main draw: 24-year-old Miller, …. Her magnificent voice is rich, soaring and, crucially, unflagging. She might have been unknown last night, but today all that will have changed. Take it away, sisters.” Daily Telegraph (****) – Based like most new musicals these days on an old movie, Sister Act proves more enjoyable on stage than it did on film. I caught the show at the final preview with an audience of regular punters rather than the usual first-night rent-a-mob, and the cheers and standing ovation at the end were both genuine and deserved. The book, by Cheers writers Cheri and Bill Steinkellner, is strong, funny and touching. And the disco-inspired score by Disney favourite Alan Menken, with neat lyrics by Glenn Slater, is a cracker. Frankly, what’s not to like, especially when you’ve got a chorus line of jiving nuns singing their hearts out ecstatically? … The show’s real find is the American Patina Miller as Deloris. She has all the comic vitality of Whoopi Goldberg in the film, but she’s sexier and sings up a storm. When she’s belting out the disco-diva anthems you might be listening to Gloria Gaynor or Chaka Khan. She also has a funky, spunky stage presence and great comic timing … I suspect this musical comedy about a nun on the run could prove habit-forming.” The Times was less sure: The Times (*) – a rather sweet, sentimental film has been hyped up, coarsened, given what — were the Palladium flown to Times Square — we’d call the big, brash Broadway treatment … The film’s point was that Deloris liberates the nuns’ voices while they liberate her spirit. She puts modern soul into their Salve Regina, they put Salve Regina into her modern soul. But there’s no gentle piety here … There’s less deft comedy, but much more music, most of it indebted to the 1970s, where the action is now set. That lets Alan Menken, the composer, have a lot of catchy fun with period rock and disco … And that lets Patina Miller display the first of her star qualities, a terrific voice. Add warmth, humour, vivacity — and you’ve a star who lacks Whoopi’s wry vulnerability but adds dazzle to the razzle around her.” Others were less kind. Quentin Letts seems to object on religious grounds, whilst admitting it’s likely to be a hit: Daily Mail () – “Call me a miserable old monk but I hated Sister Act….. This noisy, pumpy, insistently American musical will doubtless be a solid summer hit for the Palladium. It will entertain thousands of people who are out for a simple night’s fun and don’t get their cassocks in a tangle, like I do, about church liturgy. Much of it is well performed. Just count me out. From the start there is basically one joke: namely, the spectacle of nuns grooving around on the dance floor. I know I may be taking it too seriously but I found myself recoiling sharply from this story’s saccharine values and its bullying gaiety. The thing is as shallow as the Aral Sea. Hideously formulaic. Musical by numbers. Yuck, yuck, yuck … The evening’s chief on-stage talents are Sheila Hancock, who plays the stern Mother Superior, and Patina Miller as Deloris … Miss Hancock is on fine form and Miss Miller, after an off-key start, shows herself to have a cheesy presence and a Merlin engine of a voice. ” Michael Billington’s objections are more varied: The Guardian (**) …A world away from the cloistered charmers of The Sound of Music. What we have here is a show that feels less like a personally driven work of art than a commercial exploitation of an existing franchise … What was originally a fairytale fantasy, however, makes little sense in its new, vulgarised incarnation … In order to pad out a slight story, every key member of the cast also has to be given a number … Alan Menken’s music admittedly has a pounding effectiveness and the opening number, ‘Take Me to Heaven’, is skillfully turned into a hymn to religious, rather than sensual, ecstasy. Patina Miller invests Deloris with a wealth of raucous energy and just about convinces in her conversion from fame-seeking individualist to member of the singing sorority. Sheila Hancock lends the show some needed gravitas as the Mother Superior … All too typically the nuns, in Anthony van Laast’s choreography, kick up their heels like the Rockettes and prance around in gilt vestments that might be described as surplice to requirements. (That last pun really should have been edited out - just awful!) Your Reviews of Sister Act I’ve not been yet but I do intend going over the summer. Meanwhile, dear readers: Have you seen it? What do you think of the show? Are the critics wrong yet again? Do leave us your reviews of Sister Act in the comments.

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Arriving at Phantom of the Opera We arrived at Her Majesty’s Theatre at around 7 p.m. The foyer was already buzzing with early arrivals, programme sellers and theatre staff selling glasses of chilled champagne.We resisted the temptation (just!) and picked up our tickets. It was just lovely not to have to queue. In the Bar of the Theatre Then we headed for a pre-show drink in the bar. The bars are bright and attractive with a varied range of drinks available. I was greedy and opted for a “large”, actually huge, glass of pinot noir. We enjoyed the bustle as more people arrived, enough to be a crowd but not so many as to be a crush. The doors to the auditorium opened about ten minutes before the show was due to start. The theatre quickly filled and even on a Monday night there were very few empty seats. ** Book Phantom of The Opera Theatre Breaks via Superbreak ** A Lovely Old Theatre and a New Sound System

We made our way to our seats and began to look around. It really is a lovely, old fashioned theatre. There’s something much more intimate about the older West End theatres. Here we really felt we were close to the stage rather than watching everything happening in the distance. I’d been a bit concerned with all the talk of the Phantom’s new sound system but I needn’t have worried. The amplification was just about right for the space and the suitably spooky sound effects weren’t too intrusive. Very Special Effects There are some super effects in Phantom of the Opera. I must admit I was a bit worried when I realised I was sitting directly underneath that famous Phantom chandelier ! There are some quite magical moments but I’m not going to go into too much detail in case you’ve not been yet. The production has been around for over 20 years and yet it still works and seems quite fresh. The Music of the Night Much of the music of Phantom of the Opera is quite familiar. There was some quite wonderful singing from the principals and from the ensemble. I did find it hard at first not to make comparisons with Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman. They both have such distinctive voices. Once I was swept up in the live performance though, I suspended my disbelief and lost myself in the story, the spectacle and the glory of the music. The Costumes I thought the costume designs were stunning. I loved all the opera costumes and make-up. It was like watching a period theatre print or one of those paper toy theatres come to life. I thought Masquerade scene was also a particular joy but my partner was not so sure and thought it was ‘a bit garish’. And indeed, it was garish. I thought that just added to the nightmare quality of the scene. The Story of Phantom of the Opera I’m sure there are people who don’t know the story of Phantom of the Opera. For that reason I’m not going to give the plot away here. I will tell you that the story centres on a rather dreamy, fragile young woman. Christine is a member of the chorus of the Paris Opera sometime in the 19th century.Her father was a famous musician and before he died he promised he would send her ‘the angel of music’ to take care of her. Suffice to say what she believes to be the angel turns out not to be quite what she thinks. Drawn to the Phantom yet repulsed by him Christine has to make a choice. The story is full of sweeping romantic emotions and gothic fantasy. Tragedy and pathos intertwine as we see what formed the monster that the Phantom has become. I think the Paris setting works well because it is the ultimate, romantic city. I don’t mean the soft romantic comedy sort of romance. I mean Romantic with a capital R, gothic trappings and plenty of angst! The production taps into that idea of Paris, making me think of those overgrown cemeteries and pale, doomed young women who are half in love with death. I love the idea that below the Paris Opera there’s might be a vast subterranean lake. It is like something from a fairy tale. Phantom of the Opera is a Classic It was a glorious night of extravagant musical theatre. We came out of the theatre into the London night with that lovely feeling that only comes from seeing a good show. I wasn’t alone either. All around me people were talking about what a great evening it had been and how much they’d enjoyed it. The chap next to me certainly had as I’d gradually noticed he was very quietly singing along through the whole show! (He had a nice voice and it was very quiet so not a bit annoying!) Even on a cold Monday evening in January the West End is buzzing as people come out of the shows. I felt quite envious of those who weren’t off to catch a train but were heading for their hotels. Too hyped up to go straight home, we wandered off in search of an after-theatre supper and a chance to talk over the evening. A couple of days later I’m still humming The Music of the Night and remembering The Phantom Of The Opera. ** Book Phantom of The Opera Theatre Breaks via Superbreak **

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Oliver Reviews Oliver! the musical has opened at last in London, the critics’ reviews are in and it seems like a good moment for Reviewing the Situation. The Daily Mail’s Review Quentin Letts seems to have really enjoyed Oliver! He lavishes praise on almost all the major performers. Drury Lane has known more tuneful musical stars in its long history, but the grand old temple of dreams can seldom have played host to one with such a God-given gift for comedy. Rowan Atkinson, playing that warped scoutmaster Fagin, was the eyebrow-wriggling, funnywalking, laugh-wringing supremo on Wednesday night when Lionel Bart’s wonderful musical opened at the Theatre Royal He also enjoyed Jodie Prenger’s Nancy saying she: stands up to the test like a sturdy galleon…… She swings her big hips and heaves her all into the role I’m sure he means well but poor Jodie! Ouch! He enjoyed Harry Stott’s performance as Oliver and Ross McCormac’s Artful Doger is also picked out : This child seems to have been born to dance and skip and wink and swagger at an audience. His final verdict: Anyone who needs cheering up - and after recent jobs news, heaven knows, that probably means most of us - should get along to Drury Lane sharpish and catch this humdinger of a night. Verdict: More please, Sir Cameron I think he liked it! The Times Oliver Review Benedict Nightingale is very positive as well. He describes Rowan Atikinson’s Fagin as: not an old Bean but an infinitely creepy criminal with lank hair, a yellow face and a sinister, silvery glint in his eyes. He wasn’t so sure about Jodie at first but she convinced him in the end: Initially she struck me as parading, posturing, performing rather than acting, but she went on to prove herself a tough, coarse, credible presence with a big, robust voice — and that’s all that is needed. He picks out Burn Gorman’s Sikes as: a particular success, a pale, quiet figure who threatens more with his stillness than with his cudgel. He also makes particular mention of “Anthony Ward’s splendidly atmospheric sets” The Guardian Oliver Review Michael Billington describes Rowan Atkinson’s Fagin as “a saturnine comic presence” saying: Rowan Atkinson turns in a sprightly, distinctive performance…….Atkinson’s Fagin may be essentially comic but he endows the character with a camply sinister edge. He seems to have enjoyed Jodie Prenger’s performance and in particular her interpretation of Nancy’s big numbers As long As He Needs Me and Oom-Pa-Pa Mr. Billington’s main issue seem to be with Bart’s interpretation of Dickens and the very musical itself. Dickens’ book Oliver Twist gives a grim view of Victorian London which Oliver! tends to glide over. He says: too many of the characters are ciphers, and the plot is largely a device for getting the numbers on That is something that could be said of many musicals, I’m afraid. Oliver Reviews: The Independent Michael Coveny reviewing Oliver for The Independent has fewer qualms about Bart’s musical but is less convinced by Jodie Prenger. The moment Prenger appears, I’m afraid, the heart sinks. She seems to be hiding from the audience. Her voice is okay, but she can’t act and she doesn’t have the depth of lung power to fill a plastic bag, let alone a West End theatre on a nightly basis. “As Long As He Needs Me,” one of the great theatre songs of our time, is a total embarrassment compounded by a naff downstage centre rush for applause. Ouch! He’s a little bit kinder to Rowan Atkinson but not much: Long-haired and slithery like a Semitic toad, he weighs his options with a Mr Bean-style blubberiness, tugging at his lower lip and casting malignant glances to the wings. He’s funniest when fingering his stolen gems, or kicking his legs above his head in a sideways exit. But he’s not a malevolent, gleeful, stage-hogging, dubiously paedophiliac monster that you long for and Lionel Bart wrote, even if Charles Dickens didn’t. There seems to have only been one lead performance that he really enjoyed: ….the Artful Dodger was played by Ross McCormack, and he was terrific. The absolute centre of the show is “Consider Yourself” in Clerkenwell, as the Dodger’s gang materialise from inside a statue of a top-hatted worthy and the whole city erupts in a series of knees-ups and key changes, beautifully lit by Paule Constable. Your Opinions So what do you think? Have you seen Oliver! yet? Are the critics’ Oliver reviews  right or are you baffled by them?

a Oliver! Reviews and Opinions

Carousel Reviews

The newspaper critics reviews for Carousel at the Savoy Theatre are in and mostly they are fairly positive. Lesley Garrett comes in for a bit of criticism for her performance but apart from that I think they had a good time. Benedict Nightingale in The Times at first felt the production suffered by comparison with the revival at the National 10 years ago but eventually warmed to it: Yet gradually I thawed, as caught up in Hammerstein’s book as I was captivated by maybe the finest score even Rodgers ever produced. Yes, the show was overmiked, meaning that some songs sounded shrill. Yes, the artlessly cheerful millgirls who form half the chorus swirled about to annoyingly cute effect. Yes there wasn’t enough gravity in that wonderfully subjunctive love song, ‘If I Loved You’, and, yes, that meant that Alexandra Silber and Jeremiah James were failing to displace Joanna Riding and Michael Hayden on my mental hard disk. But by the famous ballet at the end I was won over once again.” Michael Billington in the Guardian isn’t that keen on the show, never mind this production: “How good is Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel? … Personally, I’ve always thought it a flawed masterwork; and so it proves once again in Lindsay Posner’s well-sung revival which holds one’s attention until the death of the hero, Billy Bigelow, after which the show ascends into the empyrean and the realms of pseudo-art “ Nicholas de Jongh in the Evening Standard was enchanted by the production but not too keen on Lesley Garret’s “gross, music hall Nettie” “Despite Lindsay Posner’s old-fashioned production I was enchanted by Rodgers and Hammerstein’s bitter-sweet musical fantasy about missed life-chances in a 1870s New England village … That wonderful designer, William Dudley, initially summons up a fairground carousel that looks unprettily low-rent……. Dudley’s vivid back-projections offer ocean views, ships sailing and, with thrilling illusionary deftness, the spectacle of Billy ascending to heaven’s ‘back-yard’ Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph is more impressed and even names Carousel as “one of the greatest of all musicals” “Most of the principals may not be famous names, but they bring real sincerity and freshness to their roles. Better yet, the cramped stage means that the show often seems to explode with vitality. In that great song of renewal and seething sexuality, ‘June is Bustin’ Out All Over’, Adam Cooper’s choreography sets the stage alight with high-kicks, dangerous lifts and a testosterone-charged athleticism that is thrilling. Of course, there will always be some who dismiss Carousel as gluttonously sentimental. It is not to everyone’s tastes … By the end of the show, with many in the audience audibly sniffing back the tears, it is clear that justice has been done to one of the greatest of all musicals.” Ian Shuttleworth in the Financial Times enjoyed the show but felt the production ignored the darker side of Carousel. I left the Savoy Theatre with hope in my heart, as the song exhorts, uplifted and unashamed at my immersion in the sentimentality of Lindsay Posner’s production. Only later did I remember that, to achieve this result, he has had to sell the pass on virtually every shadow in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical. Yes, songs such as “If I Loved You” and the roustabout Billy Bigelow’s “Soliloquy” are heartbreaking in their yearning, and “June Is Bustin’ Out All Over” is an irresistible paean to going forth and multiplying. But, as Alastair Macaulay noted on this page on the show’s last major British revival in 2006 at Chichester, the narrative elements include “unemployment and conventional ideas of feminine decency… male violence to women, excessive gambling and finally a one-parent family”. All of which, in the moment (well, the three hours), manage to glide by insubstantially. So there you are, mostly they enjoyed Carousel. I’d love to do a round up of blog reviews at this point but there really haven’t been any yet! Of course, if you’ve been to see Carousel at the Savoy you are welcome to add your opinions here.

** Book Carousel Theatre Breaks **

a Carousel - the reviews

In A Dark Dark House at the Almeida Neil La Bute’s latest offering is playing at the Almeida until January 22nd. In A Dark Dark House continues his exploration of the psyche of the American male. In three acts, it’s the story of two brothers who grew up together in an unspecified mid-western US town, a town where as LaBute himself says, you wouldn’t want to stop if you knew what was going on under the surface. The two brothers are brought together as the younger brother Drew, is undergoing court enforced rehab. Their encounter with a young woman acts as a catalyst to bring to the surface much that has remained long hidden and denied for both of them. LaBute’s work is never less than controversial. (Just have a look at the comments on our Fat Pig review!) I’ve softened my view of LaBute since Andy wrote that review as I have to admit Fat Pig was really thought provoking and even now discussing it can still cause arguments debate This has to be a good sign I think and theatre that actually provokes that much thought has to be worthwhile at some level. The cast is interesting with Steven Mackintosh (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) returning to the stage after an 8 year gap, playing the younger brother Drew. Terry, the older bother is played by David Morrissey (on our screens over Xmas in Dr Who). Kira Sternbach plays the young woman. Have a look at the trailer for the play: Click here to view the embedded video. It seems from some of the responses so far that the whole ‘fake American accents’ thing continues to be an issue. However if the actors can keep up the standard we hear in the video I don’t think it will be too much of a problem. Of course, it’s not a problem at all for Kira Sternback as she is actually American! My only issue really is whether I can manage to get around to seeing In A Dark Dark House at this busy time of year. I hope we can fit it in but remember comments here are open for your thoughts and reviews.

a In a Dark Dark House - Neil LaBute

Imagine This - what the press said:

Last night was press night for Imagine This, the new musical set in the Warsaw Ghetto. Despite our best wishes I’m afraid all did not go well. Michael Billington in the Guardian was unimpressed “They said it couldn’t be done: a musical about the Warsaw ghetto. And, now that I’ve seen it, I know that they were right Oh dear
Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph was a bit more encouraging: “At one level, the show strikes me as not bad at all. There are big soaring anthems, a strong love interest and a plot that undoubtedly grips. The production values, though far from extravagant, are effective enough, and though there are no star names, the performances are impressive … Imagine This has a certain integrity about it. So far so good, but it didn’t stay that way: Except, of course, for one inconvenient, incontrovertible and unpalatable fact – this is a musical that attempts to turn the Holocaust into entertainment. And it got even worse by the end of the review: Imagine This must finally be judged a manipulative and morally dubious show. In the present harsh economic climate, however, it is unlikely to trouble the West End for long.” Benedict Nightingale in The Times wasn’t impressed either. He didn’t seem to have the same level of distaste for the choice of subject but he still wasn’t happy. He found many of the lines ‘clunky’ and said this was “accompanied by a major loss of nerve on everyone’s part” Evening Standard critic Nicholas DeJong felt that the musical should come with a bad taste warning. He didn’t like the book or the score much either. He said: In any case, the music and songs of Imagine This never do justice to its terrifying theme.” So how can it be that those arbiters of blogging taste The West End Whingers loved the show? The Whingers are not known for their patience with anything below their undoubtedly high standards. They found themselves enjoying the show and it seems they were not alone: Judging by the cheers of the audience at the curtain call and several who awarded standing ovations (probably Americans too - they’re on a high at the moment so it’s excused this time) it could prove to be the next surprise hit. If the crowds who turn out for Les Miz (and God knows there are enough of them) aren’t deterred by the credit crunch The Whingers imagine this could be the just the fare they’ve been looking for. Imagine that. Imagine This - have your say. So, dear readers, what do you think? Have you seen the show? Do you agree with the critics or have they misjudged the show? Leave us a comment and let us know what you think of Imagine This.

a Imagine This - critics reviews