Oliver! - Review

Festival Theatre, Chichester

*****

Music, lyrics and book by Lionel Bart

Freely adapted from Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist

Revised by Cameron Mackintosh

Directed and choreographed by Matthew Bourne

Simon Lipkin

Matthew Bourne’s production of Oliver! will quite possibly be the the most glorious musical revival to open in the UK this year. Cast with the cream of the country’s musical theatre talent, Cameron Mackintosh’s revisions of Lionel Bart’s show achieve the rare distinction, that many strive for but very few achieve, of taking a classic and making it even better.

Bourne again works alongside designer Lez Brotherston, in a partnership that has lasted decades and which sees this national treasure of a musical visually re-imagined yet still authentically Victorian, with bridges and revolves and swirling steampunk ironwork transporting us across the England of the story.

The kids are gorgeous, and Bourne’s direction and choreography sees the show kick-off with Food Glorious Food that is as imaginative as it is evocatively charming. On press night it was the young and talented Cian Eagle-Service in the title role, beautifully voiced and with a charming confidence that held the narrative along with our belief in him.

The show's workhouse scenes introduce us to the despicable Mr Bumble and Widow Corney luxuriously played here by the ridiculously talented Oscar Conlon-Morrey and Katy Secombe. Musical theatre cognoscenti will know that the 1968 movie saw Mr Bumble played by Secombe’s father, the late and much loved comic-genius Harry Secombe and Secombe more than honours her father’s memory with her take on the amorous widow. Conlon-Morrey complements her in his skilled and hilarious interpretation of blustering pomposity. A nod too to Stephen Matthews and Jamie Birkett who capture the ghoulish comedy of the Sowerberrys, the undertakers to whom Oliver is sold by Bumble.

Katy Secombe and Oscar Conlon-Morrey

Brotherston’s set ingeniously shifts us to London where Billy Jenkins’ Artful Dodger gives just the right Cockney swagger to Consider Yourself before introducing Oliver, and the audience to Fagin. Much like Steven Spielberg makes his audience wait before unveiling the shark in Jaws, so too does Bart allow almost an hour of the show to (gloriously) pass by before revealing this most complex of characters.

Simon Lipkin's Fagin brings an earthy, magnetic, Sephardic interpretation to one of musical theatre’s most frequently caricatured Jews. Bourne skilfully avoids any classic antisemitic tropes in this Fagin, with Lipkin displaying an intriguing, enchanting presence in his performance. Vocally he is magnificent, owning the Festival Theatre's massive stage in his Reviewing The Situation, with a subtle klezmer-esque nuance to some of the musical arrangement of the number. Lipkin also offers inspired moments of physical comedy, and study him closely for just a hint of Max Bialystock's tragi-comedy in this most glorious of Fagins.

Shanay Holmes is Nancy with a take on this intriguing woman that almost explains her love for such a violent partner as Bill Sikes. Holmes brings power, passion and pathos to the role, wonderfully taking Chichester’s roof off (twice) with As Long As He Needs Me. Opposite Holmes, Aaron Sidwell brings a chilling menace to Sikes.

Under the stage, Graham Hurman’s orchestra of 13 make glorious work of the rich score. 

This fantastic show, with one hit song following another, sees Mackintosh and Bourne open up the genius of Bart’s writing to dive even deeper into the composer/lyricist’s understanding of Dickens, London and above all the human condition. With musicals most frequently being set in the USA, stories steeped in English culture are few and far between. This Oliver! is amongst the finest.

Never before has this show offered more!

Runs until 7th September

Photo credit: Johan Persson

Hello, Dolly! - Review

London Palladium, London

****

Book by Michael Stewart
Music & lyrics by Jerry Herman
Directed by Dominic Cooke

Imelda Staunton

Several years in the making, but at last Imelda Staunton's Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly! arrives at the London Palladium.

This is a musical that appears full of fun, froth and fancy restaurants but at its heart is all about the very essence of the human condition, Dominic Cooke coaxes a gorgeous interpretation of Levi’s strengths and vulnerabilities from Dame Imelda who perhaps is at her most vocally magnificent in the act two tear-jerker Look, Love In My Window. Of course Staunton powers her way through the massive numbers of  Before The Parade Passes By and the title number itself, but it is in capturing  Dolly’s fragility that the actor is at her finest.

Andy Nyman is Horace Vandergelder and Jenna Russell, Irene Molloy, both of them making fine work of supporting Staunton. Equally Tyrone Huntley and Harry Hepple as Vandergelder’s hapless and employees are a comedy delight.

Bill Deamer’s choreography is a treat as he makes fine visual use of the 36-strong company luxuriously filling the Palladium’s massive stage. In the pit, Nicholas Skilbeck’s lavishly appointed 22-piece orchestra deliver a gorgeous interpretation of Jerry Herman’s timeless score.

But for a show that is steeped in the very essence of New York from Yonkers to 14th Street NYC, if there is a flaw in the evening it is that we are not transported convincingly to the Big Apple. Finn Ross’s scrolling projections - often found to be brilliant enhancements to a show - are over-deployed here, losing much of their transformative impact.

Hello, Dolly! does not come around that often to a major London stage, least of all with a Dolly of Staunton's calibre and this run itself is tantalisingly short with barely a two month residency in the West End. But this show's song and dance credentials, delivering one of Broadway's all-time greats are impeccable. A fabulous night of musical comedy.

Runs until September 14th

Photo credit: Manuel Harlan

Barnum - Review

Watermill Theatre, Newbury

*****

Music by Cy Coleman

Lyrics by Michael Stewart

Book by Mark Bramble

Directed by Jonathan O'Boyle

Matt Rawle and the cast of Barnum

Barnum at Newbury’s Watermill Theatre sets a very high bar for the nation’s musical theatre productions opening this summer. Blessed with a balmy evening in the theatre’s glorious garden, the cast offer up a mise-en-scene of juggling and other circus treats before curtain-up. And then, almost like a Tardis, the bijou, balconied auditorium of the Watermill becomes a 19th century American Big Top and the audience are transported into an evening not just of humbug and balderdash but of the work of a company of gifted performers delivering theatrical perfection. The Watermill has long been recognised for its outstanding actor-muso interpretation of some of the greatest shows. With Barnum, its cast are now required to be quintuple-threats with circus-skills added to their remarkable talents.

Matt Rawle leads the show as P.T. Barnum in a performance of sublime magnificence. Arguably the best Barnum this country has seen since Michael Crawford created the role some 43 years ago Rawle brings verve, wit, musical talent as well as the high-wire skills demanded of the first act’s closing number. Rawle is not just flim-flam. His pathos is heartbreakingly exquisite and the chemistry created between him and Monique Young’s Charity Barnum has to be seen to be believed. These two actors convince us of their East Coast credentials and through a clearly bumpy marriage, display a love for each other that is credible and moving. Rawle of course has the lion’s share of the songs, the tongue-twisting demands of which he smoothly masters. Young is equally vocally majestic, with the pair’s duet The Colors Of My Life evoking tears and smiles in equal measure from the audience.

Matt Rawle and Monique Young

The pair are surrounded by excellence in the show’s company. Tania Mathurin delivers a wittily perceptive take on Joice Heth, “the oldest woman in the world”, while Penny Ashmore is an enchanting Jenny Lind, “the Swedish Nightingale”. Not only an accomplished harpist, Ashmore’s soprano voice is thrilling in its power and purity. Fergus Rattigan is appropriately energetic as General Tom Thumb, while the four circus performers in the show’s ensemble, Kiera Brunton, Dan Holland, Emily Odunsi and André Rodrigues display strength, beauty and breathtaking agility in their creation of the circus-ring experience.

The creative work that has gone into this production is of the highest standard. Jonathan O’Boyle directs with flair and sensitivity paying attention to the finest details of the show’s nuanced tale. Oti Mabuse’s choreography, squeezed into the Watermill’s compact space is a delight – and a nod too to Josh Barnett who not only plays the Ringmaster but is also the show’s onstage musical director, seeing  Cy Coleman’s melodies done to perfection. Lee Newby’s designs are a treat as are Amy Panter's skills in circus direction, the whole cast and crew delivering flawless entertainment.

Head down to Newbury and join the circus!

Runs until 8th September

Photo credit: Pamela Raith

Attempted Assassination of Donald Trump - When Life Imitates Art

Stephen Sondheim’s 1990 musical Assassins offered a commentary on the (then) nine assassins and would-be assassins who in real life had all aimed, or planned to aim, a firearm at the President of the United States.

In 2018 Louise Bakker directed a production of the show at London’s Pleasance Theatre that disgracefully added an image of President Trump to the musical's shooting alley line-up of the actual historical presidential targets, suggesting in her take on the show, that Trump deserved a bullet.

I called out this appalling incitement to violence in my review of that production and to her credit Bakker then removed Trump’s image from the shooting alley scene in subsequent performances of the show.

While there is no suggestion that Thomas Matthew Crooks who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump on Saturday had seen Bakker’s production, incitement to murder should never be allowed to masquerade as art.

Mnemonic - Review

National Theatre, London

***

Conceived and directed by Simon McBurney

The cast of Mnemonic

A one-act, two-hour, seven-hander, Complicité’s Mnemonic returns to London, revised from its original iteration some 25 years ago.

A bold conceit that explores the fragile strands of our memories, the play interweaves a series of pan-European micro-narratives all set against a backdrop of the discovery of, and research into, the frozen 5,000 year old corpse of a man found high in the Alps.

The acting, the design and the stagecraft on display are all flawless in a production that at times is mesmerising. But Icarus-like, Mnemonic strives to say too much and in the end delivers little more than a garbled message. The evening sees world-class production values mingled with undergraduate agitprop, in a clutch of shallow arguments that cling to a biased commentary on the sacred timelessness of the refugee in a world (or at least a Europe) that is, or the play suggests should be, frontier-free.

Simon McBurney returns to direct his original conception. Pure theatrical Marmite.

Runs until 10th August

Photo credit: Johan Persson

Starlight Express - Review

Troubadour Theatre, London

****

Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber

Lyrics by Richard Stilgoe

Directed by Luke Sheppard

Jeevan Braich (Rusty) and the cast of Starlight Express

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Starlight Express arrives at Wembley Park’s Troubadour Theatre transformed from its 1980s opening into a show for the 21st century. Much of the composer’s magic remains, with that modulation half-way through the title song being up there among the best of Lloyd-Webber’s melodies. Families taking their kids to see this enchanting tale of a set of toy trains that come to life in a child’s imagination will not be disappointed.

The story’s narrative is that classic tale of growth and self-discovery, of strength and self-belief over adversity as Rusty (played by Jeevan Braich), the battered old toy steam engine seeks to prove himself against the newer rival locomotives, Greaseball (Al Knott) the diesel and Electra (Tom Pigram) the electric train.

The show offers a robust musical theatre experience. With the lead characters and ensemble all on roller-skates, the speed and visuals of the performances are literally breathtaking with the show's creative credits proving impressive. Tim Hatley’s designs make use of most of the Troubadour’s cavernous interior alongside Howard Hudson's sensational lighting and laser work (the technology allowing the remote follow spots to track the skaters is astounding). Andrzej Goulding’s video designs, Gabriella Slade’s costumes and Jackie Saundercock’s make-up work are equally stunning, even if their creations resemble Marvel Comics' Transformers rather than trains!

If one has younger family members or friends who will enjoy the show, or is even just a devotee of the work of Andrew Lloyd Webber or musical theatre then a trip to Wembley is well worth the effort and expense.

However…for those that saw the show some 40-odd years ago it is worth pondering: If the machine wasn't broken, then why did Lloyd Webber and his equally gifted lead producer Michael Harrison seek to meddle with it? Too many songs from the brilliant original have been chopped, including A Lotta Locomotion, Only He and Only You. Hatley’s skating tracks, while unquestionably exciting at the Troubadour do not match the thrill one felt in the Apollo Victoria, where the skaters soared from the stage up and out to the very rim of the theatre's dress circle before returning to traverse John Napier's mesmerising bridge that flew and spun above the stage.

The show’s re-imagined casting is also flawed. While it is a fine idea to now have a real child as Control (on the night of this review the delightful Shaniyah Abrahams was in charge of the trainset), the writers have transitioned Poppa into Momma. Jade Marvin in this role has a beautiful voice and presence, but she lacks the baritone heft that back in the day would have inspired the creation of Poppa's vocals. This is much missed, most notably in two of her critical numbers, Momma’s Blues and the Starlight Sequence.

And whoever thought of casting Greaseball as a female character needs to take a short walk from the theatre and spend some time (safely) by the West Coast Main Line. Here, diesel freight trains frequently rumble by with a booming bass pulse that could register on the Richter Scale! Having driven a diesel train I can vouch that they throb with a guttural, metaphorical testosterone. For all Al Knott’s fiercely fit and fabulously menacing skating, she may well make an outstanding pantomime villain, but a diesel engine she ain’t!

Of the show’s principal characters, too many of them are professional debutantes. Skating of course requires the enviable fitness and stamina of their youth, however the very best musical theatre also demands the skill of being able to act through song, a craft typically honed by an actor’s years of experience. With many of director Luke Sheppard’s leads fresh out of drama school, their roller-skating may well be energetically en-pointe but they do not always deliver emotionally convincing characters. Richard Stilgoe’s U.N.C.O.U.P.L.E.D. sung by Dinah the Dining Car (Eve Humphrey) and a pastiched tribute to country-music legend Tammy Wynette, should be one of the wittiest songs in the canon. Here, it fails to land.

A shout-out however for Skate Marshals Charlie Russell, Jamie Addison and Dante Hutchison whose scooter skills (including scooted 360-degree somersaults) are out of this world.

Technically state-of the-art, Starlight Express looks and sounds like the multi-million pound extravaganza that the producers and creatives have fashioned. The kids will love it!

Booking until 16th February 2025

Photo credit: Pamela Raith

Next to Normal - Review

Wyndham's Theatre, London

*****

Music by Tom Kitt

Book & lyrics by Brian Yorkey

Directed by Michael Longhurst

Caissie Levy

There are moments when new writing touches the very essence of humanity. So it is with Next to Normal that has now opened in the West End following an acclaimed run at the Donmar Warehouse last year.

Caissie Levy is Diana, a woman who we learn early on in the show is grappling with significantly impaired mental health. Jamie Parker is her husband Dan, battling to support her, while there are perfectly nuanced performances from Eleanor Worthington-Cox as daughter Natalie and Jack Wolfe as son Gabe. To say much more about the plot would be to spoil the story’s reveals, as Levy and her three co-stars take Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey’s inspired songs and narrative, delivering harrowing entertainment punctuated with moments of perfectly weighted ironic humor.

In support are Trevor Dion Nicholas as the story’s two doctors, and Jack Ofrecio as Natalie’s would-be suitor Henry.

The words and music are fast-flowing with credit to Nick Barstow’s six-piece ensemble perched atop Chloe Lamford’s ingeniously designed set.

Ultimately uplifting, the two-act show plumbs the depths of grief and suffering and it makes for an inspirational evening that is probably not suited to those who are emotionally fragile. That being said, Next to Normal is exquisitely crafted musical theatre.

Runs until 21st September

Photo credit: Marc Brenner