Thérèse Racquin - Review

Park Theatre, London

****

By Émile Zola
Adaptation, book and lyrics by Nona Shepphard
Music by Craig Adams
Directed by Nona Shepphard

Greg Barnett and Julie Atherton

Thérèse Racquin, the new musical that wowed the Finborough earlier this year, makes a short journey across West London to be staged at the larger, though still intimate, Park 200 auditorium. French classics clearly prove a rich seam for composers. Where 30 years ago Boublil and Schönberg tackled Hugo's Les Miserables, so now do composer Craig Adams and writer Nona Shepphard take on Émile Zola's classic study on desire, guilt and most importantly the corrosive effect of these two emotions upon the human condition.

The story may be more than a hundred years old but it's a strong morality fable that responds well to Shepphard's "radical" adaptation and Adam's jarring melodies. This is no easy show to watch. The themes of lust, betrayal and hauntings, as well as some distinct nods to Zola's theatrical naturalism and all strung around a murderously macabre ménage á trois, demand an adult audience.

The performers are a treat. Who better than Jeremy Legat to play the cuckolded Camille, Therese's husband, with such sensitivity and marked understatement? Usurping his place in the marital bed, Greg Barnett plays the louche Laurent, Camille's childhood friend. Of swarthy peasant stock, muscular and vital, he is the alpha-male that Thérèse burns and yearns for. Proving a decaying and ultimately suspicious force within the home, Camille's mother Mme. Racquin is a cracking performance from the ever accomplished and occasionally menacing Tara Hugo.

The success of this show however, ultimately rests upon the slender and adulterous (though only in character, of course) shoulders of Julie Atherton as Thérèse. On stage for virtually the entire show, Atherton is silent for the first fourty-five minutes, before releasing her pent up desire for Laurent in the passionate I Breathe You In, sung as the two lovers consummate their lust. It is not so long since Atherton played Emily Tallentire in Leicester Curve's The Hired Man - she evidently plays the cheating wife well. In the final act, her contribution to the duet If I Had Known are spine tingling.

Some of the songs are inspirational. Thursday Night, sung by the company as they enjoy the weekly game of dominoes that old Mme Raquin hosts, suggested just a twinkle of Guys and Dolls' The Oldest Established, whilst Sweet Perfume Of Violets is possibly one of the most beautifully horrific songs in the canon, with Adams penning a truly haunting melody.

One criticism: Sat stage right of the Park's shallow thrust one can miss occasional visual moments. The Park is a very different space to the Finborough and it's not too late for Shepphard to tweak her blocking.

An imaginative use of a female trio as chorus adds to the harmonic delight of the production, whilst James Simpson directs a fine sound from the (mainly) string quintet. With Thérèse Raquin Shepphard and Adams have created invigorating and exciting new musical theatre. The show represents a cutting edge of the genre at its very best and brilliantly performed.

Runs until August 24th 2014

Kerry Ellis At The Pheasantry

The Pheasantry, London

****

Almost a year since her last residency at The Pheasantry, Kerry Ellis, the musical theatre queen of her generation returned to the Kings Road for a three night stint. A packed venue sat adoringly as Ellis worked her way through a set list of classic film and showtunes, with just a sprinkling of Queen and paying particular homage to writers Don Black and Stephen Schwartz.

In recent years Ellis has famously worked closely with Brian May, who has fashioned an astounding harmony of her voice with his talent on guitar. But the intimacy of a cabaret venue demands a different arrangement and Ellis’ long time collaborator on piano and keyboards. Craig Adams has crafted some new takes on old favourites, that were masterfully played on the night by the man himself.

A medley of classic Bond numbers opened the show and in the Oscars weekend, Ellis' neat take on Adele's 2013 winner Skyfall set the tone for a collection of songs that was too have a gorgeously distinctive fidelity. Black's song cycle Tell Me On A Sunday furnished Ellis with a handful of numbers that gave rise to a refreshing moment and amidst that show’s current return to the West End, provided a long yearned for opportunity to hear the songs sung by a woman who is at round about the approximate age that they were written for. Her nods to Wicked were a magically mellow take on Defying Gravity along with I’m Not That Girl, the blockbuster show’s exquisite torch song.

Miss Ellis has been out crowd-funding to raise funds for a video production and one of the opportunities up for grabs had been the chance to sing live with the diva. Flame haired student Megan Yates had bid for this particular evening's slot and the 20 year old cut a fine impression duetting with Ellis and singing In His Eyes, a rarely heard number from Leslie Bricusse and Wildhorn’s Jekyll And Hyde.

With a career that has amassed plenty of anecdotal moments, her banter through the night hit the perfect tone. Sometimes revealing, always respectful and throughout, offering her audience a glimpse into the string of West End smash hits that have come to feature her name up on the marquee. 

Encoring with Alfie, touchingly devoted to her four month old, (who had of course graced this same stage last year, albeit in utero) her enchanting take on the Bacharach/David number was loaded with love for her son. A glorious evening of warmly familiar classics, sung to perfection.

Cynthia Erivo - London's Rising Star - Now, By Royal Invitation

Cynthia Erivo

STOP PRESS:

AS THIS INTERVIEW IS PUBLISHED, CYNTHIA ERIVO HAS JUST PERFORMED AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE IN FRONT OF HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN!

READ ON, AND LEARN ABOUT HER INCREDIBLE JOURNEY OVER THE LAST 12 MONTHS

This time last year Cynthia Erivo was a hard working actress, recently out of playing Deloris Van Cartier in Sister Act’s UK tour. Fast forward 12 months and as 2014 dawns she has been nominated for two of the country’s most celebrated theatre awards, is amongst the headliners at next week’s What’s On Stage (WOS) Awards ceremony and is shortly to open at the Palladium in the Simon Cowell / Harry Hill X-Factor comedy musical I Can’t Sing.

So, what has happened in the past 12 months? Three words: The Color Purple. In a production staged with beautiful simplicity, for two months, eight times a week, this perfectly poised, gorgeous young actress held the audience at London's Menier Chocolate Factory in the palm of her hand as she told the story of how Celie the story's heroine, triumphed over incredible odds to make an inspirational success of a tragic life. Audiences sobbed and such was the intensity of her delivery that a standing ovation half way through the second act became a regular feature of the run. Nominated for that performance in both the Evening Standard and the WOS awards it has been a truly remarkable year for the RADA graduate.

Taking time out from I Can't Sing's gruelling rehearsal schedule, we meet for tapas on a blustery night in Waterloo where over green tea and calamari, Erivo tells me of her whirlwind year.

JB: Tell me how The Color Purple came together for you.

CE: Celie is a role that I have dreamed of playing since I was ten. It is one of the most rounded roles ever written for a black female in either in theatre or in film and I love the grit that’s in her character. I was already off the page with my audition pieces so working with director John Doyle was both challenging yet relaxed and I felt as the recalls went by, that at each step he was getting to know more of me and how I work. At the time I was appearing in Craig Adam’s new musical Lift, at the Soho Theatre and I was so lucky to go straight from that show into The Color Purple.

JB: Celie is told by her abusive husband, venomously: “…..You’re poor, you’re black, you’re ugly, you’re a woman….” – Aside from the fact that you are not an ugly woman, how did you tackle the challenge of the role?

CE: I started out from the belief that Celie’s ugliness came from within, from her own sense of low self worth, that it was more to do with her not recognising her own beauty, rather than a promotion of her being ugly. We experimented with wigs and make-up to portray both that ugliness and also her ageing, but eventually, working with John, I chose to portray these challenges through how she carried herself. I thought a lot about Celie’s gait and how that would evolve both with her emancipation and also her ageing.

Erivo in The Color Purple

JB: At what stage into the show’s life did you and the company realise that you had created something special?

CE: We were blessed with a standing ovation right from the start. But very early on, fear kicked in and I found myself thinking “I don’t want to lose this feeling”, so in each performance I would focus upon the concentration and above all the consistency that playing Celie demanded.

I was so proud that the show attracted an unconventional audience that would have people shouting at me “You go girl!” as Celie finds her resolve. Back in Shakespeare’s day the audience would shout at the actors and it was just so rewarding to have reached out and made such a strong connection. I could look around the theatre [the Menier only seats around 200] and see and hear people sobbing, passing tissues. When I came out into the foyer each night there would be women with make-up running, bankers, my sister “who never cries at anything” simply in tears.

JB: Your friend and colleague Sophia Nomvete (also nominated by WOS for Best Supporting Actress in the show) has described you as being an incredibly supportive team player, who notwithstanding all your responsibility on stage, is still a big kid in the dressing room. Apparently you would bring in healthy food and snacks each day, but then promptly graze on other people’s crisps and chocolate!

CE: She’s not wrong I do focus hard on fitness and healthy eating, but I just can’t resist Haribo and I've a real weakness for Marks and Spencer’s Percy Pigs!

JB: Halfway through the run of The Color Purple, New York composer Scott Alan flew into London for a one night concert at the O2. The gig featured a star-studded lineup but for many the highlight was you singing Anything Worth Holding Onto, Scott’s scorchingly autobiographical song about the pain of depression. Alan has told me how difficult it was to rehearse that number, saying that it only actually all came together on the night, in performance. Is that true?

CE: I guess it is. There is a part of me that can sometimes only truly explore a song when I am singing to an audience. I need to be telling the story to really be able to express myself. The day of that concert was crazy with morning sound checks at the O2, then back to the Sunday matinee of The Color Purple and finally back to Greenwich for the concert. But I knew that night, as I cried whilst I sang, that I had truly given Scott’s song the connection it deserved.

Erivo singing Anything Worth Holding Onto at the O2

JB: Speaking of you, Scott said “she is one of the great vocalists of our time…a songwriter’s dream and it is an honour writing for her”

CE: Wow, is that what he said? I have no words, I am so touched by his generosity!

JB: The two award nominations are both predominantly celebrity driven and have pitched you against competition from much larger shows that played at the National Theatre and the West End, in venues that in one night could seat the same number of people that it would take the Menier a week of full houses to achieve. For smaller off West End shows, the awards ceremonies are often an un-level playing field, so to have achieved a “podium finish” twice in one year is an incredible achievement. The Color Purple was refreshingly free of all gimmicks, earning its plaudits entirely through the outstanding work of its acting company and for many of the people lucky enough to have seen it, those awards belong to you.

That’s kind of you to say. Yes, the Menier is a small house of course, but I was simply so thrilled just to have been nominated for the role. It has been an immense honour.

JB: And so to I Cant Sing. Tell me about the leap from performing in one of the most harrowing musicals, to a show that is expected to be one of the year’s funniest.

CE: There’s loads that I can’t say about I Can’t Sing of course and I don’t want to spoil any surprises, but it has been an amazing learning process. The show has been written by Harry Hill and Steve Brown, two of the funniest guys around and it has been incredibly technical for me, as well as being a combination of great fun and phenomenally hard work. I am not a quintessentially funny comedy actress, so I have really enjoyed discovering my comedy timing.

JB: And what of your fellow cast members?

CE: I am learning so much from them. Nigel Harman of course has already mastered comedy in musical theatre with his Lord Farquad in Shrek and he is wonderful to work with. It is a large and above all very talented and experienced cast that I am so proud to be a part of.

JB: And looking beyond London’s musical theatre, what inspires you and what would you like to see on your horizon?

CE: For inspiration, I was blown away by Adrian Lester’s Othello at the National Theatre last year. That was the first time I had set foot in the Olivier auditorium. I was there on my own, which is often the best way to enjoy theatre and I had never experienced a theatre as large as that stage, yet one that could also allow you to become so wrapped up in a production. Adrian is also a friend of mine and I am very proud of the interest that he has taken in my work to date too.

As for the future? Well immediately that is I Can’t Sing of course and I have great expectations for the show. But looking even further ahead, if there was a TV series for me, well that would be just ideal!

I Can’t Sing previews at the London Palladium from 27^th February, before opening on 26^th March

Kerry Ellis In Concert

London Palladium

*****

Sunday nights these days seem to be full of London’s musical theatre performers occupying various cabaret venues to showcase their (not unremarkable) talents, accompanied by a whizz of a Musical Director and maybe a guest or two thrown in. The evenings are invariably lovely and the talent on offer is always choice.

It takes a rather special star however to display not just talent, but awesome showmanship and thus it was this Sunday night at the London Palladium where Kerry Ellis, onstage for the best part of two hours and accompanied by some outstanding guests wowed a packed house.

Ellis' set had been preceded by Woman The Band, who warmed up the evening with 30 minutes of chic chick rock that included clever covers of I Don’t Wanna Talk About It as well as Sweet Child Of Mine. Lead singer Mazz Murray (who like Ellis has significant previous from We Will Rock You) fronted the trio well and they set the crowd up nicely, with just the right tone for the show to follow.

The curtain rose and sparkling in a black evening dress and with heels that were either to die for or to be killed by, Ellis strode to centre stage, commanding the vast auditorium with John Barry and Don Black’s Diamonds Are Forever in the arrangement from her album Anthems. Adele’s Skyfall (arguably the best part of that particular Bond)  was the next number and again, Ellis made it her own. As the Bond medley segued into Live And Let Die mixed with Goldfinger, many in the audience were perhaps hoping that Barbara Broccoli might ask Kerry to record a future Bond theme. Ellis may not (yet) be a global rock star but her vocal presence is more than a match for the demands of the 007 franchise. Eon Productions, please take note. Lyricist Black is clearly an inspiration to Miss Ellis. As her set went on to include his I Can’t Be Your Friend from Anthems, together with a later brace of Tell Me On A Sunday classics, the evening almost verged on being a modest tribute to the writer who was sat amongst the Palladium throng.

Ellis’s vocal power and presence at times strongly suggested the potential of an English Streisand and the arrangements for her concert prepared by talented MD Craig Adams, were innovative and refreshing. In a nod to her My Fair Lady roots, she tackled the song that was never hers in the show, On The Street Where You Live and the tender rock beat that Adams had infused into the melody was an inspired touch. I Could Have Danced All Night similarly had a rock pulse to it that invigorated a very familiar and comfortable showtune.  When her orchestra then oh-so gently released the intro to Sondheim’s Losing My Mind, spines tingled in anticipation awaiting her treatment of the spectacular song and again, Ellis did not disappoint. As Long As He Needs Me was given an authentic "mockney" treatment that served the number well and as her first hour drew to a close she sang I Dreamed A Dream, again with a distinctive sound that set it apart from the original. As she tackled the massive middle 8 of that modern classic, she sent the crowd into their first frenzy of the night.

Passions ran so high that a Doctor needed to be sent for and slipping quietly onto the stage the bobbing mass of silver hair that is Dr Brian May, Queen legend and who if he wasn’t so damned wholesome could easily be mistaken for Ellis’ Svengali, took his place beside her. In 2002 May recognised the singer’s potential when he was putting together We Will Rock You and since then he has been visionary in guiding the younger woman to critical acclaim. In an acoustic treat her voice and his guitar created a remarkable version of I Who Have Nothing. The Streisand suggestion that had emerged earlier in the evening was sealed when with May and the strings of the Bergersen Quartet, Ellis tackled the diva’s signature tune, The Way We Were. The clarity and beauty of the modern harmonies was rare and not for the first time, an oh-so familiar song was given a completely fresh interpretation. The second frenzy of the night came soon after, as with acoustic replaced by electric, May led her and the audience in Crazy Little Thing Called Love. The Queen man then magnanimously exited and in a nice touch, a modest medley of Michael Jackson numbers was Ellis' tribute to the King of Pop, Billie Jean proving the most inspired of the selection.

With the stage bathed in a green floodlit wash, there could be but one finale and as the opening chords of Defying Gravity sounded and free of the constraints of having to sit quietly in the Apollo Victoria, nearly every man woman and child in the Palladium whooped their appreciation. The screaming only increased as one by one, Ellis was joined by Alexia Khadime, Rachel Turner, and Louise Dearman (a former Glinda no less, and the sole actress to have ever played both of Wicked's witches), for what can only be described as the most spellbinding and talented British coven ever to grace a London stage. These four Elphabas gave a unique performance, that as well as celebrating Ellis’ stardom on the night, also recognised equally the talents of these three enchanting sisters of sorcery.

Of the several encores that the over-running show stretched to and with Ellis accompanied by May and the heavenly voiced Arts Ed Choir, No One But You (Only The Good Die Young) proved a moving yet profoundly inspirational end to an outstanding evening.

There is talk of this concert touring the UK and such talk should be fuelled and encouraged. It is simply a privilege to hear the talent that is Kerry Ellis and in the event that her gig does pitch up in a town near you sometime in the future, go buy the best tickets you can afford. You will not be disappointed.

An Evening With Kerry Ellis

The Pheasantry, London

*****

Kerry Ellis

Last night saw the fabulous Kerry Ellis commence a five gig residency at The Pheasantry on London’s King Road. In the heart of chic Chelsea, sporting an outfit that was youthfully elegant with her immaculately coiffed flowing blonde hair and Louboutins to die for, Miss Ellis looked a million dollars even before she sang a note. And then she sang. And for 80 marvellous minutes, proved why she has played Wicked's Elphaba on both sides of the Atlantic, played We Will Rock You's Meat and inspired Queen's legendary guitarist Brian May to throw himself into developing her solo career.

Opening with Rodgers & Hart’s The Lady Is A Tramp, Ellis delivered vocal perfection from that song’s initial bars, right the way through to her set's encore. Will Stuart accompanying her throughout is yet another gifted young musical director whose mastery of the piano is as astounding as Ellis' vocals and whose support for his leading lady was almost intuitive throughout the evening, providing a sublime combination of voice and instrument.

Reminding us that prior to fame her break had come at the National Theatre understudying  Eliza Doolittle, where, circumstances (fortunately for her) allowed her to play the lead on numerous occasions, she went on to perform I Could Have Danced All Night, in a Craig Adams arrangement. Her light, lilting and refreshing take on such a well known number almost re-imaging Lerner and Loewe’s classic.

Her set included numerous favourites, including a handful of Queen songs ( in which an audience singalong was encouraged) that led on to her paying warm tribute to May. Before Ellis performed The Way We Were, she shared that May, whilst rehearsing her, had struggled with the idea of him as a rock star coaching her in a Barbra Streisand classic! Suffice to say that her performance of the song was merely a continuation of the spine-tingling experience that the evening had by now become.

With the song At Last, a 1942 composition, since then of course widely covered and most famously by Beyonce and Etta James, Ellis unleashed the astonishing power and range of her voice, allowing her notes to soar almost eagle like, conveying the melody’s grandeur, yet returning too, to the tight close intimacies of its closing stanzas, which played out in the acoustic cockpit of The Pheasantry, proved an aural delicacy to be savoured by the 50 strong privileged crowd.

Ellis had both the talent and the confidence to work her audience brilliantly. When seeking an audience member to sing the Glinda part in  For Good, and then choosing a game young lad (14yo Billy from Essex), effortlessly switching to sing a more appropriate As Long As Your Mine instead, (Billy was delighted!) she led a duet, which albeit one half of which was an extremely well attempting amateur schoolboy, went on to generate genuine cheers from the crowd.

Amongst the evening’s remaining highlights were Scott Alan’s wonderful and rarely heard Never Neverland, and her encore of Queen’s No-One But You (Only the Good Die Young), the latter moving many to tears in a song that recognises not only Freddie Mercury, but also when sung by Ellis, is a signature of her recognition of her mentoring from May.

Kerry Ellis' performance of every number was of sufficent precision and beauty that one could have imagined each song had been composed just for her. Rarely have I left a cabaret performance and wished there was a CD of the night to take away. To see Ellis, up close and in such an intimate venue is indeed a privilege, She is there until Sunday. Not to be missed.

Kerry Ellis performs at The Pheasantry until February 10th 2013