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

Sweet Charity (at Nottingham Playhouse) - Review

Nottingham Playhouse, Nottingham



****



Music by Cy Coleman
Lyrics by Dorothy Fields
Book by Neil Simon
Directed by Bill Buckhurst

Rebecca Trehearn and Ensemble

As Bill Buckhurst’s production of Sweet Charity takes the show squarely back to its 1960s origins with Rebecca Trehearn in the lead, the show delivers an exhilarating if somewhat brutal comment on humanity that proves disarmingly timeless.

Trehearn’s Charity is as kooky as the role demands – and yet driving her character is the same honest energy that Julia Roberts’ Anna showed in the movie Notting Hill. Charity is just a girl asking a boy to love her, and it is a mark of the genius of the recently departed Neil Simon, that his book has us believe in its commonplace heroine’s remarkable journey.

The show revolves around Charity and her fellow taxi-dancers at the Fandango Ballroom, earning a buck as they are paid to dance with sleazy punters. Amidst the Fandango’s glitter, there’s little real sparkle to this life but again, it is Simon’s scalpel-like incisiveness that teases out the pearls of humanity that exist in this New York dive. Buckhurst, with choreographer Alistair David, offers up a scorching interpretation of the old yarn. The show’s most famous number, Big Spender has long been associated with Shirley Bassey’s razzmatazz, a song that is an adulation of a man with power and money (sounds familiar, no?). Here however, the brashness is reduced to subtly jarring cascades of both movement and harmonics, underlining the truth that there really is no glamour whatsoever amidst the men who visit the Fandango Ballroom. Buckhurst’s Big Spender is more chilling than thrilling – an inspired move.

Driving the show is an immensely talented cast and crew. Trehearn brings an exhilarating confidence to Charity, inhibiting the role with song and dance that is perfectly performed. At her finest with the big solos of If My Friends Could See Me Now and, a Dolly Levi-esque I’m A Brass Band, she is a whirl of relentless energy and talent.

Charity's two love interests come from Jeremy Secomb’s wonderfully hammed-up Italian movie star Vittorio Vidal and the far more complex Oscar Lindquist (Marc Elliott). While Vidal is a two dimensional screen idol, it says much for Secomb that he still brings moments of rich empathy to the role along with vocal majesty to his one big number Too Many Tomorrows. Elliott has a much tougher nut to crack with Oscar’s inadequate everyman. If one thinks of The Producers’ Leo Bloom, or (from many years ago) Woody Allen’s countless neuroses-fuelled New Yorkers, Elliott delivers a sharply observed interpretation of a man who is ultimately a hopeless, cowardly failure.

And the supporting roles are a treat too – Amy Ellen Richardson and Carly Mercedes Dyer (taxi-dancers) offer up a gorgeous two-part harmony with Baby, Dream Your Dream, also impressively leading the Fandango girls in Big Spender, as Leah West puts in a neat turn as Vidal's manipulative lover, Ursula.

The show has its brief moments of hilarity. Shaq Taylor kicking off the second half with The Rhythm Of Life is just pure theatrical joy – showcased brilliantly by takis’ arches – while the act closes with brilliant work (again) from Carl Sanderson’s Herman singing I Love To Sing At Weddings. Across the show, Caroline Humphris' deliciously brass-heavy band perched cleverly atop both sides of the stage, are magnificent.

It has been some years since the Nottingham Playhouse staged a full blown Broadway show – Sweet Charity places the venue firmly back on the map of the nation’s musical theatre hotspots.

Runs until 22nd September

Sweet Charity (at The Watermill Theatre, Newbury) - Review

Watermill Theatre, Newbury

****

Music by Cy Coleman

Lyrics by Dorothy Fields

Book by Neil Simon

Directed by Paul Hart

Gemma Sutton

Cy Coleman’s score for Sweet Charity, much like his compositions for The Life, define his ability to create a musical around humanity’s grittier perspectives. Inspired by a Fellini screenplay, Neil Simon’s book carries a timeless ring of abuse.  Charity is a good trusting woman who is ultimately used by both the men we see her become involved with; the humble Oscar and the powerful Vittorio Vidal. The message is clear - irrespective of their place in society, men are manipulative misogynists. And yet although the narrative may be harsh, the genius of the show’s writers lies in having framed their tale within a structure of some of the 1960’s finest musical theatre writing.

The powerhouse driving this production is Gemma Sutton’s Charity. Sutton is a performer who only knows the meaning of excellence in her work, capturing Charity’s kooky complex vulnerability and delivering a performance that by turn breaks our hearts and then makes them soar in the show’s biggest numbers. Her voice and presence are majestic in songs such as If My Friends Could See Me Now and I’m A Brass Band and yet, throughout, she captures Charity’s precious fragility, so painfully recognisable in her exquisite interpretation.

Sutton is well supported by a perfectly cast company. Tomi Ogbaro as Daddy revives and inspires the audience as he leads Rhythm Of Life. Elliot Harper’s Vidal is convincing in his suave arrogance, while the show’s girls (Nicola Bryan, Vivien Carter, Stacey Ghent Emma Jane Morton and Laura Sillett) make magnificent work of Big Spender, returning it to its pre-Bassey beauty.

Perhaps the greatest revelation of the evening is Alex Cardall’s Oscar. Straight out of the Arts Educational School, and yet another NYMT alumnus to make a leading debut this summer, Cardall masters Oscar’s manipulative maturity with a confidence that belies his years. With perfectly weighted nuance and pinpoint delivery on the gags, his is classy work indeed.

Behind the scenes Diego Pitarch’s designs sees two pairs of bi-folding mirrors whirled around the stage ingeniously, while the translations of Coleman’s score to an actor-muso company is, yet again, flawless musical supervision from Sarah Travis. Charlie Ingles has directed Travis’ work with the instrumentalists, but on the night and on stage it is an assured Tom Self that oversees the delivery of these bold, brassy melodies.

Bob Fosse directed the show (originally on Broadway and later, its Hollywood iteration too) and while Tom Jackson Greaves has choreographed with imaginative flair within the Watermill’s cockpit space, Fosse’s fingerprints (footprints?) are everywhere. But for all the talent within this show, it is hampered by the Watermill’s challenging (and sometimes non-existent) sightlines that can render too much of Jackson Greaves’ (no doubt brilliant) dance work, invisible.

Yet again, the people of Newbury find themselves spoiled with this display of some of the finest talent in the land putting on a show that alongside being a rollercoaster of emotions, is a festival of sensational song and dance.

Runs until 15th September

Photo credit: Philip Tull

The Life - Review

Southwark Playhouse, London

*****

Music by Cy Coleman

Lyrics by Ira Gasman

Book by David Newman, Ira Gasman, and Cy Coleman

with additional material by Michael Blakemore

Directed by Michael Blakemore

Charlotte Reavey and Cornell S. John

Cy Coleman has a fine track record of taking an acerbic view of iconic American cities. With City Of Angels his score parodied a film noir view of Los Angeles - and here, with The Life, he peels back the fairytale of New York to reveal the truer uglier side of 42nd Street and Broadway that persisted throughout much of the last century.

It is hard to believe that this same city location fuelled the narrative to Frank Loesser's Guys And Dolls. Coleman and Ira Gasman pitch their show uncompromisingly on the streets around Times Square in the 1980s, when crime and sleaze were endemic to the area. But where Loesser's Joey Biltmore or Big Jule may well have been looked on as lovable rogues, The Life's villains are terrifyingly monstrous.

And yet - amongst the filth and destitution of its city setting, The Life's story, fuelled by Coleman's richly flavoured score, moves us all in depicting the fragile shoots of hope and humanity struggling to survive.

T'Shan Williams leads the show as young hooker Queen - desperate to make enough money to break away from vice and build a new life with her boyfriend Fleetwood (David Albury). We know their love is doomed from the outset - he's a drug-dependant Vietnam vet, battling PTSD and for whom Queen will always take second place to his addiction. It is Williams’portrayal of Queen's self-belief that drives the show. Her relative youth belying an ability to play a desperately damaged, vulnerable woman who's struggling to make her life work. Vocally Williams is a dream too, holding sensational notes with a range that is at times spine-tingling.

Williams is more than matched by the powerhouse that is Sharon D. Clarke. Playing Sonja, a compassionate ageing woman who's only known life as a whore, Clarke is majestic and compelling. Her duetting with Williams offers some of the finest musical theatre performance to be found, the spirituality of You Can't Get To Heaven being an electrifying glimpse into the bond of humanity that spanning the decades between them, unites the two women. Living in a world of profound ugliness, they display a dazzling inner beauty.

There's impressive womanly work on stage not just from Clarke and Williams but from a striking ensemble of street-hookers, who frequently suggested (to this reviewer at least) that if one were to take back the mink and the pearls from Loesser's Hot Box Girls, then what Coleman and Gasman have created is so much closer to a far harsher reality.

There's a cracking turn too from Joanna Woodward as the (apparently) naive Mary, straight off the bus from Duluth and quickly hustled. Woodward's Easy Money routine offering a polished glimpse into the truth of the tawdry sleaze of the strip scrub - in a routine that again defines so much more dismal honesty than the glossed over burlesque of Louise's strip routines in the closing act of Styne and Sondheim's Gypsy.

The Life shines in its diversity. Not just in a cast that is unequivocally multi-racial, but rather one which is refreshingly spread across a range of ages and body sizes that don’t conform to the conventionally clichéd tropes of beauty.

Where the show is unashamedly partisan however is in its treatment of men. By the final curtain, we've learned that every man on stage is ultimately a deceitful, exploitative scumbag.

Notwithstanding their characters' moral vacuity, the guys on stage are, to a man, outstanding actors. John Addison sets the stage as Jojo a middle ranking hustler, whose Use What You've Got defines his oleaginous duplicity. There's classy work too from Jo Servi's bartender Lacy, who in a small but critical moment defines the malicious misogyny permeating the streets. It is however Cornell S. John as Memphis, the city's prime pimp who both stuns and horrifies. John has a presence rarely encountered in Off West End theatre. With magnificent understatement he oozes an abusive, fearful force, which when played alongside his striking vocal resonance in both Don't Take Much and My Way Or The Highway, proves as chilling as it is compelling.

It's taken twenty odd years for Michael Blakemore, who directed the show's Tony-winning Broadway premier to bring it to London and his maturity and wisdom is evident in this carefully nuanced production's impact. Slick movement matched with a simple design motif of sliding parking-garage doors that slide to reveal the scenic trucks, and all staged underneath visionary projections of New York (the projection of the Hudson River's ripples is inspired), combine to create an ingenious treat.

Above the stage, Tamara Saringer conducts the first 11 piece band to play Southwark coaxing an exquisite treatment of Coleman's soaring score. Yet again, Joe Atkin-Reeve's work on the reeds is sensational - as Coleman's compositions range from ballsy brassy belting numbers to ethereal Gospel and heartbreaking ballad. 

The show marks Broadway and West End producer Catherine Schreiber's welcome arrival into leading a team of producers (co leads Amy Anzel and Matthew Chisling) on London's fringe. Together they display a commitment to production values throughout the show that rank alongside the sector’s best.

Scorchingly unmissable, The Life is one of the finest shows in town.

Runs until 29th April

Picture credit: Conrad Blakemore

T'Shan Williams talks about The Life at Southwark Playhouse

T'Shan Williams

Set in and around the sleaze of Times Square in the 1980s, Cy Coleman and Ira Gasman’s The Life garnered Tony and Drama Desk awards when Michael Blakemore directed its opening on Broadway in 1997. Twenty years later and with Blakemore again at the helm, the gritty musical crosses the Atlantic to open at the Southwark Playhouse next week.

The story focusses on Queen, a young woman of proud, principled intention who let down by the man she loves finds herself drawn into the complex criminality of prostitution. Sonja, an older and wiser hooker takes her under her wing… 

T’Shan Williams plays Queen and we spoke during a break in rehearsals. 

Update: To read my 5* review of The Life, published after its Opening Night, click here

JB:     Tell me first of all - What excites you about playing this role?

TW: Oh, the fact that Queen is not born into life that you see in the show. She's come from out of town, from a different area in the States and she’s moved to New York with dreams and aspirations. She's quite optimistic about what her life could be.

It just so happens that in the part that you see in the show, she has had to put her dreams on hold as she is sucked in to a mess that she didn't agree to.

JB:      What are the complexities of your character that you're having to explore and discover?

TW:     She has a certain sense of naivete because she didn't expect this to happen. She kind of got herself into a relationship where it just didn't work out right, so, it's basically I guess, her trying to be independent.

She's got a drive to be a better person, yet she's in a relationship where her partner is just quite happy with the situation they've ended up in.

So she is forced to choose between wrong and right, between love and a better life, that kind of thing, which is really quite hard for her.

What makes her such an appealing character though is the continuous optimism that she has, which is actually so inspiring and uplifting.

JB:     I was lucky enough to be invited to your rehearsal last week and see a glimpse of the show up close, in particular duetting with Sharon D. Clarke who plays Sonja. What is it like working alongside Sharon?

TW: Oh, absolute pleasure. She's so amazingly talented, and Cornell S.John too. I'm learning new things from them everyday.

Sharon’s like a big sister. She's got such a powerful energy in the rehearsal space. It's such a lovely time working with her. The whole cast too, they're all just so talented.

Sharon D. Clarke and T'shan Williams

JB:     Tell me about working with and being directed by Michael Blakemore.

TW: He's just such a gent, a charming man. And, I've never worked with such a director before that's just so detailed. He doesn't miss a beat. Of course, this is kind of his baby, because obviously he directed it originally on Broadway. The show really has a place in his heart and it's just such a pleasure to be in the room with him.

JB:     You are coming to The Life after a year in Book of Mormon. Have you worked in any off-West End productions before this?

TW: Yeah....ish! I did a season at the Arts Theatre in Leicester Square over Christmas and Ive toured But, that's kind of where my journey has been so far.

I only graduated in 2015 from drama school, so it has all been quite recent. But I've been lucky and had a good run in contracts so far. I love fringe theatre and I've always wanted to perform at the Southwark Playhouse because it's so intimate.

JB:     That's great to hear. The rehearsal that I saw was electric - I'm looking forward to your press night next week.

The Life will run at the Southwark Playhouse from 25th March until 29th April.

Photo credit: Simon Turtle

City Of Angels

Stratford Circus, London

****

Music by Cy Coleman
Lyrics by David Zippel
Book by Larry Gelbart
Directed by Sarah Redmond

Alex Gilchrist, Tom Self & Charlotte Allchorne

There is clearly an appetite in London right now for Hollywood in the 1940's. As The Drowned Man takes its last gasps over in Paddington and the Donmar is already sold out for its star-studded City Of Angels in the Autumn, those canny folk at Trinity Laban recognised that the Coleman, Zippel and Gelbart's Tony-winning nod to Tinseltown would prove excellent fare for their 3rd year Musical Theatre students. Stratford Circus made for an engaging venue in which visionary director Sarah Redmond was able to put her graduates through their paces.

As the time and genre demands, the show was heavy on the noir. Billed as a musical comedy the plot weaves in front of and behind the camera as struggling writer Stine, battles it out with his Corona typewriter and a typically megalomaniac director/producer, channelling his frustrations through the scripted twists and turns that befall fictional private-eye Stone. 

The mature themes of adultery, revenge, oversized egos and murder were at times challenging to such a youthful cast and the production was generally at its best with ensemble numbers or duetted songs. David-Jon Ballinger was every inch the movie mogul Buddy, whilst particularly impressive were Alex Gilchrist and Tom Self as Stine and Stone. Both men respectively nailed their parts with the closing numbers to each half of the show, You're Nothing Without Me and I'm Nothing Without You each song a celebration of two strident voices. Amongst the ladies Cathy Joseph and Bethany Wilson's double act of What You Don't Know About Women proved a spine-tingling, perfectly weighted duet. Redmond also coaxed nuggets of delight in a raft of cameo performances that were sprinkled throughout her ensemble. 

A stirring aspect of the production was the 20+ piece band, drawn from Trinity Laban students under Tony Castro's direction. The predominantly brassy sound was beautifully easy on the ear, adding a depth to the show's orchestration rarely encountered in student productions. 

A brave choice of show for sure, but with their take on City Of Angels, Trinity Laban's class of '14 spread their wings impressively.

Barnum

Festival Theatre, Chichester

***

Music by Cy Coleman

Lyrics by Michael Stewart

Book by Mark Bramble

In a Revised Version by Cameron Mackintosh and Mark Bramble

Directed by Timothy Sheader

This review was first published in The Public Reviews.

There has rarely been a venue more site specific than the sumptuous Big Top that Chichester Festival Theatre have erected to stage their 2013 season’s flagship show, Barnum, the Coleman and Stewart take on America’s 19th century circus legend who came up with The Greatest Show On Earth.

The tent is stylish, air conditioned and comfortable. A pre-show read of the thoughtfully designed programme finds praise heaped upon producer (and co-reviser of the book) Cameron Mackintosh and numerous references to Jim Dale who created the role on Broadway in 1980 (though strangely, for such a thoroughly historical essay by book writer Mark Bramble, no mention of Michael Crawford who was to premiere the role in London one year later). So before the lights go down, expectations are set to high.

The opening movements of both acts are spine-tingling with suggestions of spectacle along with company work that is superb. These wow moments however turn out to be rare and short lived. Leading man Christopher Fitzgerald is an American actor of excellent drama pedigree and gifted with extraordinary credentials in movement and circus abilities that include the famous tightrope walk that closes the first half. But as a musical theatre Leading Man he struggles. His voice, albeit melodic and tuneful lacks punch and presence and fails to expand to fill the cavernous tent. In Museum Song, arguably one of the toughest lyrical tongue twisters penned, speeding up scarily through the stanzas, the final verse written to be sung at ridiculous speed has Fitgerald blurring, slurring and crashing his words. His character has a line in the song Black And White “Nobody does show-business better than me”. Sadly, not here and not now. Whilst that adage could even recently have been applied to Mackintosh, the legendary producer who certainly knows what makes for a stunning image has apparently lost his casting mojo. Technical improvements are required too. Sat in Row U, some big-number lyrics are barely audible, whilst the lighting plots often leave dancing members of the ensemble in virtual darkness.

Tamsin Carroll is an adequate Chairy Barnum in perhaps one of the weakest roles for a female lead in the canon, though Aretha Ayeh’s Joice Heth and Anna O’Byrne’s Jenny Lind both deliver performances that are as vocally magnificent as they are entertaining to watch. It’s a shame that both their cameos are so modest. Credit too to Adam Rowe’s 15 piece band, heavy on the brass, whose work is a treat throughout. 

The real star of this show though is the company. Sheader together with co-choreographers Liam Steel and Andrew Wright have extracted brilliance in the ensemble’s dance and movement. The footwork is impressive with an amazing routine in Thank God I’m Old and a finale that dazzles with circus skills and flying people. It would have been lovely to have seen more circus themed direction throughout, especially during the tedious dialogues between Barnum and Chairy that cry out for more pizazz.

Mackintosh is unquestionably one of the world’s greatest showmen, but on this showing he’s humbugged the good people of Chichester.

Runs to August 31 2013