White Christmas

Curve Theatre, Leicester



****

Music and lyrics by Irving Berlin

Book by David Ives and Paul Blake

Directed by Nikolai Foster

Emma Williams, Danny Mac, Dan Burton and Monique Young

There are few shows as comforting and traditional at this time of year as Irving Berlin’s White Christmas. It’s a corny old yarn for sure that sees Dan Burton and Danny Mac playing Phil Davis and Bob Wallace and two ex-trouper/troopers who team up with the Haynes Sisters (Emma Williams and Monique Young) to put on  a show in Vermont, and rescue the business of their former and much loved commanding officer General Waverly who since the end of World War 2, has been running an upstate Inn and making horrendous losses.

Strip away the seasonal feel, and the story crumbles under close scrutiny. But with Berlin’s classic numbers and in the gifted creative hands of director Foster and his choreographer Stephen Mear, the evening becomes a fabulous feel-good delight.

Foster has established form in coaxing excellence from Mac and Williams, but it is Mear who offers the lucky citizens of Leicester their biggest Xmas treat by taking Burton and Young away from his usual seasonal offering at Paris’ Theatre du Châtelet, to their native side of the English Channel and pairing them at the Curve. These two actors have seen recent years allow them to develop an intuitive connection in their dancework – they surely have to be the finest movers in the nation’s musical theatre corps, proving this again with their  phenomenal footwork in the show’s second half opener I Love A Piano.

Mear of course delivers excellence from across his ensemble, with strong performances from Garry Robson as Waverly and from Wendy Mae Brown as Martha Watson, the General’s much put upon, (but ultimate) sweetheart and, on press night, the cutest turn from Georgia Stewart as his young granddaughter Susan.

A seasonally busy Jason Carr has done beautiful work arranging the Songbook classics, while the seven piece band, under Neil Macdonald’s direction, take the packed Curve houses all the way back to the 1950s – heck, the snowblowers even deliver a venue-filling blizzard as the audience delight in a singalong of the title number.

White Christmas maybe as cheesy as a fine old stilton, but it’s still first-class festive fayre!

Runs until 13th January 2019

Photo credit: Catherine Ashmore

Singin' In The Rain - Review

Theatre du Châtelet at the Grand Palais, Paris

*****

Music by Nacio Herb Brown

Lyrics by Arthur Freed

Book by Adolph Green and Betty Comden

Directed by Robert Carsen

Dan Burton

Fittingly, the reviewing year has ended in the grandest of styles at Paris’ Grand Palais to where the city’s illustrious Theatre du Châtelet have temporarily decamped, reviving their 2015 production of Singin’ In The Rain. A "Grand" venue demands an equally grand show to fill it, and with their sensational company Robert Carsen and choreographer Stephen Mear have done just that.

The musical’s story is a 1952 movie classic that was only ever brought to the stage some 30 years later by Tommy Steele at the London Palladium. But with a libretto crammed with American Songbook greats, an evening here feels like revisiting a masterpiece that’s straight out of Broadway’s Golden Age. The plot is as heartfelt as it is corny, set in the 1920s as silent movies are on the wane. The demand for talkies engulfs Hollywood and Lina Lamont, Monumental Pictures' starlet silent siren finds herself challenged by her ghastly squawking voice, a sound that is completely at odds with her stunning physical beauty. Monumental's leading man Don Lockwood fortuitously meets the beautifully voiced Kathy Selden who agrees to dub Lamont’s vocals. Scheming shenanigans famously unfold, for the most part inspired by Lockwood’s cunning musical accompanist Cosmo Brown, until a happy ending prevails with Selden and Lockwood falling blissfully in love.

Monique Young and Dan Burton

If a show with such a slight and clichéd story is to speak to a 21st century audience, then its production values can be nothing less than flawless and (by implication) expensive. With the Mayor of Paris happily associated with the show, it appears that the budget has been substantial. Not only has Tim Hatley’s scenery been beautifully designed for the show, the stage itself has been created within the vast, glass dome of the Grand Palais (google the place, you’ll thank me) and it is a credit to both Hatley and the show’s (uncredited) sound designer that the acoustics are perfect. Likewise, Anthony Powell’s costumes are just sumptuous, dripping in period-perfect Flapper-glamour and crafted with minute attention to detail. Wielding the baton, Gareth Valentine (another Châtelet regular) makes magnificent work of Brown’s melodies.

Dan Burton leads as Lockwood. Returning to the role from 2015, Burton is clearly Stephen Mear’s “go to” triple-threat performer. This website has long praised Burton’s talent and in a role that sees him onstage for most of the show Burton makes the most intricate of moves seem effortless, with mellifluous vocals transforming 70-year old tunes into fresh delights. And when it comes to the famous title number, both the Châtelet company and Burton deliver magnificently. The water cascades onto the stage as Burton pays heartfelt homage to Gene Kelly’s immortal routine. A nod too to Jo Morris, who has worked with the company to faithfully recreate Mear’s choreography of two years ago.

Kathy Selden is played by Monique Young who wowed this Paris audience last year as Peggy Sawyer in 42nd Street. In another display of triple-threat magnificence, Young defines Selden’s tender strength. Her takes on You Are My Lucky Star and Would You? mark her out as a gifted performer of classic numbers, while her footwork (notably stunning in Broadway Melody) is a blur of brilliance.

Emma Kate Nelson

Playing one of the more challenging roles in the canon, Emma Kate Nelson is Lina Lamont. This nasty-girl character could barely be shallower, yet Nelson transforms her into a completely credible creation. Lamont’s one solo number, What’s Wrong With Me, can be a beast to sing for a trained performer trying to preserve her voice as she squawks. Nelson makes it a delight in another example of perfect casting.

There's excellence too from Daniel Crossley’s Cosmo Brown. Cosmo’s comic responsibilities are critical to the narrative and Crossley’s timing in both physical and spoken humour is spot-on. Make ‘em Laugh and a wealth of other moments all contribute to comedy gold. There are other gems that lurk within this company as Jennie Dale (playing dialogue coach Miss Dinsmore) earns a rapturous whoop of applause for her deft display of tap dance in Moses Supposes.

Daniel Crossley, Jennie Dale and Dan Burton

Theatre du Châtelet have a deserved reputation for excellence in their annual presentation of a classic English language musical - they simply set out to hire, and to produce, the best in the business. If only a UK producer were to one day ship a Châtelet show back across the Channel......

Runs until 11th January

Photo credits: Vincent Pontet and Marie-Noëlle Robert

Broadway Melodies - Review

****

It is a delight to review Dan Burton’s debut album Broadway Melodies. As choreographer Stephen Mear has long known, Burton is currently amongst the finest of musical theatre “triple threats” (defined as talented in all three skills of song, dance and acting) and a man who unassumingly provides an assured touch of class to all his roles, whether they be leading or support. Recent years alone having seen him give an assured Tulsa alongside Imelda Staunton’s Momma Rose in Gypsy, an immaculate Billy Lawlor in a Parisian 42nd Street, with Burton only recently having closed a flawless (and sold out) run as Jerry Travers in Top Hat at Kilworth House.

Those three shows on their own define Burton’s affinity with and affection for the classics from The Great White Way, so there is a true sense of belonging in listening to the singer’s choices – a selection that also bears a distinctly autobiographical touch too.

Burton opens the album with Singin’ In The Rain (he’d played Don Lockwood at Paris’ Chatelet a couple of years ago and keen fans may care to visit Paris this December where the show is soon to return) and gives the timeless number a warmly respectful treatment that drips with the comfort he feels in the role. The song is one that’s known by literally everyone and yet Burton still imbues it with a loving freshness - and there’s a cracking trumpet riff too from Gethin Liddington.

Chichester’s production of The Pajama Game from a few years back transferred, with Burton, to the West End and so it is little surprise that the show’s Hey There features among Burton's chosen ten songs, with his gorgeously mellifluous interpretation makes this number arguably the album’s highlight. Scaling Richard Adler’s and Jerry Ross’s intoxicating key changes with a charm and a confidence, Burton makes one want to set the track to ‘repeat’, to fully savour an enchanting three minutes of song.

There’s a delightful note of comedy as Burton teams up with Lee Mead for Well, Did You Evah. Crosby and Sinatra will always be a tough act to follow but there’s well-rehearsed nuance in this recording and one still cannot help but chuckle at Burton and Mead’s take on the tried and trusted gags.

The entire collection is a treat, with amongst the other songs included are a fabulously sonorous I Only Have Eyes For You and a perfectly pitched I’m In The Mood For Love. 

Sensitively produced by Mason Neely, Broadway Melodies is a must for anyone who loves exquisitely sung show tunes. The album is but a gorgeous glimpse of Dan Burton’s talent and with Xmas just around the corner, could well make a perfect gift.

Available to download from Amazon and iTunes

Top Hat - Review

Kilworth House Theatre, Leicestershire

*****

Music & lyrics by Irving Berlin
Book by Matthew White & Howard Jacques
Directed & choreographed by Stephen Mear

Lauren Stroud and  Dan Burton

Stephen Mear’s take on Top Hat, just opened at Leicestershire’s Kilworth House Theatre is further proof that for this summer at least, the very best musical theatre openings are all taking place outside of London. 

Top Hat is one of those shows that feels like it should have been around forever, but is in fact a relatively new arrival to the stage. The show premiered in London only a few years ago with a new book from Matthew White and Howard Jacques that was lovingly based upon the RKO film of the same name. Fans of both dance and Hollywood will of course know that Top Hat (the movie) is arguably the partnership pinnacle of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. 

So in putting on his Top Hat, Mear has extremely large shoes to fill – and he fills them magnificently. The story behind the show is the most ridiculously light-hearted piece of froth – theres’s farce, dropped trousers, mistaken identity and a multitude of malapropisms. It’s as corny as heck, but as the comedy greats of years gone by have demonstrated, this type of comedy is the toughest to master.

Mear and his cast however don’t just master the gags – they make them soar. The timing is spot on throughout and aside from the song and dance, the contributions from Ashley Knight as the much put upon valet Bates and Stephane Anelli as Alberto Beddini, an Italian fashion designer / Lothario, are a masterclass in  comedy cameos.

But of course Top Hat is all about hearing those beautiful Irving Berlin songs and seeing them danced to perfection. The lead role of Jerry Travers is taken by Dan Burton – a performer who has much history with Mear – and the director knows just how to coax magic from this talented man. On stage virtually throughout the first half (and much of the second) Burton brings his mellifluous tenor voice to the show's classic songs in a way that earlier productions just haven’t been able to reach. As the show opens with Puttin’ On The Ritz, from the number's very first bars the evening’s standard of song and dance is defined. And as is Mear’s way, the ensemble have been drilled to ruthless perfection – to watch these routines is to float away in an ethereal delight.

Opposite Burton, Lauren Stroud plays the feisty Dale Tremont. Stroud mirrors Burton’s dance talent from the outset, and when we eventually hear her sing (well into act one with You’re Easy To Dance With) it’s a delight that has been well worth the wait. The two lead the show perfectly.

In close support as the lead comic protagonists, Charles Brunton and Nia Jermin are wonderfully cast as Horace and Madge Hardwick. Their overstated comic lampoonery (and Brunton’s buffoonery) is perfectly weighted, making  the narrative flow effortlessly. When they finally get their chance to sing in the deliciously anti-romantic, Outside of That, I Love You, its yet another barrel of (beautifully sung and danced) laughs.

There is excellence elsewhere, nestling in the show’s company with barely a programme credit to show for it. Daisy Boyles puts in a fabulous turn leading the delightful What Is Love? routine, while the footwork from the enchanting Chantel Bellew, dancing opposite Burton in an early routine, is another of the many gems that encrust this production.

Berlin’s melodies demand a strong band and Michael England’s 11 piece ensemble, tucked just off stage in a marquee, immaculately capture the elegance of the era and its melodies, with toes set tapping from the overture. The show's songs are massive and England’s orchestra rise magnificently to the challenge.

The open-air setting of Kilworth House is skilfully tackled by the show’s team. Morgan Large’s set offers an Art Deco vision that is as ingeniously multi-functional as it is dreamily elegant, never overshadowing the performers, merely enhancing their work. Similarly Chris Whybrow’s sound design works well with the venue’s unconventional acoustics – not a word or note is missed, while Jason Taylor’s lighting work takes on an increasingly subtle beauty as the sun slowly sets.

There's no finer finer tribute to the American Songbook in the land, but only a very privileged few will get a chance to savour this masterpiece of musical theatre - the run is completely sold out!

Runs until 17th September
Photo credit: Jems Photography

42nd Street - Review

Theatre du Chatelet, Paris


*****

Music by Harry Warren
Lyrics by Al Dubin
Book by Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble
Directed and choreographed by Stephen Mear

Dan Burton and the Company

There can be few more impressive openings to a musical than Stephen Mear's treatment of 42nd Street. With the orchestra (magnificent under Gareth Valentine's baton) having played the overture’s first few pages the curtain rises teasingly, just a yard or so, to reveal a stage full of dancing feet tapping out the show's melodies. With a company numbering nigh on 40, the sight and sound of this unexpected treat, performed with pinpoint, perfectly drilled precision, is simply breathtaking. Rarely has a show set its stall out so impressively in the overture and then gone on to exceed expectations as the evening plays out.

The story behind 42nd Street is a classic, corny even, meta-musical fairytale. It is 1933 and Peggy Sawyer, a young and gifted dancer from Allentown, Pennsylvania who has no showbiz experience wants to be cast in the new Broadway show Pretty Lady. Its genius but tyrannical director Julian Marsh is on his uppers after the Wall Street crash and in desperate need of a hit. Marsh overlooks Sawyer, and casts Dorothy Brock, a leading lady of years gone by as his star because Brock's sugar-daddy boyfriend has bankrolled Pretty Lady's production costs.

As love rivalries smoulder amongst the cast, Brock breaks her leg at the last minute. As Marsh is about to close the show, the ensemble persuade Marsh him to choose the talented Sawyer as Brock's replacement and of course she and the show become an instant hit.

Whilst the story may be corny, Mear who directs and choreographs has demanded production values that are anything but. Emerging talent Monique Young plays Sawyer and she brings a coquettish insouciance to the role matched only by her sensational footwork, handling her vocal solos with a confident charm and magnificent poise.

Sharing the honours as the show's other leading lady is Ria Jones' Brock. Mear knows Jones well (she famously understudied Glenn Close in his Sunset Boulevard earlier this year) and his understanding of the woman's gift has delivered yet another example of on-stage excellence. Jones hams up Brock wonderfully when she has to, yet shows off the full Rolls-Royce potential of her vocal majesty with her interpretations of I Only Have Eyes For You and the act one closer of the show's title number. As an aside, Jones is one of those occasional performers on London's cabaret scene who truly merits the description "unmissable".

Dan Burton who plays Sawyer's love interest Billy Lawlor is another of Mear's regular ingénues, last seen in the West End's Gypsy. Arguably the best of his generation in musical theatre dance, Burton has a grace in his movement that has to be seen to be believed alongside perfectly pitched, mellifluous vocals. Alexander Hanson's Marsh completes the quartet of key roles and he brings a believable gravitas to a part that can so easily become a cliché in less talented hands. Elsewhere in this magnificent company, Jennie Dale (yet another Mear regular) shines in support as Maggie Jones.

Dan Burton and Ensemble

It’s not just the cast that make this production quite so special. Valentine's orchestra is lavishly furnished, while Peter McKintosh's sets display an imaginative detail that can all too often these days be reduced to an economy of projected images, but here at the Theatre du Chatelet, are displayed in fabulous constructions of steel and backdrops.

And then of course there's the show's famously big numbers. Keep Young and Beautiful, We're in the Money and Lullaby of Broadway are done to a perfect turn. Mear fills McKintosh's stagings (and Philadelphia's Broad Street Station, complete with massive working clock stuns on its own) with a plethora of bodies that define flawless synchronised harmony.

The Chatelet’s producers have lavishly and tastefully invested a fortune in their cast and creatives and it shows. If you can beg, borrow or steal a ticket to Paris, go. This production of 42nd Street is quite simply musical theatre perfection - there's no better show to be seen this side of the Atlantic.

Runs until 8th January 2017

Gypsy - Review

Savoy Theatre, London

*****

Book by Arthur Laurents

Music by Jule Styne

Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

Directed by Jonathan Kent

Imelda Staunton

It is rare to see perfection improved upon, but in its transfer from Chichester Festival Theatre, Jonathan Kent’s Gypsy achieves just that. A highlight of 2014, the resonance of Jule Styne's big band brassy score filled the Sussex theatre's world class open stage. But Gypsy was written in and for the Golden Age of Broadway, to be mounted on a proscenium stage. In re-sculpting their masterpiece to fit the Savoy’s traditional confines, Kent and choreographer Stephen Mear have excelled.

Like a fine wine, Imelda Staunton's Momma Rose has matured since last year's press night. To this most complex of women (a role sometimes likened to the King Lear of musical theatre), Staunton now adds an even richer lustre. Not just a pushy mother, Rose is at once loving of her daughters yet insensitive to their needs, principled and yet shamelessly opportunistic and above all, endowed with the most monstrous of egos. Staunton owns her stage mastering a complex cocktail of passion, drive and ultimately the most fragile of vulnerabilities in a virtuoso performance. Stamping her mark on the show with a strength of voice that matches perfection in tone and an unbelievable presence, her comic one-liners are as perfectly honed as the pathos she wrings in her spot-lit solo finale, Rose's Turn. Truly, Staunton is now the finest female actor of her time.

Lara Pulver is exquisite as the initially fragile and over-shadowed Louise. In Little Lamb, Pulver blends a painful poignancy alongside our horrendous realisation that she is a young woman whose emotional development is literally being stifled by her mother. In a performance of mastered subtlety, Pulver commands our sympathy throughout. Thrown onto a burlesque stage at a moment’s notice, Pulver makes her first faltering steps into small-town sleaze straight into a piercing white spotlight and her character’s awkward pain is evident. But when she emerges, sable clad in fame and fortune yet still able to comfort her distraught mother whose own dreams now lie shattered, Pulver breaks our hearts.

Peter Davison completes the leading trio. New to the show, he brings a relaxed yet weathered and leathered credibility to Herbie that was the one missing link in Chichester. Davison can sing and move in line with his stature - and as Stephen Mear has already commented, the chemistry between Davison and Staunton sparkles.

Gypsy’s gems are richly sprinkled amongst its uber-talented company, with Dan Burton’s Tulsa proving him to be as smoothly voiced as his body is lithe. Burton’s routine in All I Need Is The Girl oozes the coolest of romance, with Mear choreographing the man magnificently.

Gemma Sutton's June hits the mark in the first half. One of the leading talents of her generation, Sutton imbues her over-mothered character with just the right amount of squeaky-voiced ambition, yet also despair. Top notch dance work from this talented young lady too.

The three seen-it-all Wichita strippers played by the (far from veteran) Anita Louise Combe, Louise Gold and Julie Legrand, offer the show’s wryest perspective, with a world-weary wisdom not dissimilar to the tragi-comedy of Hamlet’s gravediggers. Their wonderful You Gotta Get A Gimmick proving gloriously and hilariously that womanhood is still to be celebrated after the flush of youth has faded. 

The kids on press night were a polished troupe, with Isla Huggins-Barr’s Baby June bravely and brilliantly dancing her socks off, winning the West End audience with a precocious charm. A nod too to Holly Hazleton’s impeccable Baby Louise, one of the few kids to transfer from Chichester in what is a challenging role.

Anthony Ward’s design deploys ingenious scene shifts, framed within a chocolate box lid of a proscenium façade, whilst Nicholas Skilbeck’s direction of his 15 piece orchestra (all brass and wind, there’s no space for schmaltzy strings in this show) breathes a magnificence into Styne’s compositions that wows from the Overture’s opening bars.

In an era when juke-box songs, fancy stage sets or stunt casting are frequently needed to sell seats, Gypsy marks (another) breath of fresh air in recognising the simple genius of a perfectly written show, exquisitely staged. Moments such as the jaw-dropping choreography of the Time Lapse Transition, Jerome Robbins' original Broadway routine, leave us stunned.

Gypsy’s stage may have shrunk since Chichester, but like Babies June and Louise, this show has grown. Only in town for a few months, they don’t get better than this. Know too that in her Momma Rose, Imelda Staunton is offering the musical theatre performance of the century.

To read my recent interview with Stephen Mear on bringing Gypsy to the West End, click here

To read my review of the original Chichester production, click here.

Gypsy is now booking until 28th November 2015

The Gypsy In Mear - Stephen Mear On Choreographing Gypsy For The West End

clockwise from left Dan Burton, Stephen Mear, Lara Pulver and Imelda Staunton

SINCE THIS ARTICLE WAS FIRST PUBLISHED - GYPSY HAS OPENED AT THE SAVOY.

READ MY 5* REVIEW HERE

As Gypsy opens at the Savoy Theatre tonight, I caught up with its choreographer and one of the country's leading creative talents, Stephen Mear to talk about the show and in particular to understand more of his work with and respect for leading lady Imelda Staunton.

The Chichester Festival Theatre production of Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim's classic was one of the highlights of 2014 winning the Critics Circle award for Best Musical and cementing Staunton's position as quite possibly the nation's greatest musical theatre actress with her portrayal of the complex if monstrous Mamma Rose.

JB:    Stephen, thank you so much for finding the time to talk during the hectic work of Gypsy’s preview run. How's it’s going?

SM:    I don't think I've experienced anything like it before, ever, to be quite honest. We’ve already had Stephen Sondheim in to watch the show and with Imelda having got a full standing ovation after Rosie’s Turn at the first preview, it's really been quite breathtaking.

The full house just stood up instantaneously. It was quite something. I've always said with Imelda it's like watching a volcano erupt. It's all just so brilliantly acted. She's so controlled even in the bonkers section. She's just on the right side of everything. 

JB:    What is it like for you to have created something that was so sensationally acclaimed back in the summer and to then have a chance to revisit it?

SM:    I think it's always amazing to go back and revisit a show that you've done, if only because you have more time to work out different things.

We've changed Lara's strips and made them quicker and more continuous. That was wonderful to do.

JB:    And what challenges have you found in re-staging the show’s movement from Chichester’s modern thrust to the proscenium at the Savoy? 

SM:    At nearly twice the size of the Savoy, Chichester is a wonderful place. You've got three sides and you have to make sure everyone is entertained, including those to the side, otherwise there’s the risk that some of the audience might slightly miss out at some point. We’ve mastered that now, not least because I've worked there so many times.

JB:    The show very much describes a specific time and period in American history. What drove you in your vision to have the dance and movement reflect the era? 

SM:    Being true to the period is always so important. I have watched so many of Gypsy Rose Lee's strips, to try and improve Lara's strip routines

And I love that period anyway. I was brought up on MGM musicals!

 JB:    Tell me about choreographing Lara Pulver

SM:    I'm very lucky that we have got Lara who is just sensational and such a brilliant lady with her physicality. She goes from being a plain Jane, and you think, "How the hell is she going to become a fabulous stripper?" She does because, one, she's an amazing actress and two, she's so aware of her body, of how it works. She's just a dream to work with. 

It's the same with Dan Burton with All I Need is the Girl. I know how he works and I know his physicality. He's just so sensational to work on. His line and his flair and his elegance and style. He's got that period style for this piece as well.

JB:    And what does newcomer Peter Davison brings to the show. 

SM:    Peter has brought something different and it’s quite funny. His chemistry is wonderful with Imelda. They seem to be more flirtatious in the first scene which sets it up for me.  He also stands up to her a lot at the end, and it is quite interesting when he does that. 

JB:    Imelda Staunton is one of the finest actresses on both stage and screen and also one of the few who has earned an outstanding reputation that straddles both drama and musical theatre.

SM:    You see, I thought that when I was first was going to do the job, I thought, "I wonder how good her voice is?" And it is truly stunning!

She can sing, she can belt those big notes that Mama Rosie has to do at the end without going down a key or anything. She does not miss a beat. Sometimes she will go away to work on a routine and the next week, she'll come back and she's nailed it exactly to the timing, but with it all looking so natural without ever making it seem like I've said, "Look could you do a shoulder roll there."

She shows all sides of her character. She doesn't show just nice sides, she shows bonkers, sexy, everything. She's like a roller coaster and it’s that that keeps people on the edge of their seat.

JB:    She has an outstanding reputation in the industry as an excellent leading lady. Did you see that in her?

SM:    She's 100% a brilliant leader of the company like you wouldn't believe. She goes around the dressing rooms saying hello to everybody. She's a real star, beyond a star, I think.

When you hear of companies that are having troubles, it normally stems from the top. But if you've got somebody like Imelda, nobody’s ever going to mess about and everybody has to up their game. She's just got that old school mentality that not only knows how to keep everybody happy, she leads the show to what it is.

JB:    To what extent do you reference Jerome Robbins’ original Broadway choreography? 

SM:    We very much wanted to respect Jerome in the scene where the kids turn from young to old, having the old and young actors going simultaneously through each other without the audience suddenly realizing that they are all on stage. That was a challenge but it worked out great and rightly so, like many iconic moments. Jerome Robbins' era paved the way for all of us choreographers and it’s nice to tip your hat to people if you're doing one of their shows

JB:    Stephen, thanks again and I wish you and the company "broken legs" all round for a successful West End run!

Gypsy is now booking at the Savoy Theatre until 28th November 2015

Click here to read my review of the original Chichester production.

Gypsy - Review

Chichester, Festival Theatre

*****

Book by Arthur Laurents

Music by Jule Styne

Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Directed by Jonathan Kent

Imelda Staunton

Vaudeville is dying in 1920’s America. Against that backdrop and to Arthur Laurents’ book, Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim have penned one of the bleakest yet most beautiful musicals ever. Gypsy, set in the Great Depression, charts Momma Rose’s manic depression, who as the pushiest of parents sets out to channel her own fading dream of showbiz stardom, through the lives of her daughters.

Imelda Staunton's Momma Rose defines the role. She and Jonathan Kent have previous of course, with her Mrs Lovett in his Sweeney Todd proving Chichester's 2011 sensation, going on to win her an Olivier the next year on its West End transfer. This remarkable actress offers a totality of commitment, in movement, voice and emotion that proves a truly rare trinity. As well as the most complex of paths to pathos, Staunton also finds the humour that Sondheim subtly weaves into his prose, with Small World in particular proving a delight. It is of course in the delivery of those massive numbers Everything’s Coming Up Roses and Rose’s Turn, that Staunton proves herself beyond compare amongst her generation.

The impact of the abusive emotional neglect that Momma Rose heaps on her daughters is brought into painful relief by Lara Pulver as the over-shadowed Louise and by Gemma Sutton (a name increasingly associated with exquisite performances) as her spotlight-addicted sister June. Pulver’s portrayal of Louise, continually being overlooked in favour of her sibling, is never once overplayed by the actress. As vaudeville dies and Momma Roses pushes the shy Louise into the spotlight as a small town burlesque stripper, Pulver gives one of the most poignant segues ever, as the brutatlity of her mother’s pushing evolves into the tender, initially damaged response of the daughter. Oh and her voice in the glorious penultimate number Let Me Entertain You, is heavenly. Alongside and as a hangdog Herbie, a complex man desperately out to win Rose’s love, Kevin Whateley, a name not often associated with musical theatre convinces us of his commitment to Rose’s dream.

Other notable gems in this jewel box of a cast are Dan Burton’s Tulsa whose grace in both voice and dance wows in All I Need Is The Girl, whilst (the almost) veteran Louise Gold as Mazeppa plays the most world-weary of strippers who’s seen it all and proves as much, leading a gloriously sleazy line in You Gotta Get A Gimmick. And a salute too for young Georgia Pemberton, whose presence, dance and baton twirling brilliance as the Young June is an absolute treat.

Stephen Mear’s choreography is incisive and beautifully conceived. His company work is a joy throughout, with the meticulously managed “mediocrity” of Broadway, as Rose’s vaudevillian hoofers bungle their way through a routine, proving to be a classy confection.

The design by Anthony Ward neatly combines marquee lights with the drabness of assorted downtowns, whilst directly beneath the stage the most gloriously proportioned pit, being used here for the first time in the newly rebuilt venue, accommodates Nicholas Skilbeck’s fifteen piece (predominantly brass) band. Styne’s score is given a truly thrilling treatment, with the Overture alone setting spines tingling.

The good people of Chichester are spoiled with the flawless perfection of this show. As Gypsy demands all from Imelda Staunton, so too does theatre demand that this production reaches a wider audience. Go see Gypsy – Its haunting perfection will stay with you for a long time.

Runs until 8th November 2014