Beauty And The Beast - The Musical - Review

London Palladium, London

*****

Music by Alan Menken

Lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice

Directed and choreographed by Matt West

Courtney Stapleton and Shaq Taylor

From Barbot de Villeneuve’s 1740 fairy tale La Belle et la Bête, through countless stage and screen adaptations, the story of Beauty And The Beast is a classic parable of good and love conquering evil. Now, following an extensive tour of the UK, director and choreographer Matt West brings his Disney entourage into the West End where the show has opened at the London Palladium.

Disney’s magic has always lain within its imagery as much as the narratives and with Stanley A. Meyer's scenic design and Ann Hould-Ward’s costume work, West is well supported. Not only were this creative trio involved with the show’s original Broadway iteration some 28 years ago, but they have ensured that audiences are treated to treasured moments of old-style along with brand new elements both in design and delivery that keep this production feeling as new, fresh and exciting as ever. It is rare that a design has such an overwhelming impact across a production and while at times the village scenes felt a little bare amidst the vastness of the Palladium’s proscenium, Meyer’s combination of projection, video, lighting and three moving rustic scrolls into multiple configurations instantly transported the tale from village to woodland and of course the enchanted castle where so much of the story takes place.

With story and songs alike engrained in the minds of many, it’s no surprise that audiences sit with baited breath anticipating those iconic moments of speech and song. Alan Menken and Howard Ashman truly wrote some of their finest numbers for this piece of musical magic, with Tim Rice also contributing as Disney’s animated hit made the transition on to Broadway. Hits such as Be Our Guest and Human Again are both sensationally led by Gavin Lee’s Lumiere whom after a stint on Broadway returns to the West End and who holds the audience in the palm of his hand with nuance, charm and charisma. 

The energy and comedic timing of Louis Stockil as Le Fou is fun, as is the delightful giggling gossiping Madame played by Samantha Bingley who has sensational chemistry onstage throughout with the equally talented Sam Bailey as Mrs Potts. While the title number doesn’t allow for powerhouse vocals from Bailey, she still delivers with the required vocal finesse with of course the timeless Angela Lansbury (who else?) voicing the show's Prologue.

West offers a fresh take on the relationship between Courtney Stapleton’s Belle and Beast played by Shaq Taylor. Stapleton is perfect and a far more strong willed heroine / princess than has been seen before with flawless vocals throughout, in particular during ‘A Change in Me’ in Act 2. Taylor equally rises to the occasion. The traditional heavy footed, thudding, growling Beast is out. Instead, Taylor brings a far more genuine and honest approach, ‘If I Can’t Love Her’ proving a vocal masterclass, instantly generating empathy for not only one but two trapped prisoners: one in a castle, the other in his own body.

It may have been only nigh-on 30 years ago but one cannot help but feel that this classic French yarn isn’t going anywhere. It’s hard to imagine the world of both stage and screen without this iconic story, truly a tale as old as time. Never has there been a more appropriate lyric for this beast of a production that is such a beauty to behold.

Runs until 17th September

Reviewed by Joe Sharpe

Photo credit: Johan Persson

Aladdin - Review

New Amsterdam Theatre, New York

****

Music by Alan Menken

Lyrics by Howard Ashman, Tim Rice and Chad Beguelin

Book by Chad Beguelin
Directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw

Adam Jacobs

It is always a joy to review the work of Alan Menken and the late and much lamented Howard Ashman. Not since the Sherman Brothers has a song-writing partnership nailed so perfectly that glorious combination of pathos, irony and hilarious self-deprecation that make for a good Disney soundtrack. These two guys put the Genie into genius and so it is with Broadway's Aladdin, where their songs from the 1992 animated Oscar-winner form the backbone to the newly-expanded stage show.

We all know of Robin Williams' gifted performance in voicing the cartoon Genie. Williams created a role nigh-on impossible to match, that is until Disney found James Monroe Iglehart. His blue pantalooned lamp-dweller is a breathtaking combination of comedy, dance and song with an audience rapport that is as confident as it is brazen. Iglehart has famously made the show, with his full-company act one blast of Friend Like Me proving to be an encore-demanding show stopper the likes of which don't come around often. Understudy Michael James Scott proved to be a top-notch cover on the night.

Adam Jacob's Aladdin is a convincing take on the street rat with a heart of gold, whilst Courtney Reed's  Princess Jasmine and understudy Merwin Foard's bad guy Jafar put in just enough to keep the story ticking over.

Where the movie had talking animals as the comedy sidekicks (Aladdin's monkey, Abou and Jafar's parrot, Iago) the constraints of real-life theatre demand human henchmen. Abou evolves into three of Aladdin's buddies that include one food-fixated overweight shmuck, whilst Iago is also an obese (albeit wise-guy) buffoon of a foil to Jafar. Brian Gonzales and Don Darryl Rivera are both great comics in these roles, but whilst elsewhere Aladdin strives for political correctness with an almost patronising nod to Jasmine's pleas for sexual equality, it is disappointing that Disney still can't resist making the fat guys the laughing stock.

The technical wizardry of the show is fun, although on this visit a loud auditorium alarm ruined A Whole New World. The show was halted whilst the fault was fixed, but then simply carried on where it had left off. Shame on you Disney. Many of the audience had paid a fortune to see THAT carpet fly (which it did magnificently) and to hear THAT song too (which was sadly reduced to sonic garbage). Ruin one effect and you ruin the other. The song and flying routine should have been repeated. Dollars wasted.

The original movie ran for 90 minutes and with a stage show demanding another 60 to be filled, more songs are needed to pad. It is a genuine a joy to hear some Menken / Ashman work that had originally been cut from the movie, (notably the two numbers Proud Of Your Boy and High Adventure) but some of Bequelin's new stuff in the first half drags. Credit though, his act two newly-minted Somebody's Got Your Back, comprising knockabout swordplay, makes for an entertaining routine.

Kids will love the show and it makes for a sure fire birthday or Christmas treat. Flawed, yes, but even so, Disney’s Aladdin is still a diamond in the rough.

Now booking until 2015  

Jenny Gayner - Actress and producer

Jenny Gayner

Regular readers to these pages will know that I have particular soft spots for musical theatre on stage and the horror genre on screen. Since my twitter following has modestly grown over the months, I have come to discover that I am not alone in enjoying this eclectic combination and that there are quite a number of folk out there who can adore a full on jazz-hands routine on a Saturday night yet still find time for some popcorn-fuelled slashery and torture on a Sunday.

Of course, the connection between musical theatre and horror is actually nothing new. One of the longest running musicals Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom Of The Opera is at heart nothing more than a very frightening Gothic horror story set to music, yet many (most?) of those who pack out London’s Her Majesty’s Theatre or those numerous other venues where the show plays around the world, would not dream of buying a ticket for, or downloading, an 18-certificate horror tale. In a slightly different vein(!) musical theatre horror and humour have often gone hand in hand with Menken and Ashman’s Little Shop of Horrors being probably the most well known take on that particular pastiche style, though Drewe and Rowe’s Zombie Prom is another example of composers blending horror, humour and music into a quirky cocktail, whilst the same pair’s The Witches of Eastwick, famed as a musical comedy, has at its core a horrifically satanic fable. Thus the bloody fantasies of horror have a long and macabre association with the far frothier fantasy world of musical theatre’s harmonies and dance routines.  

So it was therefore a delight, on attending the press night of Chris Burgess’ Sleeping Arrangements (reviewed here) at London’s Landor Theatre earlier this year, to learn that accomplished musical theatre trouper Jenny Gayner, was not only starring in the soon to be released horror flick The Addicted, but that she’d actually gone and produced the movie too. It made for a pleasant hour as we chatted about these two very different dark and light aspects of the fantasy spectrum.

Prior to the relatively short Landor run, Gayner had already achieved a fine reputation for her work in Chicago (understudying Roxie Hart), as well as appearances in Spamalot, The Rocky Horror Show and a Manchester based production of A Chorus Line. She knows her musicals and her lengthy association with Chicago, both on its UK tour and in the show’s final London months testify to her talents. But she is also a woman who likes her horror. It may have to be bloody if necessary but above all and as with her musical theatre work, it must be built around a strong story. 

There are some films that Gayner finds too difficult to enjoy. She quotes Eli Roth’s Hostel,(based upon a horrific and true reported story, of wealthy men in the Far East who paid huge sums for the “pleasure” of torturing naive young westerners) as a film that was just too real for her liking and, notwithstanding the story’s strength, she found its reality too unpleasant to watch. For Gayner, a story needs to be credible but also fantastic. She speaks praisingly of the 2009 remake of Last House On The Left, a tale that opens with a harrowing rape and by a turn of events delivers the rapists into the hands of the victim’s parents. It’s a thrilling revenge tale, with scenes that are often graphically portrayed, yet it is also well written fantasy and knowing that the story is pure make-believe and with its heart also very much in the right place (suffice to say the villains meet grisly ends) is horror that works for her.

Gayner (l) on set in The Addicted

The Addicted will soon be available on satellite TV distribution, no mean achievement in itself for a first-time independent feature and Gayner has relished the challenge of producing a full length movie and the challenges that go with the process. Securing funding was an initial hurdle, though with independent horror being famed as a low-budget entry to movie-making, the film’s £10,000 cost was not ridiculously out of reach. Managing the sheer logistics of the movie was of course a task in itself and Gayner chuckles as she recalls frantically managing the project both from home and her Chicago dressing room! As for the film, its a gritty gruesome fantasy set around an abandoned drug rehab clinic. Suffice to say it opens with a scarily high body count but to add any more comment would be to spoil.

Its all happening for Jenny right now. The Addicted is available on satellite from September 1st, whilst the end of the month will see her solo cabaret night at London’s Pheasantry, accompanied by some stellar guests. A stylish embodiment of the classic “triple-threatening” performer, of actress singer and dancer, Gayner is all that a musical theatre professional should be, but now as an emerging producer of horror movies, she is defining herself as an innovator, keen to challenge and to explore new methods of entertaining an audience. A woman who at all times combines the professional attributes of excellence and enthusiasm, who knows… her arrival as a movie producer could yet prove addictive!

Jenny Gayner performs at The Pheasantry on September 28th , for details and tickets, click here.

The Addicted is available via satellite broadcast from September 1st