Man Of La Mancha - Review

Coliseum, London

***

Music by Mitch Leigh

Lyrics by Joe Darion

Written by Dale Wasserman

Directed by Lonny Price

Kelsey Grammer and Danielle De Niese

It has been 50 years since Man Of La Mancha last played in London’s West End and based upon this year’s offering from the ENO and co-producers Grade-Linnitt it is easy to see why. This curious tale of romance, chivalry and ageing, drawn from Cervantes’ Don Quixote, demands production values that are nothing short of excellent if its hidden but cheesy charms are to truly suspend an audience’s disbelief.

Here however, celebrity stunt casting has stripped what could have been a majestic musical of its Iberian magic. Kelsey Grammer leads as Cervantes / Quixote and while Grammer’s ability to carry off the close-ups of a carefully scripted TV sitcom is unmatched, he fails to fill the demanding chasm that is London’s Coliseum. Compared to the West End’s finest Grammer can sing, just. But he cannot act through his song and for a show that is built around one absolute money-shot of a number, the first act's closer The Impossible Dream, one is left wandering out for an ice cream and feeling distinctly short-changed even before the rip-off prices of a vanilla tub.

There’s mediocrity elsewhere too - Nicholas Lyndhurst (another gem of the smaller screen) puts in a throughly average turn as the Governor / Innkeeper and even Peter Polycarpou as Sancho Panza, a man who usually delivers musical theatre genius, is burdened  by director Price with a cod Spanish accent that reduces his part to little more than a Spanish waiter. Polycarpou is so much better than this.

There are some moments to the production that imbue quality. Danielle De Niese is magnificent as Aldonza / Dulcinea - her voice, particularly in the closing act, breaking hearts as she sings of her love for the dying old man. And the music is rather wonderful too with the ENO Orchestra under David White’s baton proving an absolute delight. For anyone who loves Mitch Leigh’s sumptuous score, you will never hear it played live any finer than this.

Runs until 8th June

Sunset Boulevard - Review

Coliseum, London

*****

Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber

Book & lyrics by Don Black & Christopher Hampton

Based on the Billy Wilder film

Directed by Lonny Price

Glenn Close and Michael Xavier

Billy Wilder's seminal 1950 movie Sunset Boulevard is a satirical gem that scooped three Oscars back in its day and is still ranked amongst the top 20 of American films of the last century. If you've never seen it, then read this review and then go watch it. A link to view the movie online is at the foot of this page.

Wilder’s genius lay not only in his script and direction, but in hiring so many Hollywood greats to act in his meta-movie. Norma Desmond, his fictitious, faded Hollywood star was played by Gloria Swanson, herself a legend of the silent movie era. Cecil B. DeMille played himself and Max, her loyal butler was played by Erich von Stroheim, back in the day a silent-movie directing genius.

Where Singin’ In The Rain was all about the death of silent-movies and later Mack and Mabel celebrated their very existence (and note how Swanson’s name pops up in that show’s song Movies Were Movies), Sunset Boulevard explored a far darker world – that of the impact on a megastar whose 30 million fans have deserted her and who is now isolated and deranged, holed up in her mansion on Sunset Boulevard, with just a chimpanzee for company. Wilder could almost have been foretelling aspects of Michael Jackson’s lifestyle…

So, it is a remarkable credit to Andrew Lloyd Webber, Don Black and Christopher Hampton that their musical is such a homage to Wilder’s classic. And in Lonny Price’s iteration, to see Glenn Close as Norma Desmond, offers perfection in casting.

For sure, Close is not deranged (neither was Swanson in 1950) and nor has she been deserted by her fans (the adulatory cheers as she walks on stage in what is her West End debut, even before the final rave ovation prove that). But what Close is, is a Hollywood Legend of the grandest order, ranking in her generation alongside Meryl Streep, but not really many others. And that defines part of the magic of this production at the Coliseum. A Hollywood diva is in London, playing …a Hollywood diva. This will not happen often in our lifetimes.

Sunset Boulevard makes for a sensational night in the theatre. Close, returning to the role that she created in the USA 20 years ago is a remarkable presence. The show is at its strongest revolving around Norma Desmond’s mania and her two big numbers With One Look, defining how she filled the screen in her heyday and As If We Never Said Goodbye, sung as she makes a heartbreaking return to a Paramount sound stage, connect strongly with the pulse of the original movie.

As the hack writer Joe Gillis, Michael Xavier is perfect. As his character is hardened to the trash of Tinseltown and possessing a body to die for (literally), there are few people in town who could match Xavier’s presence and vocal excellence. Opening the second half, his big number Sunset Boulevard defines Hollywood’s rapacious brutality.

The youthful love-interest comes from Siobhan Dillon’s Betty Schaefer. Wilder created Schaefer very much as a two-dimensional, film-noir, femme fatale and Dillon nails the woman’s beautiful allure.

Perhaps after Close, the most ingenious casting decision has been to select the Swedish Fred Johanson to play Max. Johanson not only brings the most carefully crafted interpretation to Madame’s “keeper of the flame”, striving to preserve the paper-thin illusions of her deluded world – but he is also a dead-ringer for von Stroheim’s creation. There’s not a lot for Max to sing in the show, but Johanson makes fine work of the haunting New Ways To Dream.

Fred Johanson

The economical concert staging is pulled off with aplomb. Michael Reed’s on-stage 48-piece orchestra provide a lavish treatment of Lloyd-Webber’s score, whilst Stephen Mear’s inspired choreography makes versatile use of the Coliseum’s space and walkways.

It all makes for a very stylish musical, Glenn Close's Norma Desmond proving unforgettable.

To watch Sunset Boulevard online click the link below

http://ffilms.org/sunset-blvd-1950/

The show runs until 7th May

Photo credit: Richard Hubert Smith

The movie's title shot

Ria Jones Plays Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard - Review

Coliseum, London

*****

Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber

Book and lyrics by Don Black & Christopher Hampton

Directed by Lonny Price

Ria Jones

Last night, following the indisposition of the show's leading lady, Ria Jones was called upon to play Norma Desmond.

Theatre PR Kevin Wilson was in the audience and with his permission, I am proud to share his review here.

The West End and Broadway is littered with real-life cases of people taking over in a starring role through illness or misfortune and shows like 42nd Street even use it as the main story frame. But those of us fortunate to personally know Ria Jones, who stepped up to the plate so heroically in Sunset Boulevard last night when Glenn Close was taken ill, know that she is already one of our greatest Musical Theatre stars, yet largely unknown as a "face". 

At 19 she had been the youngest actress ever to play Eva Peron in 'Evita', followed shortly by her stunning West End debut in 'Chess' as both Svetlana and Florence. Grizabella in 'CATS', Fantine in 'Les Miserables, The Narrator in 'Joseph And His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat' Liz Imbrie in 'High Society' Reno Sweeney in 'Anything Goes', 'The Witches of Eastwick' all followed among many other notable roles... Hell, she even created the role of Norma Desmond in Andrew Lloyd Webber's original Sydmonton workshop. 

Born to play this flashy, dramatic, highly operatic role, she was always billed as The Alternate Norma but few expected her to get to actually don the turban. Last night she did with just a few hours notice. And she stormed the stage and took the roof off the building. She must have been terrified (and exhilerated in turn) as she uttered Norma's first words off stage and descended the massive staircase to the stage below and a sea of disappointed punters. But she won them over with a performance that was pure CLASS.

There had been blood on the carpet in the box office as puce-faced theatregoers waving self-print tickets costing hundreds of £££ in the air demanded their money back (no chance, there) – and they delayed the show by 20 agonising minutes. Thanks to just 3 puny notices, hundreds more in their seats weren't aware anything was wrong... Then the theatre manager (poor man) took to the stage with a microphone and announced Ria was in the lead. Someone behind me in the stalls shamefully shouted out loudly "GIVE US OUR MONEY BACK!" There was no large scale booing but much murmuring and muttering then her army of fans – me included - many in the gods having bought tickets at just an hours' notice screamed and shouted and clapped her in. 

"I know you are in for a treat and it sounds like many of you here know already and agree with me," the apologist manager finished with final rejoinder to the neersayers. 

And Ria was S-E-N-S-A-T-I-O-N-A-L. Backed by the 51-piece ENO orchestra (who all applauded her off stage after the curtain call) she has never sounded better... this was HER MOMENT and she knew she had to be better than she's ever been before. She hit every high note like a clarion bell. Her final, thrilling defiant "They'll say Norma's back at last ...With one look I'll be me!" silenced any doubters that they were seeing an inferior performance... and the crowd went absolutely wild. 

At the curtain call, co-star Michael Xavier bowed down before her on stage and producer Michael Grade was first to grab her in the wings as the sound of the cast applauding her enveloped her. A class act, indeed and one I am so priviliged to say I witnessed up close and personal from the front row. It was a night I will never forget.

Siobhan Dillon, Michael Xavier, Ria Jones, Fred Johanson

A Class Act - Review

Landor Theatre, London

*****

Book by Linda Kline and Lonny Price

Music and lyrics by Edward Kleban

Directed by Robert McWhir

A Class Act at the Landor Theatre is a biography of the lyricist of A Chorus Line, Ed Kleban. Written by Linda Kline and Lonny Price, it charts the life of this talented creative who died tragically young in 1987 of smoking related cancer, via a parcel of songs that he bequeathed to Kline and around which the show’s book has been fashioned.

The show depicts Kleban’s life as almost manic. A gifted composer as well as writer, the story’s history commences in 1958 with his inpatient stay in a mental hospital, in which the fragility of his mental balance is clearly signalled. A Chorus Line was to be his only Broadway hit and this show painfully depicts the torture his soul endured at the lack of recognition afforded his musical compositions. Kleban’s mental anguish combined with his early demise make for harrowing watching, yet in Robert McWhir’s skilled hands, this little-known piece is as uplifting as it is tragic.

That A Class Act is such a glorious evening spent in the theatre, is largely due to the efforts of one man, John Barr. His Kleban is on stage almost throughout and he portrays the flawed but gifted composer with an energy that at times suggests a neuroses fuelled younger Woody Allen (the specs clinch it), albeit divinely voiced. Kleban opens the show with an inspirational number, reprised through both acts, Light On My Feet and his closing song, Self Portrait, that wraps up the chapters of his life is as moving and upsetting as a musical can be.

This is a show in which it is invidious to name individual performers. All of the seven supporting cast are outstanding. Memorable though, Barry Fantoni’s Lehman Engel, a teacher of libretto who Kleban studied under going on to teach alongside, was witty and frank. Sarah Borges’ Sophie, Kleman’s first and deepest love is a performance of beautifully calculated understatement, Erin Cornell’s seductive blonde bombshell Mona is as sensitively overstated at the opposite end of the spectrum, whilst Jane Quinn’s Lucy, in love with Kleban, plays both passion and poignancy in perfect proportion.

The company do not put a foot wrong and under Robbie O Reilly’s cleverly crafted choreography, the Landor’s space is well used and as cleverly lit by Richard Lambert. Only on until April 13, this production is a rare “must see”. It is an example of London’s and the Landor’s talents at their very best.

Runs until April 13th 2013