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

The Great Jewish American Songbook - Review

Upstairs At The Gatehouse, London


****


Written by Chris Burgess
Directed by Matthew Gould

The Ensemble

Once upon a time Jews wrote the shows…Now it seems they ARE the shows, with revues and plays, some good, some Bad lining up to have the “J” word in the title. The latest pot-pourri - or should that be cholent (google it) – of kosher-themed offerings is Aria Entertainments’ rather charming The Great Jewish American Songbook, which includes many of the 20th century songwriters who composed for Broadway and Hollywood. Note “many”, but significantly, not “all”, with notable omissions on the night including Bernstein, Sondheim, Styne, Kander, Ebb. 

Anyway – this ensemble is really rather good. Their set list runs in chronological order, kicking off with "the daddy" of the Broadway musical, Jerome Kern and ending up somewhere in the 1960’s with Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick’s Fiddler On The Roof. Such was the familiarly of the numbers that the (mainly silver-haired) crowd could barely stop tapping their feet.  

Jennifer Harding first made audience spines tingle with a thrilling Can’t Help Loving That Man from Show Boat and if Lee Ormsby’s Ol’ Man River wasn’t quite as sensational (Lee, a tip, the “d” in Ol isn’t just silent, it’s non-existent!), it offered a chance to re-visit one of the biggest songs ever, from Ormsby’s gorgeous baritone. 

Harding was soon to stun again with a sizzling extract from Gershwin’s Summertime, in a section of the show that illustrated the classy structure of Chris Burgess' book, linking the songs with insightful narrative. The poignancy of the cast telling of Gershwin’s death and then immediately singing They Can’t Take That Away From Me was a link of heartbreaking magnitude. Jessie May who was on top form throughout, went on to deliver the composer’s gorgeous Our Love Is Here To Stay.

Burgess’ skill is not just in showcasing the favourites, but also unearthing some rare gems. Grant McConvey made great work of Irving Berlin’s Cohen Owes Me Ninety-Seven Dollars – a number so full of Jewish American humour it could easily have been penned by Tom Lehrer or Mel Brooks. It was Harding and May however who were again to break the hearts of a packed Gatehouse with Berlin’s Suppertime, from the little known show As Thousands Cheer, the song’s harrowing lyrics telling of an African American woman having to tell her kids their father’s been lynched.

The second half offered a whirl through first Rodgers and Hart, then Hammerstein with perhaps one of the evening’s rare duds, Oklahoma. The song was written to be sung by a full company – and scaling it down to just four voices left it denuded. Also – whilst much of the narrative was fascinating, some of it, told on this night to a predominantly Jewish audience from a predominantly non-Jewish cast sounded occasionally just a tad patronising. Nothing that can’t be tweaked mind and anyway, what's a review of a Jewish show without at least one complaint!

The biggest accolade of the night has to go to Musical Director Neil MacDonald and his unseen Musical Arranger Andy Collyer. The whole gig was a seamless segue of musical excellence, MacDonald’s three piece band capturing the distilled classics perfectly.

Whilst its Highgate run is about to end, this delightful evening deserves a (to misquote Tevye) Long Life! There’s wit and wisdom in abundance as well as a respectful acknowledgment of the century’s horrors that so decimated European Jewry. When it comes around again, don’t miss it!

Runs until 28th February, then at The Radlett Centre on 6th March

Photo credit: Kim Sheard

Lovebirds - CD Review

****

Music, lyrics and book by Robert J. Sherman

Premiering at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, Lovebirds marks some gorgeous new musical theatre from Robert J. Sherman. The son and nephew of legendary tunesmiths Robert B. and Richard M. Sherman, Robert J.'s show harks back to the era of vaudeville, Scott Fitzgerald and days of schmaltzy, beautifully voiced romance.

Telling a simple fantasy fuelled fable, whilst Sherman has written all of Lovebirds’ music, lyrics and book, the unmistakable influence of his beloved predecessors runs through the melodies like a stick of rock. Lovebirds is a world of singing birds and heartfelt passions, where a barber-shop troupe of singing penguins is signed up to a fading vaudeville show of macaws and parrots. Jealousies and rivalries emerge and an unlikely love blossoms before ultimately all the birds are in harmony expressing a passionate hope for the future. It’s a corny if imaginative premise, but what makes Lovebirds take flight is the beauty of Sherman’s music and the immaculate performances of his gifted cast.

Whilst Lovebirds is undoubtedly a sincere and warm-hearted look back at a more gentle time, it is playing to a 21st century audience – and notwithstanding the performers’ talent (captured beautifully in this immaculately engineered recording) there are a handful of Sherman’s rhymes that are too easily predicted, with other lyrics crying out for a “Tim Rice” touch to sharpen their wit. And whilst the album’s penultimate number Today Is Yesterday’s Tomorrow offers an outlook on the future that is syrup-like in its optimism, one cannot help but be reminded of 1963’s offering from the senior Shermans, There’s A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow - to the extent that the sixties number almost overshadows Robert J. Sherman’s work.

There are some true gems in this recording – there’s an affectionately wistful, penguin-performed tribute to Mary Poppins that neatly references the birds’ appearance in Disney’s iconic movie, whilst the company number Tinpanorama makes for a sassy treat that sounds like it features some sensational tap work.

Amidst a flock of treats with Sherman’s melodies referencing the charleston as well as a soft-shoe shuffle in there too – and with Greg Castiglioni and Ruth Betteridge leading a flawless 9-strong troupe, there is much in Lovebirds to please the genre’s cognoscenti. An economically sized band of 3 musicians, under Neil Macdonald’s accomplished direction, also deliver excellence.

It is possible that some of the genius of the Sherman brothers came precisely because they were a pair – able to both criticise and hone each other’s contribution. Robert J. Sherman, who has a recognised gift for both composing and storytelling, writes alone. With a snappier lyricist for a wingman, Lovebirds could yet prove sensational.

Physical CDs are available from www.SimGProductions.com