Wild About You - Review

Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London

**

Music & lyrics by Chilina Kennedy

Book by Eric Holmes

Directed by Nick Winston

Rarely have such a platinum-plated cast delivered a tale of such unfathomable mediocrity.

All of the actors Eric McCormack, Rachel Tucker, Oliver Tompsett, Tori Allen-Martin, Jamie Muscato and Todrick Hall are vocally magnificent, representing the cream of British (McCormack excluded) musical theatre talent. Nick Barstow’s 10-piece band are fabulous too.

It is just that Eric Holmes’ book and Chilina Kennedy’s lyrics are the shallowest cliche-fest to have made a West End stage in many a year.  Olivia (Tucker) wakes up in a hospital ward as the curtain rises, with her memory wiped. The show then begins an exploration of her piecing together the reconstruction of her life. Frankly, it may well have been a better story if she’d stayed asleep.

The second act is a shameless steal from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel, albeit without that pair’s creative genius. The actors are left with little to do other than (beautifully) sing songs that it is impossible to care about.

Thankfully only on for 2 nights, Wild About You is over now.

Songs For A New World - Review

*****

Music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown

Directed by Séimí Campbell

Rachel Tucker takes Just One Step in Songs For A New World

The opening image of Séimí Campbell’s streamed production of Jason Robert Brown’s song cycle is profound. Staring out to an empty auditorium, a theatre’s ghost light, placed centre stage, defines the new world that has befallen the theatre community.  Amidst a global pandemic, with nations vowing to build back better, this Songs For A New World is a timely production – made all the more technically and poignantly excellent through having been vocally recorded by each of the cast, isolated in their homes, on their smartphones.

The Opening Sequence: The New World, has Campbell intercutting his performers with a montage of darkened West End and Broadway venues, now dark as newsreel voiceovers tell of the blow that the Coronavirus has levelled at the theatre industry. The contrast between this bleak, current, reality – and the majestic power of the singer’s voices is devastating.

Campbell’s company comprises a quartet of the industry’s finest, with Rachel John, Ramin Karimloo, Cedric Neal and Rachel Tucker, each offering a cross between a masterclass and an episode of TV’s Through The Keyhole, as their respective performances display not only their musical theatre excellence, but also whirlwind tours of their respective residences.

But as an escape from lockdown, the show is glorious. Highlights of the cast’s excellence within such difficult circumstances (principal photography having taken place during Lockdown 1) are provided by all four leads. Tucker’s soaring, swooping take on Stars And The Moon (as well as a wonderfully provocative Surabaya Santa) is an honest, scorching take on life. Karimloo’s She Cries is exhilarating. John touches our hearts with her gorgeous Christmas Lullaby, while Neal’s King Of The World offers perception and power in his interpretation. A mention too for Shem Omari James, fittingly cast to lead Steam Train, a number all about young, raw talent making a name for themselves in adversity.

The creative crew are impressive too. Joshua Winstone and Adam Hoskins have made fine work of Brown's score, while Matt Ide and Danny Kaan deliver digital and audio wizardry in pulling the whole show together.  

Above all though and as a paean to showbusiness, the production is ultimately a beacon of hope. To those artists in the industry that are tired of waiting, Brown’s lyrics are uplifting: “Hold on, hold fast”, and for any individual who is struggling emotionally or mentally “Listen to the song that I sing, you’ll be fine”.

Streams until 28 February 2021 

Come From Away - Review

Phoenix Theatre, London

***

Music, lyrics and book by Irene Sankoff and David Hein

Directed by Christopher Ashley

Amidst the horrors of 9/11, there were pockets of human kindness and charity. So it was for the tiny Newfoundland town of Gander who when the United States' airspace was shut down after the four aircraft-based terrorist attacks, found itself having to accommodate 38 unexpected jetloads of passengers, comprising some 6,000+ souls (or “Come From Aways” as the locals call outsiders), for the best part of a week.

Such a flood of humanity was bound to throw up all sorts of issues ripe for a musical theatre treatment – and so it follows in Irene Sankoff’s and David Hein’s composition. Numerous threads emerge, including a love that evolves between two passengers and a neat little tale of a Gander local who realises that there were likely to have been animals travelling in the planes’ cargo holds and rescues as many as she can. Throughout the one-act show (that runs for under two hours) there’s much to warm the cockles of most of the hearts in the audience.

But for all the bitter-sweet vignettes, punches have been pulled. None of the grimmer or more tawdry aspects of what might have unfolded between 6,000 folk thrown together for 6 days (and nights) are explored and while the musical rightly highlights the shameful “othering” that one of the Come From Aways, a Muslim chef was subject to, it offers no comment whatsoever upon the ideology of hate that brought the 9/11 nightmare into being in the first place.

A sung-through piece, the numbers for the most part are tuneful yet forgettable – though that should not detract from the onstage excellence of both cast and band. A truly ensemble show, with no featured actors and all the performers listed alphabetically, standout work comes from Rachel Tucker as an airline pilot and the ever reliable Clive Carter playing all manner of wise and elderly characters. Noteworthy that all of the cast interchange between various roles throughout the evening, doing so convincingly and instantaneously in a flawless set of performances.

Flawless performances however do not necessarily make for a stimulating night. For while Gander’s generosity was unhesitating and generous, one might perhaps have expected the same response from any kind-hearted community around the world. One only has to witness the communal response say, to London’s recent Grenfell Tower tragedy or the outpourings of support that flood in for other disasters, to realise that the Newfoundland folk are not alone in their selflessness. And rallying to support the requirements of (even a few thousand) disoriented travellers, albeit from around the globe, doesn’t quite match up to the heroism say, of New York’s firefighters – many of whom gave the ultimate sacrifice on that most horrendous of days. 

Come From Away is unquestionably wonderfully performed, but its schmaltzy set pieces fail to move.


Now booking until 14th September
Photo credit:Matthew Murphy

An Evening With Jason Robert Brown - Review

London Palladium



****

Jason Robert Brown

A packed Palladium saw Jason Robert Brown, supported by the lush BBC Concert Orchestra and the composer’s own rhythm section record a Friday Night Is Music Night show for future broadcast. The music was grand and with the stunning talents of Betsy Wolfe and Norm Lewis also flown in specially from Broadway to join the British Isle’s very own Rachel Tucker, the vocal talent was top notch too.

The evening was a pot-pourri drawn from across a range of Brown’s shows - and whilst he may have amassed a couple of Tonys to date, it was with a self-deprecating charm that Brown introduced Tucker’s take on Stars And The Moon from the Songs For A New World song-cycle, as a “medley of my greatest hit”, a wry acknowledgement of the Broadway commercial success that has so far eluded him.

Wolfe and Lewis were the evening’s vocal stars, Lewis wowing the crowd with his Elvis-infused Higher Love (from Honeymoon In Vegas, a show that carries whispers of a possible West End stint) and Wolfe bringing the audience to their feet in rapturous applause with her unsurpassed interpretation of I Can Do Better Than That from The Last Five Years. It remains an interesting comment that both that number and Stars And The Moon, both of which are quite possibly Brown’s most famous songs are singularly about, even if not drawn from the writer’s experience, female aspiration. From this reviewer’s perspective one cannot comment upon the perception of Brown’s writing - other than to mark this tiny trend and the remarkable popularity of both songs.

Brown’s first modestly major Broadway show, Parade, got a look in with the writer himself singing The Old Red Hills Of Home and commenting to the audience how much he relished the opportunity to return to the production’s original lavish, Broadway orchestrations. Having seen numerous Parades, each staged in a modestly-budgeted fringe venue, that score in particular works best when delivered away from the luxury of a fully stringed 60 piece ensemble, the beautiful brutality of Brown’s work remaining best played by a small, tightly structured band, with the striking, punching percussive staccato of the opening drum-beat lending itself to the chilling echoes of the Conferederate marching band it suggests. The Palladium gig may have offered up a useful comparison for sure. But a fully orchestrated Parade? No thanks.

The music was perfect throughout under Larry Blank’s baton. Brown added a suite of suites to the set list for good measure and with Tucker spectacularly flying home to Flying Home at the close, the Radio 2 audience are unlikely to be disappointed.