Aspects of Love - Review

Southwark Playhouse, London


***


Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Lyrics by Don Black and Charles Hart
Based on the novel by David Garnett
Directed by Jonathan O’Boyle

Jerome Pradon and Madalena Alberto

In a rare London revival, Jonathan O’Boyle brings Aspects of Love down the M6 from Manchester’s Hope Mill Theatre to the Southwark Playhouse, delivering a show that wavers between a confection of complex cliché and a homage to the male ego.

Driving the narrative is Alex, (Felix Mosse), a man possessed with such apparent animal magnetism that he is rendered irresistible to the opposite sex from adolescent girls through to women approaching their third age. But for all that Alex may have been imbued with this Lothario-like psyche, it hasn’t rubbed off on Mosse, a young man who lacks both gravitas and vocal presence. As a consequence, too much of this production, especially in the second act, becomes literally in-credible and at times tedious. And in the #MeToo era especially there needs to be questions raised about performing a show that references a mutual love, even if non-consummated, between a 34 year old man and a child 19 years his junior.

Most of O’Boyle’s company turn in sound performances with fine work in particular from Kelly Price as Rose, the show’s leading female and Eleanor Walsh as Jenny, her daughter. The acting accolades of the night however belong to the cast’s more senior members with Jerome Pradon putting in a polished turn as George, Alex’s uncle and an incorrigible romantic. A man who hopelessly falls for any woman who chances to wear the gown worn by his first late wife, Pradon’s priapic predator masterfully steals his every scene, his acting through both song and presence proving immaculate. Madalena Alberto plays Giulietta, George’s Venetian lover. Alberto is the very essence of excellence in a role that is woefully too small for her sensational talent.

Aspects of Love, inhabiting that obscure fairy-tale world of love that Sondheim mastered far more effectively in A Little Night Music, demands flawlessness across the board if its creaking conceits are to work and the cynical 21st century disbeliefs of its audiences be suitably suspended. This requirement extends to the band too, for while Richard Bates’ trio put in a fine shift on Lloyd Webber’s score, the noble Lord's melodies crave a bigger ensemble of musicians if they are to soar effectively.

Fringe treatments of musical theatre can often be magical. Here however, a difficult story makes for an evening of uneven entertainment.

Runs until 9th February 2019

Photo credit: Pamela Raith

The Hired Man - Review

Union Theatre, London


****

Music and lyrics by Howard Goodall
Book by Melvyn Bragg
Directed by Brendan Matthew

The Hired Man Company

Taken from Melvyn Bragg’s acclaimed description of England’s Lake District as the 19th century passed into the 20th, The Hired Man is a richly fruited glimpse of a way of life long since passed. Howard Goodall’s melodies encompass a range of traditional English sources, as the musical’s narrative charts a transition in the nation’s working men (and women), from open-skied agriculture to coal-consuming heavy industry against a backdrop of The Great War.

Brendan Matthew makes a decent job of the libretto’s vast landscape. From the opening Song of the Hired Men, both the time and the place of the show are firmly anchored as we chart the titular John Tallentire’s arc through a challenging life and love.

Playing Tallentire is Ifan Gwilym-Jones who convinces as the muscular man of the land, far happier behind a plough than a coal pick, but ultimately forced to work the pits when the money for labourers dries up above ground. Gwilym-Jones possesses a fine voice, never stronger than in the first half denouement of What A Fool I’ve Been which is spine-tingling in its intensity. Elsewhere though (and along with many other members of the company) his voice is hard to hear - and this from a reviewer sat in the front row! Sasha Regan’s Union Theatre is truly a beautiful off-West End performing space, but (and this has been said before) producers need to mic their casts if many of these well trained voices are even to be heard, let alone appreciated. 

Opposite Gwilym-Jones, Rebecca Gilliland plays Emily his wife, bringing a focussed energy to a role that draws on complex emotions. Gilliland has a presence (and vocal power) that commands the stage and she makes fine enthusiastic work of Now For The First Time, along with the far more challenging If I Could. She also cleverly enlivens the complex passions that burn inside one of Goodall’s most intriguing leading ladies, not least in a heartfelt I Wouldn't be the First.

Notable amongst the company is Jack McNeill who captures the pre-teen and teenage youthfulness of the Tallentire’s son Harry, while at the opposite end of the age spectrum Christopher Lyne turns in all manner of magnificently voiced cameos, playing the story’s older men.

Jonathan Carlton puts in a fabulous shift as Seth, John Tallentire’s brother who becomes a committed Trade Unionist, fighting for miners’ workplace safety. As a history lesson The Union Song does well to remind us of the honourable, proud and decent principles that were once at the core of the Labour movement. There’s yet more history on offer with the show’s reference to the First World War. Goodall’s heartfelt chords (and that sublime key change) in Farewell Song will always make a loving tribute to those who never returned, even more so this year as we mark the 100th anniversary of the horrific Battle of Passchendaele.

Matthew’s direction is at its best in the ensemble numbers where Charlotte Tooth’s imaginative choreography supported by her lithe and graceful dance captain Rebecca Withers offer up some of the finest movement currently to be found on London’s fringe. The Union space is compact and in the show’s large routines that take place in the market square, the tavern and especially The Work Song, Tooth’s work is a visual treat.

At the keyboard Richard Bates works hard directing his two strings players. Goodall’s northern English tunes typically work best with a spot of brass, but notwithstanding this gap the musical accompaniment was polished and perfectly delivered.

The Hired Man makes for a pleasing evening’s entertainment and if some dodgy sound and lighting cues can be ironed out, this show may well yet mature into a truly fine production.

Runs until 12th August 2017

Photo credit: PND Photography

Pacific Overtures - Review

Union Theatre, London

****

Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by John Weidman
Additional material by Hugh Wheeler
Directed by Michael Strassen

The company of Pacific Overtures

One of his least performed musicals, Pacific Overtures sees Sondheim cast his gimlet eye on the diplomatic advances (the pacific overtures of the title) that America and subsequently other nations too, made towards Imperial Japan around the middle of the nineteenth century. The finely crafted tale depicts the guardians of a rarefied Japan grappling with the threat that the "barbarians" from across the Pacific posed to their culture and sovereignty. There is balance in the writing though and whilst Japan surely had a refined elegance to its way of life, Sondheim strips the scales away, portraying a harsh and murderous Japanese dictatorship, demeaning of women and with an ethos of intolerance and jingoistic nationalism fascist enough to make UKIP resemble the Rainbow Alliance.

There are few lyrical minds wittier than Sondheim and his act one lyrics, with frequent Haiku sub-cadences present an aural suggestion of Japan that has an uncanny authenticity. Michael Strassen's bold interpretation of the complex work again hints at his mastery of the musical, particularly with his work so often amongst the restrained budgets of off-West End theatre

Simple drapes suggest the ascetic world of this interpretation and with the undercroft auditorium's air heavy with the scent of joss sticks, the thematic nod to Kabuki is sealed. That the traditional Japanese art form demands a men-only cast will only have appealed to Sasha Regan's Union Theatre, a venue ever keen to present a scantily clad all-male flesh feast. But Strassen's vision holds firm and the artistic integrity of his staging is at times breathtaking, with some close harmony work that is sublime.

As with all of Sondheim’s shows, his musical numbers are akin to the Japanese military: They don't easily take prisoners. It's a simple choice, one either masters the Master's melodies or dies trying. Ken Christiansen may make for an imposing white-slapped Reciter, Shogun and ultimately Emperor, but he is found out on his singing solos. There is however excellence in abundance elsewhere. Ian Mowat is a delight in roles of varying gender and seniority, never bettered than as the geisha's madam in Welcome To Kanagawa, where his character seems to effortlessly conjoin The Engineer from Miss Saigon with Cabaret's Emcee. Amongst the boys Joel Harper-Jackson skilfully amuses as the Shogun's wife, Matt Jolly's Fisherman in Four Black Dragons is a treat, whilst Lee Van Geleen who recently impressed in HMS Pinafore, combines a pinpoint comic turn with a beautifully weighted baritone presence as the Russian Admiral.

Strassen's take on the complex piece is to be savoured, with Richard Bates' four piece band a delight, capturing much of the tale purely through the show's carefully crafted compositions. The company work in voice, movement and dance is top-notch, with Marios Nicolaides' ballet work an absolute treat. Oh and the three-part harmony of Pretty Lady has to be amongst the best in town. Not an easy show to watch, but unmissable both for Sondheim devotees and canny lovers of musical theatre.

Runs until 2nd August 2014