Here You Come Again - Review

Riverside Studios, London

****

By Bruce Vilanch, Gabriel Barre and Tricia Paoluccio

Additional material by Jonathan Harvey

Directed by Gabriel Barre

Steven Webb and Tricia Paoluccio

Hitting the sweetest of sweet spots, Here You Come Again is a juke-box musical that does for Dolly Parton what Mamma Mia did for ABBA. Oozing with sincerity as much as it defies credibility, the show is built around the importance of recognising one’s self-worth, while staying heart-warmingly true to Parton’s glowing public persona.

Set during 2020’s lockdown, Steven Webb plays 40-yo gay Kevin, freshly dumped by his boyfriend and now returned to his parent’s home where for the purposes of social distancing they have isolated him in the attic den that was his bedroom as a teenager. Festooned in Dolly Parton merchandise, the attic is a tribute to the star that Kevin has never stopped adoring for decades.

In the depths of Kevin’s despair and with more than a hint of Mary Poppins, Dolly Parton herself bursts through a poster on his wall singing the title number and lifting the packed Riverside Studios onto a fluffy pink cloud of joy and exhilaration. The show's writing is clever throughout, but with the shrewd addition of Jonathan Harvey to the creative team, dramatic heft is added to the narrative.

Tricia Paoluccio (a co-creator of the show) plays Parton to a tee. Her personification of the queen of country music is nigh-on flawless with a voice that captures Parton’s unique timbre and a tone and cadence that is so spot-on that if you shut your eyes and listen it might just as well be Dolly herself here in Hammersmith.

Parton’s biggest hits (try saying that after a few drinks) are in the show. A wondrously corny storyline introduces Jolene (with superb red-haired accompaniment from Webb), while the interval is sandwiched between Love Is Like A Butterfly and 9 To 5. Islands In The Stream (with the audience all waving the torches on their phones) and I Will Always Love You are two of the second act’s highlights, as a handful of Dolly’s lesser known delights add to the evening’s songlist.

The story line is simple and neat and if the ending may be a tad twee (no spoilers here) at least it ensures the audience leave with the broadest of grins and the warmest of hearts. The finale of a singalong Dolly megamix (currently followed by a Christmas megamix too) is as cheering as a glass of brandy-laden mulled wine.

Above all, this show stands on the strengths of its two leads. Webb has the challenge of convincing us of the sentimentality and integrity of Kevin, which he does magnificently. Paoluccio of course has to become Dolly Parton and both of them produce a top-notch chemistry that is touching and believable. On press night Aidan Cutler and Charlotte Elisabeth Yorke stepped up to deliver a range of minor supporting roles, while the music was perfectly directed by Jordan Li-Smith’s four-piece band who were both on and off stage as the numbers demanded. Paul Wills' set design is simply effective and his glitzy costumes, magnificent. Lizzi Gee's choreography sees the actors perfectly drilled in some outstanding routines.

Here You Come Again will wrap your heart round its little finger. On tour after its month-long Riverside residency, this evening of pure entertainment deserves to end-up in the West End.

Runs until 18th January 2025, then tours

Hamlet - Review

Riverside Studios, London

**

Written by William Shakespeare

Directed by Selina Cadell

Eddie Izzard

With earrings, acrylics, heels and skin-tight leather trousers it is clear that Eddie Izzard’s take on the Prince of Denmark is at least as much about asserting the actor’s femininity as it is about an interpretation of one of Shakespeare’s most enigmatic characters.

As a solo turn that lasts for two and a half hours incl interval this Hamlet is undoubtedly a display of remarkable stamina and fortitude but Izzard’s performance comes across as more about ticking the boxes of ‘doing a Hamlet’ rather than offering any new comment on the play. The clumsily truncated dialogue is frequently rushed and disappointingly for a press night, often stumbled over, and for those not familiar with Shakespeare’s carefully crafted verse the evening will have offered little insight into the nuanced classic yarn. 

Izzard's background in stand-up serves the performance well in the gravedigger scene which is genuinely funny - elsewhere however there needed to have been more matter with less Commedia dell'arte. Playing the final act’s swordfight for laughs, be they intended or not, detracts from the story’s tragedy.

Strip away Izzard’s celebrity status and it is hard to imagine this Hamlet commanding much box office success. As Shakespeare himself wrote (in a speech that Izzard's adapter, brother Mark Izzard, has chosen to excise from this production) “it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags.” Izzard and director Selina Cadell should have heeded those words.

Runs until 30th June

Photo credit: Amanda Searle

Flowers For Mrs Harris - Review

Riverside Studios, London

****

Music and lyrics by Richard Taylor

Book by Rachel Wagstaff

Based on the novel by Paul Gallico

Directed by Bronagh Lagan

Jenna Russell

Flowers For Mrs Harris is a carefully constructed fairytale for the 20th century that’s all about class, love and coping with bereavement.

Set in the rationed aftermath of World War Two, Ada Harris and Violet Butterfield are two working-class cleaning ladies from Battersea, both widowed in the Great War some 30 years previously. In a time of “make-do and mend” a chance swapping of the women’s wealthy clients sees Ada fall in love with a stunning Christian Dior dress and what follows is a whimsical, magical tale that sees her scrimp and save to travel to Paris to buy her own Dior frock.

The story is as charming as it is improbable, but what makes this revival of Richard Taylor & Rachel Wagstaff’s show is the stunning company that Bronagh Lagan has assembled. Jenna Russell is Ada Harris in a role that could have been written for her. Russell’s Ada is the most perfectly nuanced take on a woman whose character is strong and perceptive yet delicately fragile, a middle-aged cockney concocting heartbreak and humour faultlessly. The show’s tunes may not be memorable, but in the hands of Russell and her supporting cast, they form an exquisite and perceptive take on the human condition.

Not only is Jenna Russell magnificent, she is surrounded by a stunning ensemble. Without giving too much away, all of the actors who play characters from Ada’s Battersea life, pop up again in Paris subtly mirroring their previous incarnations. All are excellent, but worthy of mention are Hal Fowler who plays the spirit of Ada’s dead husband Albert in act one. As down-to-earth as his missus, Fowler’s turn is one of magnificent sensitivity.

Charlotte Kennedy

Equally brilliant is Charlotte Kennedy, who in the second half stuns as Parisian model Natasha. Kennedy breathes humanity into the mannequin of her character with a vocal and physical presence that are both breathtaking. Annie Wensak’s Violet is another carefully weighted performance that skilfully mines the script’s comic seams.

The setting of the show is a little squashed at the Riverside, with perhaps budgetary constraints seeing Nik Corrall’s designs not doing justice to the actors’ flawless work. A nod though to Lez Brotherston’s Dior gowns, first and breathtakingly created for the show’s Sheffield premiere in 2016 and which have been generously loaned to this production, and also to Jonathan Gill's 6-piece band who are a delight.

But the evening belongs to Russell who delivers arguably the finest take on Ada Harris yet seen in this country. Flowers For Mrs Harris is gorgeous modern writing and an enchanting evening’s entertainment.

Runs until 25th November

Photo credit: Pamela Raith

Cirque Berserk - Review

Riverside Studios, London

*****

Elberel

Zippos bring their circus back to London and as ever in a punchy 90 minutes (+ half time interval) their acts are a display of supreme human strength and talent.

The acts on display are all traditional but, without a big-top tent to perform in, are scaled down to the dimensions of a traditional stage - on this occasion the versatile space of Hammersmith’s Riverside Studios.

What’s so enchanting (if Cirque Berserk can even be called enchanting!) about the show is the close-up intimacy of the performers. We hear their calls that co-ordinate their split-second synchronisations, we see their muscles flex and tremble, evidencing the power that underlies their graceful movement and we inhale the brutal aromas of their acts. The smoke from the flaming limbo bar, the haze of fireworks from the occasional bursts of pyro and the smell of the roaring motorcycle engines defying gravity as the bikes of the Lucius Team spin within the Globe of Death.

Above all Cirque Berserk perform acts that to our muggle minds are literally beyond belief. Be it trapeze work and aerialist magnificence, or pyramids of humanity that reach to the Riverside’s lighting rigs, or Elberel, a contortionist able to fire an arrow from a longbow - and score a bullseye! - and that’s without mentioning the juggling, knife and axe-throwing that had this reviewer looking away in terror!

And interspersed throughout is physical comedy led by the diminutive Paulo, who is not only a sublime clown in the most modern interpretation of that word, but also shows himself to be a breathtaking aerialist too.

This is not just brilliant circus,it is affordable and accessible circus too. For half-term family entertainment, Cirque Berserk is the best value show in town.

Runs until 12th March

Photo credit: Piet Hein-Out

Hamlet

Riverside Studios, London

***

William Shakespeare's Hamlet

Directed by Zoe Ford

Adam Lawrence

There has long been debate over who wrote Shakespeare’s works. Bacon, Marlowe or the Bard himself? One thing’s for sure. They are all spinning in their graves tonight at what Zoe Ford has done to Hamlet.

With a slimmed down cast, Denmark’s Elsinore is translated to HM Prison Liverpool, in which Ford has decreed that some of the characters are convicts and others visitors or prison officials. A lengthy mise en scene (that includes Liverpool FC’s recent throwing away of the Premiership at Crystal Palace in the background, as well as Hamlet enduring a full body search) is a quirky addition that sets the tone for a maelstrom of meddling that does the learned Ms Ford no credit. This is a dumbed down Hamlet that strips the play not only of much of its verse, but also of several of its famous quotes and moments. Whilst Fortinbras’ omission from the text is understandable (and common), the players' arrival at Court is curiously transformed into a group therapy session, whilst other memorable text excisions include “neither a borrower nor a lender be” along with the whole of the dialogue between Hamlet and the Ghost in Gertrude’s closet. And Yorick doesn’t get a look in at all. (Actually that is a real shame, because some of Shakespeare’s finest humour occurs between the Gravediggers and Hamlet/Horatio. Ford’s pseudo-witty attempts elsewhere in the play at modern colloquial banter do not come close to the original and this scene’s butchery is a cut too far.)

There is a liberal use of the f-word throughout and a schoolgirl emphasis on the assonant fun to be had with “country matters” during the play-within-a-play scene, with the overall effect being a cheapening of the whole. One suspects that Ford, whose day job is as a Text Assistant at Shakespeare’s Globe, is driven by a worthy motive of seeking to make Shakespeare accessible to a wider audience. ‘Tis a noble cause for sure, but all she achieves here is reducing much of the prose to a lowest common denominator. A-level or GCSE students should avoid this production lest they quote Ford’s interpretation of the play, as set in a Scouse jail, on an examined script.

So, why three stars, when Ford’s edited text merits far less? Amongst her having made Shakespeare sensational (and there’s a quote waiting to be taken out of context if ever there was one), she has created some perceptive moments. Ophelia’s mad scene is poignant, (good work from Jessica White) Gertrude’s pain at Hamlet’s apparently insane interaction with the Ghost in her closet is a rare episode of deep emotional pain and the maleovelant and downright nasty duplicity of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern is shown in clear relief. Also, as is often the case with stage Hamlet’s, Adam Lawrence’s performance is excellent and a huge physical effort, though around him there is mediocrity as Joyce Greenaway’s Gertrude is often mumbled and Anthony Kernan’s Polonius disappoints.

Above all, this is a Hamlet that should be seen as a curiosity. If you are a newcomer to the play then sadly it will deny you much of the nuanced beauty of the finely crafted original. But if you know the play well, then go and enjoy the fun. It’s a corner-cutting novelty for sure, but at least at just over two hours including interval, it won’t leave you bored.

Runs until 22nd June 2014

Carnival of the Animals

Riverside Studios, London

****

Original book and lyrics by Roger Hyams

Revised book by Andrew Marshall

Music by Gavin Greenaway

Directed by Thom Southerland

Anita Dobson and the Cast

The Carnival of the Animals is one of the most innovative and culturally inspired pieces of new musical theatre writing to have been seen for some time. In a show that bears a nod to the grim darkness of Sondheim with a nod to Kander and Ebb's outlandish "show within a show" style and loosely derived from Saint-Saens' 1886 composition, Greenaway and Hyams have set their tale in the fictional 21eme arrondissement of Paris, where animals and people magically live side by side.

There is one human character in the piece, fashion designer Mademoiselle Parfait, played by Anita Dobson in a wonderfully game performance. Parfait is our guide to the arrondissement as the show opens, but curious occurrences in the first act hint at darker motives. When we do discover the evil that lurks beneath, it is worth reflecting that there are few actresses that can combine such talent and friendly familiarity with devilish menace. Dobson's eyes can sparkle with enticing innocence as the curtain rises on the show, and yet flash the darkest malevolence as it falls on the first act. The wicked side of her character suggests that the show is not ideal for the very youngest of children, but from 7 or 8 and up they are likely to be held rapt by the tale.

The producers have secured a cast that is, for the most part, outstanding. Clare Machin's mumsy elephant, who against type, can't remember a thing, is a delight, made all the better by a hilarious can-can routine in the finale. Allyson Ava-Brown's Lioness is a performance of calculated strength, though this talented actress has more in the tank that she could give to her act.

Other notables amongst a role call of excellence were Alastair Brookshaw's Mynah bird, a perfect portrayal of arrogant smugness whose tap dance routine with Matthew Gent's Parrot, cheekily and classily evoked Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. Cassandra Compton and Stephen Webb as Flamenco inspired Latin donkeys is another fine example of comic acting and timing, beautifully voiced and choreographed, whilst veteran Paul Grunert's Tortoise is a treat of understated wisdom from an actor who knows just how to maximise his impact.

Anita Dobson may well be billed as the star of the show, but amongst this menagerie, it is Bronte Barbe's cygnet who steals the show. Her perfectly performed and vocally exquisite character is a delight and this already accomplished young woman simply has to be a leading lady of the future. (When Evita next returns she would look wonderful on the Casa Rosada balcony...). Barbe's metamorphosis into a swan is one of the most brilliant yet simple pieces of physical theatre to be found in London and when, transformed, she gracefully flew over Paris, I sobbed.

Thom Southerland is back with an inspired hand at the helm of this show, whilst John Risebero's set design that brilliantly evokes Paris and maestro Howard Hudson's lighting, ensure that the show is built upon foundations of creative genius.

This production should deserve five stars and perhaps with:  a re-casting of the Chimpanzee, Liam Doyle seen here in a role that vocally stretched him; a trimming of the first half; and mic'ing up the cast which is crucial if their voices are to achieve parity with, or even dominate, the magnificent sound from David Randall's four piece band, it may yet achieve them. Greenaway and Hyams have unveiled a treat here. With a few tweaks they may yet have crafted a perfect family trip to the theatre. 


Runs until July 14th 2014