Standing at the Sky's Edge - Review

Gillian Lynne Theatre, London

***

Music and lyrics by Richard Hawley

Book by Chris Bush

Directed by Robert Hastie

The cast of Standing at the Sky's Edge

Transferring to the West End from an acclaimed run at the National Theatre, Standing At The Sky’s Edge charts three occupancies of a duplex home built in Sheffield’s Park Hill estate. The show’s timeframe runs from the estate’s opening as a massive social housing project in 1959, replacing a significant proportion of the city's slum accommodation, then through a period of neglect and dilapidation and finally to the estate's gentrification in the early 21st century and transition into private ownership. Park Hill was a massive development and to this day remains the largest listed work of architecture in Europe. A prominent feature of Sheffield’s cityscape, the estate's history offered a bold conceit for the musical’s narrative.

It is a disappointment therefore that Chris Bush’s book is little more than a thread of cliched agitprop observations of the duplex's three occupying households. From a newly wed steelworker and his bride escaping poverty, through to refugees fleeing civil war in Liberia and ultimately, a comfortably middle-class professional running away from London and a failed relationship, Bush shoehorns in as many passing nods to Sheffield’s social landscape of the last 60 years as she can. The collapse of the steel industry, the miners’ strike, Thatcherism and even Brexit are all acknowledged with shallow passing references, though one can only speculate as to why the child grooming scandals that also tarnished so much of the South Yorkshire region during this period, fail to get a mention.

Richard Hawley’s songs are musically beautiful but lyrically lazy - the tunes land gorgeously on the ear but their frequent repetitions of phrases suggest a lack of creative wit behind the songs’ otherwise powerful foundations. The cast, as is to be expected on a leading London stage, are all magnificent with standout performances from Laura Pitt-Pulford, Rachael Wooding and Lauryn Redding. Ben Stone's stage designs together with Mark Henderson's lighting are equally impressive.

40 years ago Willy Russell's Blood Brothers offered a far sharper musical take on the impact of Thatcherism on England's north and of attempts by planners to rehouse a city's poor. Perhaps in a site-specific venue on the estate, Standing At The Sky's Edge may have packed more of a punch. The musical opened in Sheffield in 2019 where regional ticket pricing would have made it affordable to many of the city’s residents. In the capital however, where ticket prices are comparatively eye-watering, agitprop has been replaced by champagne-socialism.

Booking until 3rd August

Photo credit: Brinkhoff-Moegenburg

Miss Saigon - Review

Crucible Theatre, Sheffield

****

Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg

Lyrics by Richard Maltby Jr. and Alain Boublil

Directed by Robert Hastie and Anthony Lau

Joanna Ampil

A daring, bold yet incredibly exciting recipe for musical theatre. Take an iconic piece world renowned and adored, make some bold changes compared to previous versions and take it off the traditional proscenium stage and place it an intimate thrust style. Robert Hastie and Anthony Laus’ gamble has paid off as they bring Miss Saigon back to the stage in a new production by special arrangement with Cameron Mackintosh.

With 30+ musical numbers it is no wonder that at times Schönberg and Boublil’s piece feels more like an opera, but the cast’s ensemble work is strong, driving the piece from city to city as we follow Kim’s journey, fleeing the Vietnam conflict. Jade Hackett's choreography is a treat and the company deliver the big numbers and transitions with great precision.

Ben Stones’ mostly minimal set leaves a bare stage, allowing a blank canvas for a combination of exquisite lighting and projection from Jessica Hung Han Yun and Andrzej Goulding respectively. Stones however vividly captures the contrast of between the dark and damp streets outside the bars of Saigon with the bright neon lights of Bangkok. The second act’s famed evacuation from the American embassy is a wonder to behold and a treat in itself. 

That said, the biggest treat in the show comes from the duo that is Joanna Ampil as The Engineer and Jessica Lee as Kim. Ampil is no stranger to Miss Saigon but in this production brings a new take on The Engineer. Her rendition of The American Dream towards the end of Act 2 is a tragic celebration of what could have been, exposing all sides and shades of The Engineer in one number, a performance that would be a marathon for many but seemingly effortless for Ampil and immensely gripping. This new interpretation of The Engineer offers a whole new chemistry between her and Kim with some darker moments seeming all the more sinister in contrast, but with also occasional moments of surprising tenderness.

Lee gave a performance that reached every single corner of The Crucible. With an intensity that never wavered, vocal dexterity that never wobbled and a presence and sometimes vulnerability that was incredibly powerful to watch. Her rendition of ‘Id Give My Life For You’ at the end of Act 1 was faultless as was ‘I Still Believe’ where Lee was joined by Christian Maynard who plays Chris, the young American soldier along with Shanay Holmes who plays Ellen. A nod too to the sumptuous performance of the score from Chris Poon and the 15 piece orchestra.

War is sadly a tragedy that seems to rip through the hearts of so many and this production places us, the audience right in the thick of it. At a time when travel and London ticket prices make a trip to the West End simply unaffordable for many it’s incredibly encouraging that regional theatres such as The Crucible are able to offer such a landmark production as this to their audiences.

Runs until 19th August

Photo credit: Johan Persson

My Night with Reg - Review

Apollo Theatre, London

****

Written by Kevin Elyot

Directed by Robert Hastie

Geoffrey Streatfeild, Jonathan Broadbent and Julian Ovenden

On paper, My Night with Reg could be a searingly witty sitcom written around six unorthodox characters, each with their own hilarious intricacies and tragic plights. However, the death of writer Kevin Elyot in 2014 sees the play’s more macabre and somber notes raise the inflexion, making this production more melancholic and disconcerting than just a classy revival of a now certified ‘classic’, modern, British comedy.

Not just an original gay play, Elyot lays bare (quite literally) the social and sexual manners of the titular Reg, who never appears on stage, though his seed, it seems, has been sewn just about everywhere else. Elyot’s gratifyingly outrageous and authentic dialogue is ignited brilliantly by Jonathan Broadbent who reprises his Guy, the probably-passed-it central figure, whose circle of old university friends come over for a dinner party.

Robert Hastie’s direction is delicate and nuanced from the offset. Not a glance or a line is missed as we are introduced to Geoffrey Streatfield’s dandy Daniel, the camp and frivolous dancer to David Bowie’s Starman with his long-time sidekick pal John, played charmingly by Julian Ovenden. 

Newly in love Daniel is a bounding energy, which makes his demise to a mourning mess all the more poignant. The plot then begins to trace the long line of his beloved’s bed notches, which becomes a standing joke as an ever-entangled web of deceit and betrayal is found to be woven throughout the friendship group. 

Meanwhile, Guy’s unrequited love for the coiffured-in-the-style-of-Hugh-Grant John is the most profound theme (alongside the infidelity) and is best exploited through Richard Cant and Matt Bardock, the brilliantly mis-matched hopeless lovers Bernie and Benny. This bold bittersweet comedy duo of the expletive loving brazen Benny who is more akin to a Jason Statham stereotype than the lover of conservatory-coveting Bernie, in turn described as “redefining boredom”. But one can’t help feeling for the softly-spoken Bernie as he dotes after the gregarious Benny and doubts the strength of his own relationship, before both confess to having bedded the apparently insatiable Reg. 

As we move into the darker territory of the third and final section of the play, this lack of forethought and arbitrary irresponsibility threatens to take down of each them and following a key character’s death, Hastie’s direction, like the sex, takes on a casualness, with the play’s pace suffering as it lulls sulkily towards the curtain.

Arguably, the reason Elyot’s play continues to draw audiences is that the issues remain as pertinent now as they did in the 1980’s. Disputes regarding promiscuity, sexual politics and AIDS remain equally unresolved and enduring.

Runs until 11th April 2015

Guest reviewer Lauren Gauge

My Night With Reg - Review

Donmar Warehouse, London

****

Written by Kevin Elyot
Directed by Robert Hastie

My Night With Reg is a powerfully perceptive observation of being a gay white Englishman in the 1990's. The spectre of AIDS is cutting a swathe through the community, yet the addictive pulses of love, passion and promiscuity beat fiercely. The play focuses on 6 men all connected, be it through shared times at university or simply drinking together at the local pub. All are friends, some are lovers and most have had a passing or lingering sexual relationship with Reg. Kevin Elyot’s drama revolves around a flat warming and two wakes - the first of which is for Reg, who whilst he never appears on stage, befalls an AIDS-related death that marks the play's portentous gravitas.

Robert Hastie directs with vision, but it is casting director Alastair Coomer who has done an immaculate job with a company that gel magnificently. Jonathan Broadbent plays Guy - a camp, cookery-focused, home builder. Desperate for love, but looked on by his peers as simply the very best of a mate - and with revulsion by young Eric (Lewis Reeves) who describes anything intimate with the older corpulent man as akin to "snogging your mum". That Guy's friends confide their desires in him and how they are cheating on each other, only adds to the pathos of his loneliness.

Guy's two friends from student days are John and Daniel, played with the most subtly elegant public school wit by Julian Ovenden and Geoffrey Streatfeild. Ovenden's chiselled looks define him as the object of Guy's unspoken desire. Raffishly rampant, he can have who he wants and Ovenden deftly portrays his character's wracking guilt at having only ever found true love in an illicit affair with Reg, whilst the dead man had been Daniel's partner. Elyot’s dramatic incisions into the pain of John’s guilt is merciless. Streatfeild is another treat - flamboyant and larger than life, a man who can gloriously "sniff another's tumesence", yet whose grief at Reg's death allied with his suspicions that his partner was cheating on him, is another gem of a performance.

Completing the sextet are local pals, the effete, timid Bernie (Richard Cant) and his gloriously rough-trade bus-driving partner Benny (Matt Bardock), a man who will shag anything that moves. His is a clever creation, demonstrating that sexualities straddle society.

Against an occasional backdrop of Bowie and musical memories that the men may have shared at different times with Reg, the humour plays out against a knowing and mostly unspoken fear of the epidemic they risk. It is left to Benny to articulate the terror of any "cough or twinge" bringing him out in a cold sweat.

The text of the play is finely crafted, matched only by the exquisite stagecraft that the six men display. Not a "must see" as the nudity, whilst in context, may offend, My Night With Reg remains another example of London's world class theatre.

Runs until 27th September 2014