Honeymoon In Vegas - Review

London Palladium, London


*****


Music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown
Book by Andrew Bergman
Directed by Shaun Kerrison

Jason Robert Brown celebrates the show's reception at  the Palladium

Showbiz, entertainment and glamour are three things one expects on a trip to Las Vegas. Well for one night only, courtesy of the London Music Theatre Orchestra; Vegas came to London – with showbiz, entertainment and sheer musical class in abundance. It took 20 years for Andrew Bergman’s 1992 movie to be given a musical theatre treatment – but in the hands of Jason Robert Brown, arguably one of the most incisive songwriters for the stage after Sondheim, the show opened on Broadway for a brief run in 2015. For one night only and under the inspired baton of Brown himself, the show has just played the London Palladium in a polished concert performance delivered by the London Musical Theatre Orchestra and a star-studded cast.

Bergman’s is a tale that’s pure Hollywood fantasy. Jack and Betsy are young lovers who after a convoluted back story, decide to get married in Vegas. On arriving in Nevada however, the beautiful Betsy catches the eye of Tommy, a nefarious but shrewd veteran gambler who sees in the young woman, the image of his late wife. Thrashing Jack in a rigged card game, Tommy strikes a deal to relieve Jack of his poker debt, in exchange for the older man being able to spend a weekend with Betsy. The unfolding narrative is as unbelievable as it is hilarious, with the tale stretching to Hawaii and including a troupe of Flying Elvises before its ultimate, happy resolution.

As Jack and Betsy, Arthur Darvill and Samantha Barks drove the performing excellence at the core of this concert-staged piece, with Darvill giving a wonderfully charismatic performance, matched by stunning vocals that were best exemplified in the opening number I Love Betsy. Barks was equally flawless, but what made these two so watchable was the chemistry and comedy in their connection. Despite delivering almost all of the text out front, including referencing scripts where needed, they offered a masterclass in delivering a staged concert performance. Alongside Barks and Darvill, Maxwell Caulfield’s Tommy was similarly magnificent in voice and character.

To be fair, there wasn’t a weak link within the entire company, but stand out performances came from Rosemary Ashe as Jacks possessive, crazed mother Bea and Nicholas Colicos playing the comically clumsy and conniving Johnny Sandwich.

It is rare to find a one-off concert staging delivered to such an impeccable standard throughout cast and orchestra. Introducing the evening, Freddie Tapner the LMTO’s founder, invited the audience to allow the music to fill the scene changes and dance breaks and warned that the flying Elvises would have be left to the imagination! Bravo to Shaun Kerrison’s direction - with disbelief suitably suspended, the evening’s magic simply soared.

Brown’s score combined with Bergman’s script is a driving force to be reckoned with in musical theatre. The gags and jazzy tunes come thick and fast as the plot's twists and turns unfold. The saying is that what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas – well it was great to see the secrets of this story spilled in London. The show’s creatives took a gamble that came up trumps, their ambitious production playing to a full house. Flush with their success, let’s hope it’s back here soon.

Reviewed by Joe Sharpe

Photo credit: Nick Rutter

MS. A Song Cycle - Review

*****

An album themed around the impact of a disease makes for an unusual release at the best of times and yet there is an unexpected noble beauty to Rory Sherman's MS. A Song Cycle. As Sherman writes in his CD sleeve notes, most of the people diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) are women, often in their 20s or 30s whose lives are at best, rearranged and at worst, devastated. Drawn from his own conversations with friends and family, Sherman has written a collection 14 songs, each one set to music by a different composer, and each recorded by a different woman drawn from amongst the cream of Britain's musical theatre performers.

Whilst all of the recordings are as humbling as they are beautifully crafted, a number are particularly profound, moving or even dammit downright entertaining. Robert J. Sherman (he of the illustrious songwriting line of Shermans and no relation to Rory) has scored the reflective Mondays, recorded by Rosemary Ashe. There's an innate sense of wisdom in Ashe's timbre, singing of the therapy found in a weekly group meeting - with Sherman's gentle melodies only enhancing the song's message.

What's That Jim? scored by George Stiles and sung by Caroline Quentin has a music-hall ring to its take on a woman's frustration at her condition, with a clever fusion of wit and irony in  Quentin’s delivery. Likewise the satire in Mummy's Not Well sung by Lauren Samuels with music by Paul Boyd is another bittersweet gem. The song tells of a child's perspective on her mother's diagnosis, the lyrics bringing a clever poignancy - naive, yet knowing.

Laura Pitt-Pulford's Cerulean Skies (penned by the talented Sarah Travis, more often to be found directing other people's music rather than composing her own) offers a deeply personal message from a mother contemplating her own decline in health as she addresses her child. 

One of the most heartbreaking perspectives on the album comes from Caroline Sheen's Tortoise & Hare (composer Gianni Onori) - sung by a woman who sees her partner physically speeding up in comparison to her own battle with MS, that is leaving her impaired and slow. It's perceptive, painful songwriting, powerfully performed.

And that last sentence is actually an apt description for the entire album. This review has highlighted those that tracks I found left the deepest personal impression and the key word there is “personal”. There's a bevy of other songs from other talented performers and creatives, each of whose contribution may strike each listener differently. They all deserve credit so: Also appearing on the album are Alexia Khadime, Lillie Flynne, Anna Francolini, Jodie Jacobs, Siubhan Harrison, Josefina Gabrielle, Preeya Kalidas, Janie Dee and Julie Atherton. Additional compositions come from George Maguire, Brian Lowdermilk, Erin Murray Quinlan, Verity Quade, Amy Bowie, Luke Di Somma, Tamar Broadbent, Robbie White and Eamonn O'Dwyer.

And on nearly all of the tracks, Ellie Verkerk puts in sterling work on the piano.

No personal gain is being made from the album, with profits going to The MS Society. All the artists involved have donated their time and talent, with Richard O'Brien providing the cash to get the CD released. As such, this review can only be a loving appraisal - to critique would be invidious - as would be to award anything less than 5 stars. MS. A Song Cycle is beautifully performed. Buy it!

The Witches of Eastwick

Watermill Theatre, Newbury

*****
Based on the novel by John Updike
Book and lyrics by John Dempsey
Music by Dana P Rowe
Directed and choreographed by Craig Revel Horwood

Alex Bourne (lucky devil) with l-r Poppy Tierney, Joanna Hickman and Tiffany Graves

Driving along the M4 through a horrendous storm, a vivid streak of forked lightning over Newbury suggests a good omen for the opening night of Craig Revel Horwood’s take on The Witches Of Eastwick. And indeed on approaching the Watermill Theatre, set as its name suggests amongst some of Berkshire’s finest wetlands, the evening was to prove an enchanting first commercial revival of the show in five years.

An initial visit to The Watermill finds the auditorium surprisingly small for such a regional centre of excellence, yet the stage is designed thoughtfully and with an attention to detail that smacks of outstanding production values notwithstanding the budgetary restrictions that are probably imposed upon such a modest venue. Actually, “outstanding” is the one word that sums up this show.

Revel Horwood is a gifted director, not only for the movement and choreography he envisions, but more importantly for the performances that he coaxes from all of his talented cast. The three leading ladies are Tiffany Graves, Poppy Tierney and Joanna Hickman, all accomplished actresses who not only bring depth and nuance to each of the women they portray, but also excellence in their acting and vocal work. The story is pure comic-book fiction, yet each actress portrays her two dimensional character with canny three dimensional depth. Billed as a musical comedy, these performers work their seductive skills upon the entire audience and in an unashamedly sexual staging, Revel Horwood extracts performances from his Witches that lustfully sizzle, yet remain on the right side of decency throughout the show, just. The act two opener, Another Night At Darryl’s, led by a smouldering Tierney as sculptress Alexandra, with its suggestions of mud wrestling as the three women daub each other with her wet clay, has to be seen to be believed. Similarly with Sukie Rougemont's (played by Graves) steamy act one number Words. The song is a singer's minefield, demanding fast and complex lyrics to be delivered whilst Sukie is being seduced and made love to. Graves nails it.

Joanna Hickman fiddles furiously as Alex Bourne seductively strums

Three witches of this calibre demand a devil that is up to their strong characters and Alex Bourne’s Darryl van Horne is perfectly cast. In a show where the performers are all required to play an instrument, (a delightfully long-established economic policy of The Watermill) Bourne’s sex fuelled rebel naturally plays the electric guitar. The actor brings perfect gravitas and presence to van Horne and his Dance With The Devil is but one example of a performance that will please many women in the audience.

The baddy of the piece is local townswoman Felicia Gabriel. It is usually wrong to compare castings from different productions, but let’s make an exception. Rosemary Ashe who created this harridan at Drury Lane in 2000 reprises her monstrous character and like a fine Scotch whisky, she has wonderfully matured over the years. When early on in the show an indignant Felicia proclaims “I am Eastwick”, Ashe aint kidding!

Rosemary Ashe leads the (washing) line in the wonderful Dirty Laundry ensemble number

Licensed by Cameron Mackintosh, this show represents by far and away the best musical revival to be staged out of town this summer and the producers would do well to consider how its glorious spirit can be transferred to London come the autumn.

The ingenious effects of Revel Horwood's staging are not smoke and mirrors. Close up, we can all see how everything’s done, but for once, that really doesn’t matter. The magic of this show lies not in its special effects, but rather in the crafted talent and beauty that Revel Horwood has inspired his entire company to deliver. You won’t see a better cast this year.

Runs until 14 September 2013. Booking details here

To read my profile of composer Dana P. Rowe, click here