Singin' In The Rain - Review

Theatre du Châtelet at the Grand Palais, Paris

*****

Music by Nacio Herb Brown

Lyrics by Arthur Freed

Book by Adolph Green and Betty Comden

Directed by Robert Carsen

Dan Burton

Fittingly, the reviewing year has ended in the grandest of styles at Paris’ Grand Palais to where the city’s illustrious Theatre du Châtelet have temporarily decamped, reviving their 2015 production of Singin’ In The Rain. A "Grand" venue demands an equally grand show to fill it, and with their sensational company Robert Carsen and choreographer Stephen Mear have done just that.

The musical’s story is a 1952 movie classic that was only ever brought to the stage some 30 years later by Tommy Steele at the London Palladium. But with a libretto crammed with American Songbook greats, an evening here feels like revisiting a masterpiece that’s straight out of Broadway’s Golden Age. The plot is as heartfelt as it is corny, set in the 1920s as silent movies are on the wane. The demand for talkies engulfs Hollywood and Lina Lamont, Monumental Pictures' starlet silent siren finds herself challenged by her ghastly squawking voice, a sound that is completely at odds with her stunning physical beauty. Monumental's leading man Don Lockwood fortuitously meets the beautifully voiced Kathy Selden who agrees to dub Lamont’s vocals. Scheming shenanigans famously unfold, for the most part inspired by Lockwood’s cunning musical accompanist Cosmo Brown, until a happy ending prevails with Selden and Lockwood falling blissfully in love.

Monique Young and Dan Burton

If a show with such a slight and clichéd story is to speak to a 21st century audience, then its production values can be nothing less than flawless and (by implication) expensive. With the Mayor of Paris happily associated with the show, it appears that the budget has been substantial. Not only has Tim Hatley’s scenery been beautifully designed for the show, the stage itself has been created within the vast, glass dome of the Grand Palais (google the place, you’ll thank me) and it is a credit to both Hatley and the show’s (uncredited) sound designer that the acoustics are perfect. Likewise, Anthony Powell’s costumes are just sumptuous, dripping in period-perfect Flapper-glamour and crafted with minute attention to detail. Wielding the baton, Gareth Valentine (another Châtelet regular) makes magnificent work of Brown’s melodies.

Dan Burton leads as Lockwood. Returning to the role from 2015, Burton is clearly Stephen Mear’s “go to” triple-threat performer. This website has long praised Burton’s talent and in a role that sees him onstage for most of the show Burton makes the most intricate of moves seem effortless, with mellifluous vocals transforming 70-year old tunes into fresh delights. And when it comes to the famous title number, both the Châtelet company and Burton deliver magnificently. The water cascades onto the stage as Burton pays heartfelt homage to Gene Kelly’s immortal routine. A nod too to Jo Morris, who has worked with the company to faithfully recreate Mear’s choreography of two years ago.

Kathy Selden is played by Monique Young who wowed this Paris audience last year as Peggy Sawyer in 42nd Street. In another display of triple-threat magnificence, Young defines Selden’s tender strength. Her takes on You Are My Lucky Star and Would You? mark her out as a gifted performer of classic numbers, while her footwork (notably stunning in Broadway Melody) is a blur of brilliance.

Emma Kate Nelson

Playing one of the more challenging roles in the canon, Emma Kate Nelson is Lina Lamont. This nasty-girl character could barely be shallower, yet Nelson transforms her into a completely credible creation. Lamont’s one solo number, What’s Wrong With Me, can be a beast to sing for a trained performer trying to preserve her voice as she squawks. Nelson makes it a delight in another example of perfect casting.

There's excellence too from Daniel Crossley’s Cosmo Brown. Cosmo’s comic responsibilities are critical to the narrative and Crossley’s timing in both physical and spoken humour is spot-on. Make ‘em Laugh and a wealth of other moments all contribute to comedy gold. There are other gems that lurk within this company as Jennie Dale (playing dialogue coach Miss Dinsmore) earns a rapturous whoop of applause for her deft display of tap dance in Moses Supposes.

Daniel Crossley, Jennie Dale and Dan Burton

Theatre du Châtelet have a deserved reputation for excellence in their annual presentation of a classic English language musical - they simply set out to hire, and to produce, the best in the business. If only a UK producer were to one day ship a Châtelet show back across the Channel......

Runs until 11th January

Photo credits: Vincent Pontet and Marie-Noëlle Robert

Broadway Melodies - Review

****

It is a delight to review Dan Burton’s debut album Broadway Melodies. As choreographer Stephen Mear has long known, Burton is currently amongst the finest of musical theatre “triple threats” (defined as talented in all three skills of song, dance and acting) and a man who unassumingly provides an assured touch of class to all his roles, whether they be leading or support. Recent years alone having seen him give an assured Tulsa alongside Imelda Staunton’s Momma Rose in Gypsy, an immaculate Billy Lawlor in a Parisian 42nd Street, with Burton only recently having closed a flawless (and sold out) run as Jerry Travers in Top Hat at Kilworth House.

Those three shows on their own define Burton’s affinity with and affection for the classics from The Great White Way, so there is a true sense of belonging in listening to the singer’s choices – a selection that also bears a distinctly autobiographical touch too.

Burton opens the album with Singin’ In The Rain (he’d played Don Lockwood at Paris’ Chatelet a couple of years ago and keen fans may care to visit Paris this December where the show is soon to return) and gives the timeless number a warmly respectful treatment that drips with the comfort he feels in the role. The song is one that’s known by literally everyone and yet Burton still imbues it with a loving freshness - and there’s a cracking trumpet riff too from Gethin Liddington.

Chichester’s production of The Pajama Game from a few years back transferred, with Burton, to the West End and so it is little surprise that the show’s Hey There features among Burton's chosen ten songs, with his gorgeously mellifluous interpretation makes this number arguably the album’s highlight. Scaling Richard Adler’s and Jerry Ross’s intoxicating key changes with a charm and a confidence, Burton makes one want to set the track to ‘repeat’, to fully savour an enchanting three minutes of song.

There’s a delightful note of comedy as Burton teams up with Lee Mead for Well, Did You Evah. Crosby and Sinatra will always be a tough act to follow but there’s well-rehearsed nuance in this recording and one still cannot help but chuckle at Burton and Mead’s take on the tried and trusted gags.

The entire collection is a treat, with amongst the other songs included are a fabulously sonorous I Only Have Eyes For You and a perfectly pitched I’m In The Mood For Love. 

Sensitively produced by Mason Neely, Broadway Melodies is a must for anyone who loves exquisitely sung show tunes. The album is but a gorgeous glimpse of Dan Burton’s talent and with Xmas just around the corner, could well make a perfect gift.

Available to download from Amazon and iTunes

Anne Reid and Stefan Bednarczyk in Cabaret - Review

The Pheasantry, London

****

Anne Reid and Stefan Bednarczyk

Currently in cabaret at London’s The Pheasantry, Anne Reid and Stefan Bednarczyk offer a songlist devoted to the Broadway/Hollywood writing partnership of Betty Comden and Adolf Green.

Most famous perhaps for the story and screenplay of Singin' In The Rain (though incredibly their only contribution to that movie’s musical numbers was Moses Supposes) the Comden & Green partnership was to last the best part of 60 years, going on to include On The Town and Wonderful Town amongst a string of successes.

Reid and Bednarczyk are as enlightening as they are enchanting with a shared respect for Comden & Green that is infectiously appealing. Together, these talented performers bring a masterful combination of humour and pathos to a selection of numbers that reflect some of the best of the American Songbook.

The set includes not only classics such as I’m So Lucky To Be Me and Just In Time, but also the less well known works such as Talking To Yourself from The Hallelujah Chorus, Reid imbuing the song with a blend of power, hope and inspiration. Bednarczyk’s piano work was divine – but his vocals were magnificent too. A touching take on The Story Of My Life, suggested as possibly being an autobiographical reflection from Green looking back on an impoverished and abused childhood was heart-rending, whilst the satirical Capital Gains proved as topical today as when written some 50 years ago.

Don Black has spoken (here) of Reid’s remarkable cabaret persona. As a raconteur she’s amongst our finest and when she talks of having stage managed Margaret Lockwood, or her excitement at having met both meeting Comden & Green along with the occasional reference to Derek Jacobi, one could listen to her Geordie cum Weatherfield brogue all night. 

As Reid recounted how she first met Benarczyk in the south of France, I was reminded of her Mme Armfeldt’s reminiscent Liaisons in a recent A Little Night Music, whilst a further wistful observation, as to how beautiful it must be to both sing and fly (a reference to a Peter Pan production she was following whilst on a UK touring circuit) made me speculate what a fantastic Berthe she might make should Broadway’s recent Pippin ever cross the pond!

Reid and Bednarczyk encored with a number probably made most famous by Jimmy Durante, Make Someone Happy, a deliriously poignant yet also profoundly uplifting melody. The moment, along with the evening was perfect – for in a packed Chelsea basement these two diamonds of the cabaret scene had, in fact, made everyone happy.

In residence until Friday 31st July

Mabel's Wilful Way - Review

As Mack and Mabel previews at Chichester Festival Theatre (to be reviewed here next week), I chanced upon a DVD of one of Mack Sennett’s famous two-reelers, Mabel’s Wilful Way, made in 1915. 

Not surprisingly the DVD came with no accompanying press release and  nor did the movie itself list any credits. Even so, this short film (13 mins) provides a fascinating glimpse into the Tinseltown of 100 years ago. 

Mabel's Wilful Way (1915)

Directed by Mack Sennett and Mabel Normand

Produced by Adam Kessel and Charles Bauman for the Keystone Studios

Mabel’s Wilful Way is a two-reeler that unusually was directed by both Mack Sennett and his (and the movie’s) glamorous star, Mabel Normand. Set in an amusement park its mischief defined the comedy of the era.

We first meet Mabel dining with her parents in the park restaurant. Her moustachioed father and celery-eating, domineering mother are formally clad, as is Normand herself. When the chance arises, Mabel slips away from her parents’ stern control and in chapter two of the tale, entitled Short Funded Pals, she meets two young miscreants, one played by Roscoe (Fatty) Arbuckle who are sneaking their way onto the park attractions as they have no cash. 

To say too much would spoil the story, but Sennet and Normand set out to entertain as the three young people embark on an afternoon of stolen fun. Ice creams are pilfered, carousels joy ridden and water fountains and food are frequently aimed at hapless individuals' faces. Watch the film and think of Jerry Herman’s Mack singing I Wanna Make the World Laugh and you start to get an understanding of how brilliantly crafted some of Herman’s writing was.

The excellence on screen is of course from the actors and the performances that the director has coaxed from them. By definition there is no sound to a silent movie, so aside from the occasional written captions, all emotion and interaction be it love, comedy, anger or ridicule has to be conveyed through movement and facial expression. And in that regard the performances are genius. There was no "easy way" in those days (a parallel today might be the growth of CGI in cinema, replacing what would previously have required carefully crafted physical photography) and whilst the later Hollywood classics of Sunset Boulevard (1950) and Singin' In The Rain (1952) were to portray two very different sides of fictional silent-era movie stars, both Norma Desmond and Lina Lamont represented an era when a very different set of demands and expectations was placed upon a performer. 

Mabel’s Wilful Way includes scenes of Normand and Arbuckle feeding what appears to be a genuine bear and later larking around on a helterskelter, the rotund actor generating considerable momentum on his descent, to maximum comic effect. Their behaviour soon attracts the attention of the LA Police Department, who arrive on the scene administering justice with frequent truncheon blows to the head and body. Let's not forget that in the early 20th century Keystone police brutality was a source of comedy. 

Viewed through a modern prism, the movie is troubling. There is one black character in the tale whose role is to put his head through a hole in a board and have soaked sponges thrown at him in much the same way as balls are thrown at a coconut shy. Even worse, (worse?) he is played by a white actor in black slap. 1915 was the Vaudeville era of the racist minstrel show. The civil rights movement was a long way off and in a largely segregated America, the black man was a laughing stock - an aspect of history that Jerry Herman conveniently side-stepped. 

Herman’s Mack Sennett sings that Movies Were Movies when he ran the show - albeit a show built on racial prejudice, comical police brutality and an abuse of animal welfare. Since then Hollywood has largely cleaned up its act though as recent tragic events elsewhere in the USA remind us, America still has some way to go.

Time Heals Everything? Let’s hope so……

Mabel’s Wilful Way is available free on YouTube here

Singin' In The Rain - Review

Upstairs At The Gatehouse, London

****

Screenplay by Betty Comden & Adolph Green

Songs by Nacio Herb Brown & Arthur Freed

Directed by John Plews

Simon Adkins

There is a delightful air of ambition that pervades each Christmas musical at the Gatehouse and this year is no exception. In offering Singin' In The Rain to the good people of Highgate, director John Plews aims high indeed. The songs are classic, the book has the potentially lethal cocktail of gorgeous romance mixed with schmaltzy simplicity and of course there's "that" iconic scene.

Plews is a visionary creative and it is to his credit that his productions blend recently trained performers with seasoned West End and commercial talent. The story needs little introduction. Set in Hollywood, Monumental Pictures is contemplating the end of silent movies as glamorous starlet Lina Lamont realises that her voice is not as good as her looks. Meanwhile, dashing co star Don Lockwood has stumbled upon the demure and angelically voiced Kathy Selden. Love blossoms and jealousies burn as the rain-sodden tale unfolds.

The principal roles are all cast delightfully. Frankie Jenna's Kathy is a beautifully pitched performance of vocal perfection whilst Paul Harwood's Cosmo (Lockwood's best friend) offers up some great dance routines, with especially beautiful work in Moses Supposes and Make 'Em Laugh. This show's moments of breathtaking excellence however come from the carefully crafted performances that Plews coaxes from Simon Adkins' Lockwood and Thea Jo Wolfe's Lamont. Adkins' West End pedigree is manifest in his voice, his presence and his dance. He consistently convinces as the era's dashing movie-star, bringing a gravitas of quality to the performance that drives the entire show. Wolfe, a relative newcomer to professional theatre is just deliciously contemptible as the story's villain. Her dumb blonde vocal squawk is painfully hilarious and her mastery of Lamont's charisma, envy and ultimate fragility belies an acting talent of some considerable depth. Elsewhere, Nick Barclay is the believable Monumental boss R.F. Simpson and Emily Wigley sets the scene nicely as a Movietone news reporter.

The Gatehouse show offers a delicious flourish with its screenings of grainy black and white movie footage that the story demands. Seasoned director Monica Swelp racks up another triumph with her interpretations of The Royal Rascal and The Duelling Cavalier.

Chris Whittaker's choreography cleverly exploits the compact traverse performing space, with tap routines that make lavish use of the dozen performers and yes, for an off West End production there's even a rain drenched title number that includes the baton-twirling cop on his beat. Up in the gallery Matt Ramplin's six piece band knock out the favourites with a pleasing familiarity.

Singin' In The Rain makes for perfect festive fayre. A classic tale, beautifully told that brings a splash of Broadway rhythm to North London. It put a smile on my face!

Runs until 25th January 2015