Barnum - Review

Watermill Theatre, Newbury

*****

Music by Cy Coleman

Lyrics by Michael Stewart

Book by Mark Bramble

Directed by Jonathan O'Boyle

Matt Rawle and the cast of Barnum

Barnum at Newbury’s Watermill Theatre sets a very high bar for the nation’s musical theatre productions opening this summer. Blessed with a balmy evening in the theatre’s glorious garden, the cast offer up a mise-en-scene of juggling and other circus treats before curtain-up. And then, almost like a Tardis, the bijou, balconied auditorium of the Watermill becomes a 19th century American Big Top and the audience are transported into an evening not just of humbug and balderdash but of the work of a company of gifted performers delivering theatrical perfection. The Watermill has long been recognised for its outstanding actor-muso interpretation of some of the greatest shows. With Barnum, its cast are now required to be quintuple-threats with circus-skills added to their remarkable talents.

Matt Rawle leads the show as P.T. Barnum in a performance of sublime magnificence. Arguably the best Barnum this country has seen since Michael Crawford created the role some 43 years ago Rawle brings verve, wit, musical talent as well as the high-wire skills demanded of the first act’s closing number. Rawle is not just flim-flam. His pathos is heartbreakingly exquisite and the chemistry created between him and Monique Young’s Charity Barnum has to be seen to be believed. These two actors convince us of their East Coast credentials and through a clearly bumpy marriage, display a love for each other that is credible and moving. Rawle of course has the lion’s share of the songs, the tongue-twisting demands of which he smoothly masters. Young is equally vocally majestic, with the pair’s duet The Colors Of My Life evoking tears and smiles in equal measure from the audience.

Matt Rawle and Monique Young

The pair are surrounded by excellence in the show’s company. Tania Mathurin delivers a wittily perceptive take on Joice Heth, “the oldest woman in the world”, while Penny Ashmore is an enchanting Jenny Lind, “the Swedish Nightingale”. Not only an accomplished harpist, Ashmore’s soprano voice is thrilling in its power and purity. Fergus Rattigan is appropriately energetic as General Tom Thumb, while the four circus performers in the show’s ensemble, Kiera Brunton, Dan Holland, Emily Odunsi and André Rodrigues display strength, beauty and breathtaking agility in their creation of the circus-ring experience.

The creative work that has gone into this production is of the highest standard. Jonathan O’Boyle directs with flair and sensitivity paying attention to the finest details of the show’s nuanced tale. Oti Mabuse’s choreography, squeezed into the Watermill’s compact space is a delight – and a nod too to Josh Barnett who not only plays the Ringmaster but is also the show’s onstage musical director, seeing  Cy Coleman’s melodies done to perfection. Lee Newby’s designs are a treat as are Amy Panter's skills in circus direction, the whole cast and crew delivering flawless entertainment.

Head down to Newbury and join the circus!

Runs until 8th September

Photo credit: Pamela Raith

Sweet Charity (at The Watermill Theatre, Newbury) - Review

Watermill Theatre, Newbury

****

Music by Cy Coleman

Lyrics by Dorothy Fields

Book by Neil Simon

Directed by Paul Hart

Gemma Sutton

Cy Coleman’s score for Sweet Charity, much like his compositions for The Life, define his ability to create a musical around humanity’s grittier perspectives. Inspired by a Fellini screenplay, Neil Simon’s book carries a timeless ring of abuse.  Charity is a good trusting woman who is ultimately used by both the men we see her become involved with; the humble Oscar and the powerful Vittorio Vidal. The message is clear - irrespective of their place in society, men are manipulative misogynists. And yet although the narrative may be harsh, the genius of the show’s writers lies in having framed their tale within a structure of some of the 1960’s finest musical theatre writing.

The powerhouse driving this production is Gemma Sutton’s Charity. Sutton is a performer who only knows the meaning of excellence in her work, capturing Charity’s kooky complex vulnerability and delivering a performance that by turn breaks our hearts and then makes them soar in the show’s biggest numbers. Her voice and presence are majestic in songs such as If My Friends Could See Me Now and I’m A Brass Band and yet, throughout, she captures Charity’s precious fragility, so painfully recognisable in her exquisite interpretation.

Sutton is well supported by a perfectly cast company. Tomi Ogbaro as Daddy revives and inspires the audience as he leads Rhythm Of Life. Elliot Harper’s Vidal is convincing in his suave arrogance, while the show’s girls (Nicola Bryan, Vivien Carter, Stacey Ghent Emma Jane Morton and Laura Sillett) make magnificent work of Big Spender, returning it to its pre-Bassey beauty.

Perhaps the greatest revelation of the evening is Alex Cardall’s Oscar. Straight out of the Arts Educational School, and yet another NYMT alumnus to make a leading debut this summer, Cardall masters Oscar’s manipulative maturity with a confidence that belies his years. With perfectly weighted nuance and pinpoint delivery on the gags, his is classy work indeed.

Behind the scenes Diego Pitarch’s designs sees two pairs of bi-folding mirrors whirled around the stage ingeniously, while the translations of Coleman’s score to an actor-muso company is, yet again, flawless musical supervision from Sarah Travis. Charlie Ingles has directed Travis’ work with the instrumentalists, but on the night and on stage it is an assured Tom Self that oversees the delivery of these bold, brassy melodies.

Bob Fosse directed the show (originally on Broadway and later, its Hollywood iteration too) and while Tom Jackson Greaves has choreographed with imaginative flair within the Watermill’s cockpit space, Fosse’s fingerprints (footprints?) are everywhere. But for all the talent within this show, it is hampered by the Watermill’s challenging (and sometimes non-existent) sightlines that can render too much of Jackson Greaves’ (no doubt brilliant) dance work, invisible.

Yet again, the people of Newbury find themselves spoiled with this display of some of the finest talent in the land putting on a show that alongside being a rollercoaster of emotions, is a festival of sensational song and dance.

Runs until 15th September

Photo credit: Philip Tull

A Little Night Music - Review

Watermill Theatre, Newbury


*****


Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

Book by Hugh Wheeler

Directed by Paul Foster

The Company

The enchanted narrative of A Little Night Music sees the summer night famously smiling three times: once upon the young, again upon the foolish and finally, upon the old. With Paul Foster’s production can now be added a fourth smile, the one that falls upon an extraordinarily talented musical theatre company. 

Alongside his musical supervisor and arranger Sarah Travis, Foster has seen this most lush of Stephen Sondheim’s scores (all in waltz-time, to the cognoscenti) reduced to the demands of an actor-musician company, yet retaining all of the original’s magic. It is understood that Sondheim only agreed to his compositions being so arranged if the work was to be carried out by Travis - and one can but hope that in the next few weeks the man himself will hop across the Atlantic to enjoy her remarkable adaptation. Unusually for www.jonathanbaz.com, the paragraphs that follow are as much a review as they are, quite simply, a roll call of excellence.

Josefina Gabrielle and Alastair Brookshaw lead the show’s coterie of romantic fools with their Desiree Armfeldt and Fredrik Egerman respectively. Gabrielle is perfection as the much desired actress, maintaining a poise and presence that is both elegant and seductive. Passionate lover, absent mother and truculent daughter, Gabrielle nails them all tackling the hilarious irony of The Glamorous Life (as well as the delicious comedy of You Must Meet My Wife) perfectly. The show’s fame is probably eclipsed by that of its torch song, Send In The Clowns which since the 1970s has been many a diva’s hallmark. Gabrielle takes this most challenging of numbers, making it her own. Her understanding of the lyrics’ undulating nuance is crystal clear and in the song’s pre-finale reprise, the pathos is as heartbreaking as it is inspirational.

Josefina Gabrielle

Brookshaw’s Egerman is a masterclass of pitch-perfect acting through song, his choral training bringing an elegant crispness to the role that is rarely seen. Egerman is a man capable of the most bungling ineptitude alongside the purest of passions and imbued by Sondheim with some of the wittiest moments in the canon. Brookshaw, the most talented of tenors, plays the role wonderfully, convincing in his undying love for Desiree.

The quartet of fools is completed by Alex Hammond’s Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm and Phoebe Fildes as his wife, the Countess Charlotte. Hammond’s clipped dragoon is a monstrous misogynist, filled with testosterone and a misplaced bravado in place of brains. His is a man and husband that is simply too awful to believe, while visually, his muscular physique alongside Brookshaw’s diminutive frame only adds to the evening’s wit. 

Of course, behind the Count’s braggadocio lies a deeply damaged wife and Fildes depicts Charlotte’s agony in a piercingly poignant Every Day A Little Of Death. Sondheim ensures however that any sympathy for the Countess is short-lived as she evolves into a scheming seductress, out to win her husband back irrespective of who she tramples upon (or who is even, potentially, shot!) Fildes’ squeal of delight as her husband, finally, becomes a tiger “for her” is spot-on, while her increasing dismay as the first half’s closing number A Weekend In The Country plays out, is comedy gold. [And note too that as act one, pre-interval closers go, they don’t get much better than the treat that is this multi-part harmonic confection!) 

And then there is the genius that is Dillie Keane, an actress who’s surely spent her life preparing for the dowager role of Madame Armfeldt. Her lines are minimal but Keane captures the grande-dame’s witty, loving irascibility to a tee. In the first half, her take on the reminiscences of Liaisons is a treat, while in the finale and without a trace of mawkish sentimentality she holds us in the palm of her hand as the summer night finally smiles upon the old.

The youth of the tale are played by Lucy Keirl as Anne, Frederik’s wife of 11 months and young enough to be his daughter, Benedict Salter as Fredrik’s troubled son Henrik, grappling with the conflicting desires of a burning lust and a commitment to the priesthood, and Tilly-Mae Millbrook as Desiree’s illegitimate daughter Fredrika. All three capture their roles’ responsibilities with an immaculate craft. Keirl’s anguished bride, still virginal, defines Anne’s complex combination of youthful innocence with feminine intuition and we believe in her throughout. Salter’s Henrik is sensational - gifted with some stunning solo moments (alongside some outstanding cello work) he brims with an angst and self-doubt that, when his pent-up love finally spills, only offers yet another of the evening’s many highlights. Millbrook is every inch the wide-eyed teenager. A girl who’s wise beyond her years, her Fredrika is both a loving granddaughter and a knowing companion to her mother. 

As the audience are left stunned by Send In The Clowns, another of Sondheim’s master strokes is to send in the Egermans’ maid Petra, to swirl her skirts in the red-blooded whirl that is The Miller’s Son. Christina Tedders steps up to the part with a palpable passion as she brings Matt Flint’s choreography to life. Tedders delights throughout the show with her one-liners and truly makes the most of this cracking song.

The show’s chorus of Liebeslieders, often unsung heroes, are essential to a strong A Little Night Music and here Rachel Dawson, Alexander Evans, Alice Keedwell and Neil Macdonald bring a vocal magic (alongside a musical talent that pervades the entire ensemble) that seamlessly shifts both time and location – and again one witnesses excellent work from Flint.

Tom Marshall’s sound design is stunning. Every word and note is audible, with sound effects subtly blended in to enhance the suspension of our disbelief. Alongside in the creative team, David Woodhead’s ingenious design of distressed grandeur captures the fading elegance of a Sweden long since disappeared. Howard Hudson’s lighting work is yet another sensation - for a show that’s set in “perpetual twilight” Hudson cleverly suggests the Northern midsummer sun.

In what is quite probably the best musical to have recently opened in the UK, one can only hope that the summer night can smile once more and perhaps see the show transfer to the wider audience it deserves. Until then, head to Newbury and the Watermill’s manicured lawns. A Little Night Music is truly unmissable musical theatre.

Runs until 16th September
Photo credit: Philip Tull

Crazy For You - Review

Watermill Theatre, Newbury

****

Music and lyrics by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin

Book by Ken Ludwig

Directed by Paul Hart

Caroline Sheen, Tom Chambers and Company

Crazy For You is a musical drawn up by Ken Ludwig in the 1990's and broadly based on the Gershwins’ Broadway foray Girl Crazy from some 60 years earlier. While the show's narrative may hang on a story that lacks both consequence and credibility, it does comprise some of the 20th century’s finest songs, along with the opportunity for some spectacular dance routines.

The Watermill has cast the show perfectly, with Tom Chambers and Caroline Sheen leading the company. But whilst the theatre may have landed one of musical theatre’s finest male dancers, unfortunately the venue’s flat performing space (there is no raised stage) means that most of Chambers’ fleet-footed brilliance is invisible to anyone in the stalls who’s had the misfortune to be sat behind the front two rows. The tap dances choreographed by Nathan M Wright sound terrific for sure – but in row 7 one barely catches a glimpse. 

The acting is strong throughout, with some fine moments of physical comedy too, but where this production excels in in its treatment of the classic songs. Sheen’s character Polly is given the lion’s share of the Gershwin greats and she delivers them with excellence and flair. Her interpretations of Someone To Watch Over Me, Embraceable You and the heartbreaking But Not For Me are spine-tinglingly good. 

Some of the singing spoils are shared: Lucy Thatcher delivers a wonderfully steamy Naughty Baby as she seduces Jeremy Legat’s (also excellent) hotelier and there’s a delightful ensemble of rednecks offering a very droll interpretation of Bidin’ My Time.

Diego Pitarch’s imaginative designs can’t conceal the fact that the show is a quart being awkwardly squeezed into the Watermill’s pint-pot, though Howard Hudson’s lighting wizardry (with some fabulous use of mirrored follow spots) does a fine job of trying to “big-up” the space. For the most part the actor-muso set up works well even if occasional lapses suggest an Arvide Abernathy's Save A Soul Mission tribute band. No doubt the musical hiccoughs will settle down over the run.

Notwithstanding the production’s flaws, the talent on display here still makes for an evening of fine entertainment - if you can grab a seat in the circle or front stalls, even better. And with Caroline Sheen’s enchanting take on a handful of the American Songbook’s greats, who could ask for anything more?

Runs until 17th September 2016

Photo credit: Richard Davenport

Oliver! - Review

Watermill Theatre, Newbury

****

Music, lyrics and book by Lionel Bart

Directed by Luke Sheppard

Thomas Kerry

It is a rare treat to visit Newbury’s charmingly situated Watermill Theatre and Luke Sheppard's Oliver! more than makes the journey worthwhile. On arrival and in one of the most innovative mise-en-scenes, as the audience mingle on the lawn outside sipping Pimms and G&Ts, the cast’s ragamuffin kids dart about, not picking pockets but offering to shine shoes for a sixpence. It’s a charming touch.

As is the way at The Watermill, the production is actor-muso, with the adult cast playing their instruments during moments that don’t involve them in the show’s action. Bart’s striking overture proves an initial treat and it sets the standard for the evening’s music.

The production’s kids are an appropriately cute and talented bunch and on the night of this review the team of youngsters was headed by Thomas Kerry in the title role, with Archie Fisher as the Artful Dodger. Any production of Oliver! however will always be defined by its Fagin and Nancy and with Cameron Blakely and Alice Fearn, this show is in capable hands. If Blakely, the only actor who does not play an instrument, is initially a little too driven by stereotype he settles into the role well. Fagin should never be a truly sympathetic character, yet by the time he gets around to his wonderful Reviewing The Situation, the audience are laughing with him, not at him.

Fearn’s Nancy is simply as good as it gets. Aside from her piano and recorder playing duties she looks and sounds every inch the protagonist of one of the most complex love stories in the canon, with a voice that is just sensational. Fearn simply smashes It’s A Fine Life, whilst her As Long As He Needs Me both thrills and inspires, vocally soaring through her inexplicable devotion to Bill Sikes.

It is a stroke of genius that sees Sheppard set Nancy’s act two opener Oom-Pah-Pah, traditionally staged in an East End pub, back on the theatre’s lawn as the audience are finishing off their interval libations. Fearn’s delivery is bawdy, raucous and with a singalong encouraged if it wasn’t for the downright prosperity of surrounding Berkshire, close your eyes and you could almost be back in Whitechapel! 

Choreographer Tim Jackson also makes fine use of his cast within the compact space. The ensemble numbers are thrilling and Jackson’s work is Who Will Buy? is just a delight as the stage gradually fills to a rousing street scene.

Kit Orton (strings and percussion) puts in a fine turn as Bill Sikes, bringing a detached menace that convinces us of the evil lying at his villain’s core, whilst Steve Watts’ Mr Brownlow is the most compassionate of patricians who also proves a rather dab hand on the trumpet. Susannah van den Berg, always a treat to see perform, cuts a matronly figure as the hard-hearted Widow Corney and  also impresses with a wonderful voice and a talent for remarkable range of instruments.

Perhaps the most impressive musical moment of the night comes from Deborah Hewitt, who when she’s not playing Charlotte, is either tucked away on her drum kit or even more impressively, roaming the stage in a masterclass of syncopation, strapped to her one-(wo)man-band contraption. A nod too to the comic crafts of Tomm Coles’ (wind) Mr Sowerberry and Graham Lappin’s (piano and trombone) definition of vacuous pomposity, Mr Bumble.  

The show’s programme contains some well researched background material, but annoyingly does not give the actors any (deserved) credit for the instruments that they play. So to complete the record, also putting in a first class shift were Joey Hickman on piano and trombone, Rachel Dawson on strings and the marvellous Rhona McGregor on Piano, strings and sax

Given the impoverished backdrop to Oliver!, the economy of doing away with a separate orchestra works well and amidst Tom Rogers' striking multi-level set design and Howard Hudson’s trademark stunning lighting, the time and place of a grim Victorian London is thrillingly captured. If Lionel Bart is looking down upon the Watermill’s production, he’s surely smiling.

Runs until 19th September

Photo credit: Philip Tull

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

Dana P. Rowe - A Brief Profile

With the UK’s first professional production of The Witches of Eastwick in five years opening at Newbury’s Watermill Theatre, I spent a brief while with composer Dana P.Rowe, to talk briefly about the show and his collaboration with writer John Dempsey.

The show, based upon John Updike’s novel and following on some 13 years after Jack Nicholson created the on-screen role of Darryl van Horne, received its global premiere at London’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane as a Cameron Mackintosh production. Rowe and Dempsey had already been collaborating since the 1980’s with two modestly successful hits behind them, Zombie Prom from 1995 and The Fix in 1997 (that Sam Mendes had staged at the Donmar).

If there is a theme to Rowe’s and Dempsey’s output, it is the tackling of social issues and commentary via stories that are either faux-horror, or of comic book style structure. Simple fables, often with a literally in-credible or zany storyline, yet all speaking towards a message of simple comment upon the human condition.  Where The Witches of Eastwick shines a light upon urban life and relationships and frustrations that have gone awry, Zombie Prom takes a sympathetic view of a high school boy killed in a freakish nuclear power station disaster, whose mutilated corpse returns from the dead to seek re-acceptance from his peers and school prinipals and above all, be allowed to attend the school prom. It’s a ridiculous whacky premise, but at its heart it speaks of an outsider desperately seeking affection and recognition.  Rowe speaks with some tenderness and personal experience when he talks of the difficulties of being an outsider excluded from the “in-crowd”.

Musical theatre is no stranger to tackling darker aspects of humanity, though where Rogers and Hammerstein didn’t mince their words with human comment (think of the abusive streak of Billy Bigelow in Carousel, or the menace that overshadows Jud Fry in Oklahoma) so Rowe and Dempsey adopt a different strategy of directness. I suggest to Rowe, particularly with the imagery of Zombie Prom in mind, that the world that he and his collaborator portray is one that could have been drawn by Roy Lichtenstein. Simple images, primary colours, and punchlines that whilst they may be superficially obvious or even shallow, actually speak to us with a poignant irony upon the world they describe, sound out from his compositions and Rowe is quick to endorse the suggested similarities between his work and Lichtenstein’s iconic imagery. 

Whilst Rowe’s output with Dempsey has not been prolific, their creative relationship continues to this day, suggesting an artistic harmony and union that has a reassuring degree of timelessness. With Merrily We Roll Along, just closed on London's  West End, describing the arc of destruction that shatters the working friendship of a lyricist and composer, it is strangely comforting to find a harmonious and productive partnership that has existed between two creative talents, for so long.

Rowe's craft is simply to take his perceptive perspectives on life and set them to some uplifting melodies. Act one of The Witches of Eastwick closes with the marvellous composition I Wish I May. More than 8 minutes long its a song for the three Witches and the Devil, that is a biography of the ladies and a glorious perspective on how Satan has understood their personae and endowed them with what they think they most desire. It's a vast canvas of a number, that in its grandeur echoes Bigelow's Soliloquy. The song opens with tender heartfelt verses from each woman, before crescendoing to its final stanzas as their diabolical lover makes them all, literally, fly. It is one of those few songs that is truly as thrilling to listen to as it is to watch on stage.

The man's music speak to us all. His songs are classically structured yet written with a timelessness that does not date their message. The lucky folk of Newbury are blessed with Craig Revel Horwood's take on The Witches of Eastwick being with them until September 14th. For the rest of us, it's only a short trip (or broomstick flight) down the M4 for the chance to savour some of the funniest and most stirring musical theatre written.

Read my review on The Witches of Eastwick at Newbury's Watermill Theatre

The Witches of Eastwick plays at Newbury's Watermill Theatre until 14 September 2013