Police Cops The Musical - Review

Southwark Playhouse, London

****

Music by Ben Adams

Lyrics, book and direction by Zachary Hunt, Nathan Parkinson and Tom Roe

The cast of Police Cops The Musical

A banging fusion of music, movement and scorching satire, Police Cops The Musical is just down from Edinburgh to take up a month-long residency at the Southwark Playhouse.

The inspired creation of Zachary Hunt, Nathan Parkinson and Tom Roe who have not only written the book, the lyrics and co-directed piece, they also play the three male roles. Brilliantly. The trio have a long history with the Police Cops brand of humour but this year’s musical marks their first collaboration with composer Ben Adam. 

A pastiche on 1980s American TV cop shows and action-hero movies, the 2-hour long show lampoons kitsch Americana, set to a kooky plot that ranges from mid-town USA to a Mexican orphanage amidst rookie cops, corrupt police chiefs, Latin American drug chiefs and frustrated nursery nurses. Melinda Orengo and Natassia Bustamente complete the quintet of players - with all 5 zipping their way through numerous changes of character.

The gags are slick and ingenious – look out for some inspired moments with a floating gingham tablecloth and a hilarious Mexican wrestling match. The evening is tightly written and slickly rehearsed with Matt Cole’s choreography only enhancing the show with his immaculately drilled dance routines.

Police Cops The Musical is fringe theatre at its finest.

Runs until 14th October

Photo credit: Pamela Raith

Macbeth - Review

Shakespeare's Globe, London

**

Written by William Shakespeare

Directed by Abigail Graham

Max Bennett

There’s a moment just before the (long-awaited) interval in Macbeth when Banquo’s  ghost stalks the stage. To be honest it’s a miracle that Banquo’s spirit is not accompanied by that of the great Sam Wanamaker (whose legacy is this magnificent theatre) or even Shakespeare himself, such is the artistic travesty of much of Abigail Graham’s production.

Where to begin? The script has been tinkered with and for no apparent reason Duncan and the three witches have been gender-swapped, although quite why Duncan is referred to as the Queen, but the three hags, played here by beefy men, are still referred to in the script as the Weird Sisters is beyond me. And inexplicably, hospital gurneys are solemnly wheeled on and off the stage at times when there are no bodies to be borne.

By all means set the piece in modern dress. The witches’ cauldron being replaced by an electric blender was a nice touch. (Fenny-snake frappucino anyone?) But don’t play fast and loose with the basic constructs. With Macbeth a hardy perennial on school syllabuses across the land, the Globe was mobbed with pupils, all eyewitnesses to the slaughter of a classic.

Amidst the evening’s cultural carnage there were a handful of standout performances. Max Bennett’s Macbeth will not be remembered as one of the greats but credit to the man, he soldiered on like a trouper nursing a recently broken finger, with only the swordplay reduced (I guess) to dagger fighting. Fine work too from Matti Houghton as Lady Macbeth whose descent into madness was harrowing to see. Equally, the howls of grief from Aaron Anthony’s Macduff were heart rending and convincing. And to be fair the production's blood and gore was fun.

Sleep no more - The Globe hath done a far better job of murdering Macbeth than Macduff could ever dream of.

Runs to 28th October

Photo credit: Johan Persson

My Radio Broadcasts - A collected anthology

I present a fortnightly radio slot on The Daily Show on ww.mensradiostation.com (alternate Fridays at 12noon)

Listed below are the recordings to date, together details of the shows that were discussed and links to my original reviews of those shows.

Have a listen and enjoy!

February 23rd 2024

For my interview with Jenny Seagrove - click here

Shows discussed:

Othello

Macbeth

Hamlet - The Movie - incl Jenny Seagrove in conversation

Hadestown

February 9th 2024

Listen to the show - click here

Shows discussed:

Merchant of Venice 1936 - Tracy-Ann Oberman in conversation

Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell

Till The Stars Come Down

Me, Tom Self & I

January 26th 2024

Listen to the show - click here

Shows discussed:

Cirque du Soleil - Alegria In A New Light

Cruel Intentions

Rehab

January 12th 2024

Listen to the show - click here

Shows discussed:

Peter Pan - Pantomime at the Palladium

The Enfield Haunting

The Motive And The Cue

October 13th 2023

Listen to the show - click here

Shows discussed:

Old Friends

The Ocean At The End Of The Lane

Flowers For Mrs Harris

September 29th 2023

Listen to the show - click here

Shows discussed:

Frank and Percy

The Father And The Assassin

Pygmalion

Close Up

Starlight Express

September 15th 2023

Listen to the show - click here

Shows discussed:

Macbeth

Police Cops The Musical

Back To The Future - The Musical

September 1st 2023

Listen to the show - click here

Shows discussed:

42nd Street

The Effect

A Strange Loop

August 18th 2023

Listen to the show - click here

Shows discussed:

La Cage Aux Folles

Romeo + Juliet - Ballet

Mrs Doubtfire

August 4th 2023

Listen to the show - click here

Shows discussed:

The Spongebob Musical

Rock Follies

The Crucible

Choir Of Man

July 21st 2023

Listen to the show - click here

Shows discussed:

Dear England

The Third Man

Crazy For You

The Sound of Music

The Effect - Review

National Theatre, London

*****

Written by Lucy Prebble

Directed by Jamie Lloyd

Paapa Essiedu and Taylor Russell

After a gap of some 11 years, the National Theatre’s revival of Lucy Prebble’s The Effect is as timely as it is brilliant.

In this ingenious four-hander Paapa Essiedu and Taylor Russell are Tristan and Connie, two volunteers trialling an anti-depressant over a 4 week period in a secure residential facility. Michele Austin and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith are the clinicians Lorna and Toby, overseeing the trial, with Lorna being responsible for the trial’s execution, while Toby is from the drug company who have developed the medicine that’s being tested. In a tight single act that lasts 100 minutes, Prebble immerses us into the intensity of an improbable love that evolves between Tristan and Connie, while also exploring the doctors’ dynamics too.

Director Jamie Lloyd delivers electrifying theatre. Essiedu kicks off as the opportunistic chancer - eager to make a sexual conquest out of Connie, his swagger and machismo almost predatory in the play’s opening scenes. Russell’s Connie is an equally stunning performance as she explores her own responses to Tristan - and as the play unfolds, with one of them on the trialled medication and one on a placebo, the drama deepens to a level of human pain and passion that is at times unbearable to watch such is it’s intensity. In their own predatory sub-plot, the two medics are equally compelling.

As ever, designer Soutra Gilmour provides the staging for Lloyd’s vision, in this instance boldly transforming the Lyttleton’s proscenium stage into a traverse space with racks of seating upstage with the action playing out centrally. The colour scheme is a harsh black and white that Jon Clark’s brutal lighting plots enhance magnificently.

There’s so much to chew over in The Effect - not just the grief and humanity that is played out on stage, but also a wider contemplation of the manipulative powers of Big Pharma. In this post-pandemic world that Prebble could barely have contemplated when she penned her script, the world’s physiological reactions to both Covid and its panoply of speedily rolled-out vaccines, offer up some unexpectedly troubling analogies too.

The Effect is modern writing at its best and again, spectacularly, our National Theatre at its very best too. In Jamie Lloyd’s hands this makes for a night of outstanding, unforgettable theatre.

Runs until 7th October

Photo credit: Marc Brenner

The Arc - Review

Soho Theatre, London

**

Written by Amy Rosenthal, Alexis Zegerman and Ryan Craig

Directed by Kayla Feldman

Abigail Weinstock

It’s not often that a play writes its own review, but when Nigel Planer’s Michael, a retired  obstetrician, refers early on in The Arc to “a shimmering platter of bollocks on toast” he could have been describing The Arc itself.

A trilogy of new short plays by three different writers, The Arc strives to give an alternative Jewish perspective on Birth, Marriage and Death (also the titles of each drama). On for a short run at Soho Theatre’s Upstairs house, the venue was packed for this mid-run performance.

A well drilled and high-performing cast deliver the pieces, but aside from some neatly observed pathos in Alexis Zegerman’s Marriage that focusses on some of the finely nuanced complexities of dating, there’s more Jewish life-cycle substance to found in the Social and Personal columns of the JC.

All of the actors are great, notably Nigel Planer in Amy Rosenthal’s Birth and equally Abigail Weinstock in Marriage. But notwithstanding the performances that Kayla Feldman coaxes from her company in this mercifully short (hour-long) production, what The Arc lacks in credibility it makes up for in groaning cliche.

Bollocks indeed.

Runs until 26th August

Photo credit: Danny with a camera

La Cage Aux Folles - Review

Open Air Theatre, London

****

Music & lyrics by Jerry Herman

Book by Harvey Fierstein

Based on the play by Jean Poiret

Directed by Timothy Sheader

Carl Mullaney

In a beautifully created revival, Jerry Herman’s La Cage Aux Folles played under a (thankfully) balmy summer’s evening at Regents Park.

Billy Carter plays Georges and Carl Mullaney, Albin, in the famed story of family, identity, sexuality and love. Harvey Fierstein’s book is given an intelligent treatment by Timothy Sheader in his swansong at the Open Air Theatre. The comedy is immaculately timed and the moments of powerful pathos, sensitively handled. As the evening’s twilight darkens across the stage, Colin Richmonds’ evocative set is brought into a gorgeous relief by Howard Hudson’s lighting plots. Equally, Ryan Dawson Laight’s costumery of both the dancers at the La Cage Aux Folles nightspot, and the surrounding characters is delightful.

The strengths of this show however lie in its outstanding performances. Carter and Mullaney are magnificent in their middle-aged, decades long romance, with the act one treats of Carter’s Song On The Sand and Mullaney’s I Am What I Am proving sensational. Both men imbue their numbers with sensitivity, in the case of Mullaney’s first-half closer, a perfectly weighted power too. As the (albeit implausible) plot plays out, there is an outstanding turn from Debbie Kurup as restaurateur Jacqueline.

Aside from the show’s magnificent vocal work, Stephen Mear again turns in a marvellously choreographed dance creation. The imaginative moves, perfectly drilled, are a joy to behold. Craig Armstrong was called upon on press night to cover the role of Edward Dindon and did so with finesse. Ben van Tienen conducts Herman’s score with verve, his 9-piece upstage band offering a musical treat to accompany the evening.

There is much to enjoy in La Cage Aux Folles, one of London’s most enchanting nights of musical theatre.

Runs until 23rd September

Photo credit: Mark Senior

 

Romeo + Juliet - Review

Sadler's Wells Theatre, London

*****

Music by Prokofiev

Directed and choreographed by Matthew Bourne

Cordelia Braithwaite and Paris Fitzpatrick

Matthew Bourne’s Romeo + Juliet returns to Sadler’s Wells, reminding London of this brilliant, bloody interpretation of Shakespeare’s classic tale.

Set in the dystopian Verona Institute in the ‘not too distant future’, this is a Romeo + Juliet that sees the Bard’s narrative fused to Prokofiev’s classic score and staged with more than a nod to Lindsay Anderson’s If... Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange and maybe just a hint of Alan Clarke's Scum for good measure.

Bourne’s action never leaves the white tiles of the institution, harshly lit and policed by armed guards. This is a bold and distinctive Romeo + Juliet that where necessary plays fast and loose with the familiar plotlines to enable the narrative to reach its tragic climax while still maintaining the rudiments of the story.

Where everyone bar the guards and Romeo’s patrician parents are clad in white, it’s a challenge for the humble punters to discern the Montagues from the Capulets - but that is but a minor quibble. The flawless standard of Bourne’s New Adventures company’s dance is breathtaking. Their movement so apparently effortless and immaculately drilled, is sensational.

In the pit Brett Morris conducts a scaled down orchestra of 15 players. But as those famous opening bars of Act One play out so magnificently and chillingly, one quickly realises that not only is Prokofiev’s composition in very safe hands, but also how appropriate Bourne’s vision is for the music.

Paris Fitzpatrick and Cordelia Braithwaite dance the leading roles bringing athleticism, passion and a profound vulnerability to their characters. There’s a wickedly fine turn from Danny Reubens’ Tybalt too.

Yet again Lez Brotherston partners with Bourne to deliver a stunningly evocative stage set, complete with a domed ceiling to the Verona Institute that rises and falls like ET's mother ship.

The production values are immaculate throughout, with New Adventures proving a fine example of Arts Council England’s money that is being well spent. And while Matthew Bourne may have teasingly juggled with one of the oldest love stories in the canon, his blood-soaked finale concludes a truly ripping yarn.

Runs until 2nd September

Photo credit: Johan Persson