I'm Every Woman The Chaka Kahn Musical - Review

Troubadour Theatre, London

**

Written by Nia T. Hill

Directed by Racky Plews

Alexandra Burke

Chaka Kahn (and a number of her contemporaries) amassed a remarkable body of hits in their careers. Beautiful songs with strong messages and in I’m Every Woman at Wembley’s Troubadour Theatre, Alexandra Burke as Kahn smashes a fair few of them out of the park.

But 30 banging songs do not a musical make, and in between Burke’s sensational singing (and equally Sophie Earl’s fabulously fleeting stint as Joni Mitchell) the narrative that links the numbers is brief, shallow and clichéd.

Sandwiched between two glib family therapy sessions, the show delivers a whirl of brief vignettes, poorly linked, outlining Kahn’s career achievements that were peppered by battles with addiction and domestic violence. If only these darknesses had been treated with more artistic sobriety, the messages may have carried more credible impact. Notwithstanding Chaka Kahn’s real-life endorsement of the show, it all just seems at times too crass.

Give Alexandra Burke an unadulterated setlist of Chaka Kahn’s greatest hits supported by Aron Sood's excellent band from Wembley and it could well make for an evening of musical brilliance. As it is, I’m Every Woman needs an awful lot of work.

Runs until 27th September

Photo credit: Danny Kaan

Fame The Musical - Review

Theatre Royal, Plymouth

****

Music by Steve Margoshes

Lyrics by Jacques Levy

Book by Jose Fernandez

Title song 'Fame' written by Dean Pitchford & Michael Gore

Shoko Ito

Some 30 years after its European premiere in Plymouth, Fame The Musical returns to the Theatre Royal, giving “P.A.”, The New York Academy For The Performing Arts a 21st century interpretation, this time helmed and choreographed by Tom Jackson-Greaves.

Soutra Gilmour designs an ingenious set that perches on Plymouth’s revolve, taking us in and out of the dilapidated arts school located in midtown Manhattan, a blend of decades-old pipework, graffiti and suspended lightbulbs that all create an ingeniously effective, grimy backdrop to the narrative.

Jackson-Greaves’s roots hail from an impressive dance history and his take on Fame’s big numbers is impressive. Opening with Pray and then Hard Work, the staging and structure of the routines is breathtaking, with close harmony work that is gorgeous. Shanay Holmes leads the teaching staff as the highly-principled Miss Sherman. Well cast, Holmes is beautifully restrained throughout, not least in act two’s These Are My Children. It’s a neat touch that sees her given the opportunity to lead a belting singalong reprise of the title song as the cast take their bows.

There are standout gems amongst the cast, not least Megan Ellis as Serena who is exquisite in her singing as Let’s Play A Love Scene and Talia Palamathanan as the tragic Carmen Diaz who has to explore the full range of emotions across both acts, ranging from an outstanding Fame in the first half, to the bleakness of In L.A. after the interval. Harrison Wilde’s comic highlight of Can’t Keep It Down is another of the show’s treats. As Iris Kelly, Shoko Ito's dance moves are phenomenal.

Inspired by Alan Parker’s 1980 movie, Fame is a gritty tale of hope and endeavour, spiked by moments of tragedy. It is a tough script that requires a broad depth of performance from its cast, particularly in the dialogue scenes. Away from the moments of song and dance, the show’s pace drops and one feels that Jackson-Greaves lacks that director’s killer instinct, needed to extract the show’s full dramatic potential from his company. 

But it’s the songs that power this show, not least the final full company numbers of an exhilarating I Sing The Body Electric leading into the bittersweet anthem of Bring On Tomorrow, both songs delivering powerful punches with the latter proving gorgeously poignant.

Only on for a short run, Fame The Musical has the potential to travel far beyond Plymouth. Bring on tomorrow for this beautiful show.

Runs until 15th August

Photo credit: Johan Persson

The Car Man - Review

Sadler's Wells, London

*****

Music by Terry Davies and Rodion Shchedrin's Carmen Suite (after Bizet's Carmen)

Directed and choregraphed by Matthew Bourne

The company of The Car Man

Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man is more than just a ballet. This modern classic that was first performed some 20 years ago is a homage to both cinema and opera delivered through the sublime fusion of dance.

Inspired by Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen, Bourne translates the tale of simmering lust, jealousy, revenge and murder from 19th century Spain to America’s 1950s Midwest and the small town of Harmony. Where Bizet’s opera was set in and around a tobacco factory in Seville, Bourne’s action focusses on Dino’s car repair shop and diner that sits at the heart of the town’s Hispanic community. Lana is Dino’s smoulderingly beautiful and profoundly frustrated wife, and when  handsome drifter Luca arrives in town looking for work, Lana finds him irresistible. Throw in the subplot of a romance between locals Angelo and Rita and with Bourne adding a strand of bisexuality to the plot, the components are all in place for a story that proves as tragic as it is grippingly exciting throughout.

Bourne’s New Adventures company alternate the principal roles throughout the run and on the evening of this review, the characters were danced thus:

LUCA - Will Bozier

LANA - Ashley Shaw

ANGELO - Harry Ondrak-Wright

RITA – Anna-Maria De Freitas

DINO - Danny Reubens

The evening’s music is drawn from the Carmen Suite, Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin's Bolshoi Ballet version of Bizet's original, with additional music by composer Terry Davies and of course, the melodies work beautifully. For opera buffs, the score respects Bizet’s brilliant original, while for those in the audience whose knowledge may be more confined to Now That’s What I Call Opera highlights, all the classic tunes are there. The Habanera plays as a recurring motif throughout the evening, while to have the car mechanics taking a steamy shower after a hard day’s labour, to the Prelude from Carmen, is a moment of rare, comically choreographed genius. 

As is to be expected, the acting and dance are beyond flawless. Rage, passion and desire are all palpably conveyed through the dancers’ faces and bodies, with the story's twists and turns all proving incredibly easy to follow.

Lez Brotherston (who else?) has designed the set with a staging that incorporates nods to film as well as Americana, with the town’s jailhouse and nightclub, as well as the workshop (complete with the arcing flickers of welders’ torches) all woven seamlessly into the tale.  

That Bourne’s choreography includes a car race between two rival gangs of young men (think of Grease and you’re getting close) only emphasises the creative mastery of this, our finest choreographer.

At Sadler’s Wells for the rest of August and then on tour. UNMISSABLE!

Runs until 29th August, then on tour.

Photo credit: Johan Persson

Now You See Me Live - Review

London Coliseum, London

****

Creative Director - Ash Jacks McCready

Illusion Director - Enzo Weyne

Enzo Weyne

Inspired by the Lionsgate blockbuster franchise and mounted by the producers of The Illusionists, the London premiere of Now You See Me Live trades in some of the smaller scale intimate style magic for high-tech illusion, solo stunts and set pieces built for altitude. The films rested on a beguiling premise: that the finest deception is performed at scale, in plain sight, daring you to catch it. Onstage there is no cutaway and nowhere to hide — and the show takes that dare gladly. It arrives having already conquered the Sydney Opera House, with Las Vegas waiting its turn in October.

The foursome united as The Horseman go by Enzo Weyne, Andrew Basso, Gabriella Lester and Matthew Pomeroy, with guest turns from Eden Choi, Fraser Penman and recent BGT finalist Rafferty Coope  — a billing that reaches across the generations. Basso has toured escapology for twenty years and Weyne has built over a thousand shows in 40 countries, while Lester, at 22, already headlines the Magic Castle. Rafferty Coope, a Golden Buzzer and a fifth place on Britain’s Got Talent behind him, is barely out of his teens.  Yet nobody here is a filler: the stage is set, and while at times the pace can falter, the bar is high and met without exception. Audience involvement is peppered throughout.

With an emphatic opening from Rafferty, the youngest of the company, to daring escapology from Lester and Basso and some of the most quick, detailed and breath taking close up magic and manipulation from Eden Choi the show has something for everyone.

From explosives, to teleporting and creepy crawlies in the most unexpected of moments this is a show that sets out to entertain the masses of all ages. Here for five weeks before it travels to Las Vegas, Now You See Me Live is a theatrical special that will entertain the whole family.

Runs until 6th September

Phot credit: Johan Persson

Cleansed - Review

Almeida Theatre, London

****

Written by Sarah Kane

Directed by Rebecca Frecknall

Pearl Chanda

Sarah Kane’s Cleansed is a bleak tale. A 100 minutes straight through detailing man’s inhumanity to man and woman, and how power can be so easily abused. Not for the faint hearted, Kane’s narrative is graphic and under the gifted helming of Rebecca Frecknall, the stagecraft on display at the Almeida is as brilliant as Kane’s writing is horrific.

Set in and around some dystopian institution, Leo Bill is Tinker, the play's authority figure and the rotten apple at the core of the evening’s malevolence. Sexually inadequate, his misogyny and sadism knows no limits as he wreaks unspeakable forms of torture upon the institution’s inmates.

 

All of Kane’s characters are deeply damaged, desperately needing care but at Tinker’s hands all they receive is cruelty, meted out in gruesome manifestations of rape, sodomy and violence that descend into inevitable nadirs of murder and suicide.

Alongside Bill, Frecknall’s cast are all magnificent. Pearl Chanda, Luke Cinque-White, Lizzy Connolly, Jack Riddiford, Parth Thakerar and Stuart Thompson capturing their respective characters' emotional pain and despair and, when required, brilliantly depicting the physical pain of the inhumane atrocities that are forced upon them.

Ingeniously, Frecknall leaves little to our imagination - and it is a credit to the show’s intimacy director (Ingrid Mackinnon), illusionist (Chris Fisher) and special make-up designer (Susanna Peretz) that, together with the cast’s sublime acting skills, this nightmare is played out with such conviction.

Harrowing drama, stunningly performed.

Runs until 29th August

Photo credit: Marc Brenner

Trainspotting The Musical - Review

Theatre Royal Haymarket, London

****

Music & lyrics by Stephen McGuiness & Irvine Welsh

Directed and developed by Caroline Jay Ranger

The cast of Trainspotting The Musical

Mainlining straight back to the 90s, Trainspotting The Musical achieves that elusive high of transforming abject human misery into an evening of sharply crafted entertainment. Irvine Welsh whose 1993 book inspired the story’s iconic film, has penned the show and together with Stephen McGuinness has written a dozen or so new songs that fabulously fit this modern fable.

Focussing on the lives of five young men from Edinburgh, Welsh’s tale, much of it drawn from and inspired by his own experiences of 18 months as a heroin addict, delivers an evening of devastation as we witness the drug ripping through their lives.

Lewis Kidd plays the focal, narrative, Renton who tells of his world, his family and his friends. Onstage for almost the entire show, Kidd’s Renton breaks our hearts as he navigates the depths of his addiction. 

Alongside Kidd, Sheridan Townsley is the damaged Sick Boy and Kieran Andrew is Spud. Finlay Paul plays Tommy whose own decline leads to perhaps the show’s most harrowing moments. Completing this leading quintet is the brilliant Frankie O’Connor as the psychopathically menacing Begbie, vividly vicious yet also capable of moments of surprising compassion.

In support, Rebecca McKinnis and Gordon Cooper as Renton’s parents Cathy and Davie make fine work of their modest roles, their anguished pain witnessing their son slide into the opioid’s grip proving almost unbearable to watch.

Rosie Dignan’s Alison together with Ashley J. Russell’s Colleen deliver equally strong grief and anxiety-fuelled performances. 

Death’s tentacles sprawl through the evening and it is a remarkable credit to both the cast and the creatives that a story of such physical and emotional horror can at times prove to be as witty as it is tragic.

The music lifts the show - the classic songs from the movie’s soundtrack are retained with Lou Reed’s Perfect Day closing both halves. As the first act finishes on a moment of unbearable pain, the irony of the full company powerfully delivering Reed's classic makes for a bittersweet symphony of feelings.

The show’s original compositions are as brilliantly written as Welsh's original novel, highlights including the sardonically Country-themed The Eckies And The Brown and One Skin Too Few, both of which are deservedly reprised.

Caroline Jay Ranger has directed and developed the show, helming a production that is as much a poignant social commentary, as it is a historical take on how grim life can be for those who are either denied opportunity or who lack the ability and vision to strive for it. Ranger’s work is neatly  nuanced, complemented by Colin Richmond’s simply effective sets and Douglas O’Connell’s video projections, transforming the visuals from a row of impoverished city tenements through to the sensations of heroin coursing through Renton’s veins – with some impressive underwater photography that cleverly suggests the character’s escape into the Siren-like embrace of the narcotics. Stuart Morley's band are a blast throughout.

The staging is authentically Scots, with dialects to match and for all that the Scottish brogue is convincingly delivered, there will be moments for many unsophisticated southern ears that may prove unintelligible.

Make no mistake, this is brave and bold new writing. Brilliantly bleak.

Runs until 5th September, then on tour

Photo credit: Matt Crockett

The Smile Of Her - Review

Marylebone Theatre, London

****

Written by Christine Lahti

Directed by Mêlisa Annis

Christine Lahti

Watching the effortless, magnetic solo performance of Christine Lahti — a Golden Globe-winning actor and an Academy Award-winning director — one cannot help but feel privileged. Yet knowing that this is Lahti’s autobiographical play, that invites the audience into the most intimate corners of her life, transforms that feeling into something deeper: a sense of gratitude at having been entrusted with her story.

The play The Smile of Her, which is based on Lahti’s 2018 book of autobiographical essays True Stories from an Unreliable Eyewitness, begins in her childhood home in 1950s Michigan. In the immaculate white living room, represented by a white sofa covered in plastic at the centre of the stage, Lahti remarks with a bitter laugh that her family did everything there but ‘living’. Every Christmas, her parents and their six children posed there for a professional family portrait. Yet behind the smiles of the picture-perfect family captured in those photographs lay dark secrets, pain and frustration, which Lahti confronts with sincerity and humour.

As a young girl, Lahti first noticed the cracks in her mother’s famous, almost unfading smile. Through them, she begins to uncover disturbing truths about misogyny and patriarchy, forcing her to find her own way in a world not yet ready to recognise her as equal or worthy, let alone accommodate her ambitions to become an actress. 

The child version of Lahti is played by the talented Isabella Ford. In her stage debut, Ford masters the role, first as Lahti’s adorable younger self and later as her inner child (this role is also played by Jesamine-Bleu Gibbs). The interaction between Lahti and Ford is harmonious and well supported by the staging. 

In this London revival of the play, director Mêlisa Annis and designer Sarah Beaton create a minimalist yet effective stage setting, managing to maintain an intimacy with the audience while uplifting the story in its epic moments.

The evening is a rollercoaster of emotions and revelations, Lahti’s play more than anything proving to be a love letter to her mother — and to all the other women who fought, each in her own way, on the same battlefield. 

As much as she presents her compelling life story, Lahti also strikes us with a disturbing and uncomfortable truth: women’s liberties are fragile, recent, and remain far from perfect or secure. Only one generation separates Lahti from her mother, but their experiences as women were at once profoundly different and shockingly similar. Lahti’s message is clear: feminism remains not only relevant, but necessary.

Reviewed by Florit Shoihet

Runs until 29 August

Photo credit: Mark Senior