The Rise and Fall of Little Voice - Review

Union Theatre, London


*****


Written by Jim Cartwright
Directed by Alastair Knights

The company

The final production at the Union Theatre's old residence has been an absolute cracker. Jim Cartwright's The Rise and Fall of Little Voice is a brilliantly observed study of life in a northern town through the multi-faceted prism of Mari Hoff and her gifted daughter Little Voice (abbreviated to LV). Hoff's husband (and LV's father) is long dead and as this monstrously merry widow cavorts desperately in search of love and affection, so does LV retreat into a world in which her only solace comes from her dad's record collection of the 20th century's greatest singers. But more than just hiding behind the songs, LV has learned to mimic them perfectly, bringing life to the background drab routine like a shaft of sunlight. Cartwright's text may be merciless as it exposes both Mari's and LV's excoriating loneliness - but it is the detail imbued in his supporting characters that make the play so compelling.

The play has closed now, so this review must stand solely as a record to one of the most moving productions that the Union has mounted in recent years, with Alastair Knights coaxing perfectly nuanced performances from his entire cast.

Charlotte Gorton was Mari. Mutton masquerading as lamb maybe, hers was a cleverly constructed and complex character. Tottering across the stage on heels and clad in either leopard print leggings or tattily torn stockings, Mari is craving to be wanted by a man, yet at the same time fiercely protective and loving of her virtually catatonic daughter. After talent spotter Ray Say drives her home for a drunken fumble on the sofa, Gorton’s gradual realisation that Say is more interested in Mari’s vocally gifted daughter rather than her, is a masterclass in performance. Credit too to Christiansen’s ruthlessly cynical Say. The man is an utter bastard as Christiansen delivered a withering yet sadly recognizable performance.

Carly Thoms’ Little Voice was wondrous. She captured LV’s damaged fragility with a painful piquancy and when the script required her to sing, often without a musical accompaniment. Thoms duly delivered spine-tingling excellence.

Likewise the supporting vignettes were all a treat. Mandy Dassa’s corpulent Sadie, Mari’s obedient yet loving friend is a fine example of a minor character perfectly complementing and completing a scene’s ambience. At the town’s local night club James Peake played compere and impresario Mr Boo again, perfectly. As the fourth wall is brought down to make the theatre audience evolve into the club’s crowd, the applause for LV is as sincere as it is pastiche. Peake’s Brylcreemed delivery of corny gags and patter was just another of the night’s gems, while Glenn Adamson’s softly spoken Billy, a quietly withdrawn telephone engineer offered a perfectly weighted performance as a mutual affection between him and LV emerged.

Yet again, Jack Weir’s lighting was sensational, using the Union’s exposed ironworks to mount marquee nightclub lights and ingeniously creating different locations with his carefully considered plots.

There’s a moment in act two when Ray Say, drunk and in despair, takes to the microphone on Boo’s nightclub stage after realizing that LV is unable to perform. Christiansen was sensational as the destroyed exploiter, and as he powerfully slurred his way through a Roy Orbison classic, in one of the final performances ever to be mounted at the Union’s old premises, there was an added poignancy to the song. A gleaming new building may await the Union just across the road, but for this quaint, damp building, all brickwork and iron girders, itself an archaic tribute to both London’s history and the brilliant ingenuity of fringe theatre, It’s Over.

Kings Of Broadway - Review

Palace Theatre, London

*****

Directed by Alastair Knights

Conducted by Alex Parker

James Bolam and Anne Reid

Christmas came early to the West End last night, for just like Max Bialystock, Mel Brooks’ legendary king of Broadway, Alex Parker has done it again with his own Kings Of Broadway. Though where Bialystock famously flopped, yet again this remarkable conductor cum impresario succeeded spectacularly in mounting a one-night only extravaganza of the work of Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim and Jerry Herman. Either Parker has amassed a multitude of favours to call in, or, and this is far more likely, he has simply earned the respect of an army of talented professionals including a 30-piece(!) orchestra and a cast of stellar proportions, to put on a concert that proved to be as polished as it was entertaining.

Reprising a partnership that worked well for the recent A Little Night Music, Alastair Knights again directed, with Parker remaining strictly on the baton. This time around however, Knights was assisted by Emma Annetts’ choreography, an addition that only enhanced the show. Staged only amidst a small space to the front of the on-stage orchestra, and with all the performers pleasingly “off-book” the whole occasion was really rather splendid. In a nod to Broadway’s Golden Age, and with Imelda Staunton’s spectacular Gypsy having closed only the night before, Parker got the evening underway with that show’s overture (abbreviated) delivered with panache and flair. 

The night was packed with riches. In a duet that was to stun the packed Palace, the accomplished Anne Reid and James Bolam performed Jerry Herman’s Almost Young from the little known Mrs Santa Claus. Who knew Bolam could sing? And even if this likely lad wasn’t quite pitch perfect, to see these two national treasures singing side by side re-defined the phrase “northern powerhouse”.

Knights and Annetts were at their best in their arrangements for female ensembles. The first half was to close with a medley of “parade” themed numbers that featured Caroline Sheen offering Before The Parade Passes By, Zoe Doano singing Parade In Town and Celinde Schoenmaker storming her way through Don’t Rain On My Parade, the three women creating an exquisite harmony. 

Towards the end of the second half a phenomenal female five-some left the audience stunned as Sheen smashed If from Two On The Aisle, Anne Reid was divine with And I Was Beautiful whilst Janie Dee came close to making everybody rise with a scorching Ladies Who Lunch. Caroline O’Connor (London’s original Mabel from nearly 20 years ago) brought a heartfelt nuance to Time Heals Everything, whilst completing this quintet the ever excellent Laura Pitt-Pulford (who is arguably the best Mabel we’ve seen this century) delivered her own particular version of excellence with a thrilling take on Funny Girl’s People. 

In an evening festooned with sparkling performances, Laura Tebbutt’s Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend proved another treat whilst Jordan Lee Davis’ glamorously frocked interpretation of I Am What I Am was mostly excellent – but when we see Davis do this number again (and let’s hope we do) he needs to give more of a belt to the song’s spectacular build-up.

A novel twist saw Jamie Parker and real life wife Deborah Crowe play the Baker and his Wife from Into The Woods, whilst the impressively maned Bradley Jaden sang West Side Story’s Maria with a perfect and rugged fidelity. A mention too for Andy Conaghan’s Mack, singing Movies Were Movies and to Richard Fleeshman who gave a whole new slant (literally) to Buddy’s Blues.

Two impressive ensemble numbers wrapped the show up. A gorgeous Being Alive stunned with its group harmonics, before Jack North led the entire company in Hello Dolly's Put On Your Sunday Clothes. 

To be fair, this review only mentions a selection of the musical theatre talent that Parker and Wrights had assembled – there was much, much more on stage and London (or maybe a tour, producers take note) surely deserves nights like these to run for longer. The Kings Of Broadway demonstrated not only excellence in execution, but also a meticulous approach in its planning and arranging, with Parker’s attention to orchestral detail, evident in the cleverly tailored number-linking segues, a craft in itself.

Here’s to his next event. Everybody rise.


Photo credit: Darren Bell

A Little Night Music - Review

Palace Theatre, London

****

Music & lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by Hugh Wheeler
Directed by Alastair Knights

The company of A Little Night Music

A Little Night Music is inspired by the Swedish writer/director Ingmar Bergmans’s whimsical movie Smiles of a Summer Night, that tells of the midsummer night smiling three times. The first smile falling upon the young, the second upon the foolish and the final smile, upon the old. On a chilly January evening in London, the midwinter’s night actually smiled for a fourth time, upon the city itself, by gracing the Palace Theatre with this show. First mounted in Guildford some 18 months ago Parker and Knight’s interpretation of this Tony-winner remains an absolute treat.

Typically, reviews on this site are short in length – a show is running and a review needs to be published asap. This time round however A Little Night Music was a one-off and the tickets (all sold-out on the night) are gone. So what follows here is a lengthier than normal commentary, focussing upon the various components of this charming chamber production. 

The Liebeslieders, effectively a Greek (Swedish?) chorus set the tone for the night. Dotted around the auditorium and loggia, their Overture leading into the Night Waltz was delicious. Notes, often a capella, were spot on with a simply spine-tingling vocal purity. Top work all round throughout the show from Jenna Boyd, Michael Colbourne, Emma Harrold, Nadim Naaman and Laura Tebbutt.

Frederik and Ann Egerman were played by David Birrell and Anna O'Byrne. Birrell’s bumblingly philanderous Egerman nailed the hapless everyman who finds his world populated by not so much grotesques, as extremes. Birrell’s vocal work did the job and he proved a worthy partner in his character’s various duets. O'Byrne’s Ann however was a gifted creation. A young woman barely still a child, terrified by/revulsed at the thought of consummating her marriage to Frederik (who of course is old enough to be her father). O'Byrne managed the complex combination of fear, manipulation and outright lustful passion for Frederik’s son Henrik perfectly. Her magical soprano tone belied her talent and with a supreme understatement, O'Byrne gloriously realised the comic potential of her character.

The three generations of the Armfeldt family form an axis around which the story hangs. Young Bibi Jay as the teenage Frederika Armfeldt was a confident performer, able to hold her own amongst a company of stars. Anne Reid, an accomplished actress most famous for her film and TV work set a measured tone as the matriarchal Mme Armfeldt, with her caustic one-liners delivered deliciously and her solo number Liaisons being salaciously convincing. Reid’s character dies as the show ends and unless one knew this beforehand, the death was hard to discern. When all the principal characters are sat on stage throughout, mute and frozen as is the demand of such a chamber-styled piece, then director Knights needed to have done more to highlight such a key moment.

The focal character of A Little Night Music of course is fading actress Desiree Armfeldt, the true love interest of Frederk Egerman and played again, as in Guildford, by Janie Dee. Desiree is a tough role made even more challenging by having to sing Send In The Clowns, a number that is arguably bigger than any actress. Dee was good as Desiree capturing that charm of femininity that defined her desirability and her Send In The Clowns was undoubtedy a celebration of coherent magnificence. But re-visiting notes from Guildford, even there the show was dazzled by the performances of O'Byrne and (see below) Joanna Riding. When there are “outstanding” performers in a company, to be just “good” is not good enough and Knights again needed to have done more to address this. In footballing parlance, he should have put his arm around Dee’s shoulder and coaxed that little bit extra from her, lord knows she has it in her tank to give. It was barely two years ago that Dee's Dolly Levi at Leicester’s Curve wowed the critics and deservedly earned her yet another gong. Maybe next time.

The real bittersweet highlight of this show though comes from the adulterous Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm and his wife the Countess Charlotte. In Guildford these parts had been played by Simon Bailey and Joanna Riding where both were sensational. This time around Riding returned but Bailey was replaced by Jamie Parker. Parker is currently in the middle of a 7-show week stint in Sondheim’s Assassins, so expectations surrounding his performance were mixed as to how much he may have been able to give to the Count. Any such anxieties were misplaced. Parker reached for the bar set by Bailey and smashed it. His Count being both menacing and hilarious, with a presence in all scenes that demanded attention and delivered a flawless singing voice. Parker’s take on In Praise Of Women filled the Palace’s cavernous space with whoops of audience delight.

As in Guildford Jo Riding’s Countess was, again, a masterclass in musical theatre. Riding knows the show of old, having played Ann some twenty years ago in Sean Mathias’ production at the National Theatre. Her mastery of Charlotte’s ingenious complexity was a sight to behold – poise, voice and movement all flawless – an actress perfectly suited to the role in terms of age and ability. Pray that this show returns and with Riding in it – she’s already won two Oliviers in her career and this performance deserves to have earned her a third.

Henrik, played by Fra Free was the necessary cauldron of repressed desire, struggling to contain the passionate love he fees for his stepmother. Fee got the angst just right.

The housemaid to the Egermans is Petra, wise beyond her years and a knowingly sensous flame of a woman, very sexual and with not much to sing in the show until her 11 o’clock number The Miller’s Son. Reprising the role from Guildford, Laura Pitt-Pulford was, as one would expect from this leading actress of her generation, outstanding. Throwing herself into the song in one of the most passionately choregoraphed solo routines of the night. It’s only a pity that Sondheim didn’t give Petra more songs.

So much for the actors – What about the musicians? Alex Parker musically directed meticulously, commanding a sumptuously furnished orchestra of 28 players. One can only speculate as to what favours he had called in to amass such orchestral excellence, but as Parker confided over a glass of post-show bubbly, there were several West End orchestra pits lacking a handful of talented players that night! The show’s score is rich in melodies that feature, brass, strings, wood and percussion at different moments and Parker’s orchestra did not disappoint. Truly a class act.

Parker and Knights have now presented this show twice. They need to do it again – and for a longer run too, for London (or a regional venue) deserves nothing less than to feast upon this groaning smorgasbord of talent. Knights may still have work to do, but as and when this show comes round again, don’t miss it!

God

London Theatre Workshop, London

****

Directed by Alastair Knights

Corinne Priest, Kris Olsen, Emma Odell & Jay Worley rehearse

The Stephen Sondheim Society’s production of God was one of those rare occasions when expectations weren't just exceeded, they were smashed to pieces. OK, with Alex Parker MD'ing one should know that the standard would be excellent, but this hour long gig was virtually flawless.

The set saw four of the industry's emerging finest, deliver songs penned by assorted wits that were either about Sondheim or his compositions, or were clever pastiches of recognisable gems. And that was actually one of the reasons that set this evening of new talent apart from so many similar gigs. The songs were knowing, witty and sparkling, with no introspective or muddled mediocrity from one song cycle or another that can so often bog down new writing, to be found. Both the satire and the talent were fabulous.

All four performers kicked off proceedings with Notes, a smugly witty number from Parker himself, lyrics by Katie Lam, that weaved a series of in-jokes around a Sondheim medley. Kris Olsen and Jay Worley then delivered a new and improved Cole Porter classic, cheekily re-branded as Brush Up Your Sondheim. Both guys were to shine in solo or leading numbers too, Worley notably with Andrew Lippa's wistfully autobiographical Marshall Levin whilst Olsen delivered a spoof on Sondheim's Sunday, cafe references adding a "Brunch" to the song's title. Olsen's victorious assault on Schwartz's Popular from Wicked, re-badged as Hummable, was another of the evening’s humorous highlights. 

Corinne Priest, this year's winner of the Sondheim Society Student Performer Of The Year proved her worth with a poise and presence that matched her vocal performance, never bettered than in Everybody Wants To Be Sondheim, with Emma Odell completing the quartet and mastering the linguistic minefield of Musical Theatre a song that demanded a breakneck rendition of show titles over the years.

As the star-studded cast of Forbidden Broadway garner deserved praise at the Menier Chocolate Factory for their razor sharp de-construction of genre classics, what Alastair Knights' company achieve at Fulham's bijou London Theatre Workshop is no less impressive. Too late perhaps for Edinburgh this year, the show is a glittering fascinator that makes for a gorgeous addition to any city's fringe.

Runs until 12th July 2014

A LIttle Night Music

Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford

****

Music & lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

Book by Hugh Wheeler

Directed by Alastair Knights

There were almost as many stars on stage as there were twinkling lights in the scenic starcloth hung behind the orchestra, such was the pedigree of Alex Parker’s production of Sondheim’s classic.

Inspired by Ingmar Bergman’s movie Smiles Of A Summer Night, the well known story follows actress Miss Desiree Armfeldt, her family and her (married) lovers over the course of an enchanted midsummer’s night in a country mansion. With a nicely coincidental touch, this production, in itself enchanting, has been staged in June almost as closely as possible to this year’s midsummer’s night.

In a sensible move for a sole performance, the cast performed entirely from the book and it says much for Alex Parker (of whom more later) that he could attract so many established names from the musical theatre firmament to take part. The cast were all excellent, with several performances being simply outstanding. Janie Dee’s Desiree had the required irresistible attractiveness that defined her ability to have two paramours in tow and her performance of the show’s melancholy signature number, Send In The Clowns was as confident and as moving as the song’s modest range allowed.

It was however in the performances of the two scorned wives that the production truly took off. Anna O'Byrne, as the 18yo virginal wife of lawyer/lover Egerman, captured the soprano naiveté and innocent charming beauty of her character perfectly. Hers is a complex and unforgiving role, nailed by the talented Australian. As Countess Malcolm, and Armfeldt’s peer, Joanna Riding gave the performance of the evening, with her character that is as comically caustic as she is  tragic. Her take on Every Day A Little Death, an almost tear-scorched look back on life as a cheated upon spouse was as moving a performance as is to be found. Riding and Dee were both Olivier winners as Julie and Carrie respectively in the National Theatre’s Carousel of 20 years ago and their stage reunion was an added treat for musical theatre connoisseurs.

Simon Bailey’s Count Malcom was an absolute cracker of a bristling Dragoon, clipped and precise and in a show with few props it was easy to imagine his accuracy with the duelling pistol. Other jewels in this glittering cast included Laura Pitt-Pulford’s Petra, the smoulderingly sexual maid to the Egerman household and whose solo number and the show’s penultimate song, The Miller’s Son, was a wonderfully passionate portrayal of a tart with a heart. As the hormonal Henrik, Egerman’s son and trainee priest, Fra Fee gave a master class of pent up adolescent sexual frustration that seemed poised to erupt at the slightest provocation.

The true star of the night however was young Alex Parker, who as well as producing the show musically directed, conducting an orchestra which at 31 members was considerably larger than those to be found in most commercial West End pits. Complete with harpist, this night’s music (far from “little”) was perfection and with  Weekend In The Country, which is one of the best act one closing numbers written,  the full sound of Parker’s ensemble with Sondheim’s glorious brass melodies suggesting  the delightful chaos to be unleashed in the second act was simply thrilling to listen to. Parker had rehearsed his musicians meticulously and on the (rare) moment when an actor stumbled, the confident musical backdrop maintained the momentum.

The evening’s standing ovation confirmed suspicions that this show is simply far too good to have a life of just one night. Parker’s vision in staging this production has been inspired and merits investment and a return to either Guildford or London. One only hopes that complex contracts can be negotiated to allow this glimpse of absolute theatrical joy a further lease of life.