The Color Purple

Menier Chocolate Factory, London

*****

Book by Marsha Norman

Music & lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray

Directed by John Doyle

Cynthia Erivo

Catching up with this show just before its run ends is to witness musical theatre at its very best. A cast of 17 with a bare stage, some chairs and the simplest of costumed props, depict America's Deep South and occasionally Africa in the early twentieth century. The tale is of the grim life of Celie, whose illegitimate children are taken from her in her youth, who is then "married" to the most brutal of men, yet who goes on to find the most unlikely of redeemers in a scarlet woman who has few morals but a heart of gold. The story tracks Celie's difficult life yet ends with hope and inspiration. 

John Doyle has cleverly envisioned the work. Slavery is long abolished, but civil rights remain a dream. When Celie reveals that her father was lynched, the disclosure is so casual as to underline the ingrained racism of the South. With an entirely black cast, the story tells of the cruelty and contempt that lived within the African-American community, itself born out of a culture of contempt and slavery. Yet it is the humour and compassion that shines out from within these people that makes the show sparkle. Rarely has the term "bittersweet" been so apt.

Cynthia Erivo is the diminutive Celie. Her character grows throughout, from an abused pregnant child in the opening scene, to a wise and elderly mother by the end. Erivo's look is plain and hers is to play the cruelly labelled uglier of two sisters. Yet whilst her abusive husband Mister, a first class performance of bullying calculated menace, yet also vulnerability, from Christopher Colquhoun condemns her for her ugliness and servility, Erivo shines throughout with a vocal and physical beauty that is rare to witness. Her solo I'm Here saw the audience rise as one to salute her midway through the second act. Whilst the production's success is of course due to the company as a whole, Erivo has proved to be its dazzling star. Nearly 30 years ago Steven Spielberg's Color Purple movie blasted Whoopi Goldberg's career from modest actress to global celebrity. In a more modest manner, so is history repeating itself. Whilst Erivo was little known outside of the profession before The Color Purple, it has recently been announced that she is to take a leading role at London’s Palladium Theatre next year.

Sophia Nomvete is a delightful Sofia. Feisty funny and furious early on, she breaks our hearts as the victim of a savage racist beating and as Nettie, Celie's sister whose being wrenched apart from her sibling causes such anguish, Abiona Omonua gives a performance of carefully crafted fragile hope. It is left to Nicola Hughes’ Shug Avery, Mister's mistress, who on visiting Celie's miserable home, reaches out to free her from her husband's abuse and set her on an inspirational path to liberty. Hughes' stage pedigree is impeccable and whilst Celie is the show's leading character, her interaction with Avery is an astonishing double act. Their duet What About Love? is as perfect a harmony as is to be found.

Tom Deering's musical direction alongside Catherine Jayes' supervision provides a soulful Southern sound, peppered with the Blues and with an intoxicating African interlude, all rhythm and drums for good measure. Matthew Wright's costume work sets scenes perfectly whilst Linda McKnight's wig design adds a slick authenticity to the actresses.

No need to recommend, it's sold out. But this work demands more. If the gods of the theatre can grant this show a West End transfer, it would be no less than what both London and this glorious production deserve. 

Runs to 14th September

Merrily We Roll Along

Harold Pinter Theatre, London

*****

Book by George Furth
Music & lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Directed by Maria Friedman



Josefina Gabrielle leads the line in Musical Husbands

Some 6 months after it opened at the Menier Chocolate Factory, Maria Friedman's production of Merrily We Roll Along takes up a three month residence in the West End's Harold Pinter theatre. And like a fine wine or spirit, this production has beautifully matured over the months and should be savoured as a finely crafted piece of theatre.

This backward journey of composer Franklin Shepard's life, that opens in 1976 with his lover, his second wife and oldest closest friend deserting him amidst a party of vacuuous  Hollywood celebrities, is encapsulated in one line from the show's opening number (and title song) " how did you ever get there from here?" And it is that question that underlies Sondheim's lyrics and Furth's brilliant book as from there, almost as in some crazy, backwards whizzing theme park ride, this show hurtles us back in time through nineteen years, pausing only to chart the key events within the two friendships and marriages that Frank builds and then destroys.

This show has no gimmicks whatsoever. It is simply the finest assembly of musical theatre talent in town, led by the novice but nonetheless brilliant direction of Friedman, who herself  has built up a lifelong understanding of Sondheim's work.

Mark Umbers is Frank. A gifted composer whose talents are selfishly and callously wasted over the years in pursuit of cash and ultimately cocaine. The decline of his friendship with lyricist Charlie Kringas is deliciously spelt out by the writer, played by Damian Humbley as always at his very best, in a solo number Franklin Shepherd, Inc, in which Kringas, live on national TV,tells of his friend's love for contracts and cheque books over and above the more human passions of people and piano. Completing this doomed trio of friends is Jenna Russell's Mary Flynn (a role in fact played by Friedman in 1992). Of all the key characters, Sondheim gives Flynn no solo numbers, but don't be deceived. The very best of Sondheim's acerbic put-downs and one-liners, ever, are all hers and whilst her plaintive harmonies sung in Old Friends are exquisite her pain at losing her adored Frank to his first wife Beth, sung at their wedding in 1960 in a reprise of Not A Day Goes By, is gut wrenching.

Clare Foster's Beth is a beautiful, trusting, naive Southern Belle. When she ultimately learns of Frank's infidelity, her beauty displays a further facet, as hurt and betrayed she grief-stricken but fiercely protective and possessive of their young son, sings Not A Day Goes By as a solo set in 1967 outside of a New York divorce court. The song is immense. It destroys the audience, reduced this writer to a mess and is perhaps one of the most perceptive yet poetic descriptions ever written of selfless love that has been destroyed by a selfish partner.

Wife number 2 is Gussie Carnegie, an already divorced man-eater of a Broadway star, who finds Frank's zipper an easy if not submissively willng,  challenge to overcome. Josefina Gabrielle is a delight in this role, bereft early on in act one at rejection in favour of a younger starlet and stunning in the show-within-a-show number Musical Husbands. A true star of London's West End, Gabrielle's voice and presence only improves with her career.

This show has expanded perfectly to fit the impressive Harold Pinter proscenium. Sound and movement have all been seamlessly upgraded to tackle the larger stage and David Hersey's subtle lighting adds masterful touches. Catherine Jayes easily takes her ten piece band from offstage at the Menier to the Pinter pit and her understanding of Sondheim's composition is faultless. From brassy upbeat, to searing ironic agony, to the heavenly harmony that is Our Time, every note is explored to the full.

This is a show that's only here on a 12 week visit. As this review is published, the press are commenting that no West End show has ever garnered as many 5-star ratings (and lest Hecuba is accused of simply following the trend, this review's 5-star opinion was tweeted straight after curtain down on press night!). Merrily We Roll Along started out magnificent, and has simply become even better. Are there, or have there ever been, any other shows of this calibre? Damn few.


Runs to 27 July 2013

Picture: Tristram Kenton