White Christmas

Curve Theatre, Leicester



****

Music and lyrics by Irving Berlin

Book by David Ives and Paul Blake

Directed by Nikolai Foster

Emma Williams, Danny Mac, Dan Burton and Monique Young

There are few shows as comforting and traditional at this time of year as Irving Berlin’s White Christmas. It’s a corny old yarn for sure that sees Dan Burton and Danny Mac playing Phil Davis and Bob Wallace and two ex-trouper/troopers who team up with the Haynes Sisters (Emma Williams and Monique Young) to put on  a show in Vermont, and rescue the business of their former and much loved commanding officer General Waverly who since the end of World War 2, has been running an upstate Inn and making horrendous losses.

Strip away the seasonal feel, and the story crumbles under close scrutiny. But with Berlin’s classic numbers and in the gifted creative hands of director Foster and his choreographer Stephen Mear, the evening becomes a fabulous feel-good delight.

Foster has established form in coaxing excellence from Mac and Williams, but it is Mear who offers the lucky citizens of Leicester their biggest Xmas treat by taking Burton and Young away from his usual seasonal offering at Paris’ Theatre du Châtelet, to their native side of the English Channel and pairing them at the Curve. These two actors have seen recent years allow them to develop an intuitive connection in their dancework – they surely have to be the finest movers in the nation’s musical theatre corps, proving this again with their  phenomenal footwork in the show’s second half opener I Love A Piano.

Mear of course delivers excellence from across his ensemble, with strong performances from Garry Robson as Waverly and from Wendy Mae Brown as Martha Watson, the General’s much put upon, (but ultimate) sweetheart and, on press night, the cutest turn from Georgia Stewart as his young granddaughter Susan.

A seasonally busy Jason Carr has done beautiful work arranging the Songbook classics, while the seven piece band, under Neil Macdonald’s direction, take the packed Curve houses all the way back to the 1950s – heck, the snowblowers even deliver a venue-filling blizzard as the audience delight in a singalong of the title number.

White Christmas maybe as cheesy as a fine old stilton, but it’s still first-class festive fayre!

Runs until 13th January 2019

Photo credit: Catherine Ashmore

Scrooge The Musical - Review

Curve Theatre, Leicester

****

Music, lyrics and book by Leslie Bricusse

Directed by Nikolai Foster

Jasper Britton

Made At Curve is a brand name that is growing in traction. Producers Michael Harrison and David Ian have a canny eye for what will make a successful show and Scrooge The Musical is their latest partnership with Leicester’s Curve that sees the theatre’s Artistic Director Nikolai Foster helm a thoughtfully crafted take on the Leslie Bricusse show.

It all makes for classic festive fayre with Bricusse’s original work, last seen some 15 years ago, being subtly re-engineered for this revival. Jasper Britton (and Curve Board Member) heads the cast in the title role, convincing us throughout of the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge. As he is visited by the spirit of his dead business partner Jacob Marley and then the three ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future, we believe in Britton’s Scrooge learning to sip the milk of human kindness and to redeem himself.

Around Britton there are no co-leading roles, rather an ensemble of wonderful quality. Notable in the company are an enchanting Lauren Stroud who doubles up as both the fiancée of the young Ebenezer in times past and as the current wife of his nephew Harry. Anton Stephans turns in a crackingly fizzing take as the Ghost Of Christmas Present, while Danny-Boy Hatchard as local lad Tom Jenkins is also particularly striking.

The show has been put together with a view to taking the spirit of future Christmases on the road (Harrison and Ian are no fools) – and Michael Taylor’s ingenious designs, brilliantly  lit by Ben Cracknell, capture the gritty flamboyance of London’s Cheapside, the towering misery of Scrooge’s office and the impoverished warmth of the Cratchit household. No expense has been spared on the creative talent throughout the production – Sarah Travis has (as ever) done a wondrous job arranging Bricusse’s score, which on the evening is delivered by Neil MacDonald’s eight piece band. Local legend Stephen Mear returns to his home town to choreograph, bringing a magic to those numbers that allow a spectacle in movement – the Toy Ballet and The Milk of Human Kindness being two particularly ingenious routines (pantomime aficionados should look out for the two dames in the latter).

The musical makes no bones about the darkness of Dickens’ tale and Scrooge’s journey of redemption. The ghosts are scary (Karen Mann’s Marley is particularly ghoulish), with Britton fleshing out Scrooge’s journey of redemption in a way that highlights the character’s own childhood of emotional abuse and neglect.

There is perceptive stuff here, from both the leading man and Nikolai Foster, and by rights the show should be garnering 5 stars. But it is Britton’s singing that is perhaps the show’s only flaw. The actor’s eminent background has been hard won on stage and deservedly so, but his expertise stems primarily from the spoken word. While this Scrooge is undoubtedly believable, commanding our empathy, one cannot help but speculate how a different actor, who perhaps has a Valjean or the Phantom under his belt, might take Bricusse’s songs to their fullest potential. But… these are early days for the production and Foster is a shrewd director – it may well be that come mid-December Britton will inhabit the musical numbers with a more majestic vocal confidence and presence.

The story here is classic and heart-warming and it says much for the city of Leicester that a multi-racial cast, evidently drawn from a mix of ethnic backgrounds, can so lovingly tell a story that celebrates an English heritage. Scrooge The Musical is another Christmas cracker at the Curve.

Runs until 7th January

Photo credit: Pamela Raith

Sunset Boulevard - Review

Curve Theatre, Leicester

*****

Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber

Book & lyrics by Don Black & Christopher Hampton

Based on the Billy Wilder film

Directed by Nikolai Foster

Ria Jones and Carl Sanderson

There is a magic that pervades Nikolai Foster’s production of Sunset Boulevard and it flows from leading lady Ria Jones. 26 years after creating the role of Norma Desmond for Andrew Lloyd Webber at the composer’s Sydmonton Festival, Jones now leads the show and never has a casting been more perfect.

Some might argue that a quarter of a century ago she was too young to play Billy Wilder’s middle aged silent movie starlet. A 1920s screen goddess who with the arrival of the “talkies” was to lose first, her 30-million strong fan base and then, her mind. What is beyond question however is that Jones now owns the role, bringing a vocal excellence and power to Norma Desmond that has not been seen for decades. 

Rarely is a character created that is as magnificent, terrifying and ultimately tragic as Desmond and in playing her Jones, who has spent years preparing for the role, delivers what has to be one of the most sensational performances to be seen this year. Her take on With One Look, early on in the show as the narrative starts to unfold, drips with a thrilling energy, alongside pathos that reduces the audience to tears. Jones’ second half stunner, As If We Never Said Goodbye, proves another spine-tingler, wowing the packed Curve auditorium as she defines Desmond’s devastating decline. And in the finale, when it has all gone so horribly wrong and Jones, grotesquely made up, advances on a newsreel camera “ready for her close up”, the audience is floored. 

Several relationships flow through the show. Danny Mac plays writer Joe Gillis, over whom Desmond becomes dangerously obsessed. Mac delivers a powerful presence and style in the role. Elsewhere, Wilder sketched out love from Desmond’s devoted butler Max Von Meyerling and, on the Paramount lot, from the youthful script editor Betty Schaefer who finds herself falling for Gillis.

Danny Mac

Adam Pearce’s Von Meyerling is a bald-headed booming monolith, bearing the most complex, tortuous and yet sensitive of loves. Pearce brings a vocal resonance that is as imposing as it is delicate – his take on The Greatest Star Of All is just gorgeous.

As Schaefer, Molly Lynch makes fine work of a delicious Billy Wilder creation. Her love for Gillis is pure film- noir, with Lynch bringing a gorgeously all American cliché to her performance, aspects of her work suggesting the vitality of a Roy Lichtenstein cartoon. Lovely stuff and so beautifully sung too, Lynch’s career is already on an impressive trajectory.

Molly Lynch

If there’s a minor niggle it’s that the two old hands at Paramount (Jonesey and Hog Eye) who recognise Desmond on her return to the studios, should ideally be played by men in their fifties rather than Foster’s two youthful (albeit very able) lads from his ensemble. Carl Sanderson however as Cecil B. De Mille is spot on in his cameo of the old and wise director who must sensitively grapple with Desmond’s mental decline.

Planned to tour from the outset, all credit to the Curve’s co-producers Michael Harrison and David Ian for boldly creating such a lavish experience, and to the show’s creatives for their ingeniously transportable work. Lee Proud’s choreography is enchanting, while Colin Richmond’s design work, (enhanced by Ben Cracknell’s lighting) makes fine use of projections, screens and the hangar doors of a Paramount sound stage to convincingly create a 1950s Hollywood.

Adrian Kirk's lavish 17 piece orchestra give Lloyd Webber's score a sumptuous treatment, but understand this. In 2017, it is Ria Jones who is making Sunset Boulevard unmissable.  Back as Norma Desmond, it’s as if she never said goodbye.

Runs until 30th September and then tours. Full touring details here.

Photo credit: Manuel Harlan

Oliver! - Review

Curve Theatre, Leicester


****


Music, lyrics and book by Lionel Bart

Directed by Paul Kerryson

The Company

The Christmas decorations may be taken down - but at Leicester's Curve the seasonal family show has another two weeks to run and judging by Friday’s packed, cheering audience it is continuing to bring much festive joy to the city.

Oliver! has always been best suited to a large stage and the Curve's main house proves ideal. Matt Kinley's impressive designs: grim ironmongery for the workhouse; beaten up timbers for Fagin's kitchen including a brilliantly silhouetted St Pauls Cathedral; and chocolate box Georgian for Brownlow's Bloomsbury are ingenious and expansive - though a minor niggle, the portrait of Brownlow’s beloved Agnes isn’t visible to those seated stage left.

Paul Kerryson places this glimpse of Victoriana in a warts and all context, pulling no punches with the tale's underlying sex and violence. It has been a while since the genius of Bart's craft in both lyric and score has been so carefully exposed.

In the title role Albert Hart capture's Oliver's wise naïveté. His presence commands the audience (he is almost angelic in Who Will Buy) and if he wisely avoids singing some of the role's highest notes, it's no big deal. Hart rises above the audience's "aahs" and alongside Joel Fossard-Jones' Artful Dodger, the pair achieve a delightfully cheese-less cheekiness.

Aside from the leading parts, it's the detail of the minor characters that work so well in this take on one of the most English musicals in the canon. We get an early glimpse of the show’s passionate darkness with Jenna Boyd and James Gant (Widow Corney and Beadle Bumble respectively) bringing a neatly worked hint of Carry On humour (another most English genre in itself) to their capers.

Likewise Jez Unwin's ghoulish Sowerberry and Natalie Moore-Williams as his ghastly wife. Inspired direction sees a macabre It's Your Funeral partly played out with the two borne aloft, corpse-like as they sing.

The show's splendour opens up in London of course, where Peter Polycarpou's Fagin (clad in an inspired takis-designed robe) is another musical theatre treat. If his semitic caricature was perhaps a tad too stereotypical, in all other respects the actor’s portrayal of this most complex of villains is as beautifully performed as it is cleverly layered. Reviewing The Situation proving Polycarpou as one of the masters of his craft.

There's more delicious detail in Lucy Thomas' Bet - Nancy's friend - who again brings a shading to this modest role that's rarely seen. Likewise John Griffiths as the principled and patrician Brownlow works well.

Bill Sikes is a cracking turn from Oliver Boot. There's all the traditional scary menace associated with this misogynist thug, yet Boot also cleverly works in a vulnerability. His Sikes struggles with both his love for Nancy and his uncontrollable and ultimately murderous abuse of her.

And then there's Nancy…

Bravely stepping in to the role for the run's final three weeks, Laura Pitt-Pulford again shows her professional devotion to director Kerryson, as long has he needs her. Earning a UK Theatre Awards nomination this time last year for her marvellous Maria (and who knows, if she hadn't have been up against Imelda Staunton's unstoppable Rose, she might well have scooped the gong) one can only hope that the award's assessors are calling in at the Curve to catch Pitt-Pulford’s takeover. I'd go anywhere to see this actress and with good reason. Her powerful As Long As He Needs Me is magnificent, reducing many in the house to tears, whilst the loving sensitivity showed towards Oliver (and which Pitt-Pulford portrayed so well towards the Von-Trapp brats a year ago) displays the skill of a performer who not only exudes excellence, but inspires a respect and affection from her fellow company members that is rarely seen in such sincerity.

It is only on re-listening to Bart's score that his melodic genius truly filters through - and under Jo Cichonska's baton the 11 piece orchestra offer an excellent interpretation. A mention to Guy Button, Steve Cooper and Sophie Gledhill whose strings work skilfully brings out the haunting klezmer riffs that underlie Fagin's performance. Choreographer Andrew Wright goes to town with the show's big numbers. We first see Wright's grand visions kick-off in Consider Yourself and he goes on to bring moments of ingenious wit to I'd Do Anything and of course the carnival of street-vendor splendour that is Who Will Buy.

Paul Kerryson gives a classy treatment to a classic show. With only two more weeks left, you should buy these wonderful tickets!

Runs until 23rd January

Photo credit: Pamela Raith

The Sound Of Music - Review

Curve Theatre, Leicester

****

Music by Richard Rodgers

Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II

Book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse

Directed by Paul Kerryson

Laura Pitt-Pulford and Michael French

The vespers bell sounds at Nonnberg Abbey and the Curve stage seems to fill with black habits. The vastness of Leicester’s huge performing space is filled well by designer Al Parkinson, as he convincingly evokes the echoing majesty of the Abbey alongside the splendour of the Von Trapp mansion and of course, a neatly created suggestion of those musically alive hills that surround the town.

We all know The Sound Of Music’s touching if corny story, but it is the show’s songs that are iconic. The challenge of this musical, more than most others, is to take armchair favourites and breathe new life into them.

In his swansong season Paul Kerryson has, for the most part, cast shrewdly. In the modest role of Max Detweiler, Mark Inscoe is a clipped and avuncular delight. Alongside him, Emma Clifford nails the frigid frustations of Elsa Schraeder perfectly, whilst Jimmy Johnston's nastily Nazi-sympathizing butler Franz is another modest gem. Moving up through the cast, Lucy Schaufer’s Mother Abbess is a revelation. Her act one closing number Climb Ev'ry Mountain being so inspirationally spine-tingling that one could almost be reaching for the crampons as she sings. Michael French is the erstwhile Captain Von Trapp. As his seven stage offspring serenade him French sheds a convincing tear, but his naval uniform sits a tad awkwardly on him and he has yet to hit his best in the role. No matter though – when Albert Square’s David Wicks sings Edelweiss, every mum in the audience will have moist cheeks.

As ever, Ben Atkinson’s musical direction of his ten piece orchestra is spot on, but The Sound Of Music will always be all about Maria...

Laura Pitt-Pulford’s portrayal of the errant postulant snatches Julie Andrew’s hallowed crown (or dirndl) and makes it her own. Pitt-Pulford gives the most relaxed yet polished interpretation of this legendary role with her pitch-perfect performance entrancing the audience from one song to the next. From her delivery of the title song sprawled across a hillside, through to her gorgeously convincing interaction with the Von Trapp brats (cutely played mind, well done kids) in Do Re Mi, every song is a treat. As an actress she is convincingly youthful yet wise, at all times displaying that most intriguing of emotions, a spunky humility. This leading role is so very well deserved by one of the most talented actresses of her generation that surely it cannot be long now before Pitt-Pulford leads a West End show. 

Notwithstanding a lack of racial diversity both on stage and in the audience (which surprises for a venue in the heart of as diverse a community as Leicester) Kerryson has again delivered some top-notch talent to the town that he’s called home for some time. There is excellence afoot here – and if you want a glimpse of a woman destined for musical theatre greatness, you won't see it more clearly than in the wondrous Laura Pitt-Pulford.

READ MY INTERVIEW WITH LAURA (CLICK HERE) THAT SHE GAVE JUST AS REHEARSALS FOR THE SOUND OF MUSIC WERE COMMENCING 

Runs until 17th January 2015

Laura Pitt-Pulford: Keeping Ahead Of The Curve

SINCE WRITING THIS FEATURE, LAURA PITT-PULFORD'S PERFORMANCE AS MARIA HAS RECEIVED RAVE REVIEWS ACROSS THE BOARD. CLICK HERE TO READ MY REVIEW OF THE SHOW

as Lucille Frank in Parade

There is much anticipation for Leicester Curve's Christmas 2014 offering. The Sound Of Music will be Paul Kerryson, the Curve's much lauded Artistic Director's swansong show. Even more than Kerryson's expected impact upon this classic musical, is his choice of leading lady to play Maria. Laura Pitt-Pulford, an actor who is amongst the cream of her generation is to play the lapsed nun/impetuous governess and her casting is an inspired decision. This Mountview graduate (the class of 2005) has consistently delivered acclaimed excellence in every part she has played and whether it be working in the fringe or in the highest echelons of the subsidised sector, her commitment to her craft is inspirational. As the news was announced of her being cast as Maria, I caught up with Laura to find out a little more about this gifted performer.

Growing up away from the London bubble (her family hail from Rugby) it was to be some months after leaving Mountview before she got her first break in commercial theatre, as Young Heidi in Sondheim's Follies at the Royal and Derngate in Northampton. It says much for Pitt-Pulford that her debut professional gig was a Sondheim - the man famously (and ingeniously) creates demanding roles, a challenge that she more than matched.

Enviably, the last few years have rarely seen Pitt-Pulford out of work, with the Southwark Playhouse, one of London's leading fringe venues, proving to be a springboard for her career. Producer Danielle Tarento spotted her to play Lucille Frank, the leading lady in Jason Robert Brown's scorching musical set around a travesty of justice that occurred in the Southern state of Georgia shortly after the American Civil War. It had been barely five years since Parade had played at London's Donmar (achieving the deserved recognition that had eluded it on Broadway), yet under Thom Southerland's direction the Tarento production was to receive its own critical acclaim, in no small measure due to Pitt-Pulford's heroic Southern belle (alongside her leading man Alastair Brookshaw). She had arrived in London.

Fast forwarding a year saw the Tarento-Southerland partnership stage Jerry Herman's Mack & Mabel, another difficult even if beautifully scored show. Pitt-Pulford was Tarento's only choice to play Mabel Normand - but there was a hiccough. Already playing the lead in Sweet Charity at Belfast's MAC, Pitt-Pulford was only to be allowed a two week rehearsal slot for the role and had to parachute in to the company when they were already half way through their rehearsals. Suffice to say, her preparation for the role had been meticulous with the show going on to be one of London's sell out successes in the summer of 2012.

as Mabel Normand in Mack & Mabel

But Pitt-Pulford is no stranger to flying (sometimes literally) by the seat of her pants. A colleague and good friend tells of how at the Curve on the press night of Paul Kerryson's wonderfully staged Piaf, Pitt-Pulford, playing working girl Toine, was required to have draped herself, spread-eagled over a chaise-longue, clad in little more than her character’s working clothes of suspenders and underwear. As Beginners were being called, a last minute costume check by the actress led her to realise she was knicker-less and even worse, the dressing rooms were an Olympic sprint away through numerous security doors. Ever the consummate professional, the actress made it on stage, just in time, ensuring Toine's opening appeared exactly as planned.

(In a lovely moment, as Laura was talking about Piaf, the coffee shop in which we were sat played La Vie En Rose in the background. Beautiful) 

Kerryson has previous with Pitt-Pulford. Before Piaf, she was his Irene Molloy alongside an award winning Janie Dee in Hello, Dolly! whilst last year Marianne Elliott cast Pitt-Pulford in the National Theatre's The Light Princess, where aside from sporting some stunning footwear, she added puppetry to her skills and still speaks in admiration of Elliott's visionary approach to Tori Amos' ground-breaking musical. A performer who is never afraid to tackle new work, Pitt-Pulford has recently thrown herself into two of up-coming producer Katy Lipson's shows. A cracking UK premier of the Sondheim pot-pourri Marry Me A Little saw some glorious Manhattan-ite interaction with Simon Bailey, whilst her Margaret in Charles Miller's The Return Of The Soldier saw her give a sensitive exploration of the layers of a very complex woman caught up in the aftermath of PTSD during the First World War.

But it is her Maria that right now is so eagerly awaited. Laura tells me that she "just can't wait to put my stamp on it. I grew up on the film, love it, love everything about it. Such a fabulous story and she is such an interesting character." 

The re-union of Kerryson with choreographer Drew McOnie, who together wowed Leicester and the wider the theatre world with a sensational Chicago last Christmas, only adds to the anticipation surrounding the Rogers and Hammerstein classic. But it is the inspired casting of Laura Pitt-Pulford as the intriguing postulant that is likely to underscore what is sure to be a sell out festive treat.

Chicago

Curve Theatre, Leicester

****

Book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse
Music by John Kander
Lyrics by Fred Ebb
Directed by Paul Kerryson

Sandra Marvin and Verity Rushworth

Bob Fosse co wrote the book of Chicago. He also famously inspired the show’s choreography, which could be found on tour in the UK even up until last year. But not any more. That famously coquettish and provocative sexuality has been laid to rest and there’s a new dance style in the Windy City. Like an impetuous child, young British choreographer Drew McOnie has taken some of Broadway’s biggest numbers and re-imagined their steamy suggestiveness into a style that is entirely 21st century.

Paul Kerryson directs on the sleek modern vastness of the Curve’s main auditorium. It’s a big (and possibly expensive) space to fill, sometimes too big and if occasionally the intimacy of a bedroom scene or a lawyer's office seems dwarfed, one does not have to wait long until McOnie’s routines fill the stage. The show is such that one’s eyes are often drawn to the fascinating and complex company dance work rather than the singing lead.

The murderous partners in crime, Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart, are played by the accomplished Verity Rushworth and Gemma Sutton respectively. Both women are vocally stunning, with Rushworth flashing occasional glimpses of breathaking acrobatic talent. Not quite the finished article yet, their poor synchronisation in the eleven o’clock number Nowadays is a distraction. Nothing though that can't be mended with a spot of drilled rehearsal and a few days settling into the run.

Kerryson is at his best when exploiting the bleak humanity of Kander and Ebb’s caustic wit. The comic pathos of Amos Hart’s Mister Cellophane is a brilliant turn from Matthew Barrow, whilst the sardonic irony of Sandra Marvin’s Mama Morton singing Class with Rushworth is another gem. Credit too to Marvin’s When Your’re Good To Mama. Her Curve-filling curves deliver a thrilling sound and to quote her signature song, she sure deserves a lot of tat for what she’s got to give.

David Leonard is Billy Flynn. He does everything just fine, but somehow there’s a touch of star quality pizazz that’s lacking. Hopefully that too will develop into the run. Notably brilliant amongst the company are Adam Bailey’s Mary Sunshine and Zizi Strallen’s Mona along with her other ensemble responsibilities. One suspects that her understudy Velma will be very watchable too.

The star of the show however is undoubtedly McOnie’s dance work, enhanced by takis’ androgynously metro-sexual costumes. In Razzle Dazzle, when Flynn sings of the court room being a three-ring circus, McOnie sculpts his company, using their limbs together with ropes and harnesses to create a writhing mass of syncopated beauty. Moulding bodies into art forms, in time to the brassy rhythms of Ben Atkinson’s immaculately performing seven piece band, his images are breathtaking. See this show if for no other reason than to glimpse the future of showtune choreography.

Curve’s Chicago is a stylish Xmas offering to a city that has become accustomed to festive excellence from Kerryson and his company. Its a thrilling show and if you have a passion for innovative musical theatre, then its simply unmissable!

Chicago runs to 18th January 2014. To book tickets, click here

To read my interview with director Paul Kerryson, click here

Paul Kerryson razzle dazzles in Leicester

The women of Paul Kerryson's Cook County Jail, Chicago

As the latest prodcution of Kander and Ebb's Chicago previews in Leicester, I caught up with Paul Kerryson, Artistic Director of the city's Curve Theatre to learn more about what he has planned for this festive offering and to talk about some of the theatre's recent successes that he has helmed.

JB: Are you Leicester born and bred and how long has your association been with Curve? 

PK: Originally from Southern Ireland, I’ve lived in Leicester for nigh on 23 years and have been intimately involved with the birth and growth of Curve. For the eight years prior to its opening I worked closely on its development and have been Artistic Director since it's opening five years ago.

JB: Touching on historical productions, tell me about Harvey Weinstein selecting Curve to trial his musical, Finding Neverland.

PK: I was tremendously proud that we were chosen to be the UK testing ground for the show. Not only did it demonstrate that we could host a modern large show that was technically demanding and state of the art, Finding Neverland established Curve even more firmly upon the country's theatrical map. Whilst the show remains very much a work in progress, it gave us a wonderfully high profile, a star studded cast and many of the industry's leading producers and creatives visiting us, many for the first time. And of course it earned us a fabulous amount of much needed revenue too!

JB:  In the recent UK Theatre Awards, of the three nominees from across the regions for “Best Performance In A Musical”,  two were leading ladies from Curve productions that you had directed: Janie Dee for Hello Dolly, who went on to win the award and Frances Ruffelle for Piaf.  Tell me a little about those shows.

PK: I'd worked with Janie before, when she had played the lead in The King And I, so I knew just what I was getting. She was a wonderfully astute Dolly Levi and the part came to her at just the right time too as it had only been in the week before we first discussed it, that her dad had told her how much he'd love to see her play Dolly.

Janie Dee as Dolly Levi

Piaf provided a wonderfully challenging show. I'd worked with the late Pam Gems personally too and not many people know that she had actually written three versions of the play. For my production, I went through all three selecting the texts from each that I thought best to use.

The critical part of presenting Piaf is to select the songs that you think will work with the show and then of course, to get them in the right order that will best fit the production. We ran the show in the Curve's more intimate Studio venue and when that sold out, we hastily arranged a one week reprise in the main house, where we solely used the forestage in a bid to retain the intimacy. Frances Ruffelle emphatically made the role her own and if we can find a backer, the show may yet have a life on tour. Other theatres are interested in it for sure.

Frances Ruffelle's Edith Piaf

JB: And so to Chicago. Why that show and why now?

PK: Sometimes you just have to grab a show when it comes around, it's that simple. For years the rights were not available and the UK tour only finished about a year ago so I guess I called them at the right time. 

It's a glorious piece of writing. Starting off as a Broadway concert piece, for years it was viewed as a poor relation to Cabaret. But the prism through which Kander and Ebb view life deserves a distinctive treatment and I am looking forward to giving my interpretation to the work. I want to avoid the minimalist style  of recent productions, bringing back more scene changes and a larger-scale feel to the show, whilst still keeping it sleek, sexy and funny.

And of course I have Drew McOnie as my choreographer. He is one of the most innovative dance professionals in musical theatre today, a protege of Matthew Bourne, whose work is thrilling to see. Where David Needham brought a beautifully traditional interpretation to Hello Dolly’s dance and movement (JB : Agreed. The Waiter's Gallop was breathtaking) Drew brings an altogether modern vibrancy. I went to see his West Side Story this summer, staged in a Manchester warehouse,and even though he was only working with a youth company, his interpretation was astonishing.

JB: Ben Atkinson will be musically directing for you and he has now become quite a fixture at Curve. Tell me more about him.

PK: Ben is simply a very talented young man. I first really noticed him when as the Assistant MD, he occasionally took the baton during The King And I, faultlessly. He has a confident connection between the stage and the orchestra and really understands a show's arrangements. In their recent London cabaret sets, both Janie and Frances have used him as their MD.

Paul Kerryson during rehearsals

JB: And then to Hairspray followed by the Water Babies premiere. 2014 is full of promise...

PK: Yes, 2014 is looking very exciting indeed with the established fun of Shaiman and Wittman's Hairspray followed by the thrill of unveiling Water Babies. I am very proud of the excellence, especially in musical theatre, that Curve is becoming famous for.

Chicago plays at Curve Theatre, Leicester until 18th January 2014
To book tickets, click here

The Hired Man

Curve Studio, Leicester

****

Book and lyrics by Melvyn Bragg

Music by Howard Goodall

Directed by Daniel Buckroyd



Julie Atherton and Kit Orton

The Hired Man is quite possibly the greatest ever English musical. In a story that avoids sentiment and cliché, Bragg and Goodall open a window into a tightly knit Cumbrian community, via a tale that spans the reigns of Queen Victoria through to King George V and addresses the growth of industry, the challenge it presented to those who worked the land, the rise of the trade union movement, the devastation of the First World War and the emerging trend towards women’s emancipation. And all this through perceptive verse and the most stirring of scores.

David Hunter, an ITV Superstar semi-finalist is John Tallentire, the hired man of the title who is introduced at a hiring fair, in the Song Of The Hired Men, a striking melody reprised throughout the show. Newly arrived in Crossbridge village, together with pregnant wife Emily,  John is an honest hard working man, blind to the subtleties of life and oblivious to his beautiful wife’s needs for more than just the “same blessed rain on washing day”. When Emily first spies local landowner’s son and cad Jackson Pennington wrestling in a local tavern, she cannot help but immediately flirt with him. Inevitably trysting follows and act one culminates with the blindly-trusting John excruciatingly learning of his having been cuckolded.

Act two condenses a vast span of years and plot into a credible hour of performance. The exploitation of the coal miners and the emergence of a union in response to their hellish working conditions together with the slaughter and devastated aftermath of war are tackled confidently by the writers.

Daniel Buckroyd, Artistic Director of Colchester’s co-producer Mercury Theatre is no stranger to the work and on Juliet Shillingford's cleverly designed sloping slabs of land, that depict Cumbrian fells as vividly as the Somme, he extracts clever concepts, particularly with the boisterous tavern scenes and a gripping penultimate moment, set at a Whitehaven coal face that has been terrifyingly extended far out under the sea. Yet Buckroyd also makes some disappointing short cuts. Blackrock, a phenomenally stirring song of the dangers of mining is an opportunity wasted, with minimal acting action being added to its powerful lyrics.  Farewell Song, sung as the local men leave for war and which could arguably be included in the liturgy of any Remembrance Service such is its power, has some of the most beautifully engineered key changes ever composed and should, in the right hands,  be able to effortlessly prise open the tear ducts. In this production, sadly, it fails to hit that spot.

John's is a very tough role to portray.  A solid traditional man of the land, black and white in opinion and seeking only to work hard to provide for his family, his naivete lends a profound complexity to his make up. Whilst unquestionably beautifully voiced, Hunter doesn’t quite reach the depths of credibility that could make this character truly believable.

Julie Atherton however is a definitive Emily.  Her pitch and tone are perfection and her acting is simply flawless. A woman, fiercely loving and protective as a mother, yet with a burning desire to broaden her world through both a passionate love affair and later in going out to work. (In an era still brimming with chauvinism,  it was rare for married women to earn a wage.) The frustrated passion that Atherton injects into her character’s supressed desire for Jackson is almost red-hot with stifled sexual yearning and when Bragg’s story draws Emily into experiencing tragedy, her response and sobs of grief are perfectly delivered to claw at our heart strings without once becoming mawkish.  Kit Orton’s Jackson (also a dab hand on the violin)  together with Jenni Bowden’s singing and trumpet-playing performances are noteworthy cast members amongst a talented company who all perform with wit and clarity throughout.

Under pianist / MD Richard Reeday the show’s music is simply yet subtly arranged. A modestly sized band, drawn mainly from the cast who pick up their instruments as and when required and with an inspired inclusion of harp and trumpet. Never has Goodall’s music sounded so perfect, with just enough mournful trumpet melodies lines to depict the North poignantly and passionately.

Albeit possibly deserving of an alternative title: “The Hired Man’s Wife”, this production nonetheless remains what its writers always intended. A living history lesson, beautifully told, of England’s transition into the 20th century.

Runs until April 27th

 

Piaf

Curve Theatre, Leicester

*****

Written by Pam Gems

Directed by Paul Kerryson


STOP PRESS!

PIAF RUN EXTENDED IN THE MAIN THEATRE AT THE CURVE 3 - 6 APRIL 2013

SEE THE TRAILER FOR THE SHOW HERE

Frances Ruffelle

Leicester Curve’s Piaf, Pam Gems' distinctive play about the beautiful but self-destructive arc of Edith Piaf, has new life breathed into the title role by Frances Ruffelle whose immersive performance as the celebrated French chanteuse is quite simply breathtaking.

Gems pulls no punches with her writing and this play with songs is not for fans of the singer looking for a sentimental juke-box musical. Her Piaf is at times a tragic junkie, an alcoholic and a foul mouthed whore in a production that is so much more than simply a collection of some of “The Little Sparrow’s” songs.  Ruffelle’s portrayal of this brightly burning star that crashed to her death at the age of 47 is as harrowing as it is stunning.

The play moves at a pace from Piaf’s troubled early years. The supporting cast context the passage of time skilfully, as key people in the singer’s life are introduced. Whilst many of the cast play several roles, Laura Pitt-Pulford plays Toine, Piaf’s best friend and fellow prostitute from the early years, throughout. Pitt-Pulford has a track record that defines a commitment to excellence and this performance is no exception as she portrays the hard-edged cynicism of a street girl through the years.  Tiffany Graves’ Marlene sings Falling in Love Again with a deliciously authentic sound.

The six men in the company cover a multitude of parts. The versatile Russell Morton, as her young Greek husband she married shortly before her death, beautifully duets with Ruffelle. Oliver Boot delivers an emphatic masculinity throughout, from hard edged cop to the champion boxer who wins Piaf’s love before being tragically killed in a plane crash and Dale Rapley shifts through several key characters in Piaf’s life effortlessly most notably as the gay promoter who chances upon her street singing and transforms her to professional performer.

But it is Ruffelle who defines this show. Shifting from gamine minx, to a morphine abusing broken-bodied frailty, injured from car crashes and addiction, her performance is almost Hamlet-like such is the totality of effort that is demanded from her. Crippled and dying, she switches from shooting–up to commanding the spotlight in the fantasy recalls of Piaf’s numbers, with ease. When she sings in French her voice is a sublime tribute to Piaf, whilst when she sings in English the distinctive timbre and twang that defined her creation of Eponine some 27 years ago, is still there. Ruffelles’s acting is first class throughout with Andrew Whiteoak’s effective wigs provide the finishing touches to her embodiment of the French legend. 

The staging is simple, with effective use of brickwork, cobbles (a nice Parisian touch from designer Simon Scullion ) and excellent lighting from Arnim Friess. Musically, the three piece band are a delight. Piaf demands an authentic French sound and Zivorad Nikolic’s accordion playing, under the talented Ben Atkinson’s direction and orchestration, creates a Parisian atmosphere that only needs for a whiff of Gauloise to be complete.

Paul Kerryson has delivered another well-crafted piece of theatre to this remarkable regional powerhouse. Hopefully the production will tour and maybe arrive in London too. Yet again, the people of Leicester are spoilt with such a gem on their doorstep.

Runs to 16th March

Hello, Dolly! - Review

Curve Theatre, Leicester

*****

Book by Michael Stewart

Music & lyrics by Jerry Herman

Directed by Paul Kerryson

Janie Dee is Dolly Levi

In a grand show, whose qualities are built entirely upon a stunning company performance, the Curve’s production of Hello, Dolly! is a faultless piece of musical theatre.

Jerry Herman’s Broadway hit, later starring Barbra Streisand in the 1969 movie, tells of the preposterous antics of penniless widowed matchmaker Dolly Levi and her schemes to ultimately net the wealthy Yonkers grain merchant, Horace Vandergelder for herself. Levi can produce business cards that proclaim her an expert in just about everything and Michael Stewart’s book, itself based on Thornton Wilder’s play The Matchmaker, has Dolly weave what can only be described as a Ponzi scheme of romantic trickery and duplicity. Integral to the story’s delightfully ridiculous twists and turns are Levi’s client, the also widowed milliner Irene Molloy and Vandergelder’s much put upon impoverished clerks, Cornelius Hackl and Barnaby Tucker, excited to be making a trip to New York City with the sole aim of kissing a girl.

Janie Dee’s Dolly is a woman “who likes to know everything that’s going on” and her performance brims with as much talent as her character has chutzpah. Popping up from the middle of the stalls, her opening number I Put My Hand In sets the tone for both performance and show. Her eyes twinkle throughout and her lead of the company in the spectacular act one closer, Before The Parade Passes By, has such vitality that the song almost deserves several further verses and it is a disappointment when that number draws to a close. Act two sees her famous arrival at the Hermonia Gardens restaurant to the show’s title number and Dee, together with the ensemble’s waiters does not disappoint. She takes a Broadway classic that everybody knows and makes it her own.

Dale Rapley’s Vandergelder is a delightfully maturing curmudgeon, his song It Takes A Woman, a glorious celebration of male chauvinism. Rapley’s presence adds a delicious credibility to his bluster as through the show and much as he resists, Levi slowly reels him in.

West End star Michael Xavier is the hapless Hackl. Michael Crawford set the bar for this role in the movie and Xavier, with his movement and vocals vaults it effortlessly. Jason Denton’s Tucker provides the perfect foil to Hackl’s mania.

As Irene Molloy, Laura Pitt-Pulford shines. Already an accomplished off-West End leading actress, her Molloy has an infectious charm and her talent adds further glitter to the show’s Broadway sparkle. Ribbons Down My Back, sung as she yearns for a suitor, is arguably one of the most heartfelt yet emotionally lightly-touched numbers ever written for the stage and Pitt-Pulford catches its fragile complexity perfectly.

Paul Kerryson directs with perception and flourish using the massive Curve proscenium to its full. The shows images are grand and he enhances the red white and blue tickertape climax to act one with the inspired addition of local marching bands to the 14^th Street parade, The Scout and Guide Bands of Leicestershire on stage for this review.

David Needham’s choreography is breathtaking. The act two Waiter’s Gallop, clearly drilled into the cast with pinpoint precision, sees dancers cartwheel through mid-air.  On stage throughout, Ben Atkinson’s eight piece band provides a big-band sound that, from the opening refrain, transports the production from England’s East Midlands to America’s East Coast.  The set design by Sara Perks ingeniously employs projections and simple mechanisms (including an inspired revolving staircase) to portray the various New York city and railroad locations, whilst her costume work is meticulous.

With regional revivals currently achieving commercial success in the West End, Curve should plan to send this show south as soon as opportunities permit. It’s a confirmed Christmas cracker!

My profile of Janie Dee can be found here

Runs until 19 January 2012