Hadestown - Review

Lyric Theatre, London

****

Music, lyrics & book by Anaïs Mitchell

Developed with & directed by Rachel Chavkin

The company of Hadestown

Anaïs Mitchell’s Hadestown is drawn from one of the strongest tragic storylines around: Orpheus’ love for Eurydice that draws him into the Underworld in his quest to rescue her from Hades’ grasp and return her to the mortal world. It’s a banger of a yarn and credit to Mitchell and Rachel Chavkin whose cracking songs and outstanding cast have breathed a bold life into this ambitious vision. The UK first encountered the show in its 2018 premier at the National Theatre. Now in the West End it’s a glorious fusion of a raft of musical styles, sung perfectly.

Dónal Finn and Grace Hodgett Young are the two doomed lovers. Both are magnificent with Finn possessing a gorgeously fragile tone that makes his number Wait For Me sparkle. Amidst the grown-up roles, Zachary James’ Hades offers a bass baritone the like of which is rarely heard in musical theatre. His is a towering performance of vulnerable cruelty. Gloria Onitiri is Persephone, wonderfully reprising the part from her time at the National, while in a sensational turn as (basically, narrator) Hermes, Melanie La Barrie cleverly weaves the tale’s threads together. Sung through, the show is an impressive performance from Tarek Merchant’s 7-piece onstage band. Rachel Hauck’s set design is ingenious - think Hell fused with New Orleans - brilliantly lit by Bradley King.

The show’s frustration lies in its crass shoehorning of a modern political agenda onto the Greek classics, with the narrative not being enhanced by the childishly oversimplistic That’s Why We Build The Wall that closes the first act.

But there is excellence on stage here and for what is (mostly) a bold piece of new writing, Hadestown is worth seeing.

Booking until 22nd December

Photo credit: Marc Brenner

Chasing Bono - Review

Soho Theatre, London


*****


Written by Dick Clement & Ian La Frenais
Directed by Gordon Anderson

Denis Conway and Niall McNamee

Chasing Bono, on at the Soho Theatre over the festive season is a new play from Dick Clement and Ian la Frenais, drawn from Neil McCormick’s remarkable autobiographical tale, I Was Bono’s Doppelganger. McCormick and Paul Hewson (Bono) were at school together, both harbouring ambitions of making it big in the music world. Where Bono was to triumph, McCormick, to quote the playwrights "never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity” spending his life in the shadows of his megastar pal, not only dealing (and coming to terms) with his own sense of failure but also to be fair going on to build a successful career as a rock journalist.

Clement and La Frenais have visited this story before, with a co-scripting credit for the 2011 movie Killing Bono. But the pair have sole authorship for this iteration which, staged in one 90 minute act, is perhaps the sweetest piece of new drama to hit London this year.

In a bizarre twist of real-life, many years back McCormick had been kidnapped by Irish gangsters. It is the mark of Clement and La Frenais’ genius that from this event they have woven a narrative that sees the hoodlum (fictionalised as Danny Machin in the play) demand that McCormick ghost-write his life story, and from which process spins out the remarkable story of McCormick’s own and very personal journey. The writing is fresh, perceptive and sharp, with the authors - whose pedigree includes some of British television’s finest comedy work - having an innate understanding of the human condition’s sweet spot,  allowing them to distil pure humour from humanity.

They are blessed with a perfect cast, nearly all of whom hail from across the Irish Sea. Niall McNamee puts in a beautifully weighted turn as McCormick. Riddled with angst and envy and frustrated at his own (comparative) ineptitude, he carries the play convincingly, capturing McCormick from schoolboy through to adulthood. Gifted with some of the play’s pithiest wit, Denis Conway is the hoodlum Machin. With spot on timing, Conway brings an avuncular menace to this curious comic creation, a man who’s imbued with more than a hint of Clement and La Frenais’ Grouty (from their BBC comedy Porridge) in his fictional DNA. There is strong work too from Dónal Finn as McCormick’s brother Ivan – with a nod to both Finn and McNamee for their fine work on acoustic guitar that permeates the evening, while in perhaps the play's toughest gig, Shane O’Regan pulls off a carefully crafted caricature of Bono through the years.

In another example of London’s fringe theatre at its unmissable finest, Chasing Bono offers an evening of flawless entertainment.

Runs until 19th January 2019

Photo credit: Helen Maybanks