That's Jewish Entertainment - Review

Upstairs At The Gatehouse, London

****

Written by Chris Burgess

Musical Arrangements by Andy Collyer

Directed by Kate Golledge

The Cast

Katy Lipson's Aria Entertainments unveils its latest revue drawn from the world of Jewish melodies at Highgate's Gatehouse Theatre for a month's residency.

Compiled by Chris Burgess, That's Jewish Entertainment, unlike Aria's previous forays into the kosher catalogue, doesn’t just focus on the showbiz greats made famous by Jewish writers or performers, but also takes in snatches of liturgy from the synagogue alongside a sprinkling of Yiddish songs that stem from the vanished world of the shtetl, as well as from New York's Lower East Side at the turn of the last century. It all makes for a lively and entertaining evening, with Burgess having researched some fascinating historical details to link and segue the numbers.

Kate Golledge directs a strong quartet of singers who are all in fine fettle throughout. David McKechnie brings a neat impersonation of Groucho Marx to the gig, while one of Matthew Barrow's solo highlights is a well nuanced take on Al Jolson's Mammy. A novel twist sees the honours shared in the Barbra Streisand, Funny Lady moment. Emma Odell gives Sadie, Sadie, Married Lady an interpretation that can more than match the Barnes/Smith roadshow soon to tour the UK. Just before Odell's turn however, Joanna Lee steps up with a barnstorming Don't Rain On My Parade that was spine-tingling in Lee's power and presence.

Interestingly, Lee is the show's only Jewish cast member and whilst ethnicity may not matter when it comes to singing the Broadway greats, the foreign tongues of both Hebrew and Yiddish (like any language) demand an innate cultural familiarity in order to be fully savoured. Barry Davis is credited with having coached (well) the linguistic pronunciation, but it's hard, nay impossible, to replicate a lifetime's understanding and recognition of a language in a two week rehearsal window. Similarly Burgess's translations, albeit carefully created, tend to blunt the romantic power of the foreign lyrics' original sound. In future shows, maybe stick to the original words with projected surtitles? Just a thought.

The show's music however is flawless. Andy Collyer's arrangements of tunes drawn from across the Western Hemisphere is a joy to listen to and under Charlie Ingles' direction (though on the night of this review the talented Alex Bellamy was in the chair), the four piece band capture the songs' time, location and above all their spirit, perfectly. A nod too to Joe Atkin Reeves' sublime work on the reeds. His snatch of Rhapsody In Blue is spot on and when his clarinet work drifts towards klezmer, a Pied Piper-like entrancement falls across the predominantly grey-haired audience.

It’s a lovely show and as Moses might have said, That's Jewish Entertainment is well worth crossing the Red Sea for (or at least the North Circular Road)!

Runs until 11th March, then at The Radlett Centre on 12th March

Photo credit: Pamela Raith

Wallis - Review

Upstairs at the Gatehouse, London


***

Written by Jennifer Selway
Devised and directed by John Plews

Emma Odell

Loosely hung on the true events of the day, Wallis is a fictional tale about the love affair and ensuing constitutional nightmare that arose in the 1930s when the then Prince of Wales (shortly to become Edward VIII) fell for Wallis Simpson, a married American divorcee.

Jennifer Selway has written both play and lyrics for the occasional songs that break up the action. Selway's script has rare moments of sage comment as well as levity but for the most part the dialogue serves as superficial narrative, rather than meaty drama. There’s little of the sort of wit that that made Julian Fellowes’s Downton Abbey scripts sparkle, whilst Selway’s songs, aspiring to emulate Noel Coward also fall short of the mark.

What redeems this production however are the actors, with Plews coaxing fine work from his company. Emma Odell is a wonderful Wallis Simpson, maintaining the convincing, waspish Maryland belle throughout. Un-ashamedly played as a ruthless social climber, Odell’s Simpson compellingly has the Prince in her thrall. Opposite her, Grant McConvey’s lovestruck Edward is arguably more Alan Partridge than heir-apparent, though in a role that has been written into barely more than a cliché, McConvey makes a watchable fist of it.

There’s sterling work from Bernard O’Sullivan as Stanley Baldwin, the much put upon Prime Minister of the time, while Eliza McClelland turns in a cracking double header, first as Lady Cunard (think of Downton’s Shirley MacLaine on acid) and later as Baldwin’s wife Lucy. Katie Arnstein and Robert Hazle offer up a twee (and arguably superfluous) sub-plot of love “below stairs”, though Hazle brings a marvellous voice to the show’s songs. There’s an ambitious set too, complete with a spinning revolve no less, though any production that is set amidst the opulence of the aristocracy is always going to find it hard work to make pub theatre look a million dollars.

It all gets rather muddled in the endgame and if the audience had been allowed to abdicate the Gatehouse maybe 30 minutes earlier it would have been no bad thing. But the cast put in a fine shift and this snapshot of early 20th century British and American stereotypes still offers a fun night out in Highgate.

Runs until 26th June

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