Guys & Dolls - Review

Frinton Summer Theatre, Frinton-on-Sea

*****

Music and lyrics by Frank Loesser

Book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows

Based on a story & characters of Damon Runyon

Directed by Janie Dee

Fabian Soto Pacheco and Lenny Turner

In perhaps the country’s most charming setting, a seaside big top perched on the cliffs of Frinton-on-Sea, Janie Dee has helmed perhaps the most equally charming production of Guys & Dolls to have been seen in quite a while.

This Frinton Summer Theatre musical will only run for two weeks and so of necessity is modestly budgeted. Dee however, and in her first rodeo as director of a fully-staged show too, has carefully crafted the Broadway classic to focus on the individuals rather than the spectacular. Many of the cast are sensibly doubled up in different roles and Dee shifts the opening number Runyonland, which would typically depict New York’s hustle and bustle, to a calmer but imaginative balletic prologue delivered by three local child performers.

Dee’s cast are magnificent, with her four leads’ passion infusing the show with energy and expertise. Lenny Turner and Isabella Gervais play Sky Masterson and Sarah Brown, delivering a chemistry, yea chemistry, between them that is simply sensational. Both vocally stunning with Gervais’ soprano proving exquisite in its fidelity. Gervais also delivers some imaginative and impressive work on an aerial hoop in the Havana scenes. Turner’s Sky is the best to have been seen in years. Not just in his mellifluous tone, but also in his capturing the very essence of Masterson’s cool.

Fabian Soto Pacheco nails Nathan Detroit’s wry New York shtick to a tee. In a thoughtful tweak to the original, and recognising that Frank Loesser’s libretto virtually excludes Nathan Detroit from any singing responsibilities, Dee has changed a couple of lyrics to include him in the title number. Josephina Ortiz Lewis grows into becoming Miss Adelaide - a role that is one of the most complex in musical comedy - with her humour and irony landing perfectly as the show builds to its fairytale ending.

Other notables in the company are Jack McCann’s Nicely Nicely Johnson who dutifully delivers an encore-worthy Sit Down You’re Rocking The Boat, Clive Brill’s genial Arvide Abernathy and Alfie Wickham who neatly delivers the modest roles of Joey Biltmore (in particular) and Scranton Slim with panache.

Tracy Collier not only plays General Cartwright but is also Dee’s choreographer and there is both ambition and flair in her take on the two big dance scenes, firstly in the Cuban nightclub and then in the Crapshooters’ Ballet.

Neil Somerville directs his six piece band delightfully, with a nice touch to the evening’s musicality being provided by Pippa D. Collins’s massed choirs adding vocal heft to the occasion. Sorcha Corchoran’s stage designs use the tented setting perfectly.

A newcomer to directing she may be, but as one of the UK's finest leading ladies Janie Dee is steeped in musical theatre genius. In her programme notes Dee pays a neat tribute to Sir Richard Eyre’s groundbreaking and award-winning production of Guys & Dolls in 1982 at the National Theatre. She is right to do so. Hers is the first Guys & Dolls since then that comes close to replicating Eyre’s masterpiece in unlocking the pathos, humanity and hilarity of Damon Runyon’s stories. 

Find your way to Frinton. It’s a probable twelve to seven that you’ll have a fantastic night at the theatre!

Runs until 6th September

Photo credit: Christian Davies

Putting It Together - Review

Playground Theatre, London

****

Music & lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

Directed by Janie Dee

In a refreshing contrast to the capital’s typical December when the city’s theatres teem with festive offerings, Putting It Together makes a brief return to a London stage after a 10 year absence. A revue of some of Stephen Sondheim’s sharpest compositions, the show was originally curated by Sondheim himself alongside Julia McKenzie.

In a stripped-back staging at the (packed) Playground Theatre, this iteration of the collection sees Janie Dee make her directorial debut. One of today’s finest interpreters of Sondheim, Dee also steps up to play the Wife amongst the show’s quintet of performers.

Drawn from the spectrum of Sondheim’s work, the revue’s numbers are generously spread amongst the cast. In her usual spectacular form, Dee most memorably gets her chops around Could I Leave You?, The Ladies Who Lunch and Not Getting Married Today. Dee’s ability to extract the cruellest sharpest satire from Sondheim’s writing is possibly unmatched - rarely is the acid in her characters’ lyrics delivered with such fluid, mellifluous, perfect poison.

As Dee makes her entrance as a director, Miriana Pavia boldly steps up to make her professional debut as a performer, here playing the Younger Woman. Vocally astonishing, Pavia displays a stunning range notably in her solo More, as well as in her two duets with Dee, Every Day A Little Death and There’s Always A Woman. She is definitely one to watch.

Edward Baker-Duly as the Husband displays a chillingly predatory charm in Hello Little Girl, his clipped elegance a perfect caricature of the oleaginous patrician. He also delivers a complex wry tenderness in The Road You Didn’t Take. There is equally fine work from Tom Babbage as the Younger Man.

Other than perhaps as a nod to a Xmas pantomime dame, the casting of drag artist Kate Butch as the Narrator is a distraction. Sondheim’s lyrics stand on their own merits, in no need of Butch’s barbed support. That being said, when Butch ditches the garish, patent heels for a more vulnerable, masculine take on Buddy’s Blues it makes for a marked improvement. On piano, as the show’s sole musical accompanist, Archie McMorran is sensational.

As a directing debutante, Dee has much to be proud of, with fine work coaxed from all of her cast and the composer’s acerbic genius shining through both acts of the show. This production of Putting It Together demands a longer run.

Old Friends - Review

 Gielgud Theatre, London

****

Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

Devised by Cameron Mackintosh

Directed by Matthew Bourne and Julia McKenzie

The company of Old Friends

Much of Old Friends, Cameron Mackintosh’s lovingly curated tribute to Stephen Sondheim is a masterclass in musical theatre. Over 2 1/2 hours and 40 songs, some of the West End’s finest sing a selection of Sondheim’s compositions that spans decades.

Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga have been flown in from the USA to headline the show. Salonga of course won numerous awards creating the role of Kim in Miss Saigon in London back in 1989 and later in New York. Since then however, her impact over here has been muted. Peters, albeit a Broadway legend and arguably Sondheim’s one-time muse, is less well known in the UK outside of musical cognoscenti and other than as a sincere and profound tribute to the composer it is hard to understand her bill-topping status. There are moments in the evening that leave one reflecting that some of Peters’ numbers could perhaps have been better delivered by other members of this star-studded ensemble.

If Arthur Miller was America’s leading light in late twentieth-century drama, mercilessly exploring and exposing the human condition, then Sondheim was his match in musical theatre. Interestingly and notwithstanding Sondheim’s genius, he never created (nor possibly may have never sought to create) a show of the juggernaut, franchisable or (as Stephen Schwartz may have called it) “popular” status garnered by say Cats, Phantom of The Opera, Les Misérables or Wicked. That being said, when Old Friends is at its best it offers magical moments of perfect performance. 

Highlights of the evening include: a gorgeous pairing of Salonga with Jeremy Secomb as Mrs Lovett and Sweeney Todd for a selection of that show’s favourites; an outstanding ensemble take on A Weekend In The Country with a shout-out for Janie Dee’s brilliant interpretation of Countess Charlotte Malcolm, nailing the comic potential of her few lyrics perfectly. Joanna Riding, with superb support from Damian Humbley cynically sparkles in Getting Married Today as does Bonnie Langford’s in a breathtaking I’m Still Here. Clare Burt, a late arrival to the cast, gives a magnificent irascibility to The Ladies Who Lunch. The first half ends with an uplifting full-ensemble delivery of Sunday from Sunday In The Park With George, with Peters assuming the position of the parasol-bearing Dot. Considering that Sondheim possibly created that role with Peters in mind, the moment and the staging is one of a rare and special theatrical beauty.

Kicking off the second half, the overture from Merrily We Roll Along offers another glimpse of Sondheim’s musical talent, while a seamless segue into a small medley from West Side Story reminds us of his skill way back as a much younger writer. The Gypsy inclusions of You Gotta Getta Gimmick and Everything’s Coming Up Roses are also delightful.

Matthew Bourne and Stephen Mear direct and choreograph respectively, coaxing immaculately presented iterations of each song. Julia McKenzie, another of Sondheim’s close and wise associates is co-credited as director. The whole affair is staged with a smart simplicity, Alfonso Casado Trigo’s orchestra elegantly placed upstage.

Opportunities to see a company of this calibre do not come along often. Go see Old Friends!

Runs until 6th January 2023

Photo credit: Danny Kaan

The Motive and the Cue - Review

National Theatre, London

*****

Written by Jack Thorne

Directed by Sam Mendes

Mark Gatiss and Johnny Flynn

Jack Thorne’s new play is one of those rare events, fusing the strongest of stories with an exquisite script, delivered by a riveting troupe of actors. The Motive and the Cue takes an ingenious delve into the rehearsals that underscored Richard Burton’s 1964 Hamlet on Broadway, a production that was directed by Sir John Gielgud.

Burton was at the peak of his hell-raising career, while Sir John, arguably the finest Shakespearean performer of his generation was already past his zenith. Johnny Flynn and Mark Gatiss play Burton and Gielgud respectively and their take on both of these giants is nothing short of remarkable. Vocally and physically the actors capture the instantly recognisable characteristics of both men: Gatiss bringing a balding mellifluous wisdom to the theatrical knight, while Flynn wields a louche, perfectly pitched swagger that, with just a hint of Welsh tonality, nails Burton’s distinctive presence.

Johnny Flynn

Thorne’s genius is in crafting the theatrical history of what was to become Broadway’s longest-running Hamlet ever, into a standalone dramatic gem. Tuppence Middleton plays Elizabeth Taylor - 1964 saw the Burton / Taylor marriage at its most passionate, remember that their legendary Cleopatra movie had only opened the year before  - and her take on the actress, describing Burton as “the finest actor she ever went to bed with”, is inspired. Middleton's Taylor understands the Welshman’s complex roots, his impoverished childhood, nurturing and nourishing his talent. In her final scene, clad literally in fur coat and no knickers, Middleton defines the smouldering, beautiful complexity of one of the twentieth century’s most compelling actresses.

With an acute perception Thorne brings to the fore both Burton's and Gielgud's troubled pasts. Gielgud contemplating the waning of his career at the end of act one, in which having coaxed the recalcitrant Burton in Hamlet’s “Speak the speech I pray you” speech to the Players, then, solo, and as a monologue, recites the speech himself, creating a moment that evolves into one of the most heart-rending and tender scenes penned in recent years. Gatiss defines Gielgud’s melancholy with a profound and measured depth, his gauche second-act encounter with a rent boy proving equally tender.

Mark Gatiss

Flynn too offers a glimpse into the alcohol-fuelled complexities that contributed to Burton’s gargantuan stage presence. Thorne’s script and Sam Mendes’ assured direction offer up a fascinating glimpse of both men’s vulnerabilities.

There’s excellence throughout the cast, with Janie Dee as Eileen Herlie (the production’s Gertrude) and Allan Corduner as Hume Cronyn (Polonius) both in sparkling form. Rarely has Hamlet’s closet scene been played with such credible hilarity. Es Devlin works her usual magic in the play’s scenic design, with scenes ingeniously changing behind the opening and closing aperture of the Lyttleton’s curtain. Credit too to Charmian Hoare, the production's dialect coach, for capturing such aural perfection from the leading performers.

The Motive and the Cue is new writing at its finest, built upon the most fascinating of stories. It is an unmissable night of theatre.

Runs until 15th July

Photo credit: Mark Douet

Janie Dee In Cabaret - Review

The Pheasantry, London

****

 

Janie Dee

 “Leave your troubles outside!

Life is disappointing? Forget it!

Here, life is beautiful!”

And with those immortal Kander & Ebb lyrics, Janie Dee opened her cabaret set to a full house at The Pheasantry. Indeed, set against a world still battling the ravages of the pandemic, to say nothing of the horrendous London weather, life did appear to be briefly beautiful in the gorgeous intimacy of that Kings Road basement.

Dee is one of London’s finest musical theatre and cabaret performers. Her wisdom, experience, talent and sensational voice imbue her with a presence that not only earns our attention but rather commands it, allowing her to take the audience’s emotions on a rollercoaster ride of perfectly pitched pathos and playfulness, masterfully supported by musical director Stephen Higgins.

A selection of Kander & Ebb numbers followed their Wilkommen opener, with Dee sharing how the composers’ 1971 song Yes! had recently seen John Kander graciously permit her to tweak that number’s lyrics so as to accommodate Dee’s passionately held concerns over climate change, a belief that allowed her to seamlessly segue into a delicious delivery of What A Wonderful World.

An early guest slot saw Dee's guitarist son Alfie Wickham play a brief set, commencing with an enchanting take on the classical melody Spanish Romance. Wickham played with confidence, skill and an on-stage assuredness - the young man has remarkable potential.

Dee closed her first act with her first Sondheim number of the night, Send In The Clowns. Close-up and cocooned on this Chelsea stage, and having played Desiree Armfeldt on a number of previous occasions, Dee gave the song a rare intensity in her interpretation. Indeed, having heard the song sung live on countless occasions I found that listening to Dee's Desiree, the one that I wanted was hers.

Sondheim's Another Hundred People got the second act underway in what was to prove another carefully crafted setlist that fused merriment with melancholy. Copytype was a sharply satirical look back at the days when typewriters were a thing, while Dee again gave a hauntingly contemporary resonance to Jerry Herman’s Time Heals Everything. Wickham returned to the stage to accompany his mum on Fly Me To The Moon, as Janie wrapped up events with a resounding The Ladies Who Lunch.

Everybody rise? – such was Dee's commanding gravitas that we very nearly did as we were bade!

It’s great that cabaret is back in town and helmed by their supremely well-connected resident host Ruth Leon (herself an 'Emcee' who could give Joel Grey more than a run for his money), The Pheasantry is destined to be packing them in over the next few months.

Photo credit: Angie Lawrence

Carousel - Review

Cadogan Hall, London


*****


Music by Richard Rodgers
Book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
Based on Ferenc Molnar's play Liliom as adapted by Benjamin F Glazer

To read my recent interview with Janie Dee and Jo Riding, click here

The company of Carousel

Every now and then theatrical magic descends...

So it was at the Cadogan Hall this week where Alex Parker had assembled a starry cast and a magnificent 30-strong orchestra to perform, for one night only, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel. But this cast had something even more special, setting it apart from the throng of musicals currently playing in the West End and on Broadway. For back in 1992 Carousel had been staged at London's National Theatre in a production that featured Jo Riding and Janie Dee as female leads Julie Jordan and Carrie Pipperidge. Such was the excellence of director Nicholas Hytner’s show that not only did his revival win the Olivier for Best Musical Revival and Best Director, but Riding and Dee won the Oliviers for Best Leading Actress and Best Supporting Performer (both for in a Musical), respectively.

Riding and Dee had been recently reunited at the National as the leads in a revival of Follies and so it was an act of sheer vision that prompted Parker to invite the duo to reprise their Carousel magnificence in a concert performance of the Rodgers & Hammerstein classic.

Janie Dee and Jo Riding in Carousel, 1992

The pair’s contribution to the evening was a display, not only of continuing musical theatre excellence – but also of a sheer unbridled love for the show that they were singing. As the cast remained seated on stage when not called upon to perform, Dee’s passion for the piece was almost palpabke. When not performing herself she was absorbing the detail of the music and the occasion, almost in disbelief - not dissimilar to Billy Bigelow being granted the chance to descend from Heaven for a one day visit to Earth - that she had been granted a chance to reprise this heavenly score. Riding too was both entranced and enchanting and yet, in full keeping with the incredibly complex character that Julie is, maintained a sobriety that in no way diminished her evident love for the occasion.

Parker had rehearsed his musicians impeccably. From the opening bars of The Carousel Waltz, through to the closing strains of You’ll Never Walk Alone – not to mention the sheer brilliance of the demanding Act 2 Ballet, the music was a profound delight, accompanied by a vocal chorus of students from the Guildford School of Acting.

Alongside Riding and Dee, Hadley Fraser was  compelling and convincing as the violently troubled Billy Bigelow. Another character of deep complexity, Fraser imbued the errant husband with as much sympathy as could be afforded to his abusive nature. He also delivered a sensational Soliloquy.

Gavin Spokes captured Mr Snow’s comic pomposity perfectly, as Stewart Clarke’s Jigger was another deft turn from this talented young man, Clarke picking out his character’s malign opportunistic wickedness. Both men were vocally outstanding, with Matthew Kelly and Chizzy Akudolu complementing the set of supporting roles as The Starkeeper and Mrs Mullins respectively

As Nettie Fowler, Lucy Schaufer’s operatic background led to her spine-tingling take on You’ll Never Walk Alone. But back in 1992 it had been Patricia Routledge (not yet then a Dame) who played Nettie. Incredibly, and at the age of 90!, Routledge returned to this production as the narrator. For those in the audience who remembered the 1992 show, to see Dame Patricia singing along in the finale of the show’s totemic anthem was unforgettable.

Photo credit: Take Two Theatricals (2019) and Clive Barda (1992)

Jo Riding & Janie Dee talk Carousel, Follies and friendship

Janie and Jo on London's South Bank, 2019

Janie Dee and Jo Riding are two of the UK's finest musical theatre performers. At the National Theatre the return of Dominic Cooke’s acclaimed production of Follies currently stars the two actresses. 

Dee continues magnificently as Phyllis (could she ever leave this wonderful show?) however Cooke has re-cast his Sally and Riding (or rather Joanna Riding as she is listed in the programme) is now taking the role to even greater heights. The pairing of these two women has made for one of London's most sensational casting decisions in years. 

Cognoscenti of London's theatre however will know that the two have shared a National stage before. In 1992 they led Nicholas Hytners’s production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel as Julie Jordan (Riding) and Carrie Pipperidge (Dee) and such was their excellence then that they BOTH(!) won well-deserved Olivier Awards in '93 for their work.

So, while this time hop of 27 years to 2019 isn’t quite the 30-year gap that Dimitri Weismann marks at the reunion of his fabled Follies, there's the slightest, almost whimsical hint, of life imitating art as these two wonderful women work their magic on Sondheim’s sensational show. 

Making this casting even more exciting is the news just announced, as this interview is published, that on Sunday May 19th, Riding and Dee will return to the capital's Cadogan Hall for one night only in a concert production of Carousel, that will see them reprise their award winning performances!

My own memories of Hytner’s Carousel production are wonderfully vivid and so it was both joy and privilege to spend an afternoon in the company of these two fabulous performers. Amidst a rare burst of some South Bank springtime sunshine, we sat by the River Thames and talked of Follies, Carousel, friendship and musical theatre....

JB:    Janie and Jo -  Follies was outstanding in 2017. This time around, it's even  better. Tell me about the chemistry between the two of you that is so very palpable!

Jo:    That chemistry of Carousel... Well what was happening on stage with those two was kind of happening off stage as well, because I think that Carrie looks after Julie. She looks out for her. "You're a queer one, Julie Jordan, but I kind of like you, and I'm going to look after you." And that was exactly what was going in the rehearsal room.

I was very green and wet behind the ears, and I was having a bit of a hard time and Janie sort of came to my rescue and took me under her wing. A couple of little meetings in the dressing room just to have a nice chat saying "Are you alright? Don't take any notice."

Back then I'd never worked at the National. I'd done very little and a lot less than Janie and with her I just felt looked after in her very, very good hands and I've adored for that ever since. And yeah, it's kind of strange now that we're playing these old friends in Follies, with the sort of little crappy one looking up to the big glamorous one!

Janie:    Just before this interview Jo and I were looking at some Carousel pictures and there was one of Jo at the sewing machine, in a scene in which she had been required to age up (during the show) say 20 years and I also had to turn up with these ten children or something that I'd had with Mr. Snow and it was a lovely photo of us – as Jo said, it was almost like Sally and Phyllis!

Jo in Carousel, 1992

Jo:    One at her wits' end, and the other looking ever so glamorous, despite the fact that she'd spat out ten kids. You did look incredibly fabulous for having spat out so many!

Janie:    Julie and Carrie in Carousel, were very, very good friends and we kind of felt that friendship very truly whilst we were in the show. And we have stayed friends all through our lives until now. I've seen a lot of Jo's work. I went to see her in stuff and always thought she was amazing and I've got to know her various boyfriends over the years too. I don't know her husband so well -

Jo:    My boyfriends before the husband, that is.  Make sure you add that!

Janie:    Before the husband, of course! What I mean is that on and off stage we've kept in touch. And then, recently, we were brought back together, which was really wonderful, by Alex Parker to do A Little Night Music. And so that again kind of gave us a bit of a jolt, didn't it?

JB:    Julie and Carrie were friends. Are Sally and Phyllis friends, in 1971, at the Weismann’s Follies reunion party?

Janie:    No, I think they've grown apart. But I think what Phyllis is dealing with is not unlike Pinter's play, Betrayal. The betrayal isn't just of the people who had sex, it's the betrayal of the friendship as well, that obviously was the kernel of it all.

It was a good friendship between these two girls. And was it 30 years before that? So in 1941, it was Sally who took Phyllis under her wing and said "You can come and stay with me, and I know somebody. My boyfriend can bring an extra man for you," who ends up being Ben who ends up being her husband. And then we see what happens 30 years later when they return for the party, the reunion.

Jo:    It was quite a brief time, wasn't it? We worked out that they were probably working at the Follies for not much more than a year to 18 months before the war hit the USA, so we didn't get that long together, did we?

Janie:    It's trust, it's when you trust somebody. It's to do with trust, I guess. And forgiveness. But with Phyllis, I feel she's coming to the reunion party for a few reasons. Not only to get things clear, but also to try and move on somehow in one way or another. It's almost like she dares it all to happen, I don't know. I’m still trying to work it out!

JB:    Janie - How have you felt the show evolve from its first time around?

Janie:    Watching it this time? Well I've noticed that Dominic Cooke definitely has revisited his own production from last time and thought, "Hm, I'll change this and I'll change that - because the show could be better or more profound."

And the fact that we as the two main players are so different has shifted it into a slightly different place. You know, having enjoyed last year's production so much, it's hard to make comparisons and I don't want to make comparisons. But what I would say is that there's something about the relationship between Sally and Ben now that just feels more dangerous to Phyllis. And that's a big shift that's actually made it, I think, different for me as a performer, different for me as the character Phyllis. Our pairing has sort of shifted the show into darker territory.

Jo:    Quite astonishing, isn't it, that Dominic hasn't rested on his laurels? He had a five-star hit on his hands, so he could have just brought a couple of people back. "Yeah, you do your thing, walk it on." But he hasn't. The fact that he has gone where he's gone with it and he has decided to fiddle with a five-star show. That's brave.

Janie:    I said to him at the end of the last one, "Oh, I'm so sorry that we're finishing. I still haven't finished my work on this." And he said, "Good, 'cause I would like to try it again." And he knew then, and I think-

Jo:    Did you know then that you'd come back?

Janie:    I then knew that I wanted to come back, because I really didn't feel like I'd finished

JB:    Jo, your songs very much define Sally's vulnerability. What, over the years, do you think has seen Sally crumble - we know that she has attempted suicide at least once - while at the same time Phyllis has hardened?

Jo:    Oh. I guess a lot depends on personality in the first place. How one person copes with shit compared to another. I don't know. I think ... It was a different start out, wasn't it? I (Sally) was in love with someone who rejected me. Phyllis is in love with someone, believed that that person was in love with them, stayed with them, but then learned over the years, actually, he didn't love anyone, really, other than himself.

Janie:    Not even. Definitely not himself!

Jo:    No. Actually incapable of love. So I don't know why they've both turned out the way they've turned out. I can't answer that. If Mr. Sondheim was here....

Janie with Alexander Hanson as Ben in Follies, 2019

Janie:    I think working on our backstories has been great. I worked on my backstory with both of the women playing Young Phyllis (Christine Tucker in the 2019 revival) and we’ve got some nice stuff in, but there’s more this time.

Christine was new to it, and she’d gone mad on her backstory - some wonderful stuff that we had come over from Ireland to get to Philadelphia, and Phyllis’ father was killed.

So I'm not going to tell you, because that's my secret, but I now know why Phyllis is the way she is. Or at least I know why I think she's the way she is!

But the thing about theatre is that I don't think actors should ever tell the audience what they should think. Nor should writers for that matter!

One of the beautiful things about theatre is that you interpret it for yourself. So whatever you think was the reason that Sally crumbles and Phyllis stays strong, whatever that reason is, it is for you to work that out, not for us to tell you. That spoils it!

Jo:    I think that through Sally Sondheim does tell us a little clue, and that's when she's talking to Ben and she said, "You don't know how to feel things. I feel things. I feel things." And I think she is, she's a bleeder. And it all comes out. She's a very emotional creature, she's not reserved. And I think that, perhaps, could even be her undoing. I mean, it's good to get your feelings out, but I think to feel things so acutely that they become unbearable...

Janie:    I thought, "Ben’s trained Phyllis not to cry." I think he just has wanted the wife that he's got, and now he's got the wife that he's got, and he doesn't want her anymore, or he doesn't think he wants her anymore. But he actually trained her to be the person she is, and that's to push down the stuff. She's pushing down all the emotion. Whereas Sally has never been told, "Don't be who you are."

And I don't know, it's interesting that we don't know what happens after the end of this. The end is not the end, is it? Nobody dies. It's not the end. It's ... You don't know, you make up your own mind.

JB:    I picked up on your use of the word forgiveness, earlier on in this conversation, which is not a word that I've often associated with Follies’ message. Can you expand on that?

Janie:    I'm not saying that forgiveness actually happens, but I am saying that it's up for grabs. You know, it's a good take on humanity, actually, in a world that is crumbling around us, and how we are trying to hold on to some kind of value somewhere which we might want to call love.

But maybe love is not it. Maybe respect is more it, or something. I don't know, it's asking lots of questions, but I wonder if love is the answer? Because love ... If you look at what happens to most relationships that start with love, it takes a very special pair of people to keep that love alive for ever and ever and ever and not let it divert into boredom or hate or the worst, indifference.

JB:    Between you, aside from Follies, you've played many of Sondheim's great female characters. Desiree, Anne, Countess Charlotte Malcolm. What are your thoughts on how Sondheim writes for women?

Janie:    Not unlike Shakespeare, he seems to understand profoundly what it is to be a woman. The pain of a woman and the joy and the sexuality. And how does he know? I understand that he had a difficult relationship with his mother.

Jo:    I think perhaps, he doesn't necessarily understand women, per se. I think he understand what it is to be the kind of person that has been oppressed and repressed over the decades, over the centuries. I think he understands that. I think he understands the battle to be heard, to be seen, to survive against the odds. Maybe he understands that, which happens to be part of a woman's story, but not exclusively. And I think maybe that's it.

JB:    Jo - with  Every Day a Little Death in A Little Night Music and Follies’ Losing My Mind, you have sung two of Sondheim’s most painfully poignant numbers. How perceptive is he as a writer?

Jo:    Well again and again, he nails it, doesn't he? He tears into your soul. I don't know how he does it. I don't know how he manages to get the knob of something and turn it into song. I wish I did. I am just the conveyor of his material. I'm the medium. All I can do is interpret it the best way I can do that by finding little dark corners in me and interpreting the best I can. But I find him incredibly perceptive.

But again, it's very subjective, isn't it? There are those that don't like Sondheim, that don't get Sondheim, my mother included. And for her, that's not what musical theatre ought to be. It's too dark, it's too complex. It's ... I think it takes her somewhere she doesn't want to be taken to in a musical.

Janie:    Jo, do you remember? Sondheim came to see us in Carousel and the reason he came to see us in Carousel was partly because he probably wanted to see it and he was here, but also because he was sort of brought up with Richard Rodgers, who was almost like the godfather or something of his talent. So he had Rodgers and Hammerstein, I believe, bringing him up, and others.

And Bernstein who he worked with on West Side Story. He had these greats kind of running alongside him, and whilst he was picking up some of their talent or influence or musicality, he was bringing himself up as well.

But I think when he came to see us, he really loved Carousel, and I'd love him to see this with us again. I think he'd be really happy. 

Jo:    I wonder if even he knows why he's so perceptive and why he can write like he can write. I just find often, incredibly talented people, just the way they can put something down on paper, whether it's music or it's words or what have you. They just have this gift for getting to the knob and turning a screw on something. I don't even think they know how they do it.

JB:    I had never described Sondheim as Shakespearean, prior to this 2019 review of Follies.

Janie:    Did you? Because Dominic Cooke has described Follies as a bit Shakespearean.

Jo in Follies, 2019

At this point the wind turned breezy and we moved back into the National Theatre itself. The blustery weather reminded Jo of the National's 1998 touring production of Oh! What A Lovely War that had been staged in a tent. 

Jo:    Fiona Laird was the director - who had been one of the staff directors here during Carousel and I had one of the most incredible moments I've ever had on a stage in that show.

It's a phenomenal piece, anyways,  course, we're talking back in the 1990s, and there were still some First World War veterans who could come to the show - and often they would be seated at the front of the apron. And I'd play this character, where I had to come right to the front of the apron in a sort of a nurses outfit and sing Keep the Home Fires Burning.

And there was this little old man, and he looked about 204, and he was curled up. We thought he was asleep, we were sort of joking that he'd gone to sleep right at the beginning of the show, and we just thought just like this throughout the whole show. Except at that moment, he lifted up his head, and he sang the entire song with me. I don't know how I held it together. Every word, perfect. Sang it with me. Gorgeous, gorgeous.

Where that must have taken him and what it must have meant to him in that moment?

Janie:    How did you cope? How did you keep singing?

Jo:    Well, it's the hardest thing to sing with a lump in your throat, isn't it? But you have to. You think, "It'd be so easy for me just to go now, but I've got a job to do. And I'm just gonna steel myself. I'm gonna sing it. I'm gonna sing it. I'm gonna sing it. I'm gonna sing it." And then as soon as I sat down, I was in a flood. You kind of hold it in, don't you? Because if you lose it, the moment's gone.

Janie and Jo in Carousel (1992)

JB:    Returning to Carousel, and powerful moments on stage, the first time that I saw Gemma Sutton (currently playing Young Sally in Follies) on stage was at the Arcola five years ago in Carousel where she was an outstanding Julie Jordan. Since then London has seen the Coliseum production in 2017 and then last year there was a Broadway revival with Jessie Mueller and Joshua Henry as Julie Jordan and Billy Bigelow. I recall discussing that Broadway show with the other Baz (Bamigboye), we both agreeing that it was the first Carousel since 1993 that had come close to replicating the magic you two had created at the Lyttelton.

Jo:    My dad was such a mess when he came to see Carousel. He said it broke his heart to see his girl, his little girl so old and so sad. He said, "I don't ever want to see it." He couldn't separate the two, bless him. I'm not from a theatrical background, and Mum and Dad at that point really hadn't seen very much theatre at all, so I think when they did see stuff like that it affected them so profoundly.

Janie with Clive Rowe as Mr Snow - Carousel, 1992

Janie:    Yeah, my dad was like that because of you. We all were. I used to stand on the side of the stage and watch Jo every night when she felt Billy Bigelow. It's awful in the thing, 'cause he hits her and she says to her little girl-

Jo:    "It is possible for a man to hit you hard and it not hurt at all."

Janie:    That's right.

Jo:    What a line to have to say. But I had to find a truth in it. And actually, it comes from that dark side of Julie, I think. There's a dark side to Julie who was drawn to the dark side in Billy, and there is an element of the fact that, "He can hit me and I can still love him because the idea of being without him is darker and bleaker than being with him. I cam come to terms with that. I can ..." It's a question of self esteem, isn't it? I mean, you could talk about battered wives of course, but there's something steelier in Julie.

Janie:    I think also it's an understanding of where the abusive person has been as a child. You know, this isn't to say it's condoning any kind of abuse, absolutely not. But it seemed to me that Julie was profoundly at one with Billy. They really found each other in that. And he did really love Julie, and he didn't mean to hit her, that's the point. His anger was something ... It was his problem. His anger management was bad, and why it was bad, you can only guess at. And only the actor will know what his backstory will be for that. But the guess is that he's been hit around when he was a little boy, right?

Jo:    So there's an understanding, and there's, I guess, a forgiveness from that coming from her because there is that understanding, and acceptance of him and everything. That she knew what she was taking on. She knew. And loved every part of it, the bad and the good, which is real love, isn't it?

Janie:    But never the less, you would still get gasps from the audience with that line from time to time. As if to say "How can you even say such a line?"

Jo:    I know, I know. But you as the actor, you can't be thinking that. You have to find justification for it. In you, you have to find a reason where it's acceptable to say that. You have to get underneath something in that character that makes it a truth for her. And that's the best you can do, isn't it?

Follies plays in repertory at the Olivier Theatre until May 11th

Carousel plays for one night only at the Cadogan Hall on May 19th

Photo credits:
Carousel 1992 - Clive Barda
Follies 2019 - Johan Perssson
South Bank 2019 - Michael Curtis 

Follies - Review

National Theatre, London



*****


Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by James Goldman
Directed by Dominic Cooke

Follies

Eighteen months on and with a couple of well placed casting changes Stephen Sondheim’s Follies returns to the National Theatre with the excellence of this devastating musical a breath of fresh air amidst a slew of disappointing recent openings in the capital. What sets Follies apart from so many other current shows is the meticulous detail that Sondheim weaves into his lyrics and melodies. There is an almost Shakespearean genius to the man, such is his ability to pare the essence of love, lovelessness and the human condition down to the barest, bleakest of bones.

Of Follies’ two leading ladies Janie Dee reprises Phyllis, as Joanna Riding takes over as Sally for this revival. Dee has had time to both sharpen Phyllis’ talons and harden her carapace, her every nuance carefully honed by Cooke’s perceptive direction. Dee’s delivery of Sondheim’s words wield a merciless scalpel into the failures of husband Ben. Phyllis’ big solo Could I Leave You? Proving almost bloody in its brutal dissection of her marriage. Dee savours the wit that Sondheim has bestowed upon her character. Acting through song does not get better than this.

Alexander Hanson, Janie Dee and Christine Tucker

Follies was already a five star show back in 2017. With Riding onboard however and with the elegant fragility that she brings to Sally, a level of credible characterisation that was missing on this production’s first outing, the whole piece is lifted to a higher plane. Sally is one of the toughest gigs in the canon, a faded beauty decayed into a desperate housewife, glamorously bewigged and yet ultimately a woman who on the inside, is crumbing as much as the derelict theatre around her. Serving up pathos without a hint of maudlin sentimentality Riding's heartbreaking rendition of In Buddy’s Eyes is a lament to a love that has long since dwindled - while the mental devastation of Losing My Mind scorches in its revelation of her pain. And as she rips the wig from her head during that song’s closing bars, we gasp at the brute ugliness of her depression.

Ian McIntosh, Joanna Riding and Gemma Sutton

Peter Forbes’ Buddy Plummer has grown too. There is a sleazy mania to his performance that is as abhorrent as it is compelling, especially in his Willy Loman-esque take on The Right Girl.  Alexander Hanson’s Ben offers up a brief glance into the rise and, more pronouncedly, the fall of an oleaginous statesman. Hanson performs well, but there is a tad more bedding into the role that is needed to fully convince.

The show’s supporting roles are all individual treats. Tracie Bennett, ‘still here’ from 2017 as Carlotta, remains perhaps the most diminutive of powerhouse voices to be found in the West End. Oozing classy, sassy cynicism Bennett comes close to stopping the show. She is matched though by her colleagues. Claire Moore is every inch, the most believable Broadway Baby; Felicity Lott and Alison Langer enchant with One More Kiss; Dawn Hope leads the most phenomenal tap line (and credit here to Bill Deamer’s immaculately conceived and drilled choreography throughout) in Who’s That Woman - and a further nod to Bennett who, in a display of sheer bloody stamina segues seamlessly from that number into the demands of I’m Still Here. 

Dawn Hope leads the line

The ghost quartet of the leading roles are marvellous with the ever-excellent Gemma Sutton, together with Christine Tucker, Ian McIntosh and Harry Hepple all offering the necessary passion, scorn and incredulity to make their ghost roles take flight.

It is not just Follies’ writing, but also the National’s lavish production values that define this show as a gem. Vicki Mortimer’s designs deftly blend the decay of the Weismann Theatre into the glamour of the ghosted numbers, with the subtle magnificence of the Olivier’s drum revolve taking the show through both the battered Broadway building as well as the decades, almost imperceptibly. Nigel Lilley's 20-piece orchestra is a soaring delight throughout.

A musical can be judged on narrative, music, song and dance, with Follies scoring top marks across the board. This revival offers an unmissable glimpse into the heaven and hell of humanity.

Runs until 11th May

Photo credit: Johan Persson