Habeas Corpus - Review

Menier Chocolate Factory, London

*****

Written by Alan Bennett

Directed by Patrick Marber

The cast of Habeas Corpus

London has been treated to some top-notch time machine drama recently. Abigail’s Party has not long closed at the Park Theatre and now Alan Bennett’s outrageous 1973 farce Habeas Corpus plays until February at the Menier, delivering a masterclass in cruel comedy theatre.

To summarise the plot of Habeas Corpus in a way that avoids spoilers is nigh on impossible. Suffice to say, Bennett takes the premise of the (very) finite frailty of all human life, and around a bevy of 2-dimensional characters, weaves the fabric of a 3-D narrative that is simply glorious in its detailed relief. This play harks back to an unfettered, saucy seaside-postcard era, free of political correctness, when the human condition could be a source of comedy.

Male inadequacies, middle-aged fantasies, breast-sizes and even mental health are all the targets of Bennett’s incisive pen and in the hands of a lesser cast the evening could so easily have been rendered crass and tawdry. But Patrick Marber moulds his luxuriously cast company into a cohesive thing of beauty, whose acting is beyond flawless and whose timings have clearly been meticulously rehearsed to perfection.

In a medley of smut and trouser-dropping hilarity, Bennett lays bare the hypocrisies of the British class system, the medical profession and the vanities of both the sexes. Marriage, mortality and fidelity are all fair game and in these current times, where shows frequently carry content warnings, it would be as well to caution that this play will melt snowflakes. The evening will only be enjoyed by those who are able to leave their prejudices at the Menier’s door.

The cast of 11 are all magnificent, professionals at the top of their game who like interlinking cogs make the evening run like clockwork. For five-star theatre of pure escapism and which holds up a mirror to us all, this is the perfect adult pantomime. Unmissable entertainment

Runs until 26th February 2022

Photo credit: Manuel Harlan

Fiddler On The Roof - Review

Playhouse Theatre, London

*****


Book by Joseph Stein
Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick
Music by Jerry Bock
Directed by Trevor Nunn

Maria Friedman and Andy Nyman

With its first major cast change since opening - as well as a shift across the Thames - Trevor Nunn’s Fiddler On The Roof remains one of London’s musical theatre jewels. The intimacy of the Menier Chocolate Factory's original treatment is not quite replicated in the Playhouse’s transformation, that sees "shtetl-lite" timber cladding dotted around the auditorium, but with a winding pathway built through the stalls there's enough enhancement to draw the audience into Russia's Pale of Settlement and away from the show's traditional West End proscenium treatment.

Some six months into the role sees Andy Nyman sit ever more comfortably as Tevye. There is a wise youthfulness to both Nyman’s timbre and gait and even though the show is set at the turn of the last century, Nyman brings a perceptible modernity to his performance. His Tevye is a man witnessing the very tenets of his faith being tested as his three grown up daughters each explore their different paths towards emancipation and he remains convincing throughout. It helps that Nyman's voice is glorious too – resonant and thrilling in If I Were A Rich Man, yet deeply tender in Do You Love Me.

In a canny casting move by the producers, Maria Friedman and Anita Dobson make the move from Albert Square to Anatevka. Friedman’s Golde defines the Jewish matriarch, loving and compassionate, yet with a resoluteness that permeates her delivery. Friedman has long been recognised as a gifted musical theatre leading lady and it is only a shame that the show does not allow Golde more centre stage moments. Some in the audience may recall Friedman’s turn at the National Theatre some thirty years ago in Joshua Sobol’s Ghetto, a role that is today only enhanced as she displays a strength and resilience in portraying the timeless persecution of the Jews. At all times though Friedman acts with an artistic beauty that shuns mawkish schmaltz.

Dobson steps up to the role of the ageing, widowed Yente the village matchmaker. There is an unquestionable sparkle to Dobson’s work – in a role that Sheldon Harnick imbued with more than its fair share of the show’s witticisms – but currently she is more battleaxe than busybody and misses a hint of Yente's nuance. The criticism here  slight but subtle. Yiddishkeit is not easy to master, but given time and an exposure to Friedman and Nyman’s onstage chemistry, Dobson can only grow into the role.

Most of Nunn’s staging has transferred well – the wedding scene in particular – though amidst the lofty heights of a full London stage, Tevye’s Dream loses a little of the wit that worked so wonderfully within the Chocolate Factory’s intimacy.

Excellence continues to abound throughout the show – with Nunn eliciting every moment of Harnick’s wry, self-deprecating pathos. The show's song and dance is wonderful - sadly the message of Fiddler On The Roof and the agelessness of antisemitism remains as depressing as ever.

Booking until 2nd November

Photo credit: Johan Persson

Danielle Tarento - In Profile

Danielle Tarento

Tonight sees performances commence of one of the most anticipated productions of Chekhov’s Three Sisters in recent times. At the southernmost tip of the Bakerloo Line, the Southwark Playhouse in Elephant and Castle is to stage the play with a cast that includes former Dr Who and Withnail & I star Paul McGann and a creative team with as impressive credentials. The adaptation is by celebrated wunderkind, Anya Reiss, Russell Bolam directs and the production is co-produced by Danielle Tarento, who in recent years has established a world class reputation for her Off West End productions. Midway through rehearsals, I met with this talented producer to understand a little more of her remarkable Midas touch that delivers consistent excellence to her shows.

Tarento had wanted to be an actor from the age of four but speaks warmly of how that desire set her at odds with her academically high-achieving family's expectations. Fabulous A Level grades (natch) failed to secure her a university place to study Drama and English, a knock back she describes as "serendipitous" and she then took a gap year before being admitted to Guildhall to train as an actor. Alongside Daniel Evans (they were the youngest in their year) she loved the training and was steered towards a career on screen. Tarento looks back on having appeared in most of the 1990's TV sitcoms, often in a state of undress(!), as well as having made it to the last three in the castings for Baz Luhrmann's Romeo And Juliet. But it was to be after a decently paid but nonetheless un-satisfying stretch on Sky's Dream Team and the inevitable re-evaluation of life that happens as one approaches 30, that she took the brave call to decide that TV bit-parts were not how she wanted her career to develop.

Another gap year beckoned, during which she worked and saved. With a family background in the hospitality industry, (her parents had owned wine bars) she was then to meet aspiring producer David Babani and within three weeks of the two of them meeting, they had signed a lease for the site of the old Menier Chocolate Factory. Their impact upon the venue’s facilities of restaurant, theatre and rehearsal space was astonishing. The combined acumen of Tarento and Babani saw the Chocolate Factory becoming a leading venue in the capital's Of West End theatre scene with Tarento adding that her three years spent in Southwark were immensely rewarding. Perhaps their largest production at the Chocolate Factory was Sunday In The Park With George that received critical acclaim before enjoying a West End transfer. She is no fool though and whilst the show was an outstanding first revival of the show since its premiere at the National, she is the first to admit that it's tough to make money out of Sondheim in the West End. Her fondest memory of the Chocolate Factory remains its production of Tick, Tick, Boom, that remarkably included Neil Patrick Harris who was even then a Broadway star, notwithstanding his current elevated status.

In many ways Tarento's career has been blessed with a sequence of fortuitous developments. A spell working with a casting director friend was meant to last a few months but ran to a year and a half and in the process she was to learn much about the contractual complexities that underpin any professional production. Tarento also learned that ultimately what she really wanted to do is to run her own space. With a provocative glint in her eye, she suggests to me that such a development is indeed on the cards (she's far too shrewd to spill any beans at this early stage) but until then she just wants to continue freelancing her skills, producing the right work in the right place.

She has had a string of successes, predominantly (though not always) drawn from musical theatre and often hiring director Thom Southerland to helm. Their outstanding takes on Jason Robert Brown's Parade and Jerry Herman's Mack & Mabel proved to be an ingenious use of the tunnel space at the (old) Southwark Playhouse. (Though it was with Christopher Renshaw that she was to deliver a spellbinding re-working of the Boy George musical Taboo.)

The symbiosis that has existed between her and Southerland is quite rare. She speaks of the director "taking her out for a burger" as he pitches his next idea. Frequently, she accedes to his request and invariably the result is a hit, with their most recent collaboration, 2013's multi-award winning version of Maury Yeston's Titanic, shortly to set sail from the (new) Southwark Playhouse, first to Toronto before a run on Broadway. Her pride at Titanic's success is evident and Tarento believes that Southerland will one day be spoken of as a future Daldry or Grandage.

London and to be fair, the nation's, fringe theatre industry has long drawn comment and brickbats within the creative community for being an environment of low pay or often no pay for its actors. It's a tough paradox against which Tarento actually presents herself as an honest broker of a producer. She budgets her shows with realistic ambition, on record as saying that £90,000 is an approximate production spend with some musicals costing more (as in Titanic) and plays, often less (ergo Three Sisters). She prides herself on (with only one exception), never having lost an investor money (speaking warmly and very appreciatively of her loyal band of angels) and of running a scrupulously open book of accounts that is presented to her cast when the run is over. Her investors know that a fixed tranche of profit will always be paid to the actors first, yet Tarento admits that anything remotely approaching a commercial profit or wage for the cast is always going to be challenging when, notwithstanding excellent ticket sales, her shows only play to a maximum house of around 230 souls and then at a maximum ticket price of around £22. She wryly comments that for the price of a West End show, often staged with a lesser calibre company, one could see three of her productions!

Paul McGann

And so to Three Sisters. The idea for the production was sparked whilst The Seagull (also adapted by Reiss) was on at the Southwark Playhouse at the same time as Tarento was staging hers' and Southerland's Victor/Victoria. The respective companies shared numerous evenings in the bar ("all night, every night") and one creative thing led to another. Bolam was also directing The Seagull and Tarento has nothing but praise not only for the director, but for Reiss and her "extraordinary talent". Breaking The Seagull down to two 40 minute acts, she is in awe at how Reiss' prose manages to combine moments of utterly modern relevance with sequences that are just so Chekovian she suggests that the young playwright's words could almost have been written by the legendary Russian.

On her casting, whilst she acknowledges the Whovian force field that McGann can exert at the box office, she is at pains to emphasise that whilst a sexy celebrity can undoubtedly help ticket sales, she abhors "stunt casting" insisting on only the right actor for any role. The combined firepower of the production's creatives was enough to lure McGann to the role, though Tarento also muses that a relatively short run with no obligation to tour, is also an attraction in drawing a big name to appear in a fringe show. Whilst she is sanguine enough to know that productions of Three Sisters are frequent, (another two are slated for this year alone), for other more eclectic productions such as Mack & Mabel, Titanic or Victor/Victoria, she suggests that these roles come along so rarely that often the actors she wants to hire are only too keen to be cast, knowing that opportunities to play those roles may not come knocking again in their careers.

As this feature is released, Three Sisters' previews are sold out, with very encouraging pre-press night ticket sales for the remainder of the run. Hardworking and realistic, but undeniably fuelled by ambition, Tarento speaks respectfully of The Seagull, which at the time of its opening had the highest advance for a play in the Southwark Playhouse’s history. That target has already been smashed by Three Sisters and Tarento’s parting shot is “I want to break every record, obviously!". Based on her form, it would be a fool who'd bet against that.

Three Sisters runs at Southwark Playhouse from 3rd April to 3rd May 2014

Cynthia Erivo - London's Rising Star - Now, By Royal Invitation

Cynthia Erivo

STOP PRESS:

AS THIS INTERVIEW IS PUBLISHED, CYNTHIA ERIVO HAS JUST PERFORMED AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE IN FRONT OF HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN!

READ ON, AND LEARN ABOUT HER INCREDIBLE JOURNEY OVER THE LAST 12 MONTHS

This time last year Cynthia Erivo was a hard working actress, recently out of playing Deloris Van Cartier in Sister Act’s UK tour. Fast forward 12 months and as 2014 dawns she has been nominated for two of the country’s most celebrated theatre awards, is amongst the headliners at next week’s What’s On Stage (WOS) Awards ceremony and is shortly to open at the Palladium in the Simon Cowell / Harry Hill X-Factor comedy musical I Can’t Sing.

So, what has happened in the past 12 months? Three words: The Color Purple. In a production staged with beautiful simplicity, for two months, eight times a week, this perfectly poised, gorgeous young actress held the audience at London's Menier Chocolate Factory in the palm of her hand as she told the story of how Celie the story's heroine, triumphed over incredible odds to make an inspirational success of a tragic life. Audiences sobbed and such was the intensity of her delivery that a standing ovation half way through the second act became a regular feature of the run. Nominated for that performance in both the Evening Standard and the WOS awards it has been a truly remarkable year for the RADA graduate.

Taking time out from I Can't Sing's gruelling rehearsal schedule, we meet for tapas on a blustery night in Waterloo where over green tea and calamari, Erivo tells me of her whirlwind year.

JB: Tell me how The Color Purple came together for you.

CE: Celie is a role that I have dreamed of playing since I was ten. It is one of the most rounded roles ever written for a black female in either in theatre or in film and I love the grit that’s in her character. I was already off the page with my audition pieces so working with director John Doyle was both challenging yet relaxed and I felt as the recalls went by, that at each step he was getting to know more of me and how I work. At the time I was appearing in Craig Adam’s new musical Lift, at the Soho Theatre and I was so lucky to go straight from that show into The Color Purple.

JB: Celie is told by her abusive husband, venomously: “…..You’re poor, you’re black, you’re ugly, you’re a woman….” – Aside from the fact that you are not an ugly woman, how did you tackle the challenge of the role?

CE: I started out from the belief that Celie’s ugliness came from within, from her own sense of low self worth, that it was more to do with her not recognising her own beauty, rather than a promotion of her being ugly. We experimented with wigs and make-up to portray both that ugliness and also her ageing, but eventually, working with John, I chose to portray these challenges through how she carried herself. I thought a lot about Celie’s gait and how that would evolve both with her emancipation and also her ageing.

Erivo in The Color Purple

JB: At what stage into the show’s life did you and the company realise that you had created something special?

CE: We were blessed with a standing ovation right from the start. But very early on, fear kicked in and I found myself thinking “I don’t want to lose this feeling”, so in each performance I would focus upon the concentration and above all the consistency that playing Celie demanded.

I was so proud that the show attracted an unconventional audience that would have people shouting at me “You go girl!” as Celie finds her resolve. Back in Shakespeare’s day the audience would shout at the actors and it was just so rewarding to have reached out and made such a strong connection. I could look around the theatre [the Menier only seats around 200] and see and hear people sobbing, passing tissues. When I came out into the foyer each night there would be women with make-up running, bankers, my sister “who never cries at anything” simply in tears.

JB: Your friend and colleague Sophia Nomvete (also nominated by WOS for Best Supporting Actress in the show) has described you as being an incredibly supportive team player, who notwithstanding all your responsibility on stage, is still a big kid in the dressing room. Apparently you would bring in healthy food and snacks each day, but then promptly graze on other people’s crisps and chocolate!

CE: She’s not wrong I do focus hard on fitness and healthy eating, but I just can’t resist Haribo and I've a real weakness for Marks and Spencer’s Percy Pigs!

JB: Halfway through the run of The Color Purple, New York composer Scott Alan flew into London for a one night concert at the O2. The gig featured a star-studded lineup but for many the highlight was you singing Anything Worth Holding Onto, Scott’s scorchingly autobiographical song about the pain of depression. Alan has told me how difficult it was to rehearse that number, saying that it only actually all came together on the night, in performance. Is that true?

CE: I guess it is. There is a part of me that can sometimes only truly explore a song when I am singing to an audience. I need to be telling the story to really be able to express myself. The day of that concert was crazy with morning sound checks at the O2, then back to the Sunday matinee of The Color Purple and finally back to Greenwich for the concert. But I knew that night, as I cried whilst I sang, that I had truly given Scott’s song the connection it deserved.

Erivo singing Anything Worth Holding Onto at the O2

JB: Speaking of you, Scott said “she is one of the great vocalists of our time…a songwriter’s dream and it is an honour writing for her”

CE: Wow, is that what he said? I have no words, I am so touched by his generosity!

JB: The two award nominations are both predominantly celebrity driven and have pitched you against competition from much larger shows that played at the National Theatre and the West End, in venues that in one night could seat the same number of people that it would take the Menier a week of full houses to achieve. For smaller off West End shows, the awards ceremonies are often an un-level playing field, so to have achieved a “podium finish” twice in one year is an incredible achievement. The Color Purple was refreshingly free of all gimmicks, earning its plaudits entirely through the outstanding work of its acting company and for many of the people lucky enough to have seen it, those awards belong to you.

That’s kind of you to say. Yes, the Menier is a small house of course, but I was simply so thrilled just to have been nominated for the role. It has been an immense honour.

JB: And so to I Cant Sing. Tell me about the leap from performing in one of the most harrowing musicals, to a show that is expected to be one of the year’s funniest.

CE: There’s loads that I can’t say about I Can’t Sing of course and I don’t want to spoil any surprises, but it has been an amazing learning process. The show has been written by Harry Hill and Steve Brown, two of the funniest guys around and it has been incredibly technical for me, as well as being a combination of great fun and phenomenally hard work. I am not a quintessentially funny comedy actress, so I have really enjoyed discovering my comedy timing.

JB: And what of your fellow cast members?

CE: I am learning so much from them. Nigel Harman of course has already mastered comedy in musical theatre with his Lord Farquad in Shrek and he is wonderful to work with. It is a large and above all very talented and experienced cast that I am so proud to be a part of.

JB: And looking beyond London’s musical theatre, what inspires you and what would you like to see on your horizon?

CE: For inspiration, I was blown away by Adrian Lester’s Othello at the National Theatre last year. That was the first time I had set foot in the Olivier auditorium. I was there on my own, which is often the best way to enjoy theatre and I had never experienced a theatre as large as that stage, yet one that could also allow you to become so wrapped up in a production. Adrian is also a friend of mine and I am very proud of the interest that he has taken in my work to date too.

As for the future? Well immediately that is I Can’t Sing of course and I have great expectations for the show. But looking even further ahead, if there was a TV series for me, well that would be just ideal!

I Can’t Sing previews at the London Palladium from 27^th February, before opening on 26^th March

The Color Purple

Menier Chocolate Factory, London

*****

Book by Marsha Norman

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

Directed by John Doyle

Cynthia Erivo

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

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

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

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

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

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

Runs to 14th September

Merrily We Roll Along - Review

Menier Chocolate Factory, London

****

Book by George Furth

Music & lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

Directed by Maria Friedman

Mark Umbers and Damian Humbley

Merrily We Roll Along is regarded by many as one of Stephen Sondheim’s finest pieces of musical theatre. It presents a challenging scenario to any director, not least to first-timer Maria Friedman, who deploys her considerable understanding of the composer’s work in bringing this piece to the compact but imaginatively structured stage of London’s Menier Chocolate Factory.

The story opens at a 1976 party at the home of Hollywood producer Frank Shepard and which  is a snapshot of all that is corrosively corrupt about Tinseltown. Shepard's second marriage is on the rocks, his long-standing songwriting partnership with pal Charlie Kringas is over and Mary Flynn, old college friend of both Frank and Charlie has become a bitter alcoholic. From this shattered patchwork of lives we watch as the years are rolled back and the broken pieces of these three friendships slowly and magically move back into the beautiful whole that they once were when the trio met at college some twenty years previously.

Sondheim is a master of portraying the human condition and few composers can better or more accurately depict the ropes that bind human relationships and the stresses that they impose on the individuals they lash together. Friedman, whilst a novice director, is no stranger to Sondheim's complexities. She coaxes a masterful performance from Mark Umbers as Shepard, a man ultimately led by his zipper, and whose sincere creativity breaks down to reveal a ruthless pursuit of success. His character's moral decline is subtle, and Umbers suggests his descent with understated nuance, occasional anger and above all beautiful voice. Humbley reprises his north american Jewish schlemiel ( last deployed as Max in Lend Me A Tenor) only here he bares teeth as well as the expected comforting ineptitude. In Franklin Shepard, Inc a song set in 1973, he savages the composer for his outrageous egoism on live TV definitively and effectively ending their relationship, in a performance that is as charged with pathos as it is with brilliant wit.

Of the three leads Jenna Russell’s Mary is perhaps the least satisfying. If there is one flaw in the story’s structure it is that her unrequited and unwittingly spurned, love for Frank is not explored deeper though in Old Friends and above all in Our Time, she contributes to haunting harmonies. Clare Foster and Josefina Gabrielle play Frank’s first and second wives respectively. Sondheim introduces us to Beth, Foster’s Southern belle by way of her devastation and betrayal, leading to the ultimate revelation of her youthful charms of trusted talented sensitivity being all the more poignant. Gabrielle’s maneater showgirl Gussie is a treat of performance. She commands the stage as well as the men and of all the characters who reverse-age through the show, her journey back in time is the most convincing. Credit also to Martin Callaghan and Amanda Minihan who play Beth's ignorant redneck parents with some wonderful one-liners. 

Tim Jackson’s choreography impresses throughout, most especially during The Blob, in which his routine cleverly suggests that the star chasing vacuity of media hangers-on was as shallow in 1962 as during the cocaine fuelled party era that set the opening tone of the show, some fourteen years later.

The production is unquestionably, fine musical theatre with intelligent production values bestowed upon this most intelligent of writers.  It should not be missed.

Runs to 23 February 2013