Tomorrow Morning - Review

***

Music, lyrics and screenplay by Laurence Mark Wythe

Directed by Nick Winston

Certificate -   12

104 minutes, 2022

Samantha Barks 

Last seen on a London stage some 12 years ago and having amassed a number of productions off-Broadway and elsewhere around the globe Tomorrow Morning, Laurence Mark Wythe’s musical about a couple’s falling into love, marriage, parenthood and subsequent break-up makes it onto the big screen.

Charting the doomed relationship's ten-year lifespan, Wythe’s tale is in many respects a fusion of The Last Five Years melded with Kramer vs Kramer, albeit based in London rather than New York City. But it is not just the Atlantic Ocean that separates these anti-love stories. Both of the American plotlines offered far greater emotional heft in their narratives together with wittier and more perceptive writing in screenplay and lyrics. Wythe’s songs are heavy on exposition, demanding little intellectual connection from the viewer and too often revert to cliché.

The film’s production values however are gorgeous. Ramin Karimloo and Samantha Barks are Will and Cat, the ill-fated lovers and both make fabulous vocal work of Wythe’s compositions. There is also a strong debut from Oliver Clayton as the couple’s young son Zachary who gets caught in his parents’ crossfire.

Nick Winston has helmed a beautifully filmed love letter to London, and to Wapping in particular. There are even cameos from Omid Djalili (in the bath) as Will's dad and the incorrigibly scene-stealing Joan Collins (in full The Bitch mode) as Cat’s protective grandmother Anna.

Crack open the prosecco and chocolates and you’ll be in for an evening of finely sung entertainment.

In UK cinemas from 9th September and on DVD from 17th October

Songs For A New World - Review

*****

Music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown

Directed by Séimí Campbell

Rachel Tucker takes Just One Step in Songs For A New World

The opening image of Séimí Campbell’s streamed production of Jason Robert Brown’s song cycle is profound. Staring out to an empty auditorium, a theatre’s ghost light, placed centre stage, defines the new world that has befallen the theatre community.  Amidst a global pandemic, with nations vowing to build back better, this Songs For A New World is a timely production – made all the more technically and poignantly excellent through having been vocally recorded by each of the cast, isolated in their homes, on their smartphones.

The Opening Sequence: The New World, has Campbell intercutting his performers with a montage of darkened West End and Broadway venues, now dark as newsreel voiceovers tell of the blow that the Coronavirus has levelled at the theatre industry. The contrast between this bleak, current, reality – and the majestic power of the singer’s voices is devastating.

Campbell’s company comprises a quartet of the industry’s finest, with Rachel John, Ramin Karimloo, Cedric Neal and Rachel Tucker, each offering a cross between a masterclass and an episode of TV’s Through The Keyhole, as their respective performances display not only their musical theatre excellence, but also whirlwind tours of their respective residences.

But as an escape from lockdown, the show is glorious. Highlights of the cast’s excellence within such difficult circumstances (principal photography having taken place during Lockdown 1) are provided by all four leads. Tucker’s soaring, swooping take on Stars And The Moon (as well as a wonderfully provocative Surabaya Santa) is an honest, scorching take on life. Karimloo’s She Cries is exhilarating. John touches our hearts with her gorgeous Christmas Lullaby, while Neal’s King Of The World offers perception and power in his interpretation. A mention too for Shem Omari James, fittingly cast to lead Steam Train, a number all about young, raw talent making a name for themselves in adversity.

The creative crew are impressive too. Joshua Winstone and Adam Hoskins have made fine work of Brown's score, while Matt Ide and Danny Kaan deliver digital and audio wizardry in pulling the whole show together.  

Above all though and as a paean to showbusiness, the production is ultimately a beacon of hope. To those artists in the industry that are tired of waiting, Brown’s lyrics are uplifting: “Hold on, hold fast”, and for any individual who is struggling emotionally or mentally “Listen to the song that I sing, you’ll be fine”.

Streams until 28 February 2021 

Murder Ballad - Review

Arts Theatre, London


****


Conceived by and with book and lyrics by Julia Jordan
Music and lyrics by Juliana Nash
Directed by Sam Yates

Read my interview with Kerry Ellis and Norman Bowman here

Kerry Ellis, Ramin Karimloo, Norman Bowman

In yet another example of exciting new writing to appear in London, Murder Ballad opens at the Arts Theatre following its original a brief run off-Broadway. This first collaboration between Julia Jordan and Juliana Nash sees the show’s female writers choose the classical plot structure of a high octane love triangle and a woman torn between two men, with Jordan and Nash proving that that sometimes; the oldest storylines can still be the best.

Notwithstanding its title, the work avoids a feast of all too common self-indulgent balladry, plumping instead for a heavily rock based score full of exciting guitar riffs, punctuated by a pulsating percussive undertone with Sean Green's band doing a fine job throughout the sung-through show.

Set in modern day New York, Sara's passionate relationship with the gorgeously masculine and muscular Tom ends suddenly. Rebounding into the loving, caring arms of Michael who's educated, compassionate and everything that Tom isn't, their love develops into marriage and parenthood. A chance encounter years later between Sara and Tom sees a mutually lustful desire fatally re-ignited.

What sets this show apart from most other emerging productions is its casting. Of the four lead roles, two are filled by actors more used to headlining casts in multi-million pound West End or Broadway productions, rather than the more intimate environs of the modestly budgeted Arts.

Kerry Ellis is Sara, playing a role that she herself has described as being a woman who’s "a rock star in a mother's body". Very much an everywoman (and so much more so than cinema's saccharine Bridget Jones currently swamping the multiplexes) Ellis nails Sara's complex emotions, juggling her primal lustful yearnings for Tom's passion against the betrayal of the family that she’s built. Magnificent in both voice and presence and under the scrutiny of the venue's compact space, Ellis delivers a knockout performance.

The source of her understandably weak-kneed desire is Ramin Karimloo's Tom. Spending much of the gig shirtless, the ripped Karimloo demonstrates that the inked body art he sports on his left arm is as impressive as his renowned musical theatre ability. In a gender-reversed definition of pure theatrical Viagra, he brings a ravishing guttural energy to his performance. If Ellis is an everywoman on stage, then Karimloo is for (nearly) every woman in the audience.

It's a tough gig to be cast against Ramin's ramming, rampant potency, but Norman Bowman's Michael rises to the occasion magnificently. His love for Sara is sincerely played out and Bowman who with as much Shakespeare as musical theatre to his recent credit, must surely be ranked as one of our finer performers. His character, a kindly homemaker is not the easiest to portray with an engaging sympathy, but as ever, Bowman pulls it off with charm and flair. 

Completing the quartet of leads, Victoria Hamilton-Barritt takes on the chameleon-esque role of Narrator, guiding the narrative as it plays out across Manhattan. As ever beautifully voiced, Hamilton-Barritt offers her own seductive charm to the evening as the doomed denouement looms.

Sam Yates directs intelligently with a clever use of simple revolves and ingenious projections to transport us through time and place.

Shows this sassy don’t come along that often. Poignant, punchy and perfectly performed, Murder Ballad drips with desire.  

Runs until 3rd December
Photo credit: Marc Brenner

Kerry Ellis and Norman Bowman talk about Murder Ballad

As Murder Ballad opens at the Arts Theatre, I with spoke two of its quartet of performers, Kerry Ellis and Norman Bowman to learn a little more about the show.

Update - You can read my review of Murder Ballad here

JB: Kerry, tell me about the show.

KE: It's a very intimate show, it's a four-hander with, obviously, Ramin, Norman, Victoria and myself. It's at the Arts Theatre, with the lovely Sam Yates directing us.

Murder Ballad has only been performed once before and that was off-Broadway, so it's a very new thing. It's got a bit of rock music in, a bit of country, a bit of musical theatre. It is completely sung through, it deals with real people's situations and, obviously, there's a murder, but I'm not going to tell you who did it!

NB: Kerry pretty much summed it up quite well. It's funny because I've been describing it exactly the same way, as kind of a rock, country piece based on, I think, a very traditional principle of a love triangle. I'm very excited, it's a stellar cast and I just think it's wonderful. 

JB: Tell me about your respective characters, to the extent that you are able to. Norman, I'll start with you. 

NB: I play Michael and I keep wanting to say he's the sensible one of the story in some respects.

If people have any knowledge of those kinds of relationships that a woman will sometimes go for the dark, edgy character, the bad boy, for a thrill, and sometimes the sensible guy for marriage. It's a bit like that game, "sleep with, marry, or murder” I think Michael is the one that you would end up marrying. I guess he wants to be a bit edgier in places, maybe that's why he falls for Kerry's character like he does, because everybody likes a bad girl too.

JB: And Kerry, what about your character Sara?

KE: I guess in a way she’s quite typical. She has a relationship in her younger years and then that kind of breaks down and she moves on and meets Michael and they have their relationship. She talks through having a child and all of that, and then things go wrong, dealing with all of that too.

She's a little bit dangerous, I guess. She had dreams when she was younger to be a rock star and that didn't work out, so I think when she becomes a mother and gets into that routine lifestyle, she craves a bit of that youth and excitement, to be a rock star again. 

I think she's a bit of a rock star in a mother's body! Something I can relate to a little bit!

JB: Who is the show going to appeal to?

NB: Anybody interested in relatively new musical theatre. This is such an unknown quantity to a lot of people. I think that the advertising campaign is great. I think it's been very clever, very catchy. 

KE: I think what's interesting, for me especially, is just that it's so raw and intimate that it's quite exposing. For me, I'm kind of used to doing big, glitzy musical theatre. Costumes, lights, sound, all that kind of showy stuff. This is very raw. It's four regular people telling their story and it's very close. 

NB: It's bringing more of the fringe values into town. 

JB: Norman, what do you mean by "fringe" values?

NB: Fringe values, for me, first of all, they always tend to be a bit more bite sized. They're about shows that are not there for the duration, to run for years and years. They have a known shelf life and I think, as a result of that, something else is given to those productions. 

I know, of course, at the end of the day, it's a business and people still need to make their money back, but a fringe show is not always about the money. It's about putting something on; from beginning to end that is something for the audience. I think it represents great value for money, to be honest.

I know that if you go and see something like Wicked and you pay top dollar for it, you're helping to fund a big production that’s got enormous running costs. When you bring all of the running costs down and you go into something as intimate as the Arts, it can say more about the content that you're going to see, rather than lavish production values.

JB: The show's already extended before it opened, which is good news. Was that something you were expecting to happen?

NB: I wasn't surprised, knowing that Kerry and Ramin were attached to it. I don't mean that as a disservice to either myself or Vic, because we both have worked solidly for a long period of time, but if you're looking to bring audiences in then you need people with that extraordinary profile. 

 

JB: Kerry?

KE: I'm blushing now. Thank you, Norman, that was very kind of you.

NB: It's very true.

KE: Likewise, I think what attracted me to it was the fact that it's an incredible cast. We all come from slightly different areas and that's what's exciting, for me especially.

JB:   Kerry and Norman, thank you both and break a leg with the show!

Murder Ballad plays at London's Arts Theatre until 3rd December 2016

John Owen-Jones - In Cabaret At The Hippodrome, London

Hippodrome, London

****

John Owen-Jones giving it everything at the Hippodrome

For over 15 years John Owen-Jones name has been inextricably linked with those two Cameron Mackintosh behemoths, Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera. Very few can match the combined performance count of the youngest ever Jean Valjean and the longest running West End Phantom.

So it is perhaps unsurprising that his cabaret evening at the Hippodrome centred around his Mackintosh years, both in terms of song choices and in repartee with the audience, in which he revealed his (feigned) animosity for the ‘younger, better looking’ Ramin Karimloo. Backed by an excellent seven piece band under musical director John Quirk, we were treated to ‘Music of the Night’, ‘Bring Him Home’, a fine rendition of ‘Til I Hear You Sing’ - Love Never Dies’ stand out song – and the recent addition to the Les Mis songlist, ‘Suddenly’. And the epic musical theatre anthems didn’t end there, with ‘This is the Moment’ and ‘Anthem’ also getting outings. It is easy, I suppose, to be sniffy at such a list of over-performed classics, but it was clear that this was what the audience had come to hear, and very few people can sing them better than Owen-Jones. 

It did mean, however, that there was a slightly relentless quality to much of the evening which wasn’t helped by how loudly both singer and band were miked for the relatively small room. Owen-Jones has a wonderful, powerful voice, and he could have been miked a quarter less loud and still easily have carried above the band. It may have been giving the audience what they wanted, but at times one was left wishing for an introspective moment, if only to give the ear drums a rest!

And in fact, what introspective moments there were, were very lovely. Queen’s ‘Love of My Life’ (accompanied only by a solo guitar), the Bacharach-esque ‘Dangling’ by Maury Yeston, and Joe Cocker’s ‘You Are So Beautiful’ were all beautifully sung highlights. 

Aside from his years on the West End, the one other key influence on the night was made clear the moment he opened his mouth to speak: ‘In case you don’t know…I’m Welsh!’ he cheerfully announced. And easily the best moments of the night were the two songs from the back catalogue of his great hero, Tom Jones. Both ‘Thunderball’ and ‘Delilah’ were delivered with such a joyous relish and vocal power that suddenly the sound levels felt exactly right. Relentless it may have been at times, but when the singing is that good, who’s complaining?