Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell - Review

Coach and Horses, London

*****

Written by Keith Waterhouse

Directed and adapted by James Hillier

Robert Bathurst

Keith Waterhouse’s brilliant biopic of Jeffrey Bernard one of Fleet Street’s most distinctive characters plays for a very limited 4-week season at The Coach and Horses pub in London’s Soho.

This production is remarkable for two reasons: the Coach and Horses was Bernard’s favoured drinking haunt and in this production the action actually takes place in the bar (with drink sales suspended during the performance so make sure drinks are purchased before the lights dim); and in Robert Bathurst’s one-man take on the alcoholic wordsmith there is to be found one of the finest performances in the capital. 

In what is effectively an hour-long monologue- interjected with very brief snatches of pre-recorded voices, Bathurst nails Bernard’s scorching wit. Waterhouse’s wry gags flow from start to finish with the play being a masterclass in both writing and performance. 

A bravura performance Bathurst not only holds us rapt in Bernard’s anecdotes but also pulls off a masterful pub game with a raw egg and stages a cat race (with toy cats of course) on the pub’s floor! As Bernard’s observations on alcohol, gambling and journalism are seasoned with wry perspicacity, so director James Hillier has fashioned an unconventional drama, exquisitely performed.

Runs until 26th February

Photo credit: Tom Howard

Dolly Parton’s Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol - Review

Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

***

Music and lyrics by Dolly Parton

Book and adaptation David H Bell

Directed and choreographed by Alison Pollard

Corey Wickens and Robert Bathurst

The cast in Dolly Parton’s Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol are all finely voiced. The show’s sound design however doesn’t match its actors’ talents and when they sing en masse, the blurred acoustics sadly muffle most of Dolly’s lyrics. Thankfully the tale’s a classic so filling in the gaps is not too much of a challenge.

Parton’s show acknowledges the Smoky Mountains’ history of the poverty of depressed 1930s America and also captures the snowy harshness of the Appalachian winters. But Tennessee was segregated until 1954 and looking at this show and its casting, this appears to be a troubling aspect of the state’s history that the producers have conveniently overlooked.

Robert Bathurst is convincingly curmudgeonly as Ebenezer Scrooge with Sarah O’Connor putting in a sweetly sung take on Three Candles. If only the song’s lyrics were as classy as her rendition. The best song of the night that closes Act One and is later reprised to see the audience off into the night is I’m Dreaming Of A Smoky Mountain Christmas, capturing Parton’s country genius at its finest. And credit too to Andrew Hilton’s six-piece band who are on fine form throughout.

Dolly may have whimsically hitched her wagon to a classic of the Christmas canon, but this show is just a little snowbound.

Runs until 8th January 2023

Photo credit: Manuel Harlan