Grey Gardens - Review

Southwark Playhouse, London


*****


Book by Doug Wright
Music by Scott Frankel
Lyrics by Michael Korie
Directed by Thom Southerland

Jenna Russell and Sheila Hancock

Making its European premiere, Grey Gardens is a blend of fact and fiction that tells of Edith Bouvier Beale, aunt to and her daughter Edie. What sets this family apart is that the two women were respectively aunt and first cousin to the woman who was to become the world’s First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Based upon an acclaimed documentary, the show is a cultural fusion that blends Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard with Galton and Simpson's Steptoe and Son (with just a hint of The Great Gatsby). The first half, set in 1941, describes the patrician ascendancy of the Bouvier Beale family whilst act two pitches forward thirty years, depicting almost unbelievably, the flea-infested squalor to which mother and daughter had descended. Grey Gardens their mansion, now overrun with cats. 

The drama of this show is as magnificent as its music, with an ingenious casting conceit. We meet Sheila Hancock, the elderly Edith as the curtain rises, though she is quickly transformed into Jenna Russell who plays (the younger) Edith in act one and (an elder) Edie after the break. Hancock, amongst the finest of her generation, is witheringly contemptuous towards her daughter and yet desperately dependent upon her. She can also sing with remarkable presence - her take on The Cake I Had, a treat.

Russell as Hancock's younger self, captures the manipulative dominance that was to stifle her daughter's attempts at love, whilst in playing the 56 yo Edie (brilliantly costumed in an array of scarves suggesting variously cat-woman crossed with a jihadi bride) she also captures the profound love that her character feels for her mother. If the whole thing wasn't so damnably credible as a dysfunctional family, it would be ridiculous.

And then there's Jenna Russell's voice. Virtually peerless in musical theatre and picking on just two of her stunning moments, Russell’s act two opener The Revolutionary Costume For Today raises the roof, whilst her 11 o clock number Another Winter In A Summer Town touches hearts with its perfectly weighted pathos.

It's not just Russell and Hancock though. Edie in the 1940's is given a captivating performance by Rachel Ann Rayham, whose Daddy's Girl, sung with her hopefully intended Joseph P Kennedy is a glorious fusion of music and movement. (Great choreography Lee Proud). Credit too to the remarkable Aaron Sidwell as the young Kennedy. From Loserville, through American Idiot, to now playing JFK's older brother, Sidwell masters the dynasty's manicured scion. 

Jeremy Legat as Edith's preppy consort musician George Strong offers another perfect cameo, whilst Ako Mitchell and Billy Boyle in a number of roles complete the adult company. As is her custom, Danielle Tarento has cast as well as produced the show and her work here is flawless.

To be fair though, all the creative team have been surpassed themselves. Tom Roger's multi layered set is magnificent, Howard Hudson's lighting again highlighting the subtleties of time and location, Andrew Johnson's sound design ensures neither note nor word are lost, whilst Michael Bradley's 10 piece band make Frankel's complex score a delight.

Tarento and Southerland have never been better and in all honesty there's not much on offer anywhere in London right now that could top this production. Southwark Playhouse should be rightly proud of Grey Gardens. It is unmissable theatre that demands a transfer.

Runs until 6th February

Photo credit: Scott Rylander

Finding Neverland - Review

Curve Theatre, Leicester

 ****

Music: Scott Frankel

Lyrics: Michael Korie

Book: Allan Knee

Director & choreographer: Rob Ashford

J M Barrie (Julian Ovenden) confronts his alter-ego played by Oliver Boot

Finding Neverland, is an exquisite piece of theatre. Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein has taken the movie that he produced some 8 years ago, hired some accomplished American talent to give the tale a musical theatre treatment and then ingeniously selected Leicester’s stunning Curve Theatre to premiere the work, before it hopefully transfers to the West End and ultimately Broadway.

The semi-biographical story opens with author J M Barrie’s latest play being trashed by the critics and how rebounding from that rejection, he finds inspiration from the 4 boys in the Llewellyn-Davies family whom he befriends in Kensington Gardens, to then ultimately go on and write Peter Pan. Married to wife Mary, in what is revealed to be a well-intentioned but nevertheless loveless union, Barrie is irresistibly drawn to the boys’ widowed mother Sylvia. The relationship between these two, whilst platonic throughout, is the fulcrum of the show’s story, charting moments of both joy and tragedy that the writer shares with the young family as the couple’s love for each other develops. Writing Peter Pan, he transforms his sternest real-life theatre critic into the fictional Captain Hook, with one of the production’s most interesting musical numbers, The Pirate Inside, cleverly suggesting that the buccaneer James Hook is really the darker alter ego of James Barrie.

The cast, to a person, excel. The performances, including that of a delightful St Bernard dog are all flawlessly perfect. Julian Ovenden plays the writer, who like his famous literary creation, struggles to grow up, displaying a youthful and infectious sense of fun and irresponsibility. Ovenden captures the beautifully voiced essence of Barrie’s character within his performance, every inch more boy than man and yet possessing the personality that Sylvia is drawn too. Rosalie Craig as Sylvia similarly shines. Whilst her elegant figure fails to convince that she has borne 4 sons , her poise and presence are captivating. Vocally enchanting, her duet with Clare Foster (Mary), James Never Mentioned, in which each woman’s self-doubts and mutual envies are painfully played out, is a haunting study on a failing marriage and a nascent love affair. Oliver Boot as the critic/Hook character is a convincing villain who both in Peter Pan and as a London critic, torments Barrie. He is every inch the swashbuckling cad and Boot’s energetic delivery is a treat to watch ( and boo!). Liz Robertson, as Sylvia’s disapproving mother also delivers a sterling supporting role, combining compassionate loving mother and grandmother, with being a fearsome protector of her brood. The four talented young boys were led, on press night, by Harry Polden. Already an accomplished child actor Polden held the stage well, displaying his admiration for Barrie, along with his disdain and at times, contempt for the writer, convincingly.

Without doubt, this show is a beautiful piece of theatre, but it requires sharpening. Billed as “The New Musical Comedy”, the laughter points were infrequent and often weak. When Barrie’s cricketing contemporaries sing after a lost game, Crushed Again, the number resembles a clichéd attempt to portray a self-deprecating view of stiff upper lip British sportsmanship and whilst that may well be how we are viewed by our American cousins, such stereotyping should have ended with Mary Poppins (the film). Weinstein has spent a fortune on Finding Neverland and it shows in set design, casting and a beautifully rehearsed full orchestra, ably led by David Charles Abell. The producer has also sensibly avoided gimmickry, allowing a wonderfully strong story to tell itself. But the show needs more flying. There is a passing nod to flight in the prologue and again in the closing scene, but that is all. In much the same way as stage blood can make an audience wince at a moment of violence, so on-stage flight can provide moments of sheer breathtaking emotion. At one point in the show, a kite is flown above the heads of the Stalls, almost reaching the Circle. A sweet effect yes, but if that had instead been a Tinkerbell or Pan, sparingly deployed and truly flying within the theatre, the effect would have been profound and with Weinstein’s eye for telling a good story, probably tear-inducing. In a similar vein, the performance of Peter Pan that is put on in the home of the dying Sylvia, is performed upstage, with the spectating family sat front, backs to the audience, impeding the view of the action and distancing the audience from the production. With some minor tweaking this staging should be re-arranged as it currently detracts from the real beauty that the cast create.

This enchanting show deserves a successful run and its evolution on to a major London stage should be eagerly anticipated. Harvey Weinstein needs to invest just a little bit more, to make the funny parts of his show funnier and to deepen the poignancy of some magical moments in a wonderful story.

Runs to October 18