The Score - Review

Theatre Royal, Bath

****

Written by Oliver Cotton

Directed by Trevor Nunn

Brian Cox

The Score is a bold historical tale that makes for some exceptional drama. Brian Cox plays Johann Sebastian Bach who not only was one of the greatest composers of the Baroque period but was also a deeply spiritual man, fiercely proud of his native Silesia (now a part of Germany) and especially his home city of Leipzig. 

Set over a short period of time in Bach’s latter years, a time when the enlightened expansionist Frederick The Great ruled neighbouring Prussia and subsequently conquered Silesia, the play crafts an ingenious narrative around an actual visit that the 62 year-old Bach paid to Frederick in Potsdam, Prussia in 1747, some 3 years before the composer’s death. The play’s first half largely sets the scene and establishes the history of the time. Oliver Cotton has a lot to cram in to his story and there are times when act one drags, making the interval a much appreciated respite. 

The second half however, that opens in the economically but magnificently created Potsdam Palace, sizzles with a gripping dramatic intensity. Matthew Burns plays Bach’s son Carl a composer in Frederick’s court, who finds himself at the heart of an intriguing wager as to whether his father will be able to fashion a 3-part fugue drawn from a theme of Frederick’s creation. No spoilers here, but Cotton crafts a dramatic counterpoint between composer, court and monarch that has to rank amongst the best writing seen this year. Not only is there this nail-biting bet being played out, but when the music is done and dusted the elderly Bach takes the king to task for the appalling conduct of his Prussian troops in the composer’s beloved Silesia.

There are timeless echoes in Cotton’s narrative. As Bach describes the rape of a blind teenage girl in Leipzig by a trio of Frederick’s soldiers, the barbarity chimes with the horrific atrocities in Israel that have grabbed our recent headlines. And as Frederick speaks of the rights of Prussia to reclaim its neighbouring territories, there is a chilling foresight as to the expansionist supremacy that underlay Weimar and then Nazi Germany in the 20th century. 

Cox is magnificent in his role, capturing not only Bach’s genius and pride in his faith and in his homeland, but also his succumbing to the frailties of his later years. His is a virtuoso performance of nuance, perception and perfectly pitched rage that sees the actor on stage for virtually all of the first half and most of the second.

Trevor Nunn has assembled a fine company around his leading man. Cox’s real life missus, Nicole Ansari-Cox plays Bach’s wife Anna, Stephen Hagan’s Frederick channels a far shrewder (and more vicious) take on the bumbling monarchs that Hugh Laurie captured so cleverly in the various Blackadder TV series of yesteryear. 

Robert Jones has designed the piece as ever, immaculately, helped in no small measure by Karen Large’s costume work and Campbell Young’s wig work. A nod too to Sophie Cotton whose contribution to the evening’s sound design and music is exquisite.

This is a brave and bold piece from Cotton that in its style makes a fine tilt at the honours garnered by Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus. Only on for a ridiculously short run, it demands a transfer to London and a wider audience.

Runs until 28th October

Photo credit: Manuel Harlan

The Third Man - Review

Menier Chocolate Factory, London

****

Music by George Fenton

Lyrics & book by Don Black & Christopher Hampton

Directed by Trevor Nunn

Sam Underwood and Natalie Dunne

Film noir clearly has an attraction for Don Black and Christopher Hampton. Having translated Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard from screen to stage, they now fix their canon on Carol Reed’s 1949 Oscar-winner The Third Man. Set to George Fenton’s score, Graham Greene’s Vienna-based story of mystery, romance and murderous corruption plays out in a modestly staged production at the Menier Chocolate Factory.

It’s an ambitious conceit to take such a tightly focused movie, famous for its shadows, intrigue and of course THAT theme tune, but Black and Hampton’s treatment under Trevor Nunn’s directing, never takes itself too seriously. Sam Underwood plays Holly Martins, the American writer (Why was it always an American writer who’s the protagonist in these tales of the 1930s and 40s? Sunset Boulevard, Cabaret etc etc) who finds himself caught up in the Austrian capital's murky black-market world as he searches for his old friend Harry Lime. Those familiar with the story will know of Lime’s treachery and it is a credit to this production as to how the serpentine twists of Greene’s plot are revealed.

Natalie Dunne smoulders with delicious contempt as femme fatale Anna Schmidt and there is an equally impressive turn from the talented Simon Bailey. The show’s ensemble make up a raft of two-dimensional characters that all add to creating the show’s Vienna-lite experience.

Above the performing space Tamara Saringer’s band are a delight, with Fenton’s score reverently acknowledging Anton Karas’ famous Harry Lime Theme from the movie, with the occasional motif. Down below, Paul Farnsworth’s set designs effectively utilise the Menier’s grimy heritage.

A loving tribute to a classic movie, The Third Man makes for an evening of charming musical theatre.

Runs until 9th September

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

Fiddler On The Roof - Review

Menier Chocolate Factory, London

*****

Book by Joseph Stein

Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick

Music by Jerry Bock

Directed by Trevor Nunn

Judy Kuhn and Andy Nyman

One can only wonder if, when Fiddler On The Roof was being scheduled for the Menier over this Christmas season, that the producers were aware that the chill winds of antisemitism that whip through the show’s narrative would again be so prevalent in the UK. For rarely does a show present such a polarised contrast between a glorious celebration of life and the stark reality of man’s inhumanity.

Trevor Nunn helms this latest outing of the Broadway classic and together with a gifted cast and crew alongside the unique intimacy of the Menier’s space, he crafts a charming interpretation of life in the Jewish Pale of Settlement.

Andy Nyman steps up to the role of Tevye, beautifully bearded, he makes fine work of perhaps the world’s most famous milkman. The role is massive – in both its vocal and physical demands, as well as the emotional spectrum that defines Tevye’s journey. If Nyman is not quite there yet with some of the more finely nuanced moments, he is a gifted performed who will surely settle into the songs’ full ranges as the show matures. He does however capture the worldly, weary wisdom of the beloved husband and father he portrays, bringing an authenticity to the role that catches the audience’s feelings at unexpected moments. There is a depth to his Tevye that has, quite possibly, not been witnessed on these shores since Topol.

Judy Kuhn is Golde, bringing her recent previous experience of the role from Bartlett Sher’s Broadway production. Again, and for the first time in decades over here, Kuhn brings an authentic credibility to Tevye’s spouse, offering a clearly defined relief to the complexities and triumphs that have seen her's and Tevye's 25 year old marriage become such a strong family bedrock.

Not just at the top, there is inspirational casting throughout Nunn’s compay. The always excellent Louise Gold delivers a perfect Yente, taking a tiny role and breathing a new life into its significance. Dermot Canavan’s Lazar Wolf captures the wealthy butcher's financial power within Anatevka's tiny community and yet, ultimately, his vulnerability too. As Perchik, Stewart Clarke convinces as a young Jewish firebrand. There is, perhaps, a little more that all three of the adult daughters could bring to their respective roles and challenges – but to say any more would be unnecessarily harsh, for above all this Fiddler is a work of rare beauty.

And that beauty is essentially derived from Nunn’s inspired staging. Robert Jones' design transforms the Menier with aged timbers encompassing the whole space, hinting at the impoverished architecture of the shtetl. And yet, amidst this darkened wood and with the company playing out in the venue’s thrust space, audience raked around them on three sides, there is almost a hint of an Eastern European synagogue settled upon the theatre. So much so that in the first act's wedding scene, as Motel stamps upon the glass to seal his marriage to Tzeitel, this reviewer felt more akin to being a guest at the wedding, rather than just a critical audience member. It was as much as one could do to hold back from joining in with the cast and shouting a hearty “Mazeltov” from the third row!

Nunn delivers inspirational work on Tevye’s Dream too, always a moment of comedy horror when done well. Intriguingly, the performer playing Grandmother Tzeitel is not credited in the programme, but one detects however that perhaps an both an age and gender swap has occurred in the old lady's casting (and actually, it works brilliantly too!)

And there is quality too across the show’s creative team. Matt Cole offers up a worthy working of Jerome Robbins’ original choreography, while Jason Carr’s orchestrations and Paul Bogaev’s direction bring a verve to Jerry Bock’s score. 

In short – this production is both an imaginative yet also reassuringly traditional take on a much loved show. In eschewing any trendy political statement to hang around his work, Nunn has made it all the more poignant and powerful. Deservedly sold out for the rest of its Menier run, his Fiddler On The Roof is a must-see musical.

Runs until 9th March 2019

Photo credit: Johan Persson

Shuler Hensley - An Outstanding Actor Who Brings Humanity To Dysfunctionality

Shuler Hensley in The Whale

Shuler Hensley is an American actor who, outside of the theatre world and especially the musical theatre world, is little known in the UK. 

Currently he can currently be found in the Theatre Royal Bath’s Ustinov Studio in the modern tragedy The Whale, in which he plays the morbidly obese Charlie, an Idaho man who is close to death. Critics have raved about the play (my own review is here), but The Whale is only the most recent of Hensley’s achievements on these shores. 

Twenty years ago (and the only American playing in that South Bank cast) he won the Best Supporting Actor Olivier Award for his portrayal of Jud in Trevor Nunn’s Oklahoma! at the National Theatre. That production was one of the few American shows ever to have enjoyed a fresh UK revival that itself was then shipped back across the Atlantic to become a hit in New York too. On Broadway in 2002, reprising the National Theatre production, Hensley’s Jud earned him not only that year’s Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics’ Award, he scooped the Tony too! For those of us lucky enough to have seen the show (I was one) Hensley’s work was unforgettable. 

Nunn's Oklahoma! was choreographed by Susan Stroman – who went on to work closely with Mel Brooks in transferring his Young Frankenstein from a hit comedy movie onto the stage. Stroman didn’t hesitate in proposing Hensley to create The Monster when the show opened on Broadway in 2007. Ten years later Brooks and Stroman brought the show to London, where Hensley was again the only American actor employed, going on to magnificently (and far from monstrously) recreate his Monster for the West End. 

After The Whale's opening night in Bath last week I caught up with Hensley to learn a little more about him and his career.

JB:    Jud, The Monster, and now Charlie. What draws you to playing such dysfunctional individuals? 

Shuler:    That's a very interesting question. I think as a character/actor, I guess I'm just drawn to characters who we (by which I mean the general public or society) think we know based on our initial impression. Usually it's a visual impression. He's the dirty farm hand. Or he's the morbidly obese guy who can't get out of his apartment. It could be anything. Then , understanding that, and sort of as an actor, just trying to figure it all out. People don't go into life wanting to be labelled. I think we want to fit in. We want to be a part of everyone else's journey.  

That's the interesting thing about these characters - finding something that I think we all can recognise in a person, and then sort of flip it and say, "Well, wait a minute. Actually, I can relate to that." 

And once you're able to do that with an audience, and you're able to take a stereotypical character and make people start questioning that, then I think it's really powerful and interesting for the viewer to say, "Wow. Maybe there is some worthiness to these people."  

I mean, I play a lot of villains. I play a lot of darker characters. But with my research and with my knowledge of these people, in reality I have found that these dark souls don’t thinks of themselves as psychopaths or a villains. They often think, "Well, I'm right and everyone else is wrong, so it's not like I'm evil." And once you can figure that out then you can really portray someone who is deeply believing in what they're saying. Does that make sense? 

JB:    It makes perfect sense. In The Whale, where you have to endure a particularly spiteful daughter – there is a moment when you, her scorned and obese father, realise the good that lies within her. It’s a heartbreaking, powerful moment that you perform beautifully.  

Moving on, what sympathy do you think we can or should feel for Jud in Oklahoma!? 

Shuler Hensley's Jud Fry

Shuler:    Well, Jud's an interesting character. When Oklahoma! first came out especially the film, I think there was a necessity to draw a line between who's good and who's bad. But what I find fascinating about Rodgers and Hammerstein is that actually they don't write that way. 

If you look at things like South Pacific and you look at Oklahoma!, there's a lot of good and bad in everyone. And Curly, although he may be all fluffed up in the movie, he's got a dark side. He's got a very vengeful side. In the song Lonely Room for Jud, which incredibly was cut from the movie, that's a vitally important moment to get inside Jud’s head.  

Listen to the lyrics of Lonely Room - it's a love poem. It's a wanting to belong. It's a wanting to get a bride and fit in, and be loved, and to love someone. I mean, we all can relate to that, but what's interesting about Richard Rodgers' music is that underneath that love poem is dissonance. 

I talked to Mary Rodgers about this, his daughter before she passed, and she said that he considered Lonely Room to be one of his greatest compositions ever because it so well contained the emotion in what's happening within the song. Jud is a perfect example of somebody who doesn't think of themselves as being a villain, but for whatever reason has been put into that situation and is defensive. 

Think of “Poor Jud Is Daid”. If you take that out of being a comedic duet and saw what Curly was doing, he’s being horrible to Jud. 

JB:    It's horrendous bullying. 

Shuler:    Quite. People laugh and scoff in that song, but if you can create moments where the audience - and I mean Oklahoma! is the quintessential American musical – if you can get them to hear a song for the first time in a way that makes them start to question their judgement, THAT is what live theatre is all about. 

I've worked with Hugh Jackman (who played Curly in the Nunn production). That was his first thing here. I've worked on films and movies and people like Hugh and a lot of these guys like Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart who've made success in movies and TV come back to theatre. 

And the reason is that you can't re-create a live audience or a live experience because you're in it with the audience. And so when you create a touching moment for a villain like Jud or a touching moment for a morbidly obese gay man like Charlie, there's a palpable connection with the audience in a live environment that can't be re-created. 

JB:    You just mentioned Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart. You recently played alongside them in the Broadway production of No Man's Land. Tell me about working with those two theatrical knights, on Pinter.   

Shuler:    It reminds me of like a Sunday Times crossword puzzle. It's very cerebral on the surface, but if you go along with that then you realise that there's a lot of stuff going on that's beyond the words or underneath the words, or between the lines. And that's what was so fascinating with it. We actually worked with the neurologist Oliver Sacks who Patrick invited into to our rehearsal process.  

He helped us with the fascinating aspect of the whole play being about false memory. I think we all have it. I mean, if you have a sibling, you can both remember in great detail sometimes different versions of the same event. Both versions cannot be true because they don't line up. It's just a fascinating journey in false memory with Pinter dialogue. 

JB:    Let's move on to Mel Brooks and Young Frankenstein.

Hensley as The Monster

Shuler:    Well, where to begin? I consider Mel Brooks to be a dear friend of mine. I talk to him on a regular basis. He's nearly 92 and he couldn't be a younger soul. I think it's the throwback to when he started as a comedy writer to Sid Caesar's show of shows. I believe that's what it's called. In the writing room was Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, a very young Woody Allen. Those types of guys who had to come up with a weekly comedy line – No, I think Mel said there were about 70 shows a year. 

The idea of coming up with something funny and throwing it like a spaghetti, throwing it against the wall and seeing if it sticks. That's Mel's mentality with everything. He didn't want to re-create the movie. He wanted it the musical of Young Frankenstein to be an original experience even though everyone can relate to the lines and the scenes that everyone remembers from the film.  

Having him say that from the beginning was such a relief because I didn't want to try to create or re-create the version of The Monster from the film because there's just no way to do that. 

We had the Broadway run and then I did it on tour because I wanted to experience what that was like for the American audience, which was amazing because everyone loves Mel Brooks.

So after 10 years probably Mel just called me up. I talked to him occasionally within that gap, and he kept saying, "Shuler, I'm getting this to London. I'm telling you. It's going to go to London." And Susan Stroman and I would laugh about it because I've worked with Susan Stroman on a number of projects and we do readings. I'd say to Susan, "Have you heard from Mel?" And she's like, "Oh yeah." And lo and behold, he got it here.  

I said, "I'm going to do it. I'll do whatever you want me to do."

And then when we got here, he came in and completely re-designed it, re-thought it, let a lot of the leads and people experiment with lines. He was here for five, six weeks. I mean, he's very hands on, and super energised. I can't even begin to tell you how amazing that man is, and he's constantly thinking. 

JB:    The Whale – tell me about your journey with this astonishing piece.

Shuler Hensley and Ruth Gemmell in The Whale

Shuler:    It started six years ago. They had a reading of this play called The Whale and they said, "We'd be interested in Shuler reading this." So, they sent me a copy of it, and when I read it my jaw dropped. I just felt such a connection to not only the characters, but the style of writing and the rhythm of the writing, and the use of pauses and things not said that should be. It was all contained within the script. That was just reading it. 

And then you get to the actual table read. A lot of times the things you think are going to happen just don't, but pretty much everything that I was hoping for just naturally happened within the table read. I think we all went away from that thinking, "This is something really amazing to be a part of." 

And then the writer, Sam Hunter, is just one of those people that's just an old soul and a wonderful human being. He sets all his plays in Idaho, which is where he's from. And it's sort of autobiographical in some aspects, but in others it's hints of people he knows and has entered his life. The storyline of Mormonism reflects how prolific that creed is that part of the country.  

Idaho’s up in the north west corner. It's sort of a No Man's Land (not to bring another play into it of course!) but it really is. I mean, if you ask a typical American about what would a normal person from Idaho be like? They'd have no clue. No clue. 

JB:    And in the politics of modern America, Where would you say Idaho sits? 

Shuler:    I don't know. I think it's a mystery. It's just like a frontier. I have been to Moscow, Idaho once. I drove down from Seattle, Washington because there was a wedding that I was a part of. The bachelor party was in Moscow, Idaho. It feels like you're in the middle of outer space because there were no street lights at the time, so you're driving through these massive national parks in the dark. You can just see as far as your headlights are, and then all of a sudden there's this town. It's a big town but it's sort of surrounded by wilderness, so very isolated. It's just a really interesting area. I wouldn't know what the politics are because it's its own world. 

JB:    Is there a hope that The Whale may come into London? 

Shuler:    That is our hope! 

Whenever there's something I'm doing in the States that I really believe in, I always think of how we can get it to England because I think the theatre community here is very knowledgeable. The British are very supportive of theatre and I've just loved working here.


The Whale plays at the Ustinov Studio until 2nd June
Photo credits for The Whale images: Simon Annand

Les Miserables - Review

Queens Theatre, London 


*****

PROLOGUE 

It has been a while since I'd last seen Les Miserables in the West End, but every now and then a show’s casting proves so irresistible that it cries out to be seen again. 

Firstly, there is the wonderful Carrie Hope-Fletcher's take on Eponine. Having seen Carrie perform at a couple of concert events I had long hankered after catching her acclaimed interpretation first hand. And then there’s Rachelle Ann Go’s Fantine. I’d adored her Movie In My Mind in Miss Saigon, but on hearing Rachelle sing I Dreamed A Dream at Hugh Maynard’s Hippodrome gig a few months ago, she simply set spines tingling.  

However, both of those yearnings were eclipsed by the announcement, earlier this year, that Phil Daniels was to play musical theatre’s ultimate scum-meister, taking over as M. Thenardier. 

Virtually a national treasure, Daniels etched himself into the nation’s psyche in the 70s and 80s. Along with a youthful Ray Winstone he offered a brutal perspective on British borstal life in Alan Clarke’s controversial movie, Scum – if you haven’t seen that picture, download it and find out why Winstone has been known forever since as The Daddy. And from then on, including The Who's iconic Quadrophenia and later film and stage performances, Daniels’ work has been nothing sort of exceptional. 

And so it was, that with this cast, Les Mis moved back on to my “unmissable” list…

REVIEW

Author/Dramatist ALAIN BOUBLIL
Book & Music CLAUDE-MICHEL SCHÖNBERG
Lyricist HERBERT KRETZMER
Adaptation & Direction TREVOR NUNN
Adaptation & Direction JOHN CAIRD

Les Miserables has long impressed me, not just for having such a stirring libretto, but also for the cheekily economic creativity of Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schoenberg that was able to hang quite so many different songs on just a handful of (oft repeated) melodies! Herbert Kretzmer deserves handsome credit for the lyrics. Kretzmer has compressed Victor Hugo's panoramic vision of 19th century France into 3 hours of sung-through genius, with a wit and nuance perfectly tailored to the modern idiom.

On the night of this review Adam Bayjou was standing in for Peter Lockyer as the eponymous ex-con Jean Valjean. Youthful but nonetheless assured, Bayjou mastered the gravitas of driving the show, stirring and inspirational as needed and touching souls with an exquisite Bring Him Home.

Hunting him across the years is Jeremy Secomb's Javert. Secomb, with the full built frame of a cop, pound for pound probably outweighs the more diminutive Bayjou whose lifting of both cart and carcass through the show as required defies probability. Secomb though brings just the right amount of dour, booted, gravitas to the lugubrious lawman including a thrilling delivery of Stars. And as Javert grapples with Valjean's divine mercy that he simply cannot comprehend, this talented actor displays a truly tortured soul. 

There can never be a great deal to write about Fantine, perhaps one of theatre's most underwritten leading ladies, but Rachelle Ann Go carries the pride of the Philippines with her as she re-defines the role, making I Dreamed A Dream truly her own.

Carrie Hope-Fletcher's Eponine must surely have proved an inspired casting over the last couple of years. She embodies her character's sincerity with beauty, coquettish charm and a voice of amazingly youthful power. And as her coat falls open to reveal that bloodstained blouse, even seeing the show for the umpteenth time one can't hold back the tears. For Hope-Fletcher her Les Mis time is running out and one looks forward to see how her talents will next be deployed.

Perhaps the toughest roles in the show are those of Cosette and Marius - their love is sincere, but where Eponine is endowed with a tragically romantic death, these youngsters see their finale wedding overshadowed first by the Thenardiers' thievery and then Valjean's demise. Tough gigs indeed, but Zoe Doano, as ever, defines enchanting as she falls for her handsome student, filling the role with a passionate credibility and a celestial voice. And if Rob Houchen's Marius is a slightly understated gem, at least it’s well polished.

And then there's Katie Secombe and Phil Daniels as the ghastly Thenardiers. The pair's timing, acting and song are a masterclass in bitter-sweet grotesque. Blessed with comedy in her genes Secombe's Mme T is every inch a Lady Macbeth of her time, keeping her performance just the right side of pantomime. Daniels simply lives up to expectations. With his park life voice that’s been dredged from somewhere east of Tilbury, Daniels defines the red-nosed brigand perfectly. It will take some double act to match this monstrous couple.

Above all, the credit for Les Mis' continued excellence has to lie with its producer. Cameron Mackintosh may have elevated this particular show to the level of a global franchise - but he's never sacrificed a moment of its quality, Amidst John Napier’s ever revolving designs, the show’s details remain finely honed. And whether it is (simply by way of example) Adam Pearce's immaculate multi-role ensemble work, or Alex Parker's pinpoint musical direction, Les Miserables remains an example of world class excellence.

Now booking into 2016

Cats - Review

London Palladium, London

*****

Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber

Based on 'Old Possum's Book Of Practical Cats by T.S.Eliot

Directed by Trevor Nunn

Kerry Ellis

Back in 1981 Cats re-wrote the rule book of musical theatre. Not just for being the first show immediately recognisable by an image that was to become an iconic brand (those flaming cats eyes with their dancers for pupils - shrewd work, producer Cameron Mackintosh), but for being one of the first through-danced musicals, a concept never before tackled in England. Cats' plot (if there is one) is implausible. Rather, it took the genius vision of a young Lloyd Webber to set this quirky anthology of Eliot verse to music. The rest is theatre history as the show went on to smash box-office records on both sides of the Atlantic.

That Cats in 2015 works at all is down to the show's (now pensioner) creatives and an exceptional cast. Disbelief is quickly suspended and in a production that eschews masks and puppets, the feline transformation is achieved solely through the human skills of the companys' voices, movement and facial expression. At all times the audience can see that these are just people, albeit gloriously costumed and made up, but people nonetheless who with catlike tread and stunning choreography achieve a fabulous illusion. 

Eliot's words are marvellously crafted. They truly don't write 'em like that anymore and his 1930's gems are just steeped in Bloomsbury and a time when trains had First and Third Class carriages, a magical glimpse into an England past. No other writer other than perhaps Matilda's Tim Minchin displays the maverick and eccentric yet profoundly perceptive wit that Eliot masters. Andrew Lloyd Webber's score, played under the experienced baton of Anthony Gabriele and ranging from the haunting minor key harmonics of the Jellicles’ motif, through to the torch-song triumph that is Memory, has evolved into a modern classic.

Legendary choreographer Gillian Lynne neatly re-works her original routines to accommodate the Palladium’s traditional proscenium setting, with modern day dance maestro Bill Deamer adding his talent to staging the coolly jazz-themed Gumbie Cat tap number. John Napier's design has similarly been tailored yet still remains a fairytale setting (beautifully lit) of over-sized trash. (The eagle eyed in the audience will spot that the bashed up car’s number plate has been updated to NAP 70, Napier’s age when the show re-opened last year.)

But Cats, then and forever, has always been about the actors. As well as some fresh young talent, many feline-hardened veterans from the show’s various former and touring productions have been press ganged into service at the Palladium. Excellence is everywhere, but particularly memorable amongst the cattery are Benjamin Yates’ Mungojerrie, who delivers impossible athleticism with an almost Russell Brand styled insouciance whilst Joseph Poulton’s Mistoffeles and Ross Finnie’s Skimbleshanks are both visual delights. (That junk-yard train gets me every time.) A nod too to Callum Train’s Munkustrap who virtually MC’s the show with a breathtaking agility and of course few West End musicals are complete these days without a Strallen. Zizi’s Demeter duly and demurely delivers.

It is however Kerry Ellis’ name that tops the bill at the London Palladium and with good reason. Her poise as faded galmour-puss Grizabella is as poignant as it is perfect. Where the rest of the cast are shod in dance shoes Ellis, fur all mangy, is forced to totter around the stage in impossibly tawdry heels, defining Grizabella's tragedy in poise and presence. And then she sings.

On its own, Memory is one of Lloyd Webber’s biggest selling singles and much like Grizabella herself, it’s a tart of a song that everyone over the last thirty years as had a piece of. The audience knows it, loves it and their expectations as Ellis, along with Natasha Mould’s Jemima tackles the opening bars, are sky high. Ellis doesn’t just meet those expectations however – she smashes them. And as her Grizabella desperately pleads for affection with the shockingly simple words “Touch me”, this queen of London’s musical theatre quite simply takes the Palladium’s roof off. The moment is electrifying and unforgettable. It has been far too long since the West End was last treated to an 11 o’clock number of such jaw-dropping magnificence.

There is no more to add. As world class musical theatre Cats, with Kerry Ellis, is un-missable.

Now booking until 25th April 2015

Paris Original - Frances Ruffelle

Crazy Coqs, London

*****

Frances Ruffelle

Frances Ruffelle is a London diamond born and bred, yet with a remarkable affinity for the songs and the culture that hail from across the Channel. That she created the role of Les Miserables’ Eponine, on both sides of the Atlantic and has only recently been nominated for Best Performance in a Musical following her astonishing portrayal of France's legendary Edith Piaf,  suggests a delicious timelessness to her talent. So when Ruffelle emerges in the art nouveau basement of the Crazy Coqs, clad in chic mackintosh and shades and humming the quintessentially French melody from Un Homme Et Une Femme, there is more than a hint that the evening is going to reflect the singer's savoir faire.

On an evening that should have the smoking ban lifted (a haze of Gauloises/Gitanes smoke is actually de rigeur for an act like this), Ruffelle gives her own invigorating interpretation of cabaret. On record as wanting to ensure an audience is given damn good entertainment for their money, she does not disappoint. Her 4 piece band under Ben Atkinson are immaculately rehearsed and her routine is witty, eclectic and provocative. Never breaching the “fourth wall”, the actress rather stretches it, exploring how far she can let her French personae run wild through the course of an evening.

The set list is refreshing and like Ruffelle herself, almost petulantly unpredictable. She chooses songs special to her and with an early nod to Disney, her inclusion of the Sherman Brother's Scales And Arpeggios from The Aristocats is an unexpected and amusing choice. That she precedes that classic kid's (and her own childhood) favourite with Piaf's La Goualante Du Pauvre Jean, bravely picking up the accordion to accompany herself with the song’s famous melody, is testament to her confidence in taking on French culture and firmly placing her stamp on it. It is hard to think of another performer who could have the audacity to segue Noel Harrison’s 60’s masterpiece The Windmills Of Your Mind into a haunting The Movie In My Mind from Miss Saigon, poignantly suggesting that the anguish of a prostitute is global.

In a varied set list, every song was choice and performing with no interval save for some costume changes in and out of some wickedly provocative Parisian suggesting lingerie, her performance was breathtaking. But it was when Ruffelle sung Piaf that an electricity filled the room. It is London’s loss that the capital never saw the genius that she brought to Leicester’s Curve Theatre. (A link to that show's review is at the foot of this page.) Slipping between English and French versions of different songs, her The Three Bells, with young Cole Emsley as a heavenly chorister accompanying, had spines tingling and when Piaf’s L’Accordioniste was played by the instrument’s (Italian) virtuoso Romano Viazzani, the room was enchanted. Revealing that her audition piece for Les Mis had been Hymn To Love, to witness her take on that song, performing it again to an audience that included the show’s co-director Trevor Nunn (one of many UK musical theatre luminaries present) and immerse herself in an all-consuming performance, was to see and hear a truly special moment.

Ruffelle’s week-long residency is sold out, a hallmark of an excellent performer and also the skilled touch of her unsung producer Danielle Tarento. If you are lucky enough to have a ticket, you’re in for a treat. There’s talk of the run being repeated and so it should be. There is no finer example of excellence, in both cabaret and musical theatre, in town.

My review of Piaf can be found here.

My recent profile of Frances Ruffelle can be found here.