Horror movies - a comment

Below is my short response to an article in todays Daily Mail


In 1960, Alfred Hitchcock made a movie that :

1. exploited schizophrenia:
2. showed a man enjoying spying on a naked woman showering,
3. showed the same man knifing the woman to death, whilst dressed in the clothes of his elderly dead mother

The film cut away from moments of explicit nudity, but the murder ( and subsequent murder of the investigating detective ) were graphically portrayed. The movie, Psycho, together with  its score by Bernard Herrmann, was acclaimed. The set remains a popular attraction at Universal Studios California.

The horror genre evolves. It  has always been designed to shock & frighten adults who choose to purchase a ticket. Yet we sow the seeds for an appetite for fantastic horror when we tell our children bedtime stories of evil step-mothers, poisoned apples, pricked fingers, child cruelty, wolves masquerading as granny and of solitary incarceration in remote towers.

Good  horror simply requires a contemporary  amorality that must be challenged.

Hello, Dolly! - Review

Curve Theatre, Leicester

*****

Book by Michael Stewart

Music & lyrics by Jerry Herman

Directed by Paul Kerryson

Janie Dee is Dolly Levi

In a grand show, whose qualities are built entirely upon a stunning company performance, the Curve’s production of Hello, Dolly! is a faultless piece of musical theatre.

Jerry Herman’s Broadway hit, later starring Barbra Streisand in the 1969 movie, tells of the preposterous antics of penniless widowed matchmaker Dolly Levi and her schemes to ultimately net the wealthy Yonkers grain merchant, Horace Vandergelder for herself. Levi can produce business cards that proclaim her an expert in just about everything and Michael Stewart’s book, itself based on Thornton Wilder’s play The Matchmaker, has Dolly weave what can only be described as a Ponzi scheme of romantic trickery and duplicity. Integral to the story’s delightfully ridiculous twists and turns are Levi’s client, the also widowed milliner Irene Molloy and Vandergelder’s much put upon impoverished clerks, Cornelius Hackl and Barnaby Tucker, excited to be making a trip to New York City with the sole aim of kissing a girl.

Janie Dee’s Dolly is a woman “who likes to know everything that’s going on” and her performance brims with as much talent as her character has chutzpah. Popping up from the middle of the stalls, her opening number I Put My Hand In sets the tone for both performance and show. Her eyes twinkle throughout and her lead of the company in the spectacular act one closer, Before The Parade Passes By, has such vitality that the song almost deserves several further verses and it is a disappointment when that number draws to a close. Act two sees her famous arrival at the Hermonia Gardens restaurant to the show’s title number and Dee, together with the ensemble’s waiters does not disappoint. She takes a Broadway classic that everybody knows and makes it her own.

Dale Rapley’s Vandergelder is a delightfully maturing curmudgeon, his song It Takes A Woman, a glorious celebration of male chauvinism. Rapley’s presence adds a delicious credibility to his bluster as through the show and much as he resists, Levi slowly reels him in.

West End star Michael Xavier is the hapless Hackl. Michael Crawford set the bar for this role in the movie and Xavier, with his movement and vocals vaults it effortlessly. Jason Denton’s Tucker provides the perfect foil to Hackl’s mania.

As Irene Molloy, Laura Pitt-Pulford shines. Already an accomplished off-West End leading actress, her Molloy has an infectious charm and her talent adds further glitter to the show’s Broadway sparkle. Ribbons Down My Back, sung as she yearns for a suitor, is arguably one of the most heartfelt yet emotionally lightly-touched numbers ever written for the stage and Pitt-Pulford catches its fragile complexity perfectly.

Paul Kerryson directs with perception and flourish using the massive Curve proscenium to its full. The shows images are grand and he enhances the red white and blue tickertape climax to act one with the inspired addition of local marching bands to the 14^th Street parade, The Scout and Guide Bands of Leicestershire on stage for this review.

David Needham’s choreography is breathtaking. The act two Waiter’s Gallop, clearly drilled into the cast with pinpoint precision, sees dancers cartwheel through mid-air.  On stage throughout, Ben Atkinson’s eight piece band provides a big-band sound that, from the opening refrain, transports the production from England’s East Midlands to America’s East Coast.  The set design by Sara Perks ingeniously employs projections and simple mechanisms (including an inspired revolving staircase) to portray the various New York city and railroad locations, whilst her costume work is meticulous.

With regional revivals currently achieving commercial success in the West End, Curve should plan to send this show south as soon as opportunities permit. It’s a confirmed Christmas cracker!

My profile of Janie Dee can be found here

Runs until 19 January 2012

Dick! - Review

Leicester Square Theatre, London


***

Written and directed by Stuart Saint





Miss Dusty O and Nathaniel Tapley

There was a spectacular opening on Leicester Square last night. No, it wasn’t the premiere of the Les Miserables movie, rather the intensely gothic made up mouth of Queen Runt, performed by Lucyelle Cliffe, firing off crude but witty obscenities at the audience of Dick!, this season's adult panto offering from the Leicester Square Theatre.

Stuart Saint has written and directed the show that is more inspired by young Whittington’s dick, than by his ultimate path to City Hall and the show’s plot, such as it is, has more holes in it than Dick’s ship the Leaky Vessel, upon which much of the action is set. Loaded with seasonally awful puns, saucy double entendres, as well as a generous helping of cheesy corn and some immaturely offensive filthy gags, there is something for everyone in this six handed romp.

The cast is a combination of seasoned performers and youthful talent. Leading the line is the wonderful drag queen Miss Dusty O, as Sofonda Cox, with a roving eye  for Dick’s manly charms. Cliffe’s evil Runt is a delightfully over the top baddy, out to thwart Dick’s ambitions. Nathaniel Tapley plays our hero’s cool sophisticated cat, with some of the evenings funniest lines enhanced by his sardonic delivery. Of the younger cast members, Rae Brogan stands out with a coquettish (cockettish?) performance as the delightfully named Alice Fitz-Nicely, a London streetwise gangsta kid who is the subject of Dick’s desire, whilst she herself is in pursuit of the key to unlock her chastity belt.

The show is bawdy, filthy and fun. Some of the jokes are hilarious (particularly when Runt, whilst pretending to be a tree, is used as a toilet)  some will offend and much of the plot is too shallow to float a canoe on, let alone the Leaky Vessel. Nonetheless, have a few drinks to loosen up the inhibitions, be prepared to be mercilessly picked on if you are in the first two rows, and enjoy one of the dirtiest Christmas nights in the West End.

Runs until 20 January

American Idiot - Review

Hammersmith Apollo, London

*****

Book by Billie Joe Armstrong and Michael Mayer

Lyrics by Billie Joe Armstrong

Music by Green Day

Directed by Michael Mayer



Jenna Rubaii and Thomas Hettrick



The logo for Green Day’s American Idiot is a clenched fist clutching a hand grenade that has in turn been fashioned from a bleeding heart. No orphaned waifs or green faced witches to depict this show. In what is possibly the most refreshingly intelligent new musical to open in London for some years, Michael Mayer (who also directs) has, in collaboration with Green Day’s creative talent Billie Joe Armstrong, taken the threads from the songs of the American Idiot album and woven a harsh but nonetheless credible and relevant story of America post 9/11.

The show is a refreshing blast of rock opera, painting a grand canvas that charts three disaffected young men, disillusioned with the modern USA.  Johnny falls into a drug-fuelled trajectory that almost destroys him, Tunny enlists and goes to fight in the Gulf whilst Will who also succumbs to a dope and drink fuelled life is forced to confront the responsibilities of accidentally becoming a father, a challenge that he ultimately fails to live up to.

Where musical theatre can typically be a land of charmingly talented whimsy, albeit one in which the most challenging of human circumstances may arise, American Idiot is born, not from the pen of a worldy-wise theatrical composer, nor from the saccharine stack of juke-box musicals that flood the commercial stages, but rather from the urgency of one of the most striking rock albums of this time. The music has a pulsing integrity and the book that is portrayed on stage is often harrowing but occasionally uplifting

The performers are all from the the States, which is where this touring company rehearsed the production under the direction of the original Broadway creatives. A six piece band spread across the largely open, but subtly designed stage, provides an authentic sound that replicates Green Day, but be warned: The acoustics of the cavernous Apollo are unforgiving and some of Billy Joe’s finely crafted poetry is at times lost against the wall of sound. If one can attend with some pre knowledge of the songs, it is to be recommended.

The drugs’ effects are performed harrowingly if not graphically and set against the horrors of war, the show hits deep levels of pathos. Tunny loses a leg fighting and in the field hospital prior to surgery he visualises an Extraordinary Girl. What follows is a sensational aerial ballet performed by the two characters (Thomas Hettrick and Jenna Rubaii) in which a passionate swirling dance and embrace of two talented performers fills the entire breadth, depth and height of the stage in a routine that is breathtaking to observe.  In one of Green Day’s most recognised hits, Wake Me Up When September Ends, Hettrick, with Alex Nee and Casey O’Farrell, Johnny and Will respectively, all play acoustic guitar to open the sensitive number before the band and ensemble fade in to support them.

Mark Shenton of the Sunday Express and The Stage drew some parallels between American Idiot and Movin Out, the show based on the songs of Billy Joel. This blog saw the Joel production both in New York City and in the West End and Shenton is right to comment. On Broadway, Movin Out was punchy and literally moving, taking Joel’s songs to create a believable story of the struggle of America’s post Vietnam veterans. The audience wept. In London though, the show bombed and whilst in the USA it touched a nation’s psyche, at the Victoria Apollo it was just another ( albeit good ) show that lacked  a domestic spark. Green Day have a larger and more youthful audience than Joel, so this production may achieve greater UK success in the future, but where expensive West End tickets require a wealthy  and typically older (and therefore possibly, not so connected to Green Day’s music) audience base, for American Idiot to achieve long or even medium term commercial recognition on this side of the pond will require immense hurdles of culture and attitude to be overcome.

Whilst success for the show "over here" cannot be easily predicted, it is unquestionably  deserved. American Idiot is brilliant, perceptive and whilst not telling an easy tale, is arguably the best new musical theatre in town.


Runs to December 16th

Fascinating Aida - Review

Richmond Theatre, London

***

This review was first published in The Public Reviews

With 30 years performing and touring behind them, Dillie Keane’s Fascinating Aida troupe delivered an accomplished one night only performance to a packed house in Richmond as their current UK tour winds to an end. The current line up of the trio comprises fellow veteran performer Adele Anderson who co–writes with Keane, together with younger soprano Liza Pulman.

Keane and Anderson have brilliant minds, and their lyrics are frequently incisive. With a routine that mocks youth, gays, paedophiles, men, women and Dignitas, the act contains something to offend everyone. That their rhymes can nonetheless be frequently anticipated is a modest disappointment, though a spoof rap that includes “ I may not be hip…but I got my own hips” was one of the evening’s moments of genuine humour. Whilst politicians come in for an expected battering it is a sad reflection that notwithstanding the intellectual firepower of these women, the biggest laughs of the night were for a filthy song about tax avoidance, Companies Using Nifty Tax Schemes ( the initials, geddit?) and for another number entitled and about, Dogging ( google it). Clearly, however talented the performer, knob-gags and smug-smut are what the fans crave. Is this a reflection of these “all-licensed fools” or of the British audience? The answer is probably both. Their by now well-known routine, Cheap Flights, a Riverdance inspired criticism of the likes of Ryanair, was witty in both lyric and dance, though a later piece with cod Bob Fosse Cabaret-inspired choreography that made fun of the Germans, was shallow. In a moment of serious reflection, towards the end of act 2, Lay One Less Place At The Table was a wistful observation on the loss of dear ones as the years pass. Included amongst such ribaldry however, the song comes across as more mawkish than the performers would have intended. A penultimate number suggesting a move to New Zealand to avoid world destruction and global terror was quite simply awful and seemed an odd choice to be part of a closing routine.

The three women excel as performers. Word perfect and with excellent sound and lighting, they are exemplary in their commitment to touring with outstanding technical standards. Their routines are skilfully planned and executed, wittily directed and aside from a momentary crotch revealing wardrobe malfunction by Miss Anderson, fun to watch. Evidently adored by their fans and notwithstanding their imperfections, Fascinating Aida remain a pillar of Britain’s comic establishment.

see www.fascinatingaida.co.uk for future tour dates

Lemony Snicket's Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming

Roundhouse, London

****

Music & lyrics: Lemez & Fridel

Co – directors: Olivia Jacobs and Tim Hibberd

 

This review was first published in The Public Reviews

Lemony Snicket sees his work brought to the British stage for the first time with this seasonal tale of cultural diversity.

Latkes are traditional potato pancakes served during the Jewish winter celebrations of Chanukah, but the one that Snicket focuses on, upon realising that his ultimate purpose in life is to be plunged into hot oil and fried, not unreasonably chooses to escape the frying pan. As he runs through his snow covered village, he encounters gentile and Christian seasonal traditions that make for some well observed contrasts.

Tall Stories who were commissioned to create the work, have succeeded in presenting a one act piece that deploys the considerable talents of their five person cast in stimulating and exercising the imaginations of their young audience. Their depiction of twinkling Christmas lights on a nearby house, using simply different coloured bobble hats and the actors’ nodding head movements is brilliant, whilst their portrayal of the heroic battle that underlies the story of Chanukah, using different vegetables to tell the saga, is inspired. The audience at the press performance comprised very young school children who laughed and clapped through most of the show.

The story however carries some flaws. The ultimate change of heart of the latke, to willingly accept being deep-fried (and hence die) is not explained and similarly in the battle, from amongst a wealth of available fruit and veg, the writers elect to portray the Jews using potatoes, vegetables that within this show’s structure at least, have a sole destiny that is to be grated, fried and ultimately consumed. Whilst children may not make such a dark connection, this is a clumsy mechanism that inappropriately addresses a classic piece of history. The Chanukah dreydl, or spinning top, is introduced but not satisfactorily explained, nor is the closing Hebrew song of Moaz Tsur, which whilst being familiar to a Jewish audience, will leave other faiths bewildered. Perhaps the producers could provide a more detailed programme, rather than the current meagre sheet of A4 paper.

Amongst the cast , Michael Lambourne is a delightful lead, whose movement and facial expression had the kids in fits of giggles. Stuart Barter’s guitar, with other actors on clarinet provides an authentic klezmer background, whilst Heather Saunders as a sultry Miss Candy Cane is sweetly seductive.

The show is a fun fifty minutes that will broaden your mind and leave you craving a hot fresh fragrant latke.

Runs until 30 December

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