Reviews
Sister Act – the reviews round-up
Sister Act the Musical – Mixed Reviews
The critics have given their opinions of Sister Act the Musical and they don’t seem to be quite sure. Ratings vary between 4* and 2* . Have a look for yourself and see if you agree:
Evening Standard (****) –
“It’s been done before, the reasoning might have gone, so why not do it again? Put a singing nun centre stage in a musical and watch the piece climb every mountain … Whether or not divine intervention is involved, it’s a wimple-wibbling, habit-forming triumph … Before Peter Schneider’s production builds up the unstoppable head of momentum that led to the quickest standing ovation I’ve ever seen on a West End first night, there are some dubious early moments. Once we find Sheila Hancock’s delightfully droll Mother Superior (‘God has brought you to this place: take the hint’) waiting for Deloris, sorry, Sister Mary Clarence, things take a distinct turn for the heavenly. Alan Menken’s attractive, gospel-inflected score kicks in … Helped along by Anthony Van Laast’s energetic choreography … There can be no disputing the evening’s main draw: 24-year-old Miller, …. Her magnificent voice is rich, soaring and, crucially, unflagging. She might have been unknown last night, but today all that will have changed. Take it away, sisters.”
Daily Telegraph (****) –
Based like most new musicals these days on an old movie, Sister Act proves more enjoyable on stage than it did on film. I caught the show at the final preview with an audience of regular punters rather than the usual first-night rent-a-mob, and the cheers and standing ovation at the end were both genuine and deserved. The book, by Cheers writers Cheri and Bill Steinkellner, is strong, funny and touching. And the disco-inspired score by Disney favourite Alan Menken, with neat lyrics by Glenn Slater, is a cracker. Frankly, what’s not to like, especially when you’ve got a chorus line of jiving nuns singing their hearts out ecstatically? … The show’s real find is the American Patina Miller as Deloris. She has all the comic vitality of Whoopi Goldberg in the film, but she’s sexier and sings up a storm. When she’s belting out the disco-diva anthems you might be listening to Gloria Gaynor or Chaka Khan. She also has a funky, spunky stage presence and great comic timing … I suspect this musical comedy about a nun on the run could prove habit-forming.”
The Times was less sure:
The Times (***) –
a rather sweet, sentimental film has been hyped up, coarsened, given what — were the Palladium flown to Times Square — we’d call the big, brash Broadway treatment … The film’s point was that Deloris liberates the nuns’ voices while they liberate her spirit. She puts modern soul into their Salve Regina, they put Salve Regina into her modern soul. But there’s no gentle piety here … There’s less deft comedy, but much more music, most of it indebted to the 1970s, where the action is now set. That lets Alan Menken, the composer, have a lot of catchy fun with period rock and disco … And that lets Patina Miller display the first of her star qualities, a terrific voice. Add warmth, humour, vivacity — and you’ve a star who lacks Whoopi’s wry vulnerability but adds dazzle to the razzle around her.”
Others were less kind. Quentin Letts seems to object on religious grounds, whilst admitting it’s likely to be a hit:
Daily Mail (**) –
“Call me a miserable old monk but I hated Sister Act….. This noisy, pumpy, insistently American musical will doubtless be a solid summer hit for the Palladium. It will entertain thousands of people who are out for a simple night’s fun and don’t get their cassocks in a tangle, like I do, about church liturgy. Much of it is well performed. Just count me out. From the start there is basically one joke: namely, the spectacle of nuns grooving around on the dance floor. I know I may be taking it too seriously but I found myself recoiling sharply from this story’s saccharine values and its bullying gaiety. The thing is as shallow as the Aral Sea. Hideously formulaic. Musical by numbers. Yuck, yuck, yuck … The evening’s chief on-stage talents are Sheila Hancock, who plays the stern Mother Superior, and Patina Miller as Deloris … Miss Hancock is on fine form and Miss Miller, after an off-key start, shows herself to have a cheesy presence and a Merlin engine of a voice.
”
Michael Billington’s objections are more varied:
The Guardian (**)
…A world away from the cloistered charmers of The Sound of Music. What we have here is a show that feels less like a personally driven work of art than a commercial exploitation of an existing franchise … What was originally a fairytale fantasy, however, makes little sense in its new, vulgarised incarnation … In order to pad out a slight story, every key member of the cast also has to be given a number … Alan Menken’s music admittedly has a pounding effectiveness and the opening number, ‘Take Me to Heaven’, is skillfully turned into a hymn to religious, rather than sensual, ecstasy. Patina Miller invests Deloris with a wealth of raucous energy and just about convinces in her conversion from fame-seeking individualist to member of the singing sorority. Sheila Hancock lends the show some needed gravitas as the Mother Superior … All too typically the nuns, in Anthony van Laast’s choreography, kick up their heels like the Rockettes and prance around in gilt vestments that might be described as surplice to requirements.
(That last pun really should have been edited out – just awful!)
Your Reviews of Sister Act
I’ve not been yet but I do intend going over the summer. Meanwhile, dear readers:
Have you seen it?
What do you think of the show?
Are the critics wrong yet again?
Do leave us your reviews of Sister Act in the comments.
Phantom of the Opera -a Classic Night Out
Arriving at Phantom of the Opera
We arrived at Her Majesty’s Theatre at around 7 p.m. The foyer was already buzzing with early arrivals, programme sellers and theatre staff selling glasses of chilled champagne.We resisted the temptation (just!) and picked up our tickets. It was just lovely not to have to queue.
In the Bar of the Theatre
Then we headed for a pre-show drink in the bar. The bars are bright and attractive with a varied range of drinks available. I was greedy and opted for a “large”, actually huge, glass of pinot noir. We enjoyed the bustle as more people arrived, enough to be a crowd but not so many as to be a crush. The doors to the auditorium opened about ten minutes before the show was due to start. The theatre quickly filled and even on a Monday night there were very few empty seats.
** Book Phantom of The Opera Theatre Breaks via Superbreak **
A Lovely Old Theatre and a New Sound System
We made our way to our seats and began to look around. It really is a lovely, old fashioned theatre. There’s something much more intimate about the older West End theatres. Here we really felt we were close to the stage rather than watching everything happening in the distance.
I’d been a bit concerned with all the talk of the Phantom’s new sound system but I needn’t have worried. The amplification was just about right for the space and the suitably spooky sound effects weren’t too intrusive.
Very Special Effects
There are some super effects in Phantom of the Opera. I must admit I was a bit worried when I realised I was sitting directly underneath that famous Phantom chandelier ! There are some quite magical moments but I’m not going to go into too much detail in case you’ve not been yet. The production has been around for over 20 years and yet it still works and seems quite fresh.
The Music of the Night
Much of the music of Phantom of the Opera is quite familiar. There was some quite wonderful singing from the principals and from the ensemble. I did find it hard at first not to make comparisons with Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman. They both have such distinctive voices. Once I was swept up in the live performance though, I suspended my disbelief and lost myself in the story, the spectacle and the glory of the music.
The Costumes
I thought the costume designs were stunning. I loved all the opera costumes and make-up. It was like watching a period theatre print or one of those paper toy theatres come to life. I thought Masquerade scene was also a particular joy but my partner was not so sure and thought it was ‘a bit garish’. And indeed, it was garish. I thought that just added to the nightmare quality of the scene.
The Story of Phantom of the Opera
I’m sure there are people who don’t know the story of Phantom of the Opera. For that reason I’m not going to give the plot away here.
I will tell you that the story centres on a rather dreamy, fragile young woman. Christine is a member of the chorus of the Paris Opera sometime in the 19th century.Her father was a famous musician and before he died he promised he would send her ‘the angel of music’ to take care of her. Suffice to say what she believes to be the angel turns out not to be quite what she thinks. Drawn to the Phantom yet repulsed by him Christine has to make a choice.
The story is full of sweeping romantic emotions and gothic fantasy. Tragedy and pathos intertwine as we see what formed the monster that the Phantom has become.
I think the Paris setting works well because it is the ultimate, romantic city. I don’t mean the soft romantic comedy sort of romance. I mean Romantic with a capital R, gothic trappings and plenty of angst! The production taps into that idea of Paris, making me think of those overgrown cemeteries and pale, doomed young women who are half in love with death.
I love the idea that below the Paris Opera there’s might be a vast subterranean lake. It is like something from a fairy tale.
Phantom of the Opera is a Classic
It was a glorious night of extravagant musical theatre. We came out of the theatre into the London night with that lovely feeling that only comes from seeing a good show. I wasn’t alone either. All around me people were talking about what a great evening it had been and how much they’d enjoyed it. The chap next to me certainly had as I’d gradually noticed he was very quietly singing along through the whole show! (He had a nice voice and it was very quiet so not a bit annoying!)
Even on a cold Monday evening in January the West End is buzzing as people come out of the shows. I felt quite envious of those who weren’t off to catch a train but were heading for their hotels. Too hyped up to go straight home, we wandered off in search of an after-theatre supper and a chance to talk over the evening. A couple of days later I’m still humming The Music of the Night and remembering The Phantom Of The Opera.
** Book Phantom of The Opera Theatre Breaks via Superbreak **
Carousel – the reviews
Carousel Reviews
The newspaper critics reviews for Carousel at the Savoy Theatre are in and mostly they are fairly positive. Lesley Garrett comes in for a bit of criticism for her performance but apart from that I think they had a good time.
Benedict Nightingale in The Times at first felt the production suffered by comparison with the revival at the National 10 years ago but eventually warmed to it:
Yet gradually I thawed, as caught up in Hammerstein’s book as I was captivated by maybe the finest score even Rodgers ever produced. Yes, the show was overmiked, meaning that some songs sounded shrill. Yes, the artlessly cheerful millgirls who form half the chorus swirled about to annoyingly cute effect. Yes there wasn’t enough gravity in that wonderfully subjunctive love song, ‘If I Loved You’, and, yes, that meant that Alexandra Silber and Jeremiah James were failing to displace Joanna Riding and Michael Hayden on my mental hard disk. But by the famous ballet at the end I was won over once again.”
Michael Billington in the Guardian isn’t that keen on the show, never mind this production:
“How good is Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel? … Personally, I’ve always thought it a flawed masterwork; and so it proves once again in Lindsay Posner’s well-sung revival which holds one’s attention until the death of the hero, Billy Bigelow, after which the show ascends into the empyrean and the realms of pseudo-art “
Nicholas de Jongh in the Evening Standard was enchanted by the production but not too keen on Lesley Garret’s “gross, music hall Nettie”
“Despite Lindsay Posner’s old-fashioned production I was enchanted by Rodgers and Hammerstein’s bitter-sweet musical fantasy about missed life-chances in a 1870s New England village … That wonderful designer, William Dudley, initially summons up a fairground carousel that looks unprettily low-rent……. Dudley’s vivid back-projections offer ocean views, ships sailing and, with thrilling illusionary deftness, the spectacle of Billy ascending to heaven’s ‘back-yard’
Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph is more impressed and even names Carousel as “one of the greatest of all musicals”
“Most of the principals may not be famous names, but they bring real sincerity and freshness to their roles. Better yet, the cramped stage means that the show often seems to explode with vitality. In that great song of renewal and seething sexuality, ‘June is Bustin’ Out All Over’, Adam Cooper’s choreography sets the stage alight with high-kicks, dangerous lifts and a testosterone-charged athleticism that is thrilling. Of course, there will always be some who dismiss Carousel as gluttonously sentimental. It is not to everyone’s tastes … By the end of the show, with many in the audience audibly sniffing back the tears, it is clear that justice has been done to one of the greatest of all musicals.”
Ian Shuttleworth in the Financial Times enjoyed the show but felt the production ignored the darker side of Carousel.
I left the Savoy Theatre with hope in my heart, as the song exhorts, uplifted and unashamed at my immersion in the sentimentality of Lindsay Posner’s production. Only later did I remember that, to achieve this result, he has had to sell the pass on virtually every shadow in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical.
Yes, songs such as “If I Loved You” and the roustabout Billy Bigelow’s “Soliloquy” are heartbreaking in their yearning, and “June Is Bustin’ Out All Over” is an irresistible paean to going forth and multiplying. But, as Alastair Macaulay noted on this page on the show’s last major British revival in 2006 at Chichester, the narrative elements include “unemployment and conventional ideas of feminine decency… male violence to women, excessive gambling and finally a one-parent family”. All of which, in the moment (well, the three hours), manage to glide by insubstantially.
So there you are, mostly they enjoyed Carousel. I’d love to do a round up of blog reviews at this point but there really haven’t been any yet!
Of course, if you’ve been to see Carousel at the Savoy you are welcome to add your opinions here.
Imagine This – critics reviews
Imagine This – what the press said:
Last night was press night for Imagine This, the new musical set in the Warsaw Ghetto. Despite our best wishes I’m afraid all did not go well.
Michael Billington in the Guardian was unimpressed
“They said it couldn’t be done: a musical about the Warsaw ghetto. And, now that I’ve seen it, I know that they were right
Oh dear 
Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph was a bit more encouraging:
“At one level, the show strikes me as not bad at all. There are big soaring anthems, a strong love interest and a plot that undoubtedly grips. The production values, though far from extravagant, are effective enough, and though there are no star names, the performances are impressive … Imagine This has a certain integrity about it.
So far so good, but it didn’t stay that way:
Except, of course, for one inconvenient, incontrovertible and unpalatable fact – this is a musical that attempts to turn the Holocaust into entertainment.
And it got even worse by the end of the review:
Imagine This must finally be judged a manipulative and morally dubious show. In the present harsh economic climate, however, it is unlikely to trouble the West End for long.”
Benedict Nightingale in The Times wasn’t impressed either. He didn’t seem to have the same level of distaste for the choice of subject but he still wasn’t happy. He found many of the lines ‘clunky’ and said this was “accompanied by a major loss of nerve on everyone’s part”
Evening Standard critic Nicholas DeJong felt that the musical should come with a bad taste warning. He didn’t like the book or the score much either. He said:
In any case, the music and songs of Imagine This never do justice to its terrifying theme.”
So how can it be that those arbiters of blogging taste The West End Whingers loved the show? The Whingers are not known for their patience with anything below their undoubtedly high standards. They found themselves enjoying the show and it seems they were not alone:
Judging by the cheers of the audience at the curtain call and several who awarded standing ovations (probably Americans too – they’re on a high at the moment so it’s excused this time) it could prove to be the next surprise hit.
If the crowds who turn out for Les Miz (and God knows there are enough of them) aren’t deterred by the credit crunch The Whingers imagine this could be the just the fare they’ve been looking for. Imagine that.
Imagine This – have your say.
So, dear readers, what do you think? Have you seen the show? Do you agree with the critics or have they misjudged the show? Leave us a comment and let us know what you think of Imagine This.
Come Dancing, Reviews and Previews
Come Dancing is a new musical by Ray Davies of the Kinks.
Come Dancing reviews
We really enjoyed our evening at Come Dancing, the new Ray Davies musical, at the Theatre Royal Stratford East on Friday. I thought the show was perfect for the theatre and for the Stratford audience. I can’t really give a fair Come Dancing review, as it was still in preview, so these are just my impressions.
The Come Dancing Set
The first thing I noticed on going into the theatre was that a few rows of seats had been replaced by tables and chairs and some people were seated at tables on the stage. There was also a bar on stage which the audience were encouraged to use during the interval.
The set is designed to give the illusion that most of the time we were actually in the Ilford Palais dance hall in the mid ’50s. Lighting changes were skillfully used to convey set changes.
I’m usually wary of this kind of thing in traditional theatres but I think it worked very well. We were in the first row of theatre seats (row D) and had a good view of the production. The tables looked like great fun and I’d be sorely tempted if I went again!
The Cast of Come Dancing
Ray Davies
Ray looked quite nervous at first, in his role as narrator but he soon settled into it. I thought he was in good voice and gave an excellent and at times very touching performance.
Gemma Salter was fantastic as Ray’s youngest sister Julie. She has a great voice and a strong stage presence. This is her first major role and I am sure it is just a glimpse of things to come. She looked frail and delicate, as the role required, but she gave the part just the edge of steel it needed. (I couldn’t help but think what a wonderful Nancy she might have made!)
I thought Alasdair Harvey’s portrayal of the fading band leader Frankie was superb but it’s not really fair to single people out as the rest of the cast were terrific too.
The Story of Come Dancing
I’m not going to spoil it by saying anything much about the plot. It is a really genuine, touching human story. Ray Davies has done his best to show us a moment of transition, the birth of the teenager, the start of rock and roll and what it meant to that post war generation. I think he’s done a good job of capturing the raw, sometimes dangerous, energy of the time as the new generation began to emerge.
The Future for the Musical of Come Dancing
I really hope that Come Dancing gets a West End transfer, or perhaps a regional tour. It was still in previews when we went so it would not be fair for anybody to write full Come Dancing reviews just yet. Still, I’m happy to give an initial thumbs up because I feel so positive about the show. The audience were on their feet clapping and dancing by the end. It was a great night out, full of excellent music, wonderful dancing, laughter and tears.
If you get the chance to see Come Dancing, even if you are not a Kinks fan, go!
There are one or two less favourable Come Dancing reviews around already but the vast majority of the audience on Friday night seemed to share my positive opinion of the production. Hopefully it will soon be everyone’s favourite new musical. We’ll be watching Come Dancing’s progress with the highest of hopes for all involved.
Other Views and reviews
- LondonTheatreGoer “I still don’t like musicals“
- Lyn Gardner, The Guardian “not theatrical rock’n'roll“
- Wharf “sure-fire hit“
- Tim Walker, The Independent
- Fiona Mountford, Evening Standard
- Londonist
- British Theatre Guide “I have rarely been more touched“
- Kate Kellaway – Observer “hackneyed”, “embarrassing“
- Financial Times “a comfy evening
- Sunday Times – “wide-eyed fun and tension”, “mostly sweet and sometimes memorable”
Open Comments
Agree or disagree with our review, have you seen Come Dancing yet or hoping to? Ray Davies fan or not, what do you think of the issues and ideas behind bringing this musical to London?
Update
The show is almost over now so will it make a transfer to the West End? Make up your own mind and thanks to our commentor Frank for this video:
Zorro the Musical – Reviews
Zorro the Musical
My Zorro review: Great Entertainment!
Zorro! was on our list of must-see shows this summer and last week we settled our selves down into our seats and waited to be entertained. I’d heard a lot about fancy sword work, acrobatics and effects but wondered if all of this would get in the way of the story. Well, I needn’t have worried. The show is a great romp through a simple story and I just found it all incredibly enjoyable from start to finish.
Families go to see Zorro
As I looked round the audience I saw a huge mix of ages with families of young children, teenagers and much older people. I was a little concerned about the large number of quite young children but that turned out to be unfounded. They were all just as entranced as everyone else and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Zorro as the perfect show for families.
Zorro as a musical with dance
The lively hot passionate and at times heartbreakingly tragic flamenco songs and guitar music added hugely to the magical theatre atmosphere. personally, I would have been happy to hear more from the flamenco performers, but this complex and at times challenging music is used fairly sparingly, which is perhaps easier for an unaccustomed audience. There are some great original songs and also some from the Gypsy Kings’ own repertoire are woven into the plot quite cleverly.
I particularly enjoyed some of the chorus pieces, and overall the mix of singing and dancing was full of energy and exuberance to the point of creating a wonderfully inviting festival atmosphere by the end of the show.
The cast of Zorro
My absolute favourite was Lesli Margherita as Inez, the Gypsy Queen. She was smart and funny, playing the role with an archness that connected her beautifully with the audience. Her singing and dancing were brilliant.
Matt Rawle made a superb Diego, feckless and charming with an edge of steel. He’s got a lovely sense of comic timing and some of my favourite scenes were between him and Lesi. He’s also very athletic and we were treated to some fine stunt work at which I could only gasp in amazement.
Adam Levy was a stunningly vile Ramon, the villain of the piece. His acting was excellent and his singing very fine. In the end he made the odious Ramon a believable character, a tortured soul, more to be pitied than hated.
Nick Caveliere was very good as Garcia, playing the role with a lovely mix of comedy and pathos.
Emma Williams as Luisa glowed with light and looked lovely from the start, then rose to the occasion of singing the set piece solo and a couple of nice duets. My only small reservation about this casting was that she just seemed to look and act slightly out of place against the colourful hispanic flavour of everything else. Like a moonflower in a bed of hibiscus.
Final thoughts
By the end of an evening I could hardly keep still. The Gypsy King’s music and this exuberant production had got right under my skin and I, and just about everyone else, danced my way out of the theatre. Grinning at each other from ear to ear whilst reluctantly exiting the theatre, the audience left no doubt that they had been well and truly entertained, a great night out having been enjoyed by all. I would thoroughly recommend Zorro the musical to anybody.
** Book Zorro the musical theatre breaks **
Other Zorro Reviews
Three stars from What’s on Stage : Zorro
Four from Michael Billington in the Guardian : Zorro
“Lacklustre First Night ” by the Independent – aw, shame for them.
The Female of the Species Reviewed
The Female of the Species, Vaudeville Theatre 15-07-08
The Female of the Species a comedy, opened last night at the Vaudeville Theatre. The play is ‘loosely’ based on an incident in the life of Germaine Greer. The author Joanna Murray-Smith is at pains to deny that the feminist writer at the heart of the play is based on Greer stating that she wouldn’t dare to portray her on stage. Germaine Greer begs to differ, points out that the incident itself was nearer to tragedy than farce, and is suitably outraged.
I’ve read most of Germaine Greer’s books and I’m a great admirer of her work. This made me rather uneasy but we’d been given some complementary tickets (one of the perks of blogging ) and I thought I’d go with an open mind.
There is nothing like a Dame
Dame Eileen Atkins takes the lead as Margot Mason, a famous feminist author. I’m trying here to avoid mentioning Germaine Greer again but it’s very hard. She even looks a tiny bit like her, although at least she’s not wearing one of those classic grey Greer frocks. Her performance is quite wonderful, pure class and very funny. She dominates the stage and the play showing us in turn the vast ego of the woman, her undeniable intellect and her vulnerability. Atkins mixes this with some great comic timing and some lovely, physical comedy. Even in moments when the focus was off her it was hard to drag my eyes away from her expressive face.
I think her real triumph was to take a potentially unsympathetic part and make us see Margot as very human and often actually right in her assessment of people. Atkins’ Margot is witty and smart with a tiny edge of self-doubt. Even though Margot is the focus of everyone’s anger in the play Atkins’ performance steals the show and it is the other characters who end up looking hollow and foolish.
So far so good.
I was not so happy with some of the other performances. I felt that the rest of the cast were patchy. Everyone had good moments but no one shone. Each of the characters in turn gets to have a go at Margot (by now handcuffed to her desk) and tell her just where she, and the rest of the feminist movement have gone wrong. Each tries to tell her she is to blame for the situation they find themselves in.
The two younger women, Anna Maxwell Martin (the self styled ‘homicidal intruder’) and Sophie Thompson (the ‘disappointing’ daughter) both played their parts with gusto but with a rather exaggerated use of physical ticks.
I quite enjoyed Paul Chahidi as the son -in -law. Despite the character being dense, well meaning, full of platitudes but a bit of a cardboard cut out Chahidi managed to make me feel quite sympathetic to him.
Poor Con O’Neill has a strange and amazingly short part to play, coming on only for the last 15 minutes or so as the taxi driver. He’s almost the last to speak and is made to give voice to the argument that it’s these nasty feminists who have messed up a system that’s worked fine since the time of the cave men (no – really!) Unfortunately the biggest laugh he raised the night we saw it was when he slightly corpsed in response to a line from Sophie Thomson.
There’s also a very small cameo role as Margot’s publisher for Sam Kelly right at the very end.
So is it funny?
Well, yes. There are some wonderful one liners and moments of hilarity. It’s not the great intellectual comedy, which it sort of aspires to be but it is funny. It made an interesting and enjoyable evening at the theatre. If I had paid for my ticket I wouldn’t have felt in the least bit cheated. It was a real treat to see a genuine Dame of the theatre in action.
Seven Reviews
In March 2008 an American theatre critic called Christopher Rawson visited London and attended plays, then published his reviews on the Post Gazette
The shows were:
- Speed-the-Plow
- Brief Encounter
- The Sea
- God of Carnage
- Lord of the Rings
- Dealer’s Choice
- Much Ado About Nothing
Speed-the-Plow
The Old Vic isn’t as impeccably British as its storied past would suggest, because it’s often been saved from the wrecking ball by colonials, most recently by America’s Spacey, who serves as artistic director and does one or two shows himself each year.
In Mamet’s satire of the unholy mix of art, ego and money that is Hollywood, directed by Matthew Warchus, Spacey plays the feral, desperate agent, Charlie Fox, opposite the vacillating, self-obsessed producer, Bobby Gould. In the role originally played on Broadway by Madonna (she wasn’t bad), is Laura Michelle Kelly, who was largely unknown in “Mary Poppins,” has since done the movie “Sweeney Todd” and here shows she can stick with the best.
The story is pitch, counter-pitch and kill. Fox brings Gould a blockbuster deal involving a big star, which he has one day to nail down. Gould, reveling in his new power (and office) as head of production, is set to take it to the studio head, but on a whim he gives a recent artsy novel to the pretty young temp to read; she gets into his mind (and bed) and persuades him to make that movie instead. So Fox has to fight for his life to save the world for greed, male bonding and commerce.
It’s a taut 90-minute dance of high comic obsession, slack only occasionally in the scene between Gould and the temp, but when Spacey and Goldblum are crashing egos, enthralling. Gould is right down Goldblum’s power alley: No one is better at comic indecision. And Spacey is flat out ferocious and funny.
Brief Encounter
This was my sleeper hit. Staged by a group from Cornwall called Kneehigh, it bears resemblance to work by our own Quantum Theatre in being designed for an unusual site, a plush movie theater. As you enter, the ushers serenade the audience with live music. Then the movie begins, the company’s own approximation of “Brief Encounter,” the 1946 movie based on a Coward play about a doctor and an unhappy wife who meet in a railway station cafe and have an affair that they must eventually end.
As the movie plays, a couple in the front row stand, arguing. Announcing her return to her husband, she climbs on stage right into the movie, while he stands bereft. The movie screen rises to reveal the railway station set, and the play begins.
But as Coward’s slim, tear-jerker story proceeds, it’s varied with movie clips, powerful rear projections, puppets and musical and comic vaudeville turns by the many-talented supporting cast of eight. All show wonderful range. This one is worth a London trip on its own.
The Sea
Fertile playwright Bond first came to notice in the 1960s for his Marxist, confrontational work that challenges national myths, such as a version of “King Lear” that attacks both Stalinism and bourgeois culture. The playwright of the intellectual Fringe, this is his first ever appearance on the West End — and at the Haymarket, normally home of starry revivals.
“The Sea” (1973) is a puzzler. Set before World War I, it starts as a comedy about an imperious dowager, Mrs. Rafi (Atkins), who bullies a seaside town, driving the poor local clothing merchant (David Haig) to despair. Meanwhile, a young man has drowned, though his fiancee doesn’t mourn much; the merchant is obsessed with space aliens; and in a perfect Bond scene the funeral turns into comic/horrid bickering, with the deceased’s ashes getting in everyone’s hair.
Whipsawed by comedy, tragedy and farce, the audience searches for its moorings. With its cast of 14, “The Sea” turns out to be a big, state-of-the-nation play, like a very sour, strange “Heartbreak House,” and indeed Bond comes across as an earthy mix of Shaw, Albee, the late, prophetic Ibsen and some cranky farceur.
Atkins is brilliant in her sour, dour mode, especially in a sympathetic tirade against social expectation. Haig’s bizarre character is best in comic desperation, maniacally shearing bolts of cloth. Jonathan Kent, late of the Almeida Theatre, directs. Bond is hard, but he’s full of pith.
God of Carnage
The most common denominator of the eight shows I saw was Warchus, who directed this one, too, as well as “Lord of the Rings.” He’s done much of Frenchwoman Reza’s work in England, from “Art” through “Life X 3″ and “The Unexpected Man.” Clearly he’s at home with her dark comedies of the professional middle class, baffled by the everyday and falling into emotional black holes.
Fiennes and Grieg are parents of a boy who has badly injured Stott and McTeer’s son. The very civilized couples meet to deal with this, as Fiennes, a high-powered lawyer, talks incessantly on his cell phone about a pharmaceutical case with ghastly parallels. Gradually it gets nasty, but with the four finding surprising alliances. In Reza, life really is a schoolyard writ large.
In early preview, I thought there was some irresolution in the latter stages, but this slick, gimlet-eyed comedy of insight ought to be a hit. I’m already casting it in my mind for New York and Pittsburgh.
Lord of the Rings
You could call it an epic with music, since the Finno-Indian-New Age score by A.R. Rahman, Varttina and Christopher Nightingale arises mainly from the action: Hobbits dance, Elves sing and men lament.
You know the story, whether told in three volumes, three movies or (here) three hours, which is indeed a 20-minute improvement on Toronto. I think they’ve mainly pruned the endless Orc battles, which needed it. My favorite parts remain the celebratory Hobbits chasing butterflies and clog-dancing with zest. The Elves are gorgeous, the men (Boromir, Strider/Aragorn) don’t overplay too much and Frodo doesn’t agonize forever, as in the movie. Malcolm Storry’s Gandalf, though, feels too laid-back.
Matching the score’s invention and grandeur are the elaborate setting, lights and costumes. And spilling into the audience, the show takes time for humor (not Tolkien’s strength), as when Orcs chase kids back to their seats after a brief scene change in Act 2.
In my online On Stage Journal, I said I thought that given better leads “Lord of the Rings” was ready for New York, but now it has announced it will close this summer, planning only an immediate international tour.
“Dealer’s Choice”
Marber’s play had a huge impact in 1995, when poker must have seemed a fresh if risky subject for the stage. Now, you can’t turn on the telly without running into poker tournaments. In Act 1, we meet the players — the owner and staff of a restaurant. Primed on their relationships, we sail into the poker game that fills Act 2. There’s no great revelation but plenty of chance for gut-bucket realistic acting.
It gets that only intermittently at the Trafalgar Studio on Whitehall. Most of the power comes from the canny performance of the one stranger by Roger Lloyd Pack. But the central relationship between the owner (Malcolm Sinclair) and his son (Samuel Barnett, who starred in “History Boys”) never feels very real, partly because Marber and Sinclair make it too obvious. Still, why haven’t we seen this in Pittsburgh?
Much Ado About Nothing
This inventive comic version of the battle of quick wit and shy love between Beatrice and Benedick comes last only because it’s now out of the National Theatre rep, with Beale moved on to “Major Barbara.”
Clearly in their 50s, Beale and Wanamaker gave the comedy of their late love a welcome edge — one we’ve seen before in such mature pairings as Brian Bedford and Martha Henry at the Stratford Festival. A greater novelty than age was Beatrice’s bottle, emphasizing her rejection of life and re-emergence.
Most famously, a small pond at Leonato’s Sicilian villa facilitated both stars’ getting doused, with a different joke in each case. It was another hit for the National’s head, director Nicholas Hytner, who filled it with telling detail, not to mention the funniest Dogberry-Verges pair I can remember.
Post-Gazette theater critic Christopher Rawson can be reached at crawson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1666.
First published on March 30, 2008 at 12:00 am
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