HELLO, DOLLY!
December 7, 2012
Curve, Leicester, until Saturday, January 12, 2013
CURVE’S big Christmas show has become a tradition to look forward to along with the mince pies and carols. Hello, Dolly! does not disappoint.
Directed by the venue’s musicals king Paul Kerryson, this glitzy, glamorous production is crammed with lavish costumes, huge sets, well-drilled dancers and lusty vocalists.
The Jerry Herman score, originally written with Ethel Merman in mind, is bursting with energy as it recounts the matchmaking exploits of wisecracking widow Dolly Levi in late-19th Century New York. The sparkle of the material is matched every inch of the way by the performances, which are delivered with genuine passion and large doses of fun.
Janie Dee, stepping into the show fairly late in the day, gives a Dolly who’s adorable and exasperating in equal measure, grounding the show with quality and class and covering the tricky musical range with ease and elegance.
She’s well supported by Dale Rapley as grumpy widower Horace Vandergelder, the target of her own matchmaking intentions, and a wonderful double-act as his employees Cornelius and Barnaby. This pair, played with joyous boyishness by Michael Xavier and Jason Denton, are never less than infectious with their bright-eyed innocence and drop-of-a-hat falling in love, and do much to make this show a real crowdpleaser.
Topped off with a fabulous on-stage band of eight under musical director Ben Atkinson, the production looks and sounds terrific and is sure to have Leicester’s toes tapping right through the festive season.
ENTERTAINING MR SLOANE
November 9, 2012
Curve Studio, Leicester, until Saturday, November 24, 2012
JOE Orton’s black comedy about prejudice and hypocrisy is almost fifty years old. Playing at Leicester’s Curve Studio, just off Orton Square, the irony of the acquisition of Orton himself by the city’s establishment is not lost as the bad boy of Sixties playwriting explores themes and ideas that were shockingly risqué at the time.
The intervening years have seen the legalisation of homosexuality and abortion, while divorce and unmarried pregnancies carry none of the stigma of that decade.
This presents director Paul Kerryson with a fundamental problem. Sloane retains little of its original shock value and, viewed through the prism of 21st Century liberality, appears dated and almost quaint. Wisely, Kerryson elects to play it in period, with a nicely evocative design by Paul Moore and plenty of mood music from The Rolling Stones, Beach Boys et al. But it proves a hard sell to convince a modern audience of its sheer bravery and radicalism.
The four performers make a decent enough attempt at it, with Julia Hills in particularly good form as the drooling landlady desperate to get her hands on the new young lodger – a character who these days would be termed a cougar.
John Griffiths makes her scruffy old dad a sympathetic figure, while Andrew Dunn – the occasional northern vowel aside – is believable as her contrary, repressed brother Ed. Alex Felton, as the eponymous focus of all their attention, is raw, devious and suitably beautiful, working his charm on the two siblings to devastating effect.
The whole doesn’t quite fizz with the electricity that the original would undoubtedly have generated, but this is a solid, sound production of a landmark play, and it’s entirely appropriate that Orton should be so cherished in the city that helped shape his creativity.
ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS
October 29, 2012
Curve, Leicester, until Saturday, November 3, 2012
CHRISTMAS appears to have come early to Curve. Not only does the venue have the delight of playing host to this touring version of the National Theatre hit, but the show itself is pure pantomime.
There’s a cross-dressing principal boy, a (double) wedding finale, and a gormless Buttons character who revels in mistaken identities, a Sarah-the-Cook type food fiasco and audience participation to the extreme.
This, of course, was the role that brought James Corden acclaim and awards in the original London production. On the road, the part is taken by TV comic and gameshow host Rufus Hound, who only made his stage debut earlier this year. Considering his late entry into the milieu of acting, he pulls off a remarkable feat, carrying the show with excellent timing, neat asides and some well-oiled ad libs, not to mention heaps of charm.
But this is far from a one-man show, as the title suggests. Richard Bean’s script, reworking the 18th century Italian comedy of Carlo Goldoni, shifts the action to 1963 Brighton, where nice-but-dim Francis Henshall spots the chance to double his opportunities by serving two guv’nors instead of just one.
The comedy threads multiply by the minute as his plan goes horribly awry in a complex, unbelievable plot that matters much less than the farce unfolding before the audience’s eyes. Hound may lead the company, but the cast of 16 – plus four outstanding musicians interspersing the action with wonderful ‘beat combo’ songs by Grant Olding – are strong in depth.
Edward Bennett displays brilliant comic skills as the toff guv’nor Stanley, while Peter Caulfield’s turn as an 87-year-old waiter threatens to steal the show. Amy Booth-Steel as brassy Brummie Dolly and Mark Monero as an ex-con sidekick are terrific but underused.
Nicholas Hytner directs with relentless energy and the pace never flags. And while the breadth of the humour and the prevalence of painful pratfalls may not suit every palate, there’s plenty to amuse and delight in this award-winning production.
CERTIFIED
September 25, 2012
Curve Studio, Leicester, until Saturday, September 29, 2012
BILLED as newly arrived in the UK after international success, Certified is actually the rehash of a 2007 Edinburgh Fringe show which was itself a new version of an earlier piece from Australia under the title Certified Male.
Les Dennis reprises his role from Edinburgh alongside the show’s co-creator Glynn Nicholas in this Curve co-production, which retains much of the feel of a student revue, with knob gags and exaggerated mime routines to prove it.
They are joined by the impressive O-T Fagbenle as preening whizzkid Howard and Christopher Timothy as the boss who takes his three senior executives on an awayday weekend – inexplicably to Peru – where they inevitably come to face their various demons.
It’s ostensibly about the struggle of men to find a role in modern society, and its sequence of sketches, songs and physical theatre make the most of the four men’s individual crises, from hen-pecked hypertension to an inability to commit.
The performances are sound, even if some of the rehearsed ad-libs and on-stage corpsing are overdone, and the message is simple to the point of banal: in the hurly-burly of office life, don’t forget your loved ones.
Along the way, there’s plenty of silliness, falling over and slapstick to keep the audience amused, and the quartet are accompanied (astonishingly, with a broken arm) by versatile pianist Alex Silverman, whose contribution to the soundscape is both evocative and entertaining.
It isn’t as funny, clever or thought-provoking as it would like to be, but it’s a perfectly enjoyable knockabout evening that allows the performers to showcase their considerable comedy talents.
THE SOUND OF MUSIC
August 24, 2012
Kilworth House Theatre, Leicestershire, until September 16, 2012
HOT on the heels of a rollicking Me and My Girl and a sell-out summer season of one-night stands, the enchanting open-air theatre at Kilworth House sets its sights on perhaps the biggest musical of them all.
Surely anyone who hears those opening notes of Do-Re-Mi has the sweet tones of Julie Andrews ringing through their mind, while it’s a mere five years since Connie Fisher won the role in the television search for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Palladium extravaganza.
The girl she pipped for that prize, Helena Blackman, finally gets her shot at Maria in this new production by regular Kilworth director Mitch Sebastian, and she does it with charm and warmth.
In a show full of heart-swelling melodies and almost-sentimental lushness, the biggest plus is in the strength of casting lower down the list. The part of Max, the wheeler-dealer friend of Captain von Trapp, is superbly drawn by Russell Wilcox, for instance, while Jan Hartley is a moving Mother Abbess and Hazel Gardner and Dom Hodson are skittishly believable as the teenage lovers Liesl and Rolf.
But the production is absolutely stolen by the other six children, ranging in ages from 14 to six, who perform impeccably and winningly in their well-drilled routines.
The live band is always a treat, although on this outing a little underpowered under the baton of Garth Hall, and the vocals uniformly impressive across the large ensemble.
By Kilworth’s own exacting standards, it may not be the ritziest of their open-air shows, but with its iconic score and a production to delight the hardest of hearts, the hills around this corner of Leicestershire are definitely alive.
PLAY WITHOUT WORDS
July 2, 2012
Curve, Leicester, until Saturday, July 7, 2012
CHOREOGRAPHER Matthew Bourne is one of the more imaginative, experimental directors of dance working in the UK today. Triumphant innovations have included a male corps de ballet in Swan Lake and a terpsichorean version of Edward Scissorhands. And it is to film that he returns again for this revival of a 2002 work originally created for the National Theatre.
Play Without Words is, as its name suggests, a non-verbal interpretation of the narrative of the 1963 Dirk Bogarde film The Servant. That movie, with its Harold Pinter script and carefully judged hints at (then illegal) homosexuality, was a powerful exploration of social attitudes of the time.
Bourne’s great achievement, with his reinvention of the story, is to increase its narrative power, paradoxically by removing the words.
Some of the success of this process is down to the brilliant device of having two or even three dancers play each of the main roles at the same time – Anthony, the central character, Prentice, his manservant, his fiancée Glenda and the maid Sheila. Although at times you’re never quite sure where to look, the cumulative effect of these groupings is visually stunning and Bourne uses subtle differences between the versions to add huge depth and range of storytelling and layers of meaning.
There’s also a considerable debt owed to Lez Brotherston’s versatile and wonderful set, which revolves and evolves as almost another character in the tale, and to Terry Davies’s extraordinarily evocative and inventive score, which perfectly captures the smoky, sensual, early-sixties atmosphere and is delivered impeccably by a five-piece jazz ensemble under conductor Michael Haslam.
Coupled with the endlessly ravishing images that Bourne creates with his 12-strong dance troupe, it’s a production of warmth, wit and gripping drama that should make scriptwriters everywhere question each line they write: after all, who needs dialogue when plays without words can be as powerful as this?
ME AND MY GIRL
June 19, 2012
Kilworth House Theatre, Leicestershire, until Sunday, July 8, 2012
IT might have had a change of musical director, the elements might be conspiring to dampen the atmosphere, but the tidal wave of exuberance that typifies Kilworth House Theatre productions is just as strong as ever.
This beautiful, stylish open-air venue, tucked away in the grounds of a sumptuous country house hotel in Leicestershire, maintains its enviable track record of summer productions with the Lambeth Walk musical Me and My Girl.
Originally written in 1937, it got a shot in the arm with a West End revival in 1985 that starred Robert Lindsay and Emma Thompson, and a newly crafted book courtesy of Stephen Fry. Sensibly, it is this version that Kilworth is using, although there’s no escaping the fact this is a thoroughly dated show.
Therein, of course, lies much of its selling power, attracting those with rosier-tinted views of nostalgia to a hit-filled score that also includes The Sun Has Got His Hat On and Leaning on a Lamppost.
But that is hardly doing justice to director Mitch Sebastian and the highly accomplished creative and performing team that have put the production together.
Yet again, Sebastian combines the role of director and choreographer with stunning effect, weaving subtle and not-so-subtle song-and-dance routines seamlessly into the action and conjuring up a delightful succession of theatrical images and visions that use the setting to its full advantage and linger in the mind long after the last revellers have Lambeth Walked back to their cars.
Neil Ditt is a fine ‘cheeky chappie’ in the central role of Bill Snibson, the Cockney coster unwittingly elevated to the peerage in this silliest of plots. He’s charming, sings and acts with equal charisma, and holds the whole thing together admirably.
There are a host of strong supporting characters too, such as the would-be seductress Lady Jaqueline (Kirby Hughes), a marvellously sneering butler Charles (Alan Pearson) and a hilariously over-the-top set of ancestors who romp through the family history with chorus-girl camp.
David Howe’s elegant lighting helps create some fabulous moments while Garth Hall’s on-stage band – always a highlight – add immeasurably to the charm and liveliness of the evening, making this an addition to Kilworth’s canon to be treasured.
THE LADY IN THE VAN
May 22, 2012
Curve, Leicester, until Saturday, May 26, 2012, then touring
TELLING (roughly) the true story of the female tramp who literally camped out on Alan Bennett’s front doorstep in a succession of rusty vehicles for 20 years, The Lady in the Van does exactly what it says on the tin.
It’s a study of the fine line between eccentricity and madness, of the tolerance – or otherwise – of a society that doesn’t know how to deal with “different” people, and, in an extended metaphor, of Bennett’s own relationship with his mother.
There’s plenty of introspection and exploration, with not one but two Bennett characters on stage, one narrating the tale, the other interacting with the uninvited Miss Shepherd and all the other characters she brings into his life.
And while the result is often entertaining and frequently fascinating, the question of whether it’s really a play at all remains largely unanswered, in spite of Bennett’s attempt at a second-act coup de theatre and some kind of resolution.
There is much to enjoy among the performances, not least the two Bennetts themselves, Sean McKenzie and Paul Kemp, who narrowly avoid easy caricature and instead pitch their voices and mannerisms just right as the Eeyore-ish, slightly mystified writer trying to come to terms with this unexpected invasion of his privacy.
Nichola McAuliffe gives a beautifully judged Miss Shepherd, filthy and utterly self-centred, yet still drawing deeply on pathos and emotion to make the audience reconsider its value judgements alongside the Bennetts.
And special mention must be made of the set, by Ben Stones, which uses three vehicles, a revolve and a full-blown lifting winch – pretty impressive for a touring production – to create the world in which Miss Shepherd lives out her final years and into which we get a poignant glimpse.
THE BUTTERFLY LION
April 17, 2012
Curve Studio, Leicester, until Saturday, April 21, 2012, then touring
THIS adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s popular children’s novel first saw the light of day as a schools tour several years ago. Now Curve has co-produced an expanded version of Daniel Buckroyd’s production alongside his company, New Perspectives.
That there remains much of the feel of a schools touring show about it is not necessarily a bad thing. It is simple, charming and innocent – all major pluses when put up against the onslaught of grim, gritty, foul-mouthed realism in much of today’s new writing.
Buckroyd, who adapted and directs, makes extensive use of devices that will be familiar to anyone involved with theatre in education: puppetry, actors doubling and trebling roles, putting handy props and scenery to multiple use.
The effect, reinforced by Juliet Shillingford’s evocative design and an energetic company of seven, led by veteran actress Gwen Taylor, is successful in generating a constant flow of episodes from Morpurgo’s original book with a pace and humour to keep the shortest of attention spans hooked.
It’s more an exercise in storytelling than in theatre, though, with not one, but two narrators unfolding the story of the young boy Bertie, who adopts an orphaned white lion cub in Africa and somehow ends up living with him in England years later. And there’s more than an echo of Morpurgo’s other big animal hit, War Horse, as Bertie first loses his leonine friend then pursues a quest that takes in the Great War and a journey across Europe to be reunited with him.
There are moving moments and some nicely judged performances, although the relentless musical underscore becomes wearisome very quickly and some of the theatrical effects feel rather laboured and heavy-handed.
However, as an entertainment for children of a certain age – particularly those familiar with the book – it should prove very digestible and undemandingly enjoyable.
GYPSY
March 16, 2012
Curve, Leicester, until Saturday, April 15, 2012
IN many ways, the story of real-life burlesque star Gypsy Rose Lee is a bizarre one to turn into a musical. There’s no love interest to speak of, the biographical narrative is necessarily episodic and most of the journey isn’t actually about her at all.
In the hands of composer Jule Styne and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, many of these obstacles are overcome. Their 1959 Broadway hit, with a compelling book by Arthur Laurents, includes showstoppers such as Together Wherever We Go and Everything’s Coming Up Roses, and was a career landmark for its original star Ethel Merman.
Stepping into her shoes in this Curve revival – and with more than a hint of that grand dame about her – is Caroline O’Connor, a performer gifted equally with acting and singing talent, and with enough emotional punch to carry the biggest, most ambitious of roles as the pushy mother Rose. It’s a virtuoso performance that richly deserves the acclaim it wins from the audience, even if the character herself has few likeable or redeeming features.
There are lots of impressive supporting performances around her, adding depth and range to Paul Kerryson’s sure-footed production. Daisy Maywood sparkles as her all-singing, all-dancing daughter June, and David Fleeshman provides much-needed warmth and humanity in the shape of the press-ganged agent Herbie. There’s a fine spot, too, from Jason Winter as would-be hoofer Tulsa, whose wonderful solo rendition of All I Need is the Girl almost steals the first act.
Victoria Hamilton-Barrit, meanwhile, achieves an extraordinary transformation from second-best, wallflower daughter Louise to the supremely confident, world-conquering persona of Gypsy Rose Lee herself – always believable and shockingly manipulated by her calculating mother.
As ever, it’s a delight to hear a live band fuelling the score excitingly, and David Needham’s choreography, Sara Perks’s designs and Philip Gladwell’s lighting all do much to complement the atmospheric recreation of Depression-era America.
And if the full package doesn’t quite grab you by the throat and shake your emotions to the core, then it isn’t for lack of effort on the part of this hugely entertaining cast and crew.
FUNNY PECULIAR
February 21, 2012
Curve, Leicester, until Saturday, February 25, 2012, then tour continues
WHEN it was first written in 1973, Mike Stott’s raucous Northern sex comedy was simply too outrageous to be staged in Britain. It had its premiere in Germany and it wasn’t until 1975 that the Liverpool Everyman was brave enough to risk staging a British production.
The fact that it gave the Everyman a major success, transferring to the West End and making stars out of its cast – who included Julie Walters, Pete Postlethwaite and Bill Nighy – is probably more a testament to the social conditions than any substantive quality in the writing.
The decades have not been particularly kind to the play, and with director Bob Tomson deliberately choosing to set this new production in the mid-1970s, everything about it seems just a little bit dated. The structure, the set-up, even the acting all have an air of old-fashioned values about them that makes the piece ultimately feel out of its time and something of a curiosity.
The story itself – young, newly married corner shop owner Trevor Tinsley is desperate to shake up his smalltown community by throwing off traditional sexual repression and exploring the unknown territory of free love – no longer has the power to titillate, and his on-stage nudity and extra-marital antics win laughs more for their quaint innocence than for any shock value.
But there’s plenty of humour to be mined from farcical elements such as the set-piece bunfight with the local baker’s delivery man, or the hospital scene in which a trussed-up Trevor discovers new depths to his dowdy wife Irene.
Performances are a little uneven, with many of the main characters cast from Tellyland. Corrie’s Craig Gazey ends up being rather eccentric as Trevor, playing the role for laughs rather than letting the script and setting do the work. Opposite him, Suzanne Shaw – late of Emmerdale – does a nice line in wronged woman but overdoes the facial reactions too often, while another Corrie graduate, Vicky Entwistle, gives us a variant of Northern battleaxe Janice Battersby as the local gossip.
Steven Blakeley, in the highly politically incorrect role of her “backward” son Stanley, wins the acting honours with his moving and sympathetic portrayal of a simple soul who doesn’t quite understand the world around him.
It’s a solid enough production that seems to go down fine with the audience, but it’s hardly a groundbreaking revival of a classic comedy. And nearly 40 years on from its premiere, you’d have to be pretty repressed yourself to be offended by anything on display here.
THE RAT PACK LIVE FROM LAS VEGAS
January 30, 2012
Curve, Leicester, until Saturday, February 4, 2012, then tour continues
THEY’VE all been dead since the last century but their legacy lives on. And in the hands of this seemingly endless tour, it looks assured for some time to come.
This tribute to Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jnr started life in 2000 and has been pretty much permanently on the go since then, including several record-breaking runs at West End theatres.
The present incumbents of the roles – Stephen Triffitt, Mark Adams and George Long respectively – first stepped into the shiny shoes together back in 2003, and their longevity gives them a comfortable, relaxed camaraderie on stage.
Adams and Long are perhaps less convincing as facsimiles, but the interplay of the three as they recreate one of those legendary nights at the Sands Hotel in the late 50s or early 60s is palpably warm and funny.
Triffitt, as always, is extraordinary as Sinatra. Not only does he have the voice down, but the look, the mannerisms and the sheer charisma of the man are honed to perfection, and his performance is joyful.
Director Mitch Sebastian and musical supremo Matthew Freeman have worked magic on staging the show, which is much more than simply a collection of songs or a tribute act. This is a full-blown production, and the 12-piece live swing band under Dominic Barlow add a stunning dimension to the proceedings.
There are too many iconic songs to list, but it’s guaranteed there’ll be no disappointment for fans of any of the three Rat Packers. Individually, these guys entertain brilliantly. Combined, they’re a tour de force.
December 7, 2012
Curve, Leicester, until Saturday, January 12, 2013
CURVE’S big Christmas show has become a tradition to look forward to along with the mince pies and carols. Hello, Dolly! does not disappoint.
Directed by the venue’s musicals king Paul Kerryson, this glitzy, glamorous production is crammed with lavish costumes, huge sets, well-drilled dancers and lusty vocalists.
The Jerry Herman score, originally written with Ethel Merman in mind, is bursting with energy as it recounts the matchmaking exploits of wisecracking widow Dolly Levi in late-19th Century New York. The sparkle of the material is matched every inch of the way by the performances, which are delivered with genuine passion and large doses of fun.
Janie Dee, stepping into the show fairly late in the day, gives a Dolly who’s adorable and exasperating in equal measure, grounding the show with quality and class and covering the tricky musical range with ease and elegance.
She’s well supported by Dale Rapley as grumpy widower Horace Vandergelder, the target of her own matchmaking intentions, and a wonderful double-act as his employees Cornelius and Barnaby. This pair, played with joyous boyishness by Michael Xavier and Jason Denton, are never less than infectious with their bright-eyed innocence and drop-of-a-hat falling in love, and do much to make this show a real crowdpleaser.
Topped off with a fabulous on-stage band of eight under musical director Ben Atkinson, the production looks and sounds terrific and is sure to have Leicester’s toes tapping right through the festive season.
ENTERTAINING MR SLOANE
November 9, 2012
Curve Studio, Leicester, until Saturday, November 24, 2012
JOE Orton’s black comedy about prejudice and hypocrisy is almost fifty years old. Playing at Leicester’s Curve Studio, just off Orton Square, the irony of the acquisition of Orton himself by the city’s establishment is not lost as the bad boy of Sixties playwriting explores themes and ideas that were shockingly risqué at the time.
The intervening years have seen the legalisation of homosexuality and abortion, while divorce and unmarried pregnancies carry none of the stigma of that decade.
This presents director Paul Kerryson with a fundamental problem. Sloane retains little of its original shock value and, viewed through the prism of 21st Century liberality, appears dated and almost quaint. Wisely, Kerryson elects to play it in period, with a nicely evocative design by Paul Moore and plenty of mood music from The Rolling Stones, Beach Boys et al. But it proves a hard sell to convince a modern audience of its sheer bravery and radicalism.
The four performers make a decent enough attempt at it, with Julia Hills in particularly good form as the drooling landlady desperate to get her hands on the new young lodger – a character who these days would be termed a cougar.
John Griffiths makes her scruffy old dad a sympathetic figure, while Andrew Dunn – the occasional northern vowel aside – is believable as her contrary, repressed brother Ed. Alex Felton, as the eponymous focus of all their attention, is raw, devious and suitably beautiful, working his charm on the two siblings to devastating effect.
The whole doesn’t quite fizz with the electricity that the original would undoubtedly have generated, but this is a solid, sound production of a landmark play, and it’s entirely appropriate that Orton should be so cherished in the city that helped shape his creativity.
ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS
October 29, 2012
Curve, Leicester, until Saturday, November 3, 2012
CHRISTMAS appears to have come early to Curve. Not only does the venue have the delight of playing host to this touring version of the National Theatre hit, but the show itself is pure pantomime.
There’s a cross-dressing principal boy, a (double) wedding finale, and a gormless Buttons character who revels in mistaken identities, a Sarah-the-Cook type food fiasco and audience participation to the extreme.
This, of course, was the role that brought James Corden acclaim and awards in the original London production. On the road, the part is taken by TV comic and gameshow host Rufus Hound, who only made his stage debut earlier this year. Considering his late entry into the milieu of acting, he pulls off a remarkable feat, carrying the show with excellent timing, neat asides and some well-oiled ad libs, not to mention heaps of charm.
But this is far from a one-man show, as the title suggests. Richard Bean’s script, reworking the 18th century Italian comedy of Carlo Goldoni, shifts the action to 1963 Brighton, where nice-but-dim Francis Henshall spots the chance to double his opportunities by serving two guv’nors instead of just one.
The comedy threads multiply by the minute as his plan goes horribly awry in a complex, unbelievable plot that matters much less than the farce unfolding before the audience’s eyes. Hound may lead the company, but the cast of 16 – plus four outstanding musicians interspersing the action with wonderful ‘beat combo’ songs by Grant Olding – are strong in depth.
Edward Bennett displays brilliant comic skills as the toff guv’nor Stanley, while Peter Caulfield’s turn as an 87-year-old waiter threatens to steal the show. Amy Booth-Steel as brassy Brummie Dolly and Mark Monero as an ex-con sidekick are terrific but underused.
Nicholas Hytner directs with relentless energy and the pace never flags. And while the breadth of the humour and the prevalence of painful pratfalls may not suit every palate, there’s plenty to amuse and delight in this award-winning production.
CERTIFIED
September 25, 2012
Curve Studio, Leicester, until Saturday, September 29, 2012
BILLED as newly arrived in the UK after international success, Certified is actually the rehash of a 2007 Edinburgh Fringe show which was itself a new version of an earlier piece from Australia under the title Certified Male.
Les Dennis reprises his role from Edinburgh alongside the show’s co-creator Glynn Nicholas in this Curve co-production, which retains much of the feel of a student revue, with knob gags and exaggerated mime routines to prove it.
They are joined by the impressive O-T Fagbenle as preening whizzkid Howard and Christopher Timothy as the boss who takes his three senior executives on an awayday weekend – inexplicably to Peru – where they inevitably come to face their various demons.
It’s ostensibly about the struggle of men to find a role in modern society, and its sequence of sketches, songs and physical theatre make the most of the four men’s individual crises, from hen-pecked hypertension to an inability to commit.
The performances are sound, even if some of the rehearsed ad-libs and on-stage corpsing are overdone, and the message is simple to the point of banal: in the hurly-burly of office life, don’t forget your loved ones.
Along the way, there’s plenty of silliness, falling over and slapstick to keep the audience amused, and the quartet are accompanied (astonishingly, with a broken arm) by versatile pianist Alex Silverman, whose contribution to the soundscape is both evocative and entertaining.
It isn’t as funny, clever or thought-provoking as it would like to be, but it’s a perfectly enjoyable knockabout evening that allows the performers to showcase their considerable comedy talents.
THE SOUND OF MUSIC
August 24, 2012
Kilworth House Theatre, Leicestershire, until September 16, 2012
HOT on the heels of a rollicking Me and My Girl and a sell-out summer season of one-night stands, the enchanting open-air theatre at Kilworth House sets its sights on perhaps the biggest musical of them all.
Surely anyone who hears those opening notes of Do-Re-Mi has the sweet tones of Julie Andrews ringing through their mind, while it’s a mere five years since Connie Fisher won the role in the television search for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Palladium extravaganza.
The girl she pipped for that prize, Helena Blackman, finally gets her shot at Maria in this new production by regular Kilworth director Mitch Sebastian, and she does it with charm and warmth.
In a show full of heart-swelling melodies and almost-sentimental lushness, the biggest plus is in the strength of casting lower down the list. The part of Max, the wheeler-dealer friend of Captain von Trapp, is superbly drawn by Russell Wilcox, for instance, while Jan Hartley is a moving Mother Abbess and Hazel Gardner and Dom Hodson are skittishly believable as the teenage lovers Liesl and Rolf.
But the production is absolutely stolen by the other six children, ranging in ages from 14 to six, who perform impeccably and winningly in their well-drilled routines.
The live band is always a treat, although on this outing a little underpowered under the baton of Garth Hall, and the vocals uniformly impressive across the large ensemble.
By Kilworth’s own exacting standards, it may not be the ritziest of their open-air shows, but with its iconic score and a production to delight the hardest of hearts, the hills around this corner of Leicestershire are definitely alive.
PLAY WITHOUT WORDS
July 2, 2012
Curve, Leicester, until Saturday, July 7, 2012
CHOREOGRAPHER Matthew Bourne is one of the more imaginative, experimental directors of dance working in the UK today. Triumphant innovations have included a male corps de ballet in Swan Lake and a terpsichorean version of Edward Scissorhands. And it is to film that he returns again for this revival of a 2002 work originally created for the National Theatre.
Play Without Words is, as its name suggests, a non-verbal interpretation of the narrative of the 1963 Dirk Bogarde film The Servant. That movie, with its Harold Pinter script and carefully judged hints at (then illegal) homosexuality, was a powerful exploration of social attitudes of the time.
Bourne’s great achievement, with his reinvention of the story, is to increase its narrative power, paradoxically by removing the words.
Some of the success of this process is down to the brilliant device of having two or even three dancers play each of the main roles at the same time – Anthony, the central character, Prentice, his manservant, his fiancée Glenda and the maid Sheila. Although at times you’re never quite sure where to look, the cumulative effect of these groupings is visually stunning and Bourne uses subtle differences between the versions to add huge depth and range of storytelling and layers of meaning.
There’s also a considerable debt owed to Lez Brotherston’s versatile and wonderful set, which revolves and evolves as almost another character in the tale, and to Terry Davies’s extraordinarily evocative and inventive score, which perfectly captures the smoky, sensual, early-sixties atmosphere and is delivered impeccably by a five-piece jazz ensemble under conductor Michael Haslam.
Coupled with the endlessly ravishing images that Bourne creates with his 12-strong dance troupe, it’s a production of warmth, wit and gripping drama that should make scriptwriters everywhere question each line they write: after all, who needs dialogue when plays without words can be as powerful as this?
ME AND MY GIRL
June 19, 2012
Kilworth House Theatre, Leicestershire, until Sunday, July 8, 2012
IT might have had a change of musical director, the elements might be conspiring to dampen the atmosphere, but the tidal wave of exuberance that typifies Kilworth House Theatre productions is just as strong as ever.
This beautiful, stylish open-air venue, tucked away in the grounds of a sumptuous country house hotel in Leicestershire, maintains its enviable track record of summer productions with the Lambeth Walk musical Me and My Girl.
Originally written in 1937, it got a shot in the arm with a West End revival in 1985 that starred Robert Lindsay and Emma Thompson, and a newly crafted book courtesy of Stephen Fry. Sensibly, it is this version that Kilworth is using, although there’s no escaping the fact this is a thoroughly dated show.
Therein, of course, lies much of its selling power, attracting those with rosier-tinted views of nostalgia to a hit-filled score that also includes The Sun Has Got His Hat On and Leaning on a Lamppost.
But that is hardly doing justice to director Mitch Sebastian and the highly accomplished creative and performing team that have put the production together.
Yet again, Sebastian combines the role of director and choreographer with stunning effect, weaving subtle and not-so-subtle song-and-dance routines seamlessly into the action and conjuring up a delightful succession of theatrical images and visions that use the setting to its full advantage and linger in the mind long after the last revellers have Lambeth Walked back to their cars.
Neil Ditt is a fine ‘cheeky chappie’ in the central role of Bill Snibson, the Cockney coster unwittingly elevated to the peerage in this silliest of plots. He’s charming, sings and acts with equal charisma, and holds the whole thing together admirably.
There are a host of strong supporting characters too, such as the would-be seductress Lady Jaqueline (Kirby Hughes), a marvellously sneering butler Charles (Alan Pearson) and a hilariously over-the-top set of ancestors who romp through the family history with chorus-girl camp.
David Howe’s elegant lighting helps create some fabulous moments while Garth Hall’s on-stage band – always a highlight – add immeasurably to the charm and liveliness of the evening, making this an addition to Kilworth’s canon to be treasured.
THE LADY IN THE VAN
May 22, 2012
Curve, Leicester, until Saturday, May 26, 2012, then touring
TELLING (roughly) the true story of the female tramp who literally camped out on Alan Bennett’s front doorstep in a succession of rusty vehicles for 20 years, The Lady in the Van does exactly what it says on the tin.
It’s a study of the fine line between eccentricity and madness, of the tolerance – or otherwise – of a society that doesn’t know how to deal with “different” people, and, in an extended metaphor, of Bennett’s own relationship with his mother.
There’s plenty of introspection and exploration, with not one but two Bennett characters on stage, one narrating the tale, the other interacting with the uninvited Miss Shepherd and all the other characters she brings into his life.
And while the result is often entertaining and frequently fascinating, the question of whether it’s really a play at all remains largely unanswered, in spite of Bennett’s attempt at a second-act coup de theatre and some kind of resolution.
There is much to enjoy among the performances, not least the two Bennetts themselves, Sean McKenzie and Paul Kemp, who narrowly avoid easy caricature and instead pitch their voices and mannerisms just right as the Eeyore-ish, slightly mystified writer trying to come to terms with this unexpected invasion of his privacy.
Nichola McAuliffe gives a beautifully judged Miss Shepherd, filthy and utterly self-centred, yet still drawing deeply on pathos and emotion to make the audience reconsider its value judgements alongside the Bennetts.
And special mention must be made of the set, by Ben Stones, which uses three vehicles, a revolve and a full-blown lifting winch – pretty impressive for a touring production – to create the world in which Miss Shepherd lives out her final years and into which we get a poignant glimpse.
THE BUTTERFLY LION
April 17, 2012
Curve Studio, Leicester, until Saturday, April 21, 2012, then touring
THIS adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s popular children’s novel first saw the light of day as a schools tour several years ago. Now Curve has co-produced an expanded version of Daniel Buckroyd’s production alongside his company, New Perspectives.
That there remains much of the feel of a schools touring show about it is not necessarily a bad thing. It is simple, charming and innocent – all major pluses when put up against the onslaught of grim, gritty, foul-mouthed realism in much of today’s new writing.
Buckroyd, who adapted and directs, makes extensive use of devices that will be familiar to anyone involved with theatre in education: puppetry, actors doubling and trebling roles, putting handy props and scenery to multiple use.
The effect, reinforced by Juliet Shillingford’s evocative design and an energetic company of seven, led by veteran actress Gwen Taylor, is successful in generating a constant flow of episodes from Morpurgo’s original book with a pace and humour to keep the shortest of attention spans hooked.
It’s more an exercise in storytelling than in theatre, though, with not one, but two narrators unfolding the story of the young boy Bertie, who adopts an orphaned white lion cub in Africa and somehow ends up living with him in England years later. And there’s more than an echo of Morpurgo’s other big animal hit, War Horse, as Bertie first loses his leonine friend then pursues a quest that takes in the Great War and a journey across Europe to be reunited with him.
There are moving moments and some nicely judged performances, although the relentless musical underscore becomes wearisome very quickly and some of the theatrical effects feel rather laboured and heavy-handed.
However, as an entertainment for children of a certain age – particularly those familiar with the book – it should prove very digestible and undemandingly enjoyable.
GYPSY
March 16, 2012
Curve, Leicester, until Saturday, April 15, 2012
IN many ways, the story of real-life burlesque star Gypsy Rose Lee is a bizarre one to turn into a musical. There’s no love interest to speak of, the biographical narrative is necessarily episodic and most of the journey isn’t actually about her at all.
In the hands of composer Jule Styne and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, many of these obstacles are overcome. Their 1959 Broadway hit, with a compelling book by Arthur Laurents, includes showstoppers such as Together Wherever We Go and Everything’s Coming Up Roses, and was a career landmark for its original star Ethel Merman.
Stepping into her shoes in this Curve revival – and with more than a hint of that grand dame about her – is Caroline O’Connor, a performer gifted equally with acting and singing talent, and with enough emotional punch to carry the biggest, most ambitious of roles as the pushy mother Rose. It’s a virtuoso performance that richly deserves the acclaim it wins from the audience, even if the character herself has few likeable or redeeming features.
There are lots of impressive supporting performances around her, adding depth and range to Paul Kerryson’s sure-footed production. Daisy Maywood sparkles as her all-singing, all-dancing daughter June, and David Fleeshman provides much-needed warmth and humanity in the shape of the press-ganged agent Herbie. There’s a fine spot, too, from Jason Winter as would-be hoofer Tulsa, whose wonderful solo rendition of All I Need is the Girl almost steals the first act.
Victoria Hamilton-Barrit, meanwhile, achieves an extraordinary transformation from second-best, wallflower daughter Louise to the supremely confident, world-conquering persona of Gypsy Rose Lee herself – always believable and shockingly manipulated by her calculating mother.
As ever, it’s a delight to hear a live band fuelling the score excitingly, and David Needham’s choreography, Sara Perks’s designs and Philip Gladwell’s lighting all do much to complement the atmospheric recreation of Depression-era America.
And if the full package doesn’t quite grab you by the throat and shake your emotions to the core, then it isn’t for lack of effort on the part of this hugely entertaining cast and crew.
FUNNY PECULIAR
February 21, 2012
Curve, Leicester, until Saturday, February 25, 2012, then tour continues
WHEN it was first written in 1973, Mike Stott’s raucous Northern sex comedy was simply too outrageous to be staged in Britain. It had its premiere in Germany and it wasn’t until 1975 that the Liverpool Everyman was brave enough to risk staging a British production.
The fact that it gave the Everyman a major success, transferring to the West End and making stars out of its cast – who included Julie Walters, Pete Postlethwaite and Bill Nighy – is probably more a testament to the social conditions than any substantive quality in the writing.
The decades have not been particularly kind to the play, and with director Bob Tomson deliberately choosing to set this new production in the mid-1970s, everything about it seems just a little bit dated. The structure, the set-up, even the acting all have an air of old-fashioned values about them that makes the piece ultimately feel out of its time and something of a curiosity.
The story itself – young, newly married corner shop owner Trevor Tinsley is desperate to shake up his smalltown community by throwing off traditional sexual repression and exploring the unknown territory of free love – no longer has the power to titillate, and his on-stage nudity and extra-marital antics win laughs more for their quaint innocence than for any shock value.
But there’s plenty of humour to be mined from farcical elements such as the set-piece bunfight with the local baker’s delivery man, or the hospital scene in which a trussed-up Trevor discovers new depths to his dowdy wife Irene.
Performances are a little uneven, with many of the main characters cast from Tellyland. Corrie’s Craig Gazey ends up being rather eccentric as Trevor, playing the role for laughs rather than letting the script and setting do the work. Opposite him, Suzanne Shaw – late of Emmerdale – does a nice line in wronged woman but overdoes the facial reactions too often, while another Corrie graduate, Vicky Entwistle, gives us a variant of Northern battleaxe Janice Battersby as the local gossip.
Steven Blakeley, in the highly politically incorrect role of her “backward” son Stanley, wins the acting honours with his moving and sympathetic portrayal of a simple soul who doesn’t quite understand the world around him.
It’s a solid enough production that seems to go down fine with the audience, but it’s hardly a groundbreaking revival of a classic comedy. And nearly 40 years on from its premiere, you’d have to be pretty repressed yourself to be offended by anything on display here.
THE RAT PACK LIVE FROM LAS VEGAS
January 30, 2012
Curve, Leicester, until Saturday, February 4, 2012, then tour continues
THEY’VE all been dead since the last century but their legacy lives on. And in the hands of this seemingly endless tour, it looks assured for some time to come.
This tribute to Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jnr started life in 2000 and has been pretty much permanently on the go since then, including several record-breaking runs at West End theatres.
The present incumbents of the roles – Stephen Triffitt, Mark Adams and George Long respectively – first stepped into the shiny shoes together back in 2003, and their longevity gives them a comfortable, relaxed camaraderie on stage.
Adams and Long are perhaps less convincing as facsimiles, but the interplay of the three as they recreate one of those legendary nights at the Sands Hotel in the late 50s or early 60s is palpably warm and funny.
Triffitt, as always, is extraordinary as Sinatra. Not only does he have the voice down, but the look, the mannerisms and the sheer charisma of the man are honed to perfection, and his performance is joyful.
Director Mitch Sebastian and musical supremo Matthew Freeman have worked magic on staging the show, which is much more than simply a collection of songs or a tribute act. This is a full-blown production, and the 12-piece live swing band under Dominic Barlow add a stunning dimension to the proceedings.
There are too many iconic songs to list, but it’s guaranteed there’ll be no disappointment for fans of any of the three Rat Packers. Individually, these guys entertain brilliantly. Combined, they’re a tour de force.
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