SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS
* * * *
December 13, 2013
Milton Keynes Theatre until Sunday, January 12, 2014
MILTON Keynes has long held a reputation for presenting one of the region’s finest, most polished and probably best-financed pantomimes. With Warwick Davis at the helm of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, this year’s rep is in safe hands.
Davis is enjoying something of a late bloom in his long career, due in no small part to his extensive television and film catalogue, which includes Harry Potter films, Star Wars and most recently some well-deserved exposure from Ricky Gervais. In this show, he not only plays the leader of the dwarfs, here named Prof, but also assumes directorial duties, which he accomplishes with style and plenty of fun.
His partners among the troupe of little folk are also highly enjoyable, not least his father-in-law Peter Burroughs and a wonderfully irreverent turn from Peter Bonner as the aptly named Cheeky.
Elsewhere, Kate Stewart is in lovely voice as the eponymous heroine, well-matched against her handsome prince, Shaun Dalton, while soap favourite Jennifer Ellison and the sure-footed comedian Kev Orkian provide much of the fun and villainy as the Wicked Queen and her unwilling sidekick Herbert.
Eric Potts’s script feels, at times, a little under-powered by his own high standards, but there’s some terrific live music from a five-piece band led by musical director Barry Robinson, plus some impressive effects and an energetic ensemble, supplemented by well-drilled youngsters from the Myra Tiffin Performing Arts School.
It’s a delightful, confident production that’s performed with a twinkle in its eye and a relish of the traditions of pantomime, setting an enjoyable tone for the holidays ahead.
PEOPLE
* * * *
October 28, 2013
Milton Keynes Theatre until Saturday, November 2, 2013, then tour continues
THE National Theatre’s production of Alan Bennett’s latest play enjoyed a successful run in London and is now in “the provinces” to offer us non-metropolitan types the chance to share in the warm glow.
It’s an initiative to be applauded, not least because the scale of the production makes it an ambitious and expensive one to take on the road. With a cast of 18 and Bob Crowley’s magnificent country house set, plus the consideration of some of our more senior acting talent, this has been no easy feat to tour.
Leading the company is Sian Phillips, putting in a wonderful performance as the ageing, eccentric owner of an inherited family pile which she cannot afford to heat, let alone maintain. So she sits in one draped room, huddled round an electric fire with her knitting companion Iris – a hilarious turn from Brigit Forsyth.
She’s under pressure to donate the place to the National Trust but her rebellious instincts and personal ghosts have other ideas, despite the jolly-hockey-sticks intervention of her younger sister June, beautifully played by Selina Cadell.
This trio tussle and tangle throughout the evening to great comic effect, while around them a host of other characters swarm through the house, from Simon Bubb’s officious auctioneer to Michael Thomas’s archetypal National Trust jobsworth. In between, somehow, Bennett crams in a porn film crew, a lascivious bishop and a camp Welsh plumbing expert, all with their own humorous input, and there’s a stunning coup de theatre as the dusty old house is transformed into a sparkling visitor attraction.
Bennett’s writing is perhaps not as crisp or well-structured as usual, and in his satire he opts for some easy targets in the form of Establishment institutions and caricatures, but it’s amusing enough as an exploration of our changing times.
Director Nicholas Hytner makes plenty out of the comic opportunities, including the memorable skinflick shoot itself, but it’s the performances and that amazing set which really stick in the mind.
A WEDDING STORY
* * * *
October 23, 2013
Creed Street Theatre, Wolverton, Milton Keynes, until Saturday, October 26, 2013
ACCORDING to news reports, a recent breakthrough in research into Alzheimer’s may soon make an impact on the increasing incidence of this pernicious condition. Until that time, Bryony Lavery’s powerful play A Wedding Story serves as a painful reminder of just how devastating its effects can be.
This production is not easy to watch, despite its efforts to leaven the sombre mood with some smart one-liners and a neat infiltration of the film Casablanca into proceedings. But director Rosemary Hill and her team at The Play’s The Thing Theatre Company do not shy away from its strong message, instead embracing the depth and range of emotions it evokes. The result is impressive and moving.
At the heart of the tale is Evelyn (Rachel Dobell), a one-time high-powered doctor whose believable descent into the dark corners of her mind is, paradoxically, less traumatic for her than for those around her.
These include her husband Peter – a touching portrayal of awkward exasperation from Christian Hawker – and her children Sally and Robin, a tender and desperate pairing in the hands of Erika Sanderson and Benjamin Archer. Sanderson in particular carries much of the weight of the collapsing family unit, and does so with sensitivity and dignity. The cast are completed by Sally’s French girlfriend Grace, whose own vulnerabilities and clingy dependency are beautifully brought out in Heidi-Karin Meldrum’s finely judged performance.
Against a simple but classy set from designer Kevin Jenkins, the uninterrupted narrative plays out with inexorable sadness, the family members seeking out any glimpse of passion, humour or escapism to divert their attention from Evelyn’s relentless decline.
In the end, their reliance on the thematic thread of weddings brings them a commonality of understanding that provides a glimmer of light and a hint of hope which that recent scientific breakthrough can only strengthen.
GHOST THE MUSICAL
* * *
September 18, 2013
Milton Keynes Theatre until Saturday, September 28, 2013, then tour continues
THIS is a show that has everything going for it – on paper, at least. Based on an insanely popular film starring the lovely Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore, it has a script by the Oscar-winning writer of the original film, Bruce Joel Rubin, a musical score by Dave ‘Eurythmics’ Stewart and pop legend Glen Ballard, and the directorial flair of West End wonder Matthew Warchus, the man responsible for Matilda.
And while it has all the much-loved elements of its source material, including the outrageous psychic charlatan Oda Mae Brown, there’s something strangely missing from the finished product.
Maybe it’s the songs, which aren’t anywhere near Stewart and Ballard’s best and are, for the most part, eminently forgettable. Maybe it’s the clichéd choreography, with a stylised New York business community and chorus of underused troupers. Maybe it’s just not got the emotional heart of the original – a suspicion fuelled by the half-hearted use of the iconic Unchained Melody, which nobody gets to sing properly and ends up as a pale imitation of its Righteous Brothers incarnation.
A cast of youngsters makes a decent attempt at bringing the production to life, and recent graduate Stewart Clarke grabs his opportunity with both hands as a vibrant, energetic Sam Wheat, the murdered banker whose ghost forms the title role. David Roberts is brash and powerful as his friend Carl, while Wendy Mae Brown does a fine Whoopi Goldberg as the fake medium who discovers she really does have ‘the gift’ and acts as a go-between for Sam and his grieving girl Molly.
As a production, it’s lavish and spectacular, and the theatrical tricks and magic used to create some fabulous illusions are truly impressive. Certainly there’s been no stinting on the effects and design.
But a show needs more than flashy projections and holograms to pack an emotional punch and this is where Ghost The Musical is simply a shadow of its former self.
EVITA
* * * *
May 21, 2013
Milton Keynes Theatre until Saturday, June 1, 2013, then tour continues
IT always seemed an odd subject for a musical – a little-remembered, long-dead foreign dictator’s wife with a penchant for self-delusion and the trappings of power. But more than 35 years after its original West End staging with Elaine Paige and David Essex, Evita continues to prove its strength and staying power with the return of this touring production.
It also demonstrates that the show is far from reliant on a star attraction to make its point, although the ever-popular Marti Pellow is headlining in the Essex ‘narrator’ role of Che.
What keeps this spectacular musical on its feet is the combined genius of Tim Rice’s wonderful lyrics and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s stunning score, never shown to better advantage together than in this complex, meticulously structured piece.
Directors Bob Tomson and Bill Kenwright serve their creators well, with a production that looks terrific (Matthew Wright) and impeccably drilled (Bill Deamer), and there’s no stinting on the performers either, from a huge and talented on-stage ensemble to the tight 10-piece band in the pit.
Madalena Alberto makes a fine Evita, ranging from fiery ambition to brittle illness, while Pellow’s voice continues to mature appealingly – although it’s hard to avoid a sneaking suspicion that this thoroughly nice chap has been miscast again in an oddly-fitting villain role. Oh, and somebody needs to show him how to wear a beret.
The stand-out performance comes from Mark Heenehan as Peron, who matches a stunning singing voice with an utterly convincing acting talent that draws some of the finest moments from the music.
Much of the audience was on its feet at the opening night of this two-week run and, while the production may not quite have the ultimate wow factor, the work and drive on display certainly deserve the appreciation.
RELATIVELY SPEAKING
* * * *
May 6, 2013
Milton Keynes Theatre until Saturday, May 11, 2013, then Wyndham’s Theatre, West End
FELICITY Kendal in a flowery frock fussing around the garden of a suburban house while her husband blusters and huffs to great comic effect: you might be forgiven for thinking you’ve been transported back forty years to the set of The Good Life.
But no, the reality is we’ve gone back even further than that – almost fifty years, in fact, to the scene of Alan Ayckbourn’s first West End success.
With a neat mirroring, Relatively Speaking’s 1967 London run featured a certain actor named Richard Briers as Greg, the young man who follows his girlfriend Ginny down to the country one Sunday in the belief that she’s visiting her parents. In this new production, soundly directed by Lindsay Posner, Kendal plays the older woman, Sheila, who is not in fact what Greg believes her to be and whose confusion is central to the almost farcical unfolding of the intricate, well-wrought plot.
Kendal, of course, is delightful, that same twinkling personality with a hint of mischief that the world fell in love with as Barbara Good. But she’s ably matched here by Jonathan Coy as her husband Philip, who steers the right side of stereotypical golfing bore to create an entertaining portrait of a muddled man with a midlife crisis.
Max Bennett and one-time EastEnder Kara Tointon are in fine form as the younger couple, he playing bewilderment to perfection, she giving us a feisty and feminine Ginny, emerging as an independent woman at the height of the Swinging Sixties.
The period setting judiciously avoids the potential traps of anachronism and datedness, and Ayckbourn’s script still crackles with wit and inventiveness, even after all these years.
The show is heading straight into the West End for a limited run at the Wyndham’s Theatre, and with this polish and professionalism it’s sure to do great business.
STARLIGHT EXPRESS
* * * *
April 25, 2013
Milton Keynes Theatre until Saturday, May 4, 2013, then tour continues
FIRST produced at a time when British Rail was a laughing stock and steam was still a real memory for many – 1984, to be precise – Starlight Express has the potential to feel a bit dated and anachronistic. But Andrew Lloyd Webber’s lightweight, high-adrenalin roller-skate musical has been updated for the 21st Century and restaged by Arlene Phillips to make it fresh, vigorous and full of energy.
It may not have the Lord’s greatest tunes, although he’s helped by some witty lyrics from Richard Stilgoe, but the main focus here is not so much the music or story as the visual spectacle of 24 agile young performers racing dangerously about the stage as toy trains in a bitter battle to be named the top engine.
It’s colourful, breathless and extremely impressive, not least for the quality of the talent, who sing, dance and act engagingly, all the while balanced on their wheels and performing amazing acrobatics and routines.
Kristofer Harding leads the company as the underdog steam engine Rusty, who calls on the inspiration of the titular Starlight Express to help him in the race. Harding is fresh-faced, with a strong tenor voice and some pretty atheletic moves, and makes a very appealing central character.
Mykal Rand and Jamie Capewell are equally powerful as his main opponents, the sparky Electra and diesel-powered Greaseball, while there’s a perky quartet of female carriages (gender stereotyping, anyone?) who get some of the best numbers.
Musical director Tom de Keyser leads a live band that is often too loud but is instrumental – if you’ll pardon the pun – in keeping the whole enterprise racing frenetically along, and it’s impossible not to get swept up in the sheer vibrancy of this rollercoaster of a show.
HAIRSPRAY
April 1, 2013
Milton Keynes Theatre until Saturday, April 6, 2013, then tour continues
FOR lovers of the movie, Hairspray will forever be associated with a dragged-up John Travolta. For West End theatregoers, it’s Michael Ball who embodies the outsize role of Edna Turnblad. On this tour of the pop musical, comedy actor Mark Benton proves there’s room for other pretenders.
Benton’s performance as the vast mother of 60s TV wannabe Tracy steers just the right side of panto dame, and is endearingly innocent enough to be utterly winning. As usual, Edna’s duet with diminutive but devoted hubby Wilbur (Paul Rider) is a complete showstopper.
It’s quite a show to stop. The frothy tale of the teenage Tracy, who changes the world by getting the black kids to dance with the white kids on The Corny Collins Show, may be flimsy and forced, but it’s also crammed with toe-tapping songs and plenty of wit and humour.
This production has the added advantage of considerable talent across the large cast and in the orchestra pit. Musical director Peter White commands a tight – if too loud – band of ten, driving the action relentlessly forward and giving superb support to a collection of highly talented performers on the stage.
Newcomer Freya Sutton is well-padded and full of wide-eyed wonder as Tracy, with Lauren Hood supplying sweetness and shyness in abundance as her friend Penny Pingleton. Sandra Marvin is a busty, belting Motormouth Maybelle, while Gemma Sutton is all backstabbing sarcasm as the bitchy blonde Amber Von Tussle.
The strength continues throughout the cast list, with energy and talent on display everywhere you look, and no expense has been spared on the production values. It may not change the world in the way Tracy might like, but it’s an irresistible feelgood package of fun and great tunes.
MADAM BUTTERFLY
March 28, 2013
Welsh National Opera, Milton Keynes Theatre until Saturday, March 30, 2013
ITS first night in Milan in1904 was a catastrophic disaster. Greeted by catcalls and extensive booing and whistling, Madam Butterfly fell flat on her face. The composer Puccini and his two librettists Giacosa and Illica immediately cancelled the rest of its run and went back to the drawing board, creating several further versions as they revised their opera.
Welsh National undertook considerable detective work to uncover this path to success when they first performed this Butterfly in 1978. More than 30 years on, it still looks fresh and sounds vibrant in the hands of the lush WNO orchestra under conductor Gareth Jones.
Conventionally staged on a set full of sliding screens and framed by blossoming trees, the production is warm, dramatic and starkly beautiful as it relates the tragedy of Cio-Cio-San and her doomed love affair with the visiting American sailor Lieutenant Pinkerton.
Cheryl Barker is stoical and serene in the title role, although her voice had a hint of roughness around the edges at the performance I saw. Gwyn Hughes Jones, a tenor well used to playing Pinkerton, is comfortable and controlled but sometimes struggles to convey the emotion demanded by the part.
The real acting strength comes from each of their supporting players, the maid Suzuki and the American Consul. Claire Bradshaw’s Suzuki is powerful and moving, while Alan Opie’s masterful Consul threatens to steal the show with his prescience of the tragedy unfolding and his futile sympathy with Butterfly’s plight.
It’s a crowd-pleaser of a production and one that is reliably popular for the touring WNO company, but it’s also a sound and solid Butterfly that pays suitable tribute to the tortured beginnings of what was to become perhaps Puccini’s biggest success.
9 TO 5
March 4, 2013
Milton Keynes Theatre until Saturday, March 9, 2013, then touring
IT was 1980 when the movie made waves, pitting secretaries Jane Fonda, Dolly Parton and Lily Tomlin against their sexist, insufferable boss. Now it’s a full-blown Dolly musical, complete with country-tinged songs and the whole outrageous wardrobe.
This stage version has the benefit of a book by the film’s original scriptwriter Patricia Resnick, which makes it snappy, sassy and smart. And there’s even an appearance by Dolly herself, courtesy of a projection high above the stage, from which she explains and comments on the action, as well as pitching in a rousing finale of the title song.
The cast are relentlessly energetic – not to say manic – in their choreographed routines by director Jeff Calhoun and his sidekick Lisa Stevens, while the eight-strong pit band under Mark Crossland keep toes tapping reliably throughout.
Natalie Casey, Amy Lennox and Jackie Clune recreate the Jane, Dolly and Lily roles with panache and some tuneful singing, with an odious Mark Moraghan as the target of the feminine revenge. But it’s Bonnie Langford, as the frump-turned-vamp Roz, who steals the show with an amazing song-and-dance sex siren turn.
It’s all harmless, frothy stuff, if a little less than the stereotype-smashing icon it would like to be, while Dolly’s songs are largely adequate without being memorable. Enjoy it with the heavy coating of sparkle that’s been added to make it a Broadway show, and it’s a fun night out.
* * * *
December 13, 2013
Milton Keynes Theatre until Sunday, January 12, 2014
MILTON Keynes has long held a reputation for presenting one of the region’s finest, most polished and probably best-financed pantomimes. With Warwick Davis at the helm of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, this year’s rep is in safe hands.
Davis is enjoying something of a late bloom in his long career, due in no small part to his extensive television and film catalogue, which includes Harry Potter films, Star Wars and most recently some well-deserved exposure from Ricky Gervais. In this show, he not only plays the leader of the dwarfs, here named Prof, but also assumes directorial duties, which he accomplishes with style and plenty of fun.
His partners among the troupe of little folk are also highly enjoyable, not least his father-in-law Peter Burroughs and a wonderfully irreverent turn from Peter Bonner as the aptly named Cheeky.
Elsewhere, Kate Stewart is in lovely voice as the eponymous heroine, well-matched against her handsome prince, Shaun Dalton, while soap favourite Jennifer Ellison and the sure-footed comedian Kev Orkian provide much of the fun and villainy as the Wicked Queen and her unwilling sidekick Herbert.
Eric Potts’s script feels, at times, a little under-powered by his own high standards, but there’s some terrific live music from a five-piece band led by musical director Barry Robinson, plus some impressive effects and an energetic ensemble, supplemented by well-drilled youngsters from the Myra Tiffin Performing Arts School.
It’s a delightful, confident production that’s performed with a twinkle in its eye and a relish of the traditions of pantomime, setting an enjoyable tone for the holidays ahead.
PEOPLE
* * * *
October 28, 2013
Milton Keynes Theatre until Saturday, November 2, 2013, then tour continues
THE National Theatre’s production of Alan Bennett’s latest play enjoyed a successful run in London and is now in “the provinces” to offer us non-metropolitan types the chance to share in the warm glow.
It’s an initiative to be applauded, not least because the scale of the production makes it an ambitious and expensive one to take on the road. With a cast of 18 and Bob Crowley’s magnificent country house set, plus the consideration of some of our more senior acting talent, this has been no easy feat to tour.
Leading the company is Sian Phillips, putting in a wonderful performance as the ageing, eccentric owner of an inherited family pile which she cannot afford to heat, let alone maintain. So she sits in one draped room, huddled round an electric fire with her knitting companion Iris – a hilarious turn from Brigit Forsyth.
She’s under pressure to donate the place to the National Trust but her rebellious instincts and personal ghosts have other ideas, despite the jolly-hockey-sticks intervention of her younger sister June, beautifully played by Selina Cadell.
This trio tussle and tangle throughout the evening to great comic effect, while around them a host of other characters swarm through the house, from Simon Bubb’s officious auctioneer to Michael Thomas’s archetypal National Trust jobsworth. In between, somehow, Bennett crams in a porn film crew, a lascivious bishop and a camp Welsh plumbing expert, all with their own humorous input, and there’s a stunning coup de theatre as the dusty old house is transformed into a sparkling visitor attraction.
Bennett’s writing is perhaps not as crisp or well-structured as usual, and in his satire he opts for some easy targets in the form of Establishment institutions and caricatures, but it’s amusing enough as an exploration of our changing times.
Director Nicholas Hytner makes plenty out of the comic opportunities, including the memorable skinflick shoot itself, but it’s the performances and that amazing set which really stick in the mind.
A WEDDING STORY
* * * *
October 23, 2013
Creed Street Theatre, Wolverton, Milton Keynes, until Saturday, October 26, 2013
ACCORDING to news reports, a recent breakthrough in research into Alzheimer’s may soon make an impact on the increasing incidence of this pernicious condition. Until that time, Bryony Lavery’s powerful play A Wedding Story serves as a painful reminder of just how devastating its effects can be.
This production is not easy to watch, despite its efforts to leaven the sombre mood with some smart one-liners and a neat infiltration of the film Casablanca into proceedings. But director Rosemary Hill and her team at The Play’s The Thing Theatre Company do not shy away from its strong message, instead embracing the depth and range of emotions it evokes. The result is impressive and moving.
At the heart of the tale is Evelyn (Rachel Dobell), a one-time high-powered doctor whose believable descent into the dark corners of her mind is, paradoxically, less traumatic for her than for those around her.
These include her husband Peter – a touching portrayal of awkward exasperation from Christian Hawker – and her children Sally and Robin, a tender and desperate pairing in the hands of Erika Sanderson and Benjamin Archer. Sanderson in particular carries much of the weight of the collapsing family unit, and does so with sensitivity and dignity. The cast are completed by Sally’s French girlfriend Grace, whose own vulnerabilities and clingy dependency are beautifully brought out in Heidi-Karin Meldrum’s finely judged performance.
Against a simple but classy set from designer Kevin Jenkins, the uninterrupted narrative plays out with inexorable sadness, the family members seeking out any glimpse of passion, humour or escapism to divert their attention from Evelyn’s relentless decline.
In the end, their reliance on the thematic thread of weddings brings them a commonality of understanding that provides a glimmer of light and a hint of hope which that recent scientific breakthrough can only strengthen.
GHOST THE MUSICAL
* * *
September 18, 2013
Milton Keynes Theatre until Saturday, September 28, 2013, then tour continues
THIS is a show that has everything going for it – on paper, at least. Based on an insanely popular film starring the lovely Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore, it has a script by the Oscar-winning writer of the original film, Bruce Joel Rubin, a musical score by Dave ‘Eurythmics’ Stewart and pop legend Glen Ballard, and the directorial flair of West End wonder Matthew Warchus, the man responsible for Matilda.
And while it has all the much-loved elements of its source material, including the outrageous psychic charlatan Oda Mae Brown, there’s something strangely missing from the finished product.
Maybe it’s the songs, which aren’t anywhere near Stewart and Ballard’s best and are, for the most part, eminently forgettable. Maybe it’s the clichéd choreography, with a stylised New York business community and chorus of underused troupers. Maybe it’s just not got the emotional heart of the original – a suspicion fuelled by the half-hearted use of the iconic Unchained Melody, which nobody gets to sing properly and ends up as a pale imitation of its Righteous Brothers incarnation.
A cast of youngsters makes a decent attempt at bringing the production to life, and recent graduate Stewart Clarke grabs his opportunity with both hands as a vibrant, energetic Sam Wheat, the murdered banker whose ghost forms the title role. David Roberts is brash and powerful as his friend Carl, while Wendy Mae Brown does a fine Whoopi Goldberg as the fake medium who discovers she really does have ‘the gift’ and acts as a go-between for Sam and his grieving girl Molly.
As a production, it’s lavish and spectacular, and the theatrical tricks and magic used to create some fabulous illusions are truly impressive. Certainly there’s been no stinting on the effects and design.
But a show needs more than flashy projections and holograms to pack an emotional punch and this is where Ghost The Musical is simply a shadow of its former self.
EVITA
* * * *
May 21, 2013
Milton Keynes Theatre until Saturday, June 1, 2013, then tour continues
IT always seemed an odd subject for a musical – a little-remembered, long-dead foreign dictator’s wife with a penchant for self-delusion and the trappings of power. But more than 35 years after its original West End staging with Elaine Paige and David Essex, Evita continues to prove its strength and staying power with the return of this touring production.
It also demonstrates that the show is far from reliant on a star attraction to make its point, although the ever-popular Marti Pellow is headlining in the Essex ‘narrator’ role of Che.
What keeps this spectacular musical on its feet is the combined genius of Tim Rice’s wonderful lyrics and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s stunning score, never shown to better advantage together than in this complex, meticulously structured piece.
Directors Bob Tomson and Bill Kenwright serve their creators well, with a production that looks terrific (Matthew Wright) and impeccably drilled (Bill Deamer), and there’s no stinting on the performers either, from a huge and talented on-stage ensemble to the tight 10-piece band in the pit.
Madalena Alberto makes a fine Evita, ranging from fiery ambition to brittle illness, while Pellow’s voice continues to mature appealingly – although it’s hard to avoid a sneaking suspicion that this thoroughly nice chap has been miscast again in an oddly-fitting villain role. Oh, and somebody needs to show him how to wear a beret.
The stand-out performance comes from Mark Heenehan as Peron, who matches a stunning singing voice with an utterly convincing acting talent that draws some of the finest moments from the music.
Much of the audience was on its feet at the opening night of this two-week run and, while the production may not quite have the ultimate wow factor, the work and drive on display certainly deserve the appreciation.
RELATIVELY SPEAKING
* * * *
May 6, 2013
Milton Keynes Theatre until Saturday, May 11, 2013, then Wyndham’s Theatre, West End
FELICITY Kendal in a flowery frock fussing around the garden of a suburban house while her husband blusters and huffs to great comic effect: you might be forgiven for thinking you’ve been transported back forty years to the set of The Good Life.
But no, the reality is we’ve gone back even further than that – almost fifty years, in fact, to the scene of Alan Ayckbourn’s first West End success.
With a neat mirroring, Relatively Speaking’s 1967 London run featured a certain actor named Richard Briers as Greg, the young man who follows his girlfriend Ginny down to the country one Sunday in the belief that she’s visiting her parents. In this new production, soundly directed by Lindsay Posner, Kendal plays the older woman, Sheila, who is not in fact what Greg believes her to be and whose confusion is central to the almost farcical unfolding of the intricate, well-wrought plot.
Kendal, of course, is delightful, that same twinkling personality with a hint of mischief that the world fell in love with as Barbara Good. But she’s ably matched here by Jonathan Coy as her husband Philip, who steers the right side of stereotypical golfing bore to create an entertaining portrait of a muddled man with a midlife crisis.
Max Bennett and one-time EastEnder Kara Tointon are in fine form as the younger couple, he playing bewilderment to perfection, she giving us a feisty and feminine Ginny, emerging as an independent woman at the height of the Swinging Sixties.
The period setting judiciously avoids the potential traps of anachronism and datedness, and Ayckbourn’s script still crackles with wit and inventiveness, even after all these years.
The show is heading straight into the West End for a limited run at the Wyndham’s Theatre, and with this polish and professionalism it’s sure to do great business.
STARLIGHT EXPRESS
* * * *
April 25, 2013
Milton Keynes Theatre until Saturday, May 4, 2013, then tour continues
FIRST produced at a time when British Rail was a laughing stock and steam was still a real memory for many – 1984, to be precise – Starlight Express has the potential to feel a bit dated and anachronistic. But Andrew Lloyd Webber’s lightweight, high-adrenalin roller-skate musical has been updated for the 21st Century and restaged by Arlene Phillips to make it fresh, vigorous and full of energy.
It may not have the Lord’s greatest tunes, although he’s helped by some witty lyrics from Richard Stilgoe, but the main focus here is not so much the music or story as the visual spectacle of 24 agile young performers racing dangerously about the stage as toy trains in a bitter battle to be named the top engine.
It’s colourful, breathless and extremely impressive, not least for the quality of the talent, who sing, dance and act engagingly, all the while balanced on their wheels and performing amazing acrobatics and routines.
Kristofer Harding leads the company as the underdog steam engine Rusty, who calls on the inspiration of the titular Starlight Express to help him in the race. Harding is fresh-faced, with a strong tenor voice and some pretty atheletic moves, and makes a very appealing central character.
Mykal Rand and Jamie Capewell are equally powerful as his main opponents, the sparky Electra and diesel-powered Greaseball, while there’s a perky quartet of female carriages (gender stereotyping, anyone?) who get some of the best numbers.
Musical director Tom de Keyser leads a live band that is often too loud but is instrumental – if you’ll pardon the pun – in keeping the whole enterprise racing frenetically along, and it’s impossible not to get swept up in the sheer vibrancy of this rollercoaster of a show.
HAIRSPRAY
April 1, 2013
Milton Keynes Theatre until Saturday, April 6, 2013, then tour continues
FOR lovers of the movie, Hairspray will forever be associated with a dragged-up John Travolta. For West End theatregoers, it’s Michael Ball who embodies the outsize role of Edna Turnblad. On this tour of the pop musical, comedy actor Mark Benton proves there’s room for other pretenders.
Benton’s performance as the vast mother of 60s TV wannabe Tracy steers just the right side of panto dame, and is endearingly innocent enough to be utterly winning. As usual, Edna’s duet with diminutive but devoted hubby Wilbur (Paul Rider) is a complete showstopper.
It’s quite a show to stop. The frothy tale of the teenage Tracy, who changes the world by getting the black kids to dance with the white kids on The Corny Collins Show, may be flimsy and forced, but it’s also crammed with toe-tapping songs and plenty of wit and humour.
This production has the added advantage of considerable talent across the large cast and in the orchestra pit. Musical director Peter White commands a tight – if too loud – band of ten, driving the action relentlessly forward and giving superb support to a collection of highly talented performers on the stage.
Newcomer Freya Sutton is well-padded and full of wide-eyed wonder as Tracy, with Lauren Hood supplying sweetness and shyness in abundance as her friend Penny Pingleton. Sandra Marvin is a busty, belting Motormouth Maybelle, while Gemma Sutton is all backstabbing sarcasm as the bitchy blonde Amber Von Tussle.
The strength continues throughout the cast list, with energy and talent on display everywhere you look, and no expense has been spared on the production values. It may not change the world in the way Tracy might like, but it’s an irresistible feelgood package of fun and great tunes.
MADAM BUTTERFLY
March 28, 2013
Welsh National Opera, Milton Keynes Theatre until Saturday, March 30, 2013
ITS first night in Milan in1904 was a catastrophic disaster. Greeted by catcalls and extensive booing and whistling, Madam Butterfly fell flat on her face. The composer Puccini and his two librettists Giacosa and Illica immediately cancelled the rest of its run and went back to the drawing board, creating several further versions as they revised their opera.
Welsh National undertook considerable detective work to uncover this path to success when they first performed this Butterfly in 1978. More than 30 years on, it still looks fresh and sounds vibrant in the hands of the lush WNO orchestra under conductor Gareth Jones.
Conventionally staged on a set full of sliding screens and framed by blossoming trees, the production is warm, dramatic and starkly beautiful as it relates the tragedy of Cio-Cio-San and her doomed love affair with the visiting American sailor Lieutenant Pinkerton.
Cheryl Barker is stoical and serene in the title role, although her voice had a hint of roughness around the edges at the performance I saw. Gwyn Hughes Jones, a tenor well used to playing Pinkerton, is comfortable and controlled but sometimes struggles to convey the emotion demanded by the part.
The real acting strength comes from each of their supporting players, the maid Suzuki and the American Consul. Claire Bradshaw’s Suzuki is powerful and moving, while Alan Opie’s masterful Consul threatens to steal the show with his prescience of the tragedy unfolding and his futile sympathy with Butterfly’s plight.
It’s a crowd-pleaser of a production and one that is reliably popular for the touring WNO company, but it’s also a sound and solid Butterfly that pays suitable tribute to the tortured beginnings of what was to become perhaps Puccini’s biggest success.
9 TO 5
March 4, 2013
Milton Keynes Theatre until Saturday, March 9, 2013, then touring
IT was 1980 when the movie made waves, pitting secretaries Jane Fonda, Dolly Parton and Lily Tomlin against their sexist, insufferable boss. Now it’s a full-blown Dolly musical, complete with country-tinged songs and the whole outrageous wardrobe.
This stage version has the benefit of a book by the film’s original scriptwriter Patricia Resnick, which makes it snappy, sassy and smart. And there’s even an appearance by Dolly herself, courtesy of a projection high above the stage, from which she explains and comments on the action, as well as pitching in a rousing finale of the title song.
The cast are relentlessly energetic – not to say manic – in their choreographed routines by director Jeff Calhoun and his sidekick Lisa Stevens, while the eight-strong pit band under Mark Crossland keep toes tapping reliably throughout.
Natalie Casey, Amy Lennox and Jackie Clune recreate the Jane, Dolly and Lily roles with panache and some tuneful singing, with an odious Mark Moraghan as the target of the feminine revenge. But it’s Bonnie Langford, as the frump-turned-vamp Roz, who steals the show with an amazing song-and-dance sex siren turn.
It’s all harmless, frothy stuff, if a little less than the stereotype-smashing icon it would like to be, while Dolly’s songs are largely adequate without being memorable. Enjoy it with the heavy coating of sparkle that’s been added to make it a Broadway show, and it’s a fun night out.
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