COMPANY
December 3, 2011
Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, until Saturday, January 7, 2012
FORGET your pantos, your carol concerts and your festive family fare. Daniel Evans and the team at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre have got Christmas properly sewn up with a fabulous production of Stephen Sondheim’s Company.
This extraordinary piece of musical theatre, which barely hangs on any kind of narrative, somehow manages to create atmosphere, depth and real emotion out of what amounts to a series of vignettes cut through with Sondheim’s pithy and poignant songs.
It’s essentially a snapshot of New York bachelor Bobby, whose 35th birthday in 1970 offers an opportunity to analyse his married friends’ relationships in the light of his own single status. It could be introspective, one-dimensional and dull. But in the hands of director Jonathan Munby, musical director Nigel Lilley and designer Christopher Oram, it’s the exact opposite: exuberant, vivid and bursting with life.
Munby, directing his first musical, has enlisted the aid of choreographer Lynne Page, and between them they have generated a show that looks constantly interesting, always evolving and brilliantly staged.
The complex lighting from Neil Austin plays a significant part in Oram’s design, which also serves to enhance the feel and movement of the whole, while Lilley’s 10-piece band – sadly unseen off-stage – are superbly efficient and beautifully realised in Paul Arditti’s well-balanced sound design.
And then there are the performances. Led by Evans himself as Bobby, it’s a genuine ensemble piece, with 14 seamlessly linked characters weaving dramatic tension, comedy and pathos in a display of singing, acting and dancing that would not look out of place on any West End or Broadway stage.
Evans is simply breathtaking, his vocal range and ability giving Bobby a warmth and likeability that shine through in his acting as well.
Among the five couples, there’s not a single weak link – no mean feat in a regional company this size – from Francesca Annis’s raddled cynic Joanne to Claire Price’s bright-eyed and fizzing Sarah. Meanwhile, Bobby’s three interchangeable girlfriends are nicely judged to offer a little light relief alongside the self-examination.
It’s a stunning and imaginative production of a clever and intelligent musical that offers a highly recommended alternative to dames and Dandini.
JOHN CLEESE: THE ALIMONY TOUR
June 17, 2011
New Theatre, Oxford
UNASHAMEDLY billed as a show for making money to pay off the latest ex-Mrs Cleese, and introduced by the man himself as a “fan show”, you might be forgiven for thinking that John Cleese, standing on a stage reading autobiographical anecdotes from an autocue, would be something of a disappointment.
But that does not account for the innate comic qualities of this Titan of 20th century comedy.
This is the man who was part of the groundbreaking (and it’s easy to forget at this distance just how groundbreaking they were) Monty Python team at the dawn of the 70s. This is the man who created one of television’s all-time comedy icons, the extraordinary Basil Fawlty. And this is also the man who wrote and starred in one of the 80s’ most enduring and popular comedy movies, A Fish Called Wanda.
Not bad for a gangly, oversized would-be lawyer from Weston-super-Mare.
The Alimony Tour routine – which kicks off with a few vitriolic minutes about the aforementioned third Mrs Cleese – encompasses all these landmarks, from the Weston childhood to the dog-killing mayhem of Wanda. Cleese intersperses his own relentlessly hilarious narration with snapshots from his personal family album and clips of many of the iconic moments, including some black-and-white rarities alongside the Holy Grail and Wanda classics.
It’s all good, filthy fun, with Cleese’s typical black humour threaded inextricably through the comedy. But he takes time out, too, to offer some self-analysis along the way, including his musings on the reasons behind that black humour, and his favourite contender for the “naughtiest line ever written”, supplied courtesy of his Python writing partner Graham Chapman.
The funniest clip, indeed, is of Cleese’s tribute at Chapman’s 1989 memorial service, in which he reduces the sombre audience to helpless laughter with his own particular style of naughtiness.
And helpless laughter is the order of the day for the whole of this one-man show, split into two 45-minute halves with no encore or curtain call. He may well be doing it for the money, but at the age of 71, the fact remains that he’s still doing it, and doing it brilliantly.
THE DAVID HARE SEASON:
THE BREATH OF LIFE, RACING DEMON AND PLENTY
February 25-26, 2011
Sheffield Theatres until Saturday, March 5, 2011
Three plays from across the Hare canon, staged simultaneously in Sheffield Theatres’ three auditoria – it’s a recipe for close study of the work and some superb ensemble playing.
And with Hare himself in the Crucible audience for Racing Demon and Plenty, there was an added frisson to the electrifying performances on stage.
In the elegant surroundings of the Lyceum, the highly experienced pairing of Patricia Hodge and Isla Blair wrangle with the 2002 two-hander Breath of Life. Set in the living room of sometime mistress Madeleine Palmer, it gradually reveals the story of a love triangle when the wife, Frances Beale, comes to call.
Although a little lost in the space, Thea Sharrock’s production is never less than sharp and meticulously handled. The sparring between the two women veers from psychological needling to outright fury, and the performances are taut and well matched.
On the Crucible main stage, meanwhile, artistic director Daniel Evans gets his hands on the 1990 masterpiece Racing Demon, originally part of Hare’s state-of-the-nation trilogy alongside Murmuring Judges and The Absence of War. It stands up brilliantly in isolation, peeling back the façade of the Church of England to reveal exactly the same feuds, fusses and betrayals faced by the rest of society.
The terrific cast is led by Malcolm Sinclair, who imbues the Rev Lionel Espy with depth, humanity and enormous poignancy as his faith and his professional life begin to unravel. Jonathan Coy makes a wonderfully steely bishop, while Matthew Cottle and Ian Gelder are excellent as Lionel’s supportive co-clerics against the fire-and-brimstone evangelism of Jamie Parker’s hotheaded tyro curate.
Intelligently staged and beautifully designed (Tom Rogers), it’s the highlight of the season and utterly compelling.
Wrapping things up in the Crucible Studio is the 1978 landmark piece Plenty, later filmed with Meryl Streep as the wartime resistance officer whose post-war psychological collapse causes untold collateral damage.
Here it is Hattie Morahan who falls apart before our eyes (and in very close proximity to the intimately placed audience). It’s a tough role and a difficult one to pull off with its eye-rolling outbursts and subtle shifts in temperament, but Morahan makes a decent fist of holding the whole thing together, and gets some strong backing from Edward Bennett as her old-school, ineffectual husband and Kirsty Bushell as her flighty friend Alice.
Between them, the trio of plays make a stunning and revealing study of Hare’s back catalogue, and these three impressive productions make a fine compilation that justifies the giving over of three auditoria at once.
LIFE OF RILEY
February 11, 2011
Oxford Playhouse until Saturday, February 12, 2011, then tour continues
The prodigious output of Sir Alan Ayckbourn continues with this latest piece of domestic drama, his 74th play and every bit as fresh and biting as if it were the fourth.
Having opened in Scarborough, it’s now touring in a production directed by the playwright and featuring several longstanding collaborators, as well as new Ayckbourn faces.
We’re in familiar territory here, with three relationships unfolding in three gardens, all revolving around the never-seen-on-stage character of George Riley. How the eponymous invisible protagonist fits into each of their lives is woven with the usual meticulous craft into a witty, poignant and occasionally barbed evening of top comedy.
Liza Goddard is buttoned up and quietly belligerent as Kathryn, the demanding doctor’s wife, while Kim Wall offers a performance of perfectly-judged comic timing as her opposite number. Laura Doddington is delightfully common and raw as Essex girl Tamsin, sparking fireworks with an energetic Ben Porter as her wayward husband Jack. Completing the sextet are Laura Howard and Jamie Kenna, the most understated of the six but mining plenty of pathos and emotion from the unravelling complications.
A simple but highly effective set by Michael Holt allows the action to play out cleverly in the separate locations, and there’s a real sense of impending collapse as the six lives link and intertwine, all to a wonderful Pink Floyd soundtrack laden with heavy significance.
Life of Riley may not have the upfront showiness of a Bedroom Farce or Norman Conquests, but it’s quality writing performed by a quality cast and comes highly recommended.
BARB JUNGR AND FRIENDS
January 16, 2011
The Core, Corby Cube
BRITISH chanteuse Barb Jungr is something of a hidden gem. Goodness knows why – not the gem bit, but the hidden.
Born of Czech-German parents in the unlikely setting of Rochdale, she belies her exotically European name to offer a down-to-earth, good, honest set framed in no-nonsense Lancashire patter.
The cabaret craftsman, who has also been making a name for herself in New York for the past decade or so, has now been given the job of hostess for an ongoing season of monthly ‘With Friends’ sessions at the sparkling new venue The Core, deep in the belly of Corby’s civic Cube building.
The plush red interior and enclosed balconies of the studio-like theatre make the perfect setting for an intimate one-to-one with Barb, and she clearly relishes the close contact with her appreciative audience, leaning forward conspiratorially for anecdotes and joking casually with the front row, as if we were sitting in her own living room.
It’s a style that suits her classy song delivery too. In this opener to the season, she elected a set of almost exclusively Bob Dylan material, transferred elegantly to voice and piano with the able accompaniment of Jenny Carr. All that’s missing is the smokiness of a subterranean 1960s nightclub – and maybe a rasping tenor sax – but the mood is unmistakable and memorable.
For her first guest, Jungr introduced the soulful, falsetto-drenched tones of David McAlmont, whose 18-year career has spanned partnerships with Suede guitarist Bernard Butler, James Bond composer David Arnold and the neo-classical Michael Nyman.
Much of the material on offer was selected from this back catalogue, delivered impeccably to the lush, jazzy piano of current collaborator Guy Davies, and provided a fine, interesting contrast to the Jungr first half.
If the quality of performances and guests continues at this level, a monthly date at The Core is sure to become a regular in the discerning music-lover’s diary. The next, featuring jazz singer Ian Shaw, is on February 13.
December 3, 2011
Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, until Saturday, January 7, 2012
FORGET your pantos, your carol concerts and your festive family fare. Daniel Evans and the team at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre have got Christmas properly sewn up with a fabulous production of Stephen Sondheim’s Company.
This extraordinary piece of musical theatre, which barely hangs on any kind of narrative, somehow manages to create atmosphere, depth and real emotion out of what amounts to a series of vignettes cut through with Sondheim’s pithy and poignant songs.
It’s essentially a snapshot of New York bachelor Bobby, whose 35th birthday in 1970 offers an opportunity to analyse his married friends’ relationships in the light of his own single status. It could be introspective, one-dimensional and dull. But in the hands of director Jonathan Munby, musical director Nigel Lilley and designer Christopher Oram, it’s the exact opposite: exuberant, vivid and bursting with life.
Munby, directing his first musical, has enlisted the aid of choreographer Lynne Page, and between them they have generated a show that looks constantly interesting, always evolving and brilliantly staged.
The complex lighting from Neil Austin plays a significant part in Oram’s design, which also serves to enhance the feel and movement of the whole, while Lilley’s 10-piece band – sadly unseen off-stage – are superbly efficient and beautifully realised in Paul Arditti’s well-balanced sound design.
And then there are the performances. Led by Evans himself as Bobby, it’s a genuine ensemble piece, with 14 seamlessly linked characters weaving dramatic tension, comedy and pathos in a display of singing, acting and dancing that would not look out of place on any West End or Broadway stage.
Evans is simply breathtaking, his vocal range and ability giving Bobby a warmth and likeability that shine through in his acting as well.
Among the five couples, there’s not a single weak link – no mean feat in a regional company this size – from Francesca Annis’s raddled cynic Joanne to Claire Price’s bright-eyed and fizzing Sarah. Meanwhile, Bobby’s three interchangeable girlfriends are nicely judged to offer a little light relief alongside the self-examination.
It’s a stunning and imaginative production of a clever and intelligent musical that offers a highly recommended alternative to dames and Dandini.
JOHN CLEESE: THE ALIMONY TOUR
June 17, 2011
New Theatre, Oxford
UNASHAMEDLY billed as a show for making money to pay off the latest ex-Mrs Cleese, and introduced by the man himself as a “fan show”, you might be forgiven for thinking that John Cleese, standing on a stage reading autobiographical anecdotes from an autocue, would be something of a disappointment.
But that does not account for the innate comic qualities of this Titan of 20th century comedy.
This is the man who was part of the groundbreaking (and it’s easy to forget at this distance just how groundbreaking they were) Monty Python team at the dawn of the 70s. This is the man who created one of television’s all-time comedy icons, the extraordinary Basil Fawlty. And this is also the man who wrote and starred in one of the 80s’ most enduring and popular comedy movies, A Fish Called Wanda.
Not bad for a gangly, oversized would-be lawyer from Weston-super-Mare.
The Alimony Tour routine – which kicks off with a few vitriolic minutes about the aforementioned third Mrs Cleese – encompasses all these landmarks, from the Weston childhood to the dog-killing mayhem of Wanda. Cleese intersperses his own relentlessly hilarious narration with snapshots from his personal family album and clips of many of the iconic moments, including some black-and-white rarities alongside the Holy Grail and Wanda classics.
It’s all good, filthy fun, with Cleese’s typical black humour threaded inextricably through the comedy. But he takes time out, too, to offer some self-analysis along the way, including his musings on the reasons behind that black humour, and his favourite contender for the “naughtiest line ever written”, supplied courtesy of his Python writing partner Graham Chapman.
The funniest clip, indeed, is of Cleese’s tribute at Chapman’s 1989 memorial service, in which he reduces the sombre audience to helpless laughter with his own particular style of naughtiness.
And helpless laughter is the order of the day for the whole of this one-man show, split into two 45-minute halves with no encore or curtain call. He may well be doing it for the money, but at the age of 71, the fact remains that he’s still doing it, and doing it brilliantly.
THE DAVID HARE SEASON:
THE BREATH OF LIFE, RACING DEMON AND PLENTY
February 25-26, 2011
Sheffield Theatres until Saturday, March 5, 2011
Three plays from across the Hare canon, staged simultaneously in Sheffield Theatres’ three auditoria – it’s a recipe for close study of the work and some superb ensemble playing.
And with Hare himself in the Crucible audience for Racing Demon and Plenty, there was an added frisson to the electrifying performances on stage.
In the elegant surroundings of the Lyceum, the highly experienced pairing of Patricia Hodge and Isla Blair wrangle with the 2002 two-hander Breath of Life. Set in the living room of sometime mistress Madeleine Palmer, it gradually reveals the story of a love triangle when the wife, Frances Beale, comes to call.
Although a little lost in the space, Thea Sharrock’s production is never less than sharp and meticulously handled. The sparring between the two women veers from psychological needling to outright fury, and the performances are taut and well matched.
On the Crucible main stage, meanwhile, artistic director Daniel Evans gets his hands on the 1990 masterpiece Racing Demon, originally part of Hare’s state-of-the-nation trilogy alongside Murmuring Judges and The Absence of War. It stands up brilliantly in isolation, peeling back the façade of the Church of England to reveal exactly the same feuds, fusses and betrayals faced by the rest of society.
The terrific cast is led by Malcolm Sinclair, who imbues the Rev Lionel Espy with depth, humanity and enormous poignancy as his faith and his professional life begin to unravel. Jonathan Coy makes a wonderfully steely bishop, while Matthew Cottle and Ian Gelder are excellent as Lionel’s supportive co-clerics against the fire-and-brimstone evangelism of Jamie Parker’s hotheaded tyro curate.
Intelligently staged and beautifully designed (Tom Rogers), it’s the highlight of the season and utterly compelling.
Wrapping things up in the Crucible Studio is the 1978 landmark piece Plenty, later filmed with Meryl Streep as the wartime resistance officer whose post-war psychological collapse causes untold collateral damage.
Here it is Hattie Morahan who falls apart before our eyes (and in very close proximity to the intimately placed audience). It’s a tough role and a difficult one to pull off with its eye-rolling outbursts and subtle shifts in temperament, but Morahan makes a decent fist of holding the whole thing together, and gets some strong backing from Edward Bennett as her old-school, ineffectual husband and Kirsty Bushell as her flighty friend Alice.
Between them, the trio of plays make a stunning and revealing study of Hare’s back catalogue, and these three impressive productions make a fine compilation that justifies the giving over of three auditoria at once.
LIFE OF RILEY
February 11, 2011
Oxford Playhouse until Saturday, February 12, 2011, then tour continues
The prodigious output of Sir Alan Ayckbourn continues with this latest piece of domestic drama, his 74th play and every bit as fresh and biting as if it were the fourth.
Having opened in Scarborough, it’s now touring in a production directed by the playwright and featuring several longstanding collaborators, as well as new Ayckbourn faces.
We’re in familiar territory here, with three relationships unfolding in three gardens, all revolving around the never-seen-on-stage character of George Riley. How the eponymous invisible protagonist fits into each of their lives is woven with the usual meticulous craft into a witty, poignant and occasionally barbed evening of top comedy.
Liza Goddard is buttoned up and quietly belligerent as Kathryn, the demanding doctor’s wife, while Kim Wall offers a performance of perfectly-judged comic timing as her opposite number. Laura Doddington is delightfully common and raw as Essex girl Tamsin, sparking fireworks with an energetic Ben Porter as her wayward husband Jack. Completing the sextet are Laura Howard and Jamie Kenna, the most understated of the six but mining plenty of pathos and emotion from the unravelling complications.
A simple but highly effective set by Michael Holt allows the action to play out cleverly in the separate locations, and there’s a real sense of impending collapse as the six lives link and intertwine, all to a wonderful Pink Floyd soundtrack laden with heavy significance.
Life of Riley may not have the upfront showiness of a Bedroom Farce or Norman Conquests, but it’s quality writing performed by a quality cast and comes highly recommended.
BARB JUNGR AND FRIENDS
January 16, 2011
The Core, Corby Cube
BRITISH chanteuse Barb Jungr is something of a hidden gem. Goodness knows why – not the gem bit, but the hidden.
Born of Czech-German parents in the unlikely setting of Rochdale, she belies her exotically European name to offer a down-to-earth, good, honest set framed in no-nonsense Lancashire patter.
The cabaret craftsman, who has also been making a name for herself in New York for the past decade or so, has now been given the job of hostess for an ongoing season of monthly ‘With Friends’ sessions at the sparkling new venue The Core, deep in the belly of Corby’s civic Cube building.
The plush red interior and enclosed balconies of the studio-like theatre make the perfect setting for an intimate one-to-one with Barb, and she clearly relishes the close contact with her appreciative audience, leaning forward conspiratorially for anecdotes and joking casually with the front row, as if we were sitting in her own living room.
It’s a style that suits her classy song delivery too. In this opener to the season, she elected a set of almost exclusively Bob Dylan material, transferred elegantly to voice and piano with the able accompaniment of Jenny Carr. All that’s missing is the smokiness of a subterranean 1960s nightclub – and maybe a rasping tenor sax – but the mood is unmistakable and memorable.
For her first guest, Jungr introduced the soulful, falsetto-drenched tones of David McAlmont, whose 18-year career has spanned partnerships with Suede guitarist Bernard Butler, James Bond composer David Arnold and the neo-classical Michael Nyman.
Much of the material on offer was selected from this back catalogue, delivered impeccably to the lush, jazzy piano of current collaborator Guy Davies, and provided a fine, interesting contrast to the Jungr first half.
If the quality of performances and guests continues at this level, a monthly date at The Core is sure to become a regular in the discerning music-lover’s diary. The next, featuring jazz singer Ian Shaw, is on February 13.
