Top 10 Theatre of 2022

Following two years of disruption due to the pandemic, we seemed to get our theatre-going mojo back in 2022. We finally saw Sara Bareilles’ musical Waitress, a musical which was at ease with putting together the heartfelt and quirky as it was with putting together bacon and blueberry in a pie. Frantic Assembly demonstrated once again why they’re one of the most exciting theatre companies today with their stripped-back, contemporary take on Othello. Jodie Comer had an unstoppable energy in Suzie Miller’s one-woman play Prima Facie. And there was a brilliant revival of Beautiful –The Carole King Musical at Leicester’s Curve, featuring the late Douglas McGrath’s first-class book, perfectly capturing the New York vibe like a Neil Simon comedy.

So, for what it’s worth, here’s our Top 10 list in alphabetical order:

1. A Strange Loop – Lyceum, New York

Audacious in its form, style and subject matter, A Strange Loop is a mighty meta musical which balances its self-irreverence and emotional intensity superbly. Like Hamilton, it’s the sort of show you want to plonk in front of detractors of musicals to show them the possibility of the form. This is a semi-autobiographical musical by a black, gay man about a black, gay man writing a musical, about a black, gay man writing a musical, and so on. Our leading man is an Usher at a popular Disney Broadway show, and Jackson scatters many gags about audiences, show business and generalised opinions on musical theatre (‘Have you seen Hamilton?’ generates eyerolls from Usher and his parents’ insistence that he ask Scott Rudin to produce A Strange Loop garners titters from a knowing audience). The show pulls no punches, and addresses uncomfortable issues with humour and pathos.

2. Billy Elliot – Curve, Leicester

This summer, Curve created a production which afforded Billy Elliot both the immense spectacle and touching intimacy it deserves. Nikolai Foster’s vision beautifully evoked a sense of community against a delicately balanced backdrop of political and emotional turmoil. The image of Billy dancing alone, dwarfed by the vast metallic tangle of the stage, was unexpectedly moving while the group numbers were rousing yet prophetic in their ominousness. The revival came at a time in history where Britain faces a similar state of economic and political crisis. It admirably demonstrated the capacity of the arts to truthfully reflect the cultural climate while transcending social, physical, and linguistic boundaries to express both individual and collective anger, grief and joy.

3. Cabaret – Kit Kat Klub at the Playhouse, London

This version of Cabaret brought to light new aspects of the musical. Rebecca Frecknall’s vision is relentless: we revel in decadence while being cowed by the undercurrent of menace. The performances were pitch-perfect and I anticipate this production will shape portrayals of these characters for some time to come. In all, one of the greatest pieces of praise I can offer is that I could see this production again and again and always find something new to enjoy or think about.

4.  Jerusalem – Apollo, London

I was 19 when I first saw Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem at the Apollo in 2011. For me, it was the play that sparked a love for going to see plays. I was lucky to get a £10 ticket that day but it didn’t surprise me to hear that people were queuing around the block and camping overnight to get tickets. Jerusalem captured a sense of urgency I hadn’t seen reflected elsewhere and hadn’t been able to articulate myself until that point. It struck a chord for me and a generation of other young audience members hungry to see it. Ian Rickson’s production returned to the Apollo this year with all the vitality and urgency it had first time round. It’s testament to the greatness of the play, so full of cultural and literary allusions, that it brought about other reference points and gained new meanings since it was first produced. By the end, the play has the audience believing in giants too.

5. Kimberly Akimbo – Booth, New York

David Lindsay-Abaire and Jeanine Tesori’s Kimberly Akimbo is a heart-warming, nourishing musical and a first-rate example of book and score complementing each other beautifully. Like with his play Good People (2011), Lindsay-Abaire is interested in the promises and rhetoric of the American Dream not being fully realised; characters with imperfections and major flaws but with hopes, fears and good intentions buried somewhere beneath the surface. And in the centre of the storm is Kimberly, played with such authenticity by Tony Award-winning soprano Victoria Clark. Kimberly is no ordinary teenager. Born with a disease that ages her body abnormally quickly, we hear that most people with her condition only have a life expectancy of about 17 years. We not only believe she’s 16 but her optimistic outlook and bright spark in her eyes is endearing without ever being overly sentimental. It’s destined to be the musical of the season and I’ll be rooting for it at next year’s Tony’s.

6. Life of Pi – Wyndham’s, London

Lolita Chakrabarti adapted Yann Martel’s ‘unadaptable’ novel Life of Pi for Sheffield Theatres which we saw in the West End earlier this year. Telling the story of Piscine Patel who survives a storm which capsizes the ship that his family and their zoo were on, Life of Pi is a remarkable achievement in epic storytelling. Its utter brilliance comes from how it highlights that theatre is a truly collaborative artform: from Tim Hatley’s set design to Nick Barnes & Finn Caldwell’s driftwood-style puppets to Andrzej Goulding’s video design to the seven Olivier Award-winning actors who played the tiger, all helmed by Max Webster’s production. Hatley’s design cleverly reconfigures the Wyndham’s stage into more of a thrust similar to Sheffield’s Crucible. The effect is that you find yourself moving in your seat with the motion of the lifeboat. Also clever is how, just like theatre, imagination and reality sit side by side, the sterile walls of the hospital existing in the same moment as the deep blue of the ocean. It may be closing in January but a UK tour and Broadway run start in 2023.

7. Rock/Paper/Scissors – Crucible/Lyceum/Studio, Sheffield

All three plays in Chris Bush’s Rock/Paper/Scissors triptych ran in Sheffield Theatres’ three spaces simultaneously with one cast. The overall piece was a logistical coup-de-théâtre. It was also a perfect coming together of space and place in three funny, achingly profound and heartful plays about a city and its people on the cusp of change. Set in present-day Sheffield across three locations of a former scissor factory, the plays explored the various stakeholders who all have a claim on what they’d like the space to be. From a nightclub or industrial chic making hub, to flats, to carrying on as a working factory, Rock/Paper/Scissors delved into the spaces and lives that make up the past, present and future of Sheffield.

8. Spring Awakening – Almeida, London

Rupert Goold rejected much of the whimsy of the original Broadway and London productions of Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik’s musical in favour of a starker exploration of the purgatory of adolescence, in which the characters are trapped within a childhood dictated by unfeeling adults. Spring Awakening may seem to be full of despair – and, to be fair, in our current political and social climate it’s difficult not to agree with such nihilistic sentiments – but the musical is not bereft of hope. In one of musical theatre’s most beautiful finales we were reminded that life continues, generations will grow, learn and prosper, and the pains endured in the pursuit of maturity are all threads in the rich tapestry of life. Yes, the plot is hard-hitting and damning, but we can all learn a thing or two about hope, change and empathy by looking to the past in remembrance of the future. This was a stunning production of a timely musical.

9. Tammy Faye – Almeida, London

Theatre lovers have whispered rumours for years about Elton John’s long-awaited Tammy Faye musical. Following the success of the recent Oscar-winning film based on the Televangelist’s life, audiences’ appetites had been well and truly whetted. The world of Tammy Faye Bakker is a marvel, and we’re encouraged to gawp and titter at the bizarre fantasy land on display, but the jokes are never mean and the action is peppered with a pathos that reminds us that these are real people and real events. John and Shears have written some cracking torch songs for their heroine, namely the Act One finale ‘Empty Hands’ and the empowering ballad ‘If You Came to See Me Cry’. Katie Brayben excelled during these moments, pouring her heart out and giving her all in a performance that is bound to garner many nominations come awards season.

10. The Piano Lesson – Ethel Barrymore, New York

One of the classiest revivals we saw this year was LaTanya Richardson Jackson’s production of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize winning The Piano Lesson (1987). One of Wilson’s Pittsburgh cycle of ten plays which chart the African American experience throughout the twentieth century, The Piano Lesson is set in 1936. Like in Two Trains Running which we saw in Northampton in 2019, Wilson’s dense text interweaves strands of prosaic gossip, banter, song and urban myth. But this family drama is also haunted by a spectral presence symbolic of America’s past as much as the Charles family’s. Beowulf Boritt’s set fills the stage with the Charles’ house, several floors and wooden beams go up to the roof, and an ornately carved piano dominates the living room. What makes Richardson Jackson’s production rich with texture are the superlative performances. Samuel L. Jackson as former railroad worker Doaker has an earthy quality and jovial bond with the others, but the standout performances belong to John David Washington as Doaker’s nephew Boy Willie and Michael Potts as Doaker’s brother. There’s an ease and authenticity among the cast which really sets the play alight. It concludes its limited run on 29^th January, 2023 but there are rumours of a London transfer.

From Left to Right:

Billy Elliot: Jaden Shentall-Lee. Credit: Marc Brenner

A Strange Loop: Jaquel Spivey. Credit: Marc J. Franklin

Jerusalem: Mark Rylance. Credit: Simon Annand

The Piano Lesson: Samuel L. Jackson. Credit: Julieta Cervantes

Life of Pi: The Tiger and Nuwan Hugh Perera. Credit: Ellie Kurttz

A Strange Loop

 Lyceum, New York

11^th October, 2022

“Big, black and queer-ass American Broadway show!”

Michael R. Jackson’s Pulitzer and Tony-award winning musical fits a lot into its 100 minutes. Audacious in its form, style and subject matter, A Strange Loop is a mighty meta musical which balances its self-irreverence and emotional intensity superbly. Like Hamilton, it’s the sort of show you want to plonk in front of detractors of musicals to show them the possibility of the form.

This is a semi-autobiographical musical by a black, gay man about a black, gay man writing a musical, about a black, gay man writing a musical, and so on. Our leading man (at this performance played by Kyle Ramar Freeman) is an Usher at a popular Disney Broadway show, and Jackson scatters many gags about audiences, show business and generalised opinions on musical theatre (‘Have you seen Hamilton?’ generates eyerolls from Usher and his parents’ insistence that he ask Scott Rudin to produce A Strange Loop garners titters from a knowing audience). Jackson also plays with expectation, stereotype and internalised racism, homophobia and cultural guilt; Usher continually pokes fun at himself for his fondness for ‘white girl music’, while simultaneously bemoaning his family’s preferred ‘Gospel Plays’ which perpetuate racial and religious cliches. Central to this derision is millionaire entertainer, Tyler Perry. A figure perhaps less well known outside the USA, Perry is known for writing, acting and directing works based on average African-American families, often resorting to racial stereotypes – the downtrodden husband; the sassy matriarch (often played by Perry himself – think Mrs Brown’s Boys for American audiences) – and Jackson doesn’t hold back in lacerating and inverting the expectations of what modern ‘Black’ entertainment should look like. Similarly, Usher’s sexuality is constantly under scrutiny, with taboo subjects regularly intruding his thoughts (eg. his father repeatedly asks if Usher wants to have sex with him, or whether he has HIV). Jackson also inspects the ways that the gay community are not immune from prejudice and propagating issues such as the fetishization of cultural identities and body-shaming - as seen in Usher’s internalized self-loathing concerning his appearance. The show pulls no punches, and addresses uncomfortable issues with humour and pathos.

Jackson is able to package an array of conflicting emotions all in one song, one of them which shows the breadth of his genius being ‘Periodically’. It starts off as a phone call from Usher’s mother to wish him a happy birthday and to say she loves him, before the gates then open to a relentless homophobic tirade. Lyrics such as “All of these Hollywood homosexuals” are sung to an upbeat, jaunty melody, before the song then pulls back to a slower piano melody. The song is uncannily brought to life by John-Andrew Morrison as Usher’s God-fearing mother. His performance (which was nominated for a Tony) shows their love and pain alongside their prejudice. And at the end of the show, Usher writes the gospel play his mother has always wanted him to write. Thrillingly realised by Stephen Brackett’s production and Arnulfo Maldonado’s design, the stage opens up to reveal his family home in a scene reminiscent of ‘Welcome to Our House on Maple Avenue’ from Fun Home, or perhaps even the contrived sitcom bonhomie of Jackie Sibblies Drury’s Fairview. This scene culminates in the gob-smacking and epic satirical ‘Precious Little Dream / AIDS is God's Punishment’. Much of the show's emotional heft comes from Usher’s fractious relationship with his parents. The line between autobiography and fiction is blurred, Jackson once again playing with the idea of multiple versions of self.

We saw A Strange Loop on the day its closure was announced. Despite its fairly short Broadway run, the show has made its mark on musical theatre history. I hope it’s not the last we see of it or Jackson’s musical writing talents.

A Strange Loop plays at the Lyceum Theatre, New York until 15^th January, 2023

The company of A Strange Loop. Credit: Marc J. Franklin

Almost Famous

 Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, New York

15^th October, 2022 (Preview)

“It’s over. All over”

There’s been a string of screen-to-stage adaptations on Broadway in recent years. From indie films that have made it big on The Great White Way (The Band’s Visit, Waitress) to Hollywood favourites which hope to appeal to a broader tourist market (Beetlejuice, Moulin Rouge!). It’s now the turn of Cameron Crowe’s semi-autobiographical movie Almost Famous (2000) to receive the Broadway treatment. The result is an entertaining and very watchable new musical which is let down by a feeling that it’s being constantly pulled in different directions.

It’s 1973 and rock critic Lester Bangs (Rob Colletti) has proclaimed Rock ‘n’ Roll is dead. Cynical of its commerciality, self-importance and lack of soul, it’s a bold statement from Rolling Stones magazine’s most influential writer. He then meets 15-year-old superfan William Miller: he’s learnt every riff, listened to every album, and memorised every guitar solo. Eager to please, he lies about his age and bags a task interviewing the band Stillwater (think Ozzy Osbourne-esque hair and British accents).  Miller’s naïve persistency gives him a backstage pass to follow Stillwater on tour. The life of a groupie – sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, or rather planes, veins and automobiles – provides Miller with a moment of exhilaration which quickly fades. Though the idea of ‘no attachments and no boundaries’ may sound worry-free it also leaves Miller directionless. The one rule he's given, ‘don’t make friends with the band’, is one he can’t resist and he soon finds himself falling for fellow groupie Penny Lane.

There’s a lot to enjoy in Almost Famous. Crowe’s book has a sense of drive which moves the story along with purpose. There’s also a clear sense of conflict between the teenager’s instinct to be unruly and his mother’s (Anika Larsen) inclination to be sensible which, although basic, is entertaining enough. There’s also a large cast of supporting characters who create some memorable moments, keen on selling a crowd-pleasing show for a wide Broadway audience, which they largely pull off. There’s a lot to enjoy about Derek McLane’s set design too from a lit-up map of the US which marks the band’s journey from state to state, to the more grounded setting of Miller’s home.

I agree with other critics that making the protagonist an on-looker is a flaw. Casey Likes as Miller has a great voice but it’s a shame we don’t get to hear it much. But the main issue with Almost Famous is that the score lacks any cohesion. Tom Kitt’s new songs are a hodgepodge of 70s rock pastiche for the band’s onstage numbers and more traditional musical theatre numbers which advance character. The best of these is ‘The Night Time Sky’s Got Nothing on You’, a duet between Penny Lane and band member Russell Hammond. Beautifully performed by Solea Pfeiffer and Chris Wood, the song gets to the core what the groupie and the rock star desire about the other’s lives: “The way you turn a hotel into a home… the way the notes you play make a play for my heart”. And for those audience members who haven’t seen the movie (like myself), jukebox numbers like the rousing Act One closing number (Elton John’s ‘Tiny Dancer’) come as a pleasant surprise but don’t make much dramaturgical sense.

Jeremy Herrin’s production is busy. From our vantage point on the front row of the stalls, we could even see the organised chaos in the wings where stage managers’ tracks are choreographed down to a tee. Tables and chairs are hoisted into the rafters to be stored, and a stadium fire exit (part of the set) has to be used as an actual door for actors to reach the stage. The on-stage business is just as lively. From rock stars jumping from rooftops in slow-motion to tour bus singalongs and planes nose-diving in a storm. And in one fast-paced sequence, the cast crash through a series of moving doors as if to depict the nightly slog of navigating backstage corridors on an arena tour. If the effect of this is that, like all good road movies, the show is constantly moving, the downside is that it’s frenetic (although I’m sure this tightened up later in previews).

It’s a pity the show hasn’t found its audience as it’s just announced it’s due to close in January. But for rock fans and musical theatre fans, Almost Famous will provide a few hours of escapism over the festive period.

Almost Famous is playing at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre in New York until 8^th January, 2023.

 

Casey Likes and the cast of Almost Famous. Credit:  Krista Schlueter

Tammy Faye

 Almeida, London

16^th November 2023, matinee

“He’s inside Tammy and he’s inside Jim”

Theatre lovers have whispered rumours for years about Elton John’s long-awaited Tammy Faye musical. Following the success of the recent Oscar-winning film based on the Televangelist’s life, audiences’ appetites had been well and truly whetted. You could say it’s been a varied year for Elton – the first newly staged revival of Billy Elliot opened at Curve to rave reviews back in July, while the songwriter’s recent adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada was by all accounts underwhelming. So, where does Tammy Faye sit on the 2022 success scale? While not quite as emotionally engaging or instantly lovable as Billy, the musical is polished, witty and has enough catchy tunes to warrant further life.

James Graham’s book frames the piece as a memory play. We begin with an ailing Tammy (Katie Brayben) being given a bleak prognosis by her doctor, although Tammy, the eternal optimist, can’t help but use the opportunity to crack jokes at her own expense. We subsequently travel back through the years as Tammy remembers the ups and downs of her extraordinary career. For a British audience the world of televangelism seems utterly alien – a mix of religious fanaticism and cloyingly American cheeriness, earnestness and bravura. Yet the human stories beneath in this madcap veneer of zealousness are engaging and intriguing.

Together with her husband, Jim Bakker (Andrew Rannells), Tammy Faye creates her own PTL (Praise The Lord) tv chat show – think This Morning with added piety (and puppets!) – and soon climbs the ladder of success to prove her doubters wrong. Chief among these doubters is Zubin Varla’s old-school Jerry Falwell, who thinks that religion is a strictly serious business, and believes the word of God should be preached by a series of grey men in grey suits. And while Tammy may seem the very antithesis of ‘serious’, we never doubt her faith and she doesn’t shy away from broaching taboo subjects – as seen in her famous interview with AIDS patient Steve Pieters. While the musical perhaps sentimentalises this moment (Tammy hugs Steve, when in reality the interview was conducted via video link), the evident bias towards Bakker fits with the memory play structure; we are seeing Tammy as she sees herself – a selfless beacon of virtue. Bakker is very much the victim according to this version of events. She is clueless when it comes to the financial scam orchestrated by her husband, wherein viewers are persuaded to part with their cash in order to reserve their place in the PTL ‘home’ and promised theme park as laid out in the high kitsch number ‘God’s House/Heritage USA’. Yes, it’s difficult to believe that someone shrewd enough to climb the fame ladder can be so naïve, but this can be forgiven thanks to the nostalgic perspective of our protagonist. Even Bakker’s famed over-the-top aesthetic is toned down here in comparison with other portrayals.

The creative team do a great job of bringing to life these outlandish characters without turning them into caricatures. We sympathise with Tammy when Jim is found to have sexually assaulted a fan (although it would have been nice to see a little more from victim, Jessica Hahn’s perspective here), and her optimism and strength are wondrous. As expected, John and Shears have written some cracking torch songs for their heroine, namely the Act One finale ‘Empty Hands’ and the empowering ballad ‘If You Came To See Me Cry’. Katie Brayben excels during these moments, pouring her heart out and giving her all in a performance that is bound to garner many nominations come awards season. Other musical highlights include ‘Satellite of God’, a ‘Stars’-esque number sung by a stoic Jerry Falwell, and the cutesy duet ‘Light of Love’, sung by the young Jim and Tammy when the world was their oyster and both their love and piety seemed most sincere.

Goold’s direction is solid, making the most of the kitsch subject matter without becoming too gaudy. While the show fits nicely on the intimate Almeida stage, I can’t help but think this has been designed and directed with bigger spaces in mind. Bunny Christie sets events against a large television gameshow-like backdrop, complete with sliding windows through which characters pop up and offer commentary. The show also has a large roster of characters populating the stage, which helps in creating the sweeping feel to the saga. The cast are generally excellent, with Brayben, Rannells and Varla particularly well cast in their roles.

The world of Tammy Faye Bakker is a marvel, and we’re encouraged to gawp and titter at the bizarre fantasy land on display, but the jokes are never mean and the action is peppered with a pathos that reminds us that these are real people and real events. While it may not be to everyone’s taste I loved Graham’s ending to the play. I won’t say much more so as not to spoil it, but it is both a surprising and touchingly fitting finale to the Tammy Faye story. This show will get a further life. When, who knows. But I have faith…

Tammy Faye played at the Almeida until 3^rd December.

 

Andrew Rannells and Katie Brayben in Tammy Faye. Credit: Marc Brenner

 

 

The Wizard of Oz

 Curve, Leicester

24^th November, 2022

“Where troubles melt like lemon drops”

The Wizard of Oz was one of the first musicals I ever saw on a school trip to Leicester’s Haymarket in 2000. It was one of many introductions to theatre that got me hooked for life. Jump forward two decades, and seeing the many young families in the audience at Curve last night, it’s great to think that Nikolai Foster’s new production will introduce a whole new generation to the theatre. Made famous by the 1939 motion picture, Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg’s musical The Wizard of Oz has been staged countless times from the RSC to Madison Square Gardens. It’s a part of American culture and has even inspired other work from The Wiz to Wicked to great acclaim. In this new Made at Curve production, adapted by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jeremy Sams with additional music by Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice, it is L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel that Foster has mined to present an American fairy tale with plenty of wit, heart and courage.

At the core of The Wizard of Oz is a tension between the push-and-pull of home, the grey humdrum routine pitted against the allure of elsewhere. In ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’, that great “hymn to Elsewhere” as Salman Rushdie called it, Georgina Onuorah’s Dorothy yearns to escape Kansas farm life. As the song swells, Ben Thompson’s animated Toto leaps around Dorothy and cocks his head as Onuorah’s voice fills the auditorium and our hearts. Lloyd Webber’s new songs further this idea. In Professor Marvel’s ‘Wonders of the World’, he sells Dorothy a vision of seeing the world: “New York City, glass and metal/Everest unconquered mountain”. Dorothy’s journey to an unknown world has been dazzlingly realised by Foster using Route 66 to take us from the American frontier to a Las Vegas-inspired Emerald City.

Along the way we meet the intellectually challenged Scarecrow, played as a lovable yokel by Curve regular Jonny Fines, the stoic soldier-esque Tin Man (Paul French) with a tendency to cry himself into rusty stasis, and the burly-but-bashful Lion (Giovanni Spanó). The trio team up with Dorothy and Toto to form a rag-tag quintet of wandering souls, the chemistry between them wonderful. The characterisation of the characters is where Shay Barclay’s choreography shines. From the Scarecrow flip-flopping about the stage and sliding down the yellow brick road, to the Tin Man’s stiff, robotic movements, Barclay and the actors really nail the physical embodiment of the characters.

As we go west along the yellow brick road, we’re introduced to an Oz dripping in capitalism. The Disneyfication (or Ozneyfication) of Emerald City is a joy to discover. You’ll find your eyes poring over Colin Richmond’s spectacular design and Douglas O’Connell’s impressive projections to spot the Americana in which everything from corn cans to petrol tanks are stamped with the Oz brand. O’Connell’s video design elaborates this further. In the heart of Emerald City, we see McOznald’s, Ozbuck Coffee, and productions of The Wiz and The Return to Oz advertised on skyscrapers. Even the Poppy Hill Motel is inspired by the hotel in Hitchcock’s Psycho hinting at a more sinister side. Like Vegas itself, whilst the neon lights and sugar rush may provide Dorothy with a glimpse of life away from Kansas, Oz is a dizzying sight which has her yearning for the safety of home. Rachael Canning’s costumes enhance the Americana and provide granular texture: Tin Man tattooed with corporate logos; The Lion in American football gear; Glinda’s Penelope Pitstop-inspired entrance outfit; the Flying Monkeys sporting denim biker jackets. All of these design elements speak the same language and Foster has brilliantly brought them together so there is a cohesiveness between them.

There’s a lot to admire here. I particularly liked George Dyer’s musical arrangements: ‘The Merry Old Land of Oz’ has moved away from the saccharine tune it is in the film to a punchier melody which befits the Oz we see on stage. I also really enjoyed seeing a new take on the Wizard/Professor Marvel. Played brilliantly here by Mark Peachey, these characters are less the aging cynical trickster and more an optimistic showman trying to peddle an unachievable dream. Ellie Mitchell (stepping into the role at the last minute) and Christina Bianco are equally fabulous as the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda respectively. Mitchell provides a more modern take on the villain, overseeing an oil drilling industry. In Lloyd Webber’s standout addition of ‘Red Shoes Blues’ which shows some of the witch’s motivation (“She's prissy, she's clueless, and I want her shoeless”) Mitchell’s vocals shine.

With the movie embedded in our consciousness, staging a new production must be a daunting prospect. In a sharp production which comes in just over 2 hours there are a lot of ideas to unpack and it passes in a flash occasionally like a fever dream. But there’s no doubting this Wizard of Oz is fun, revitalised and spectacular.

The Wizard of Oz plays at Curve, Leicester until 8^th January, 2023. For more information please visit The Wizard Of Oz - Curve Theatre, Leicester (curveonline.co.uk)

Paul French (Tin Man), Jonny Fines (Scarecrow), Giovanni Spanó (Lion), Georgina Onuorah (Dorothy) and Ben Thompson (Toto) in The Wizard of Oz. Credit: Marc Brenner.

Kimberly Akimbo

 Booth Theatre, New York

13^th October, 2022 (Preview)

“I like your point of view”

In a recent NY Times interview, playwright David Lindsay-Abaire and composer Jeanine Tesori reflected on their time collaborating on Shrek the Musical (2008). Whilst adapting the 2001 DreamWorks movie, the pair expressed a wish to make a musical together with the same intensity and focus as writing a play. The result, after a seven-year passion project, is Kimberly Akimbo: a musical based on Lindsay-Abaire’s 2001 play of the same name about a 16-year-old girl who has the body of a 72-year-old. Following an award-winning Off-Broadway run last year, the musical has now opened on Broadway. On its second preview, Kimberly Akimbo is a heart-warming, nourishing musical and a first-rate example of book and score complementing each other beautifully.

Using Lindsay-Abaire’s play as the main source provides the musical with a book which has a solid structure. Set in late 90s New Jersey, the show focuses on Kimberly Levaco and her dysfunctional family. Having recently moved house due to her aunt assaulting their neighbour, Kimberly has to balance making new friends at the local rink with hiding her dad’s alcoholism from her mom, herself a bit of a wastrel. But Kimberly is no ordinary teenager. Born with a disease that ages her body abnormally quickly, we hear that most people with her condition only have a life expectancy of about 16 years. Like with his Good People (2011), Lindsay-Abaire is interested in the promises and rhetoric of the American Dream not being fully realised; characters with imperfections and major flaws but with hopes, fears and good intentions buried somewhere beneath the surface. And in the centre of the storm is Kimberly, played with such authenticity by Tony Award-winning soprano Victoria Clark. We not only believe she’s 16 but her optimistic outlook and bright sparkle in her eyes is endearing without ever being overly sentimental.

The believable characters and strong plot are both enhanced by Tesori’s music. Like in Fun Home (2013), her playful melodies crack open the characters’ inner lives to give them depth. In ‘Make A Wish’, we hear Kimberly’s letter to New Jersey’s Make A Wish Foundation who’ll choose only one of her three wishes. “I bet you pick whatever’s cheapest, haha, smiley face” is typical of her warm humour. Whereas her first two wishes are fun and typical of a teenager, the song becomes an ever-growing list of things Kimberly, like any normal teenager, would wish for. The relentlessness then halts to allow Kimberly to wistfully long for a simple homecooked family meal. In ‘Anagram’ we see Kimberly inwardly work through her feelings for her nerdy classmate Seth: “A little odd, a little off, a bit unorthodox”. The simple melody powerfully grows to her realising she likes him. This is accompanied by Seth, who shares Lindsay-Abaire’s love of word games, working out an anagram of her name. Recognition has to go to Justin Cooley as Seth. Only Murders in the Building has taught us of the gems of multi-generational friendships (although here they’re the same age), and the innocent chemistry between Clark and Cooley is pitched at exactly the right level.

Kimberly’s maturity and optimism are at odds with her family of reprobates. Their immaturity is the source of much of the show’s humour, but the songs expand their characters to give further insight into their pain. Aware that their daughter may not live much longer, and expecting another imminently, we begin to understand how their first-time round being parents has both been not long enough and also painfully drawn out. And what cracking songs they are! In ‘Hello, Darling’, Alli Mauzey’s accident-prone Patti expresses her hopes for her new born and her fears she’ll have the same condition as Kimberly. In the fast-paced patter song ‘Happy For Her’, Steven Boyer displays tongue-twisting verbal dexterity on a drive to school in which he plays the over-protective father. But the show’s breakout star is Bonnie Milligan as Aunt Debra. ‘Better’, an upbeat hymn to do whatever it takes to “make your shitty life better”, is a hilarious skewering of the typical ‘feel-good’ song.

If Lindsay-Abaire creates a believable world, it is meticulously rendered by David Zinn: a cluttered kitchen diner complete with Maxwell house coffee tub; the school hallway; an ice rink complete with snow and real onstage skating. And when the side wall opens up to reveal Kimberly’s bedroom, we can see the same level of detail go right into the wings. Ice skating pictures and Dawson’s Creek posters adorn the walls, and a globe and giraffe teddy show what she still dreams of doing.

Kimberly Akimbo is destined to be the musical of the season and I’ll be rooting for it at next year’s Tony’s. Running through Times Square in the pouring rain afterwards didn’t hamper us sharing the show’s upbeat view on life. Indeed, “When life gives you lemons… you’ve got to go out and steal some apples because who the fuck wants lemons?!”

Kimberly Akimbo plays at the Booth Theatre, New York, booking to April 2023. For further information, please visit https://kimberlyakimbothemusical.com/

Victoria Clark in Kimberly Akimbo. Credit: Joan Marcus

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

 Curve, Leicester

Wednesday 2^nd November 2022

“Land of the living dead”

Deborah Moggach’s book, These Foolish Things, is perhaps better known for its starry 2011 film adaptation The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel which spawned an unlikely reality-tv franchise, and delighted viewers young and old with its ‘fish-out-of-water’ quaintness. Now Moggach adapts her work for a new theatre tour, offering audiences a warming dose of genteel patter amidst sultry tropical climes.

Having recently taken over the family Hotel business in Bangalore, young Sonny hatches a plan to boost income by offering British retirees assisted living accommodation with lashings of sunshine, bottomless gin and tonics and an iffy culinary mix of tikka masala and toad in the hole. When the Brits arrive there’s the usual clash of cultures – the Brits are shocked by the caste system, while the Indians muse upon English rules of politeness – but, predictably, the characters all learn from each other and the experience enriches their lives.

Despite a large cast of characters, I felt that Moggach never really got under their skin, and the result is that most feel underdeveloped and one-note – the anti-woke boor, the glamourous cougar, the holier-than-thou xenophile. This also extends to the depiction of India in the play, which, despite some underpowered attempts to address colonialism, is rather trite and reliant on stereotype. The India presented is one defined by call centres, ‘Delhi-belly’, arranged marriages and a love of cricket – a pretty blinkered and British view of the culture.

Moggach fares better when touching on the poignancies of growing older. The hotel guests feel young at heart, but often speak of society’s tendency to view them as already ‘half-dead’. This theme of trying to recapture youth is more tangibly addressed in Dorothy’s (Richenda Carey) mysterious search for her childhood friend - who turns out to be much closer to home than she’d anticipated. The loneliness of old age is also tenderly explored. At one point Hayley Mills’ Evelyn regrets all the things she never got to talk about with her late husband. The initially timid character has a more natural evolution throughout the play, growing with confidence as she makes friends and learns to express herself. Yet, in her quietly blossoming relationship with Paul Nicholas’ Douglas, the feelings left unspoken between the pair hint once more at the old-fashioned British restraint the OAPs are fleeing from. I enjoyed Mills’ more nuanced performance, which plays nicely on her earnest likability.

While I found The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel rather sedate and over-long (at least 40 minutes could be cut from the running time), I appreciate that I am probably not its target audience. Those around us were audibly enjoying the play, chuckling along in recognition, creating an endearing atmosphere. The production benefits greatly from Colin Richmond’s sumptuous design and Kuljit Bhamra’s original music, which is both upbeat and evocative, making for a sweet and feel-good finale.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel plays at Leicester’s Curve until 5^th November as part of an extensive UK and Ireland tour until June 2023, including a run on a transatlantic cruise in December. For further information please visit https://marigoldshow.com/#tourdates 

Hayley Mills and Rula Lenska in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Credit: Johan Persson

Sister Act

 Curve, Leicester

17^th October, 2022

“I got bikers and addicts and punks in the pews”

1977, Philadelphia. Most of the city’s churches have been converted into nightclubs, theatres or other places of debauchery(!). The church of Our Lady in Perpetual Sorrow is also on its last legs: pews are empty, collection plates are being stolen, and its superfluity of tone-deaf nuns could soon lose their home. Into this comes Deloris Van Cartier (an impeccable Sandra Marvin), a whirlwind of big hair, sequin dresses and unruliness forced to take refuge at the convent after witnessing a mob murder. Although the conflict at the heart of Sister Act, based on the 1992 movie starring Whoopi Goldberg (who is co-producing this production), is probably well known by now, it is a delicious concept that seems to have always been destined for the stage. This Curve co-production of Alan Menken’s and Glenn Slater’s 2009 musical has arrived in Leicester after a summer run at London’s Eventim Apollo.

Whereas the movie is set in 90s San Francisco, moving the musical to 1970s Philadelphia works really well. It’s a time where the city was facing waves of depopulation, high crime rates and drug problems alongside a thriving funk and disco music scene. It’s a perfect backdrop, then, for a world of seediness, crime and the transformative powers of music. Menken captures the influential Philly Soul sound in standout songs such as “Fabulous, Baby!" and “Raise Your Voice” along with plenty of songs more in keeping with the ‘traditional’ musical theatre style for which he’s perhaps well-known. It’s not his most memorable of scores, but there are a lot of songs which establish and advance character. Slater’s lyrics help achieve this wonderfully. I particularly liked “The Life I Never Led” in which Sister Mary Roberts (Lizzie Bea blowing the roof off with her vocals) realises her confidence and self-worth that Deloris has helped her find. Like all good culture clash comedies, the characters all gain something from each other. Deloris is more than just a backroom singer and the nuns are more than just their habits. There’s also a strong subplot involving one of Deloris’ old flames, the police officer Eddie Souther. Graham MacDuff has a great number with multiple quick changes in which he transforms from slightly incompetent steady Eddie to a disco diva! I’m also pleased that “Haven't Got a Prayer” has been kept in the show (written for the Broadway production in 2011), in which Lesley Joseph’s tight-lipped Mother Superior wrestles with her faith due to her growing frustration with Deloris.

Cheri and Bill Steinkellner’s book with additional material by Douglas Carter-Beane moves the story along nicely and has some funny one-liners: at one point Deloris is shocked at Mary Roberts’ claim she’s a postulant, exclaiming ‘I ain’t never never sunk that low!’ In other parts, it has a more difficult job to balance the frothy comedy with the darker parts of the story. The gangsters, for instance, are reduced to stereotypes. That being said, there’s a delicious number where Jeremy Secomb’s nightclub owner/mob boss Curtis Jackson vows to find Deloris. The menacing lyrics such as ‘And when I find that girl/ I'm gonna kill that girl!/ I'm gonna wham! Bam! Blam!/ And drill that girl!’ are nicely juxtaposed against the grinning mobster backing dancers. It’s a fun moment which, like the musical as a whole, embraces the escapism of musical theatre.

Sister Act plays at Leicester’ Curve until 29^th October as part of a UK tour. For further information, please visit https://www.sisteractthemusical.co.uk/uk-tour/

Sandra Marvin as Deloris Van Cartier. Credit: Manuel Harlan

Bugsy Malone

 Curve, Leicester

4^th October, 2022

“You’re gonna be remembered for the things that you say and do”

Sean Holmes’ 2015 Lyric Hammersmith production of Alan Parker’s Bugsy Malone, based on his 1976 film, has been triumphantly remounted for a UK tour. Set during the Prohibition era, two rival gangsters, Fat Sam and Dandy Dan, along with their cronies wreak havoc across the speakeasies and dives of underworld New York. As in the film, the lead characters are all impressively played by child actors to help create a pastiche of black and white mobster movies. Machine guns and knives are swapped out for splurge guns and custard pies; get away vehicles are now pedal cars; and caricatures of gangsters become lovable rogues.

Much as the film was born out of Parker’s love of gangster movies, the same sense of boundless joy comes over the footlights in Holmes’ staging. Paul Williams’ memorable songs are all performed with glee and are skilfully brought to life by the ensemble in Drew McOnie’s choreography. McOnie demonstrates why he’s one of the leading choreographers of his generation, injecting pizzazz into the big numbers particularly “We Could Have Been Anything” and “So You Wanna Be A Boxer”. Jon Bausor’s designs are in keeping with the film and further romanticise the setting as well as reimagining them for a theatrical context. The audience enters to a backstage area of a theatre, a black wall and fire escape dominating the stage. Onto this comes the low tables and brightly lit cocktail bars of Fat Sam’s speakeasy, the world of showgirls, and a race to get the best splurge guns.

The ensemble cast are all having a blast with their finest Noo Yoiker accents. At this performance, Charlie Burns has the audience where he wants them as Fat Sam, lording over his own scene changes and complaining at his sidekick Knuckles for cracking his knuckles. Rayhaan Kufuor-Gray is his equal as rival mob boss Dandy Dan. And Ellis Sutherland as caretaker Fizzy gets one of the biggest cheers of the night for his rendition of “Tomorrow” as he, with a mop in his hand, longs for the life he could have had as a dancer.

The plot for Bugsy isn’t its strongest and this can sometimes make the musical come across as quite sketchy but this is not to detract from the fun that’s had on stage and in the audience. And whilst the final scene understandably doesn’t get as messy as the same sequence in the film, there are plenty of moments of pure elation here.

Bugsy Malone plays at Leicester’s Curve until 9^th October and is then touring until February 2023, including a London run at Alexandra Palace Theatre from 3^rd December until 15^th January. For more information please visit Bugsy Malone: The Musical – The classic musical live on stage! (bugsymalonethemusical.com)

The ensemble of Bugsy Malone. Credit: Johan Persson

Othello

 Curve, Leicester

21^st September 2022

‘When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,

Speak of me as I am’

 

Of all Shakespeare’s plays, Othello is arguably the one that has the most pertinence in the contemporary world. Frantic Assembly grasp this notion and bring the play bang up-to-date, accentuating the modern-day issues at its heart in their fast-paced, expressive and surprisingly gory adaptation (first produced in 2008, now revived in a co-production with Curve). Class, race, sexism and territorialism simmer beneath a veneer of bogus loyalties and gang culture, creating a pressure cooker of tension which eventually boils over in spectacular fashion.

Director Scott Graham and co-adapter Steven Hoggett centre the action in a run-down pub, the local haunt of a street gang led by a battle-worn Othello (Michael Akinsulire) and his ‘lieutenant’, Michael Cassio (Tom Gill). The opening scene sets the tone in an exciting whirlwind of lust, violence and camaraderie (both genuine and false) in a near wordless feat of choreography. Frantic Assembly are masters of movement and that is demonstrated to thrilling effect here; the punches carry weight and the fighting is fused with an often striking lyricism. The use of movement to convey key aspects of the story is an ingenious tool, keeping the plot hurtling forward towards that inevitable doom, where perhaps more traditional productions could get bogged down by the wordiness of Shakespeare’s verse (I say this as someone who loves Shakespeare!). So much of Othello and Desdemona’s (Chanel Waddock) relationship here is played out through choreographed moments of tenderness, passion and aggression, and by focusing on this intimacy we invest more in the characters, making the denouement all the more tragic. I also particularly enjoyed the collaboration between choreography and Laura Hopkins’ set design during the scene where Iago and Roderigo (Felipe Pacheco) conspire to get Cassio blind drunk. The walls of the set undulate in dizzying inebriation while the actors lunge, fly and swoop through the pub, pausing only for more shots of alcohol. At other times the walls of the pub expand and contract, creating cinematic zoom effects, homing in on, or isolating individual characters. Every considered detail of this production unites to create a lean yet engrossing portrait of modern Britain.

An unnervingly still presence amidst the frenetic revelry is Joe Layton’s Iago; a man that picks up on the tiniest details, who calculates from shadowy corners (at one point he literally sinks into the walls of the pub) and whispers poisonous untruths into the expectant ears of his acquaintances. Here, the racism directed towards ‘the Moor’ is of a very 21^st Century flavour; Iago is jealous of his prowess, both physical and sexual, and much is made of Iago’s vengeful belief that Othello has slept with his wife, Emilia (Kirsty Stuart). The racism displayed makes us even more uncomfortable as it holds up a mirror to the hypocrisies and everyday prejudice that is still rife in the world today.

Similarly, as the racism of the past is reflected in the present, Graham and co have also shone a spotlight on the misogyny at the heart of the play. Just as Bianca (Hannah Sinclair Robinson) is dismissed, slurred at and thrown to the ground, Emilia and Desdemona are the victims of the most violent language and actions. The image of Desdemona’s limp body suspended in her husband’s chokehold will haunt me, just as Iago’s final burst of aggression towards Emilia is horrifically shocking (and bloody). The previous scene between the women in the ladies loos as they lament ‘these men!’ is depressingly fatalistic, as they eventually concede to ‘let them use us well […] the ills we do, their ills instruct us so’; just as the production creates an authentic portrait of working-class territorial gang wars, so too does it depict the harsh reality of domestic violence and commonplace misogyny in society today.

The cast all play their parts with a rawness and passion that befits the intensity of the piece, and as an ensemble they move as one, creating an electric atmosphere. Frantic Assembly demonstrate again why they are one of the most exciting theatre companies working today. By stripping back Shakespeare’s play to its bare bones, the group have produced a play which is action-packed, accessible and relevant to contemporary audiences without losing any essence of the original. I was fully absorbed by this sordid microcosm from start to bloody end.

Othello plays at Curve until 1^st October 2022 followed by a UK tour. It then plays at the Lyric Hammersmith from 19^th January to 11^th February 2023.

For full tour details please visit: https://www.franticassembly.co.uk/productions/othello-2

Frantic Assembly's Othello. Credit: Tristram Kenton.