Review – Pantoland at the London Palladium ****

The Palladium panto was re-established as a Christmas tradition in 2016. Since then the few remaining elements of plot or character have been gradually removed each year so we’re now left with a kind variety show. This is not a criticism. Clearly the producers have realised that they will get best value from the likes of Julian Clary by giving them as much time as possible to do what they’re best at, without burdening them (and us) with mundane things like a story.

This year we are treated for the first time to the star being an international icon – Donny Osmond. No time is wasted in getting him on stage as he opens the show. There’s no doubt there is something quite magical about being in the beloved and world famous Palladium and hearing the name Donny Osmond announced as the curtains open to reveal the man himself.

The rest of the cast is comprised of what has become in effect the Palladium Panto Repertory Company. Gary Wilmot is the dame and his patter song naming all London’s tube stations (yes – including the new ones on the Elizabeth line) is spectacular. You feel you are witnessing something really special as well as amazing. Nigel Havers is the butt of jokes about his age and not really having a part in the show. Ventriloquist Paul Zerdin is a class act who delivers not only some great laughs but also a range of impressive set pieces including a brilliant moment when his puppet Sam is left in the hands (literally) of Donny Osmond. Cue carefully rehearsed mistakes and corpsing with resultant crowd pleasing hilarity.

Song and dance numbers are left in the more than capable hands of Sophie Issacs and Jac Yarrow, with support from the famous Tiller Girls.

There is, of course, one more person to mention. Julian Clary can, and does, turn the most apparently innocent phrases into complete filth. For example, “I’ve never done Aladdin” and “Put your hand up (pause). In the air!” In the most extravagant costumes he parades about the stage picking on either members of the audience or the cast with waspish remarks and put-downs which in turn bring the house down.

The cast appear to be having a really good time. In less skilled hands this could leave the audience feeling left out of the joke. Not here. The casual mayhem and supposed mistakes only work because this is a slick and hugely professional show that knows exactly what it’s doing and mines every comic opportunity to maximum effect through deft technique and spot-on timing.

My review is missing the fifth star only because, as a Palladium panto fan, I have seen most of this before. Don’t get me wrong, I love the company and wouldn’t want to lose any of them. But the addition of Donny Osmond created the opening for some fresh content and more of this would be welcome. Who knows which international superstar will be joining in the fun next year?

Pantoland is at the London Palladium until 9 January 2022.

Disney’s Frozen The Musical ****

Despite attending a matinee where the average age of most audience members was probably about three, I can still say this is a show that works pretty well for adults. It’s no Lion King, but has some great, even spectacular, moments – hence four, not five, stars.

The musical captures the feeling of the film admirably. It also adds something to the characters of the two sisters, Elsa and Anna. They are, perhaps inevitably, more real and relatable as played in the flesh by Samantha Barks and Stephanie McKeon than in the film. This in turn brings even greater emphasis on their relationship as the driver for the story, making other characters such as Olaf the snowman (Craig Gallivan) and Kristoff the ice salesman (Obioma Ugoala) into cameos. Even the latter’s reindeer Sven (Mikayla Jade and Ashley Birchall alternate in the physically demanding role), although stunningly realised, has little to do.

The highlight is, as it should be, Let it Go, moved along in the story so it comes as the closer to Act One. Samantha Barks is terrific and really does let go as the song builds. She transforms in front of us in an instant from wearing a dull cape to a sparkling white dress – a true coup de theatre which drew gasps and cheers from everyone in the audience (not just the three year olds!).

Olaf is a delight, with the puppet operated and voiced in-view by Craig Gallivan in suitable winter togs. He captures the charm of the character using basic puppetry skills but little other obvious trickery, and has a remarkably close vocal likeness to the film version.

There are, though, a couple of peculiar choices. As Anna travels to find her sister with Kristoff she crosses a huge, icy bridge (shown in the photo above). This comes on from stage right and travels across the stage, at one point only the centre section is on stage before, eventually, the steps down at the other side come into view. It’s the largest single piece of moving scenery I’ve ever seen. It must have cost a fortune and been a nightmare to fit in the wings even at Drury Lane. But I couldn’t see why it was needed. Yes, it showed Anna had to make a journey, but surely there were either simpler ways to do it. Or they could have done more with the bridge than simply walk across it and dump it in the wings! The other similar moment comes at the very last bars. For anyone other than those in the stalls it was obvious there was a revolve and a centre circular platform cut into the stage. Unless I missed it they were never used until the final 30 seconds of the show. Again, an extravagance which added little to the story and created only minimal impact.

Review – Hairspray ****

Hairspray continues to please, with it’s bouncy tunes and appealing story about outsiders finding their place in a society initially unwilling to welcome them in. This year it’s been the (belated) summer musical at the ENO’s home at the London Coliseum.

The story concerns schoolgirl Tracy Turnblad’s ambitions to win a place on the local TV dance show and to integrate the black and white performers, the black company being allowed to perform only on ‘negro day’. The cast for this revival of the production last seen in the West End with Michael Ball just up the road at the Shaftesbury theatre is top notch, with Mr Ball once again doing the honours as Edna Turnblad, as he did for the whole of the previous West End run. He clearly loves the part and displays all the qualities you’d expect from a musical theatre star. Playing his husband Les Dennis proves to be a great choice, being both convincing in the part and with a warm on-stage chemistry between him and Michael Ball’s Edna.

I’m ranking it four stars because of the performances and the brilliance of the score, but it was nearly three, simply because the show is almost defeated by the theatre itself. The Coliseum is vast, with a huge space between the front rows of the circles/balcony and the stage. Even the stalls are kept at a safe distance by the large orchestra pit, sparsely but very effectively filled by the band. Added to that, the stage itself is framed by a front cloth with a TV-screen shaped opening through which we watch the show. As well as being apposite for the plot this also serves to reduce the width of the stage by about a third. In short, the theatre is too big for the show. It feels lost on the stage and remote from the audience. The music itself is so strong it just about compensates for this. Michael Ball is sufficiently bold and twinkly to come across no matter what. And Marisha Wallace storms the place as Motormouth Maybelle, although not all of the cast are as successful.

I’ve seen several of the ENO summer musicals and this problem of scale is not unique to Hairspray, but others seemed to have worked better (for example Bat Out of Hell and Man of La Mancha). Extending the stage over the vast pit would help. Next summer, though, it’s My Fair Lady, which might just be grand enough to live up to the room where it’s due to happen.

Review – The Woman in Black *****

The Woman in Black is remarkable in two ways. Yes, it’s a long running West End show that’s not a musical spectacular or The Mousetrap. More significantly, it’s a brilliantly theatrical experience, which is remarkable considering its origins as a book. The adaptation to the stage is so complete and integral to the work, it’s hard to imagine it having ever been anything

Having seen it on tour in modern venues I had always wanted to experience it ‘at home’ in the older Fortune Theatre. Host to treats I wish I could have witnessed such as Flanders and Swan and Peter Cook and Dudley Moore in Beyond the Fringe, it has its own rather magical history of laughter. Since 1989, though, The Lady in Black has haunted the place in more chilling style.

Set in the 1950s, the story concerns Arthur Kipps, who is sent to sort out the papers of the recently deceased Alice Drablow, entailing a visit to the spooky Eel Marsh House. The local village is akin to that in An American Werewolf in London, where any talk of the deceased and the house is quickly and mysteriously shut down. Add in a dangerous causeway to reach it, swirling mists, a graveyard and a child’s nursery and you pretty much have the classic ingredients for a classic ghost story. But this is so much more than that, thanks to Stephen Mallatratt’s brilliantly theatrical approach, which turns these familiar ingredients into an experience which engages the audience’s imagination to such spectacular effect that, as producer Peter Wilson said after the first evening of the re-opened show, “you scared yourselves”.

We are enormously helped in this by perfectly judged lighting and sound, whose timing is critical to some moments where you’ll be the most scared you’ve ever been in a theatre.

With all these ingredients in place, we find ourselves in the hands of Arthur Kipps, our nervous but reliable narrator, played by Terence Wilton. Kipps is at an empty theatre to be coached by ‘the actor’ (played by Max Hutchinson) in order to be able to recount his tale of his visit to Eel Marsh House. Wilton is so effective as the traumatised and hesitant Kipps that it comes as a real shock to see him assume in an instant the various other characters in his story. A scarf, a hat, a coat, a change in gait and we are in the company of someone else entirely. He also gets a moment when the child’s nursery is revealed where he has to list the numerous toys it contains. I’ve learned a few lines in my time and lists are just horrid to get in your head. Surely a little actors’ test added by Mallatratt! As his acting coach, Hutchinson is typically actorly and we feel confident in his presences. He has a rhythmic and almost percussive way with his lines. But the telling of the tale requires ‘the actor’ to assume the role of Kipps at the most dramatic moments. It’s a tribute not only to the writing but to Hutchinson’s engaging performance that you could tell the audience was gripped with fear and trepidation with him.

With some genuine jump-out-of-seat moments and a pervading atmosphere of suspense, this remains the benchmark for ghost stories in any medium and shows how live theatre can do things with you and to you like nothing else.

Review – Singin’ in the Rain

Don’t think that this show is a nostalgia fest for people who love the film. It’s fresh, bright, tuneful and funny. If you’re new to the party, this tale set in a Hollywood studio at the start of the talkies in 1927, will welcome you with open arms. 

Silent film stars Don Lockwood (Adam Cooper) and Lina Lamont (Faye Tozer) have problems with converting their latest movie to sound. Lena’s vowel chewing accent doesn’t match her romantic heroine look. With help from Lockwood’s sidekick Cosmo Brown (Kevin Clifton) they decided to add music as well, at which point we discover she’s also tone deaf, can’t act and can’t dance. As Cosmo says – a triple threat! Fortunately Lockwood’s new girlfriend Cathy Selden (Charlotte Gooch) saves the movie by dubbing Lina’s voice. But Lina is not amused and plots her downfall.

All this translates well enough to the stage. But I saw the original stage version at the London Palladium with the great Tommy Steele and Roy Castle, where it ran for over two years and was their longest running musical to that point. This version lacks much of the spectacle of that lavish production. Its grey set is largely un-moving, representing, I suppose, the monochrome world of silent movies. It is also more practical for a touring production, which this is. The area to collect and recycle the water from the rain scene is part of the set throughout, rather than a separate moving part. Adam Cooper takes delight in breaking the fourth wall during the title song, so the front stalls are most definitely in the splash zone. The grey scheme does, though, serve to show off the colours of the costumes in the musical mumbers (set and costumes designed by Simon Higlett).

The show opens with a rather too lengthy plot exposition from Hollywood gossip columnist Dora Bailey, made to work thanks to the sparkly presence of Sandra Dickinson in the role. But it consists simply of members of the ensemble walking onto the stage. The first proper number is the comedy duet Fit as a Fiddle, but in a theatre musical I’m looking for something to set the tone rather more emphatically. Things really only came alive when we got to Moses Supposes, which is more than half way through the first act.

Kevin Clifton is vocally and, in the theatre at least, visually very passable as a latter day Gene Kelly, although obviously it’s Adam Cooper who has Kelly’s role. Cooper is effortlessly charming and nimble on his feet. Clifton, though, displays a surprising gift for the comedy required in his role. I suspect, though I may be wrong, that in the iconic Make ‘Em Laugh routine he mimed to his own track, though, this being a super energetic physical number requiring precision moves and timing. If he does all that and sings live he can have a bonus!

The revelation was Faye Tozer as the awful Lina Lamont. She was just hilarious with great timing, even getting some extra laughs above and beyond those in the original film both from her verbal delivery and physical performance. 

Jonathan Church directs with a sharp eye on the humour as well as the musical and dance elements. This means the show works equally well as a comedy, a musical and a dance spectacular. It’s not breaking any new ground, but the reaction of the audience to the classic jokes in the script showed how well they’ve stood the test of time and how much better they work with a live audience to share the experience.

Singin’ in the Rain is at Sadlers’ Wells Theatre, London until September 2021 and then on tour.

Review – It’s beautiful over there ****

Stephanie Greenwood writes and performs this single hander at London’s Tristan Bates Theatre in which she recounts stories of death. That sounds morbid, even grim. But this play is neither. It’s a highly personal piece in which Greenwood has set out to tell us about the life and death by suicide of her dear friend Lindsay. The story is given dramatic energy by her unwillingness to confront this particular death which, despite not being of a relative, is much closer to her than any other. At every point when Lindsay’s story is looming in her rear view mirror, ready to overtake her, Greenwood is diverted off the road and backs up into her own past and sometimes that of her ancestors.

There is an extraordinary tale of her great great grandmother hosting magnificent and opulent balls. In another someone else seems to have been shot in Europe during the war for plotting to sabotage German trains. The first of the play’s stories concerns Greenwood confessing to the conflict she felt as a child when speaking at her grandparents’ funerals. How much was she speaking for them and how much was she doing it because she enjoyed the opportunity to perform?

This conflict does create a problem for the play. We know from the blurb it’s a true story, so Greenwood is genuinely baring her soul to us. At the same time we know it’s also a performance, the spontaneity is rehearsed. She’s a professional performer. How do we know what’s true and what’s just a performance?

Fortunately, though, Greenwood is a compelling stage presence and her nuanced performance is captivating. Hands are carefully placed, a tilt of the hip and she’s instantly a surly thirteen year old. This detail is telling and it shows the insight Greenwood brings to the play as, being the sole performer, she is obviously acutely aware of the scrutiny every part of her will be under. All this is given added impact by thoughtfully effective lighting and sound design which neatly and economically signal where we are in Steph’s life.

Gradually the flashbacks take her to more recent times and then we find out we’re all guests at a party  to celebrate Lindsay. We’re all invited to don party hats and enjoy mini muffins and champagne. But this is all too much for our host. She’s not ready to pretend that we can all carry on as normal and breaks down. We are left feeling awkward wearing our silly hats and holding a plastic champagne glasses.

Ultimately it’s Steph and ourselves we learn about from this piece. The person we learn least about is Lindsay, whose suicide is the catalyst for the play. But what we do learn is that there is something different about the impact of her death compared with others in Steph’s life. The subjects of her other stories are in some way heroic but remote. Lindsay, though, is more real, more current but at the same time more unknown to us.

 

 

Review – & Juliet ***

Starting where Romeo and Juliet ends, & Juliet is a light hearted imagining of what Juliet (Miriam-Teak Lee) might have done next if she hadn’t killed herself when she thought Romeo was dead at the end of Shakespeare’s play.

It’s essentially about female empowerment. Anne Hathaway (Cassidy Janson) powers her way into husband Will’s work, suggesting ‘improvements’! Will, meanwhile (Oliver Tompsett) quickly knows when he’s been beaten and so allows Juliet her second chance. At Romeo’s funeral a host of previous girlfriends turn up, much to Juliet’s surprise, who had been led to believe she was his first love. From this point on messages about female empowerment are landed with a conspicuous absence of subtlety or finesse, eliciting rousing cheers from the enthusiastic audience.

Also pleasing the crowd were the musical numbers from the back catalogue of writer Max Martin whose lyrics were oh so carefully selected and edited to produce knowing laughs of recognition as they fitted into the plot from those who were familiar with his work. Songs included Baby One More Time, Oops!…I did it again, Everybody and Roar. Other than those titles, I was clearly in a minority who failed to recognise much of the music. But this is clearly my loss as Martin is the third most prolific writer of US chart singles, behind only Paul McCarntey and John Lennon. I felt I was missing out at the party and that the songs I did spot didn’t have the resonance or strength of those in some similar juke box musicals. But perhaps it’s an age thing.

That said, the music is, even for those ignorant of it, accessible if in many cases unremarkable. And the performances of it are without exception powerful and energetic. Cassidy Janson and Oliver Tompsett are bright, breezey and funny. It would be hard to wish for two more appealing leads. As Juliet, Miriam-Teak Lee comes to us from the original London cast of the hugely influential Hamilton – a rare and significant pedigree for such a young performer. She is simply stunning. Powerhouse vocals combine with a performance which is both knowing and naïve in equal measure.

In supporting roles Tim Mahendran as Francois really shines as he discovers his true self and true feelings, making the most of a part which could easily be over shadowed, not least by David Badella as his father, a womaniser with the tongue-in-cheek name of Lance. Badella is, as ever, a compellingly watchable performer who chews through lines without restraint and is rewarded with easily the best gag in the whole show.

The production design is a joy to the eye. Clever costumes are both contemporary and Elizabethan at the same time. We’re watching a play within a play and the set is gloriously theatrical, although the presence of a double revolve which is also a lift seems somewhat extravagant. But I guess the producers thought it was worth the money! It’s certainly a highly polished and professional show. There’s no mistaking this deserves to be in the West End and reminds you of what our London theatres can do. At the same time it’s delightfully young, fresh and original. My only caveat is that the industrial quantities of confetti showered on cast and audience alike at the end would have more impact if there hadn’t been advance warning of its arrival from before the show even started, as little pieces of paper floated down throughout the evening.

Sue in the Stalls attended courtesy of London Box Office.

Review – Ghost Stories ***

Ghost Stories is back in the West End for Halloween. It’s been a huge success since it first appeared in 2010. Paying homage to a format seen in some classic British films it contains three separate stories, introduced by Professor Goodman (Simon Lipkin).

The professor tells us people like to see patterns to make sense of the unexplained. The episodic format gives a sense of structure to which we cling in the face of the genuinely uneasy atmosphere the show creates. Your brain is messed with from the moment you enter the building. Weird and creepy sounds are played through the PA system even in the bar. Inside the auditorium the house lights are not working, being replaced by strings of work lamps whose caged bulbs flicker erratically. Apparently random numbers are scrawled on the walls.

The first story, concerning a night watchman at an almost empty warehouse, sets the style. The setting is obviously spooky and the usual creepy elements are duly present: mysteriously unexpected sounds in the dark, odd voices on the radio and a weird child/doll. Children are a sure-fire ingredient in these kinds of tales if you want to be extra sure of chilling spines. I still think the scariest of the modern Dr Who stories was the one with the child in the gas mask asking, ‘Are you my mummy?’

The suspense and tension in the theatre build nicely. Partly that’s because of the expectations on us to be scared. This is not a subtle evening. The stories are very much of the ‘scary tales round the camp fire’ variety – those told with a torch shining up your face for added impact. And that torch device is actually deployed unashamedly here. The shape of the stories in each case is also similar, with each one building to a shock moment designed to make you jump – which it can’t help but succeed in doing. That’s because theatres are easy places to make dark – just turn out the lights. Then make a sudden loud noise in the silence (very loud in this case) and behold; the audience jumps. But my instinctive reaction to being made to jump, when all the authors have done is effectively shout ‘boo!’, is to feel manipulated and determined not to be caught out  again.

The best ghost stories have more going on than this, though, and this is true of Ghost Stories itself. It’s in part an exploration of guilt and how our mind copes (or fails to cope) with it. There are hints of what’s really going on in the professor’s lecture. And the fact it’s written by Jeremy Dyson and Any Nyman is enough to tell us to be alert to another layer beyond the story within a story which the professor is telling us. I won’t say more because it’s clearly best to enjoy this sort of experience without spoilers.

Finally I  must say that the skills of cast, stage crew, sound and lighting are deployed with brilliant timing to deliver the stand-out thrills. However immune you consider yourself to this sort of thing I defy you not to be, at least for a second, genuinely scared!

Ghost Stories is at the Ambassadors Theatre until 4 January 2020.

Review – The Mousetrap ****

I was a little surprised to find the touring version of this West End war horse turning up so close to town. But maybe the producers think the London production sells well enough to tourists so a little local competition won’t do any harm.

Whatever the reason, it turned out to be an unexpected joy to revisit this play, which I have seen only once before, many years ago, in its London home.

Over the years it has become, of course, a period piece. Set in the days before mobile phones and when people could still use their ration book as a form of identification, these features are lovingly retained. As are the somewhat clipped oh-so-British accents of the owners of Monkswell Manor where the action takes place. That aside I found the script to be surprisingly fresh and the characters accessible and relatable.

The story concerns the new owners of Monkswell Manor, Giles and Mollie Ralston, who, on their very first day in business, find themselves snowed-in with an assortment of apparently random guests and a news story of a murderer on the loose. Fortunately Sgt Trotter is sent along from the local police to help keep them all safe. Needless to say it transpires that one of those at Monkswell Manor is also the murderer.

That’s really all you need to know going in.  The story is efficiently told, the characters clear and quirky enough to each bring suspicion on themselves. There are some humorous moments, a little frisson of tension but, it has to be said, no obvious hook to make the play stand out. It’s continued success now is largely fuelled by its longevity. You just have to see it to find out what it is that’s kept it going since 1952. But there has to be something else going on as well.

What you find is a warmly welcoming set with a snowy gale blowing all the various guests in to warm themselves by the glow of the open fire. It really does look like the kind of place you want to be on a cold winter’s night. The star billing goes to Susan Penhaligon as Mrs Boyle, the guest who finds nothing to her liking (a prototype, surely, for Joan Sanderson’s hotel guest from hell in Fawlty Towers). She chews up the other characters like Margaret Rutherford in bad mood! But it’s really a proper ensemble piece. Understudy Edith Kirkwood played Mollie Ralston delightfully. David Alcock was in equal parts charming, irritating and sinister as the only unexpected guest, Mr Paravicini. Lewis Chandler was as camp as he could be playing Christopher Wren whilst still making the character real.

So Monkswell Manor turns out to be a thoroughly lovely and delightful place to spend the evening. But despite this it still leaves you unable to put your finger on what has made the play such a unique phenomenon.

The Mousetrap tour is at the Orchard Theatre, Dartford until 21 September 2019.

Review – Waitress ****

Waitress is a musical with two competing styles. The central character has a serious plot line concerning an abusive husband, an illicit affair, an unplanned pregnancy and unfulfilled ambitions. Not all things easily made light of, despite the promise of sweet fun implied by the setting being a pie-based diner offering all manner of, mainly sweet, delights. On the other hand, everyone else is out to make the most of every comic opportunity, be it in dialogue or physical comedy.

Somehow, though, this overall odd mix comes out right – like the blueberry and bacon pie which is one of the daily specials.

The story centres on Jenna (Sarah O’Connor, making her debut in the role as understudy), seeking a way out of her marriage and dead-end job as waitress and chief pie maker in Joe’s Pie Diner. O’Connor is convincing in her pain and frustration and a powerful singer, although I would have liked her to moderate her southern drawl to improve clarity of the lyrics. Her two waitress partners in crime are Becky (Marisha Wallace), who is all big, brash and full of attitude, and Dawn (Laura Baldwin) – nerdy, timid, slightly weird. These somewhat one dimensional sidekicks are nonetheless efficiently drawn and expertly played. Marisha Wallace knows just how to time a line. Laura Baldwin, reliably excellent as ever, has a riot with her part. This is only compounded by the arrival of her would-be sweetheart in the shape of the completely camp and over-the-top Jack McBrayer as Ogie. Between them they just about stop the show.

Jenna’s world is turned upside down by her pregnancy and, with it, the arrival of her hot doctor, Dr Pomatter. It turns out he is, frankly, a bit of a cad, but this is glossed over and we forgive him, largely thanks to David Hunter’s winning and humorous portrayal. Her husband, Earl, meanwhile, is brutish but we see him struggling to find a way to cope with his wife’s dreams and so Peter Hannah in the part avoids becoming a pantomime villain.

The music is in the folk-rock idiom with useful variety in the songs. This gives it a fresh and original sound – not your typical Broadway musical style at all. Combined with an outstanding backdrop and efficient set this all contributes to the homely, slightly remote feeling of a diner in the American south, untouched by 21st century values but warmed by home cooking and homely values. Ultimately it won me over completely!