Grease

Review by: Paul Towers, 04/09/19

Grease by Jim Jacobs & Warren Casey, directed by Nikolai Foster choreography by Arlene Phillips

A Made at Curve production

Curve 3 – 14 September 2019 and touring

“a hell of a high energy show”

This Curve production of Grease has been touring since last year and makes a triumphant return to its home theatre before heading back out onto the road again.

In the interim director Nikolai Foster and Arlene Phillips have taken hold of the production and shaken it up with new choreography which raises the energy levels into the stratosphere. I last saw a touring production in 2001and this production is unrecognisable from that staid version.

The story of Grease is as old as the hills; boy meets girl, boy brags to his mates and loses the girl, girl and boy get together at the end. This is all told against the backdrop of a 1959 American High School prom. The show is jam packed with recognisable songs from Summer Nights, Greased Lightnin’, Hopelessly Devoted and You’re the One That I Want. A cracking script veers from laugh out loud moments to tearful emotions. Just like every teenager’s awkward school years.

The set is a very movable jumble of gym bars and furniture in front of a radio station which reinforces the period with various hits played in the background.

The lead characters are well cast and charismatic; Dan Partridge as Danny Zuko and Martha Kirby as Sandy Dumbrowski work very well together, especially when Sandy finally finds her mojo in the iconic You’re The One That I want. Louis Gaunt as Kenickie bounces around the stage with some impressive gymnastics; Rhianne-Louise McCaulsky as Rizzo has many of the acid one liners while Darren Bennett as Vince Fontaine, a pervy DJ, also doubles up as Teen Angel. Despite Peter Andre being plastered all over the promotional material and only occasionally appearing in the tour, he was not missed in the role.

An eight piece band were secreted at the back of the stage which gave a full sound to the actors’ voices.

All in all this is a hell of a high energy show that delivers a great night out with strong singing, outstanding dancing and good acting. Curve should be proud of the show and that so many people around the UK can see it in all its glory.

Tour details https://greasethemusicalontour.com/

Curve https://curveonline.co.uk
First published on Western Gazette

The Entertainer

Review by: Paul Towers, 29 August 2019

The Entertainer by John Osbourne

A Made At Curve co-production with Anthology Theatre & Simon Friend Entertainment

Curve 27 – 31 August 2019

“50 years old but still relevant.”

It may be more than 50 years old but John Osbourne’s ‘angry middle aged man’ drama about the demise of  variety and the Suez Crisis has been updated to the 80’s and the Falklands War.

Archie Rice, following in his father Billy’s footsteps, is an old school music hall front of cloth comic. Unfortunately for him Music Hall went out of fashion many years before but Archie is unable to change. He struggles on, wheeling out the same tired old patter in third rate venues to disinterested audiences up and down the country. Travelling with him are his father Billy, his wife Phoebe and his son Frank who stage manages him.

The unexpected arrival of his daughter Jean from his first marriage sets the cat amongst the pigeons and Archie starts to put on a performance to avoid confronting the truth about his failing marriage and career. The casual racism and homophobia further alienates his daughter.

Ever more desperate for a last stab at a career Archie puts his father back on the boards with fatal consequences.

Throughout the play we are witness to the disintegration of Archie’s life and career.

A very clever script from Osbourne weaves into Archie’s patter a selection of dud jokes along with the real funnies.

A stellar cast do this play and Curve proud. Heading up the small company is Shane Richie as Archie, here proving that he is much more than the tic-heavy caricature he played on Eastenders. Ably supporting as his wife Phoebe is the hugely underrated Sara Crowe; the last heavyweight is veteran actor Pip Donaghy as Grandad Billy Rice. These three tear up the stage as each is given their moment of glory. Although Richie gets double the opportunity with both his appalling stage act and his highly dysfunctional family life. The final pair in the cast are Diana Vickers as daughter Jean and Christopher Bonwell as son Frank.

Richie has carefully avoided Laurence Olivier’s originating interpretation of the character and has obviously taken inspiration from a variety of old school comics such as Les Dawson and Frankie Howard. His murdering of several songs is testament to the fact that he really can sing. As Les Dawson always said you need to be able to play the piano well to play it badly.

As the abandoned wife Sara Crowe gives a master class in drowning in a gin bottle while Archie does the same in Double Diamond bottles. Pip Donaghy’s Grandad Billy is very much inspired by Alf Garnett with his strong right wing views and salty language.

If you do manage to get a ticket for the rest of the run then expect strong language, outdated social references and high drama

This production continues to tour right up to Christmas

Tour details https://www.theentertainerplay.co.uk/

Curve – www.curveonline.co.uk
http://ptheatre.blogspot.co.uk/

Closer to heaven

Review by: Paul Towers, 27/8/19

Closer To Heaven book by Jonathan Harvey and music &lyrics by Pet Shop Boys

Above The Stag, Vauxhall until 31^st August 2019

“good but should have been better”

Closer To Heaven has been on my bucket list of shows I want to see every since I heard Frances Barber ripping the heart out of Friendly Fire on Elaine Paige on Sunday several years ago.

This collaboration between the Pet Shop Boys and Jonathan Harvey first came to fruition in 2001. The Boys had been contemplating writing a musical ever since being approached by the BBC in 1992. Nine years later and it finally made it to the stage.

Closer To Heaven is set in an unspecified Soho nightclub at the height of the hedonistic 90’s. Billie Trix is a world weary cabaret singer who has entertained in palaces and clubs all over the world (she says) but, in the arse end of her career, she is reduced to performing in seedy clubs for little more than a few lines of drugs. Her tragic glamour is so very out of place here but she hangs onto it determinedly. The characters that frequent the club are no less down at heel and desperate for a little sparkle  in a spotlight. Straight Dave is, as his names signifies, supposedly straight until he gets sucked into the hedonistically seedy world of drugs and anything goes to get by and succumbs to the temptations placed, literally, under his nose.

In the central role of Billie Trix Adele Anderson, in her opening number, My Night, should have grabbed the show by the throat and made it her own. Unfortunately that didn’t happen and what should have been her signature number limped forlornly into the first half. It took almost til the end of the first half for the show to recover. It was a disappointment to see that, despite decades as a successful cabaret performer, Anderson has very little stage presence. However, in the second half she seemed to rally and we saw something akin to the performance that should have opened the show.

Blake Patrick Anderson, Straight Dave the sexually confused lead character, was completely unbelievable as not being gay and, for my money, sang rather too ‘West End’ for the part. Mikulas Urbanek as Mile End Lee, a sleazy drug dealer, didn’t come across as rough enough, despite the array of shell suits.

The hardest working cast members were Billies Babes, Rhys Harding, Billie Hardy, Matthew Ives and Hollie Smith-Nelson who did choreographer Ashley Luke Lloyd proud.

Most people, I would suspect, go to see the show for the Pet Shop Boys soundtrack, and they won’t be disappointed as the boys perfectly capture the electro dance mood of the period. However what the casual theatre goer will not be expecting is the unrelenting arrows of Jonathan Harvey’s wit. The one-liners come thick and fast, especially from Billie Trix, and perfectly counter point the descent into a drug fuelled K-Hole towards the end of the second half.

The staging was ingenious with a ceiling hung with LED screens that instantly change scenes.

All in all this production is good but should have been better.

Above The Stag http://www.abovethestag.com

Amelie

Review by: Paul Towers, 9/7/19

Amelie by Craig Lucas, Daniel Messe & Nathan Tysen

Haymarket Leicester 9 – 13 July 2019

“My verdict? In the vernacular of the youngsters today, meh!”

The set of Amelie is a work of art. Doors slide back and forth to reveal hidden rooms and Amelie’s bedroom is entertainingly perched atop the set in the style of a Hobbit house.

The story starts off with Amelie as a toddler, imagined adorably realistic in puppet form. Along the way there are several surreal elements, at times almost like a Terry Gilliam movie. Amelie has had a terrible childhood with an icy mother and a wanting father. She is socially secluded and views the world through a telescope. When she spots a boy she fancies she has to devise a roundabout way to meet him. At least, that’s what I think it is about.

The score is reminiscent of Once, folksy and almost Irish in tempo.

I have never seen the film and, apparently, watching the film will make more sense of the stage musical.

It’s not a bad show; the instrument playing ensemble are perfectly good instrumentalists, they can also act and sing. The leading actors can sing and act well enough. But the narrative, in ‘Allo ‘Allo French accents, is often hard to follow and the story is not at all clear. My verdict? In the vernacular of the youngsters today, meh!

I assume that the leads are played by Audrey Brisson and Danny Mac but there were no programmes available so I haven’t a clue. As for the rest of the cast, your guess is as good as mine.

Amelie is at Haymarket until Saturday 13^th July

Haymarket Theatre - https://www.haytheatre.com/

Upstairs at The Western http://upstairsatthewestern.com/
First published on Western Gazette

The Color Purple

Review by: Paul Towers, 03/7/19

The Color Purple by Marsha Norman
with music by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephan Bray 

Directed by Tinuke Craig

A Curve and Birmingham Hippodrome co-production

Curve 28 June to 13 July
Birmingham Hippodrome 16 to 20 July 2019

“T’shan Williams as Celie has a voice to bring the house down”

On the off chance that you have not seen the multi award nominated film The Color Purple is the story of Celie and her appalling abusive childhood where she is raped by her step father (Delroy Brown) at the age of fourteen who then takes away her two resulting children. Celie is given away to a friend of her step father, Albert (Ako Mitchell), who continues the cycle of use and abuse, isolating her from her sole family member, sister Nettie (Danielle Fiamanya). Cowed and used as a skivvy Celie meekly accepts her lot in life til she sees friend Sofia stand up to her husband, giving him the beating he threatened her with.

Having had a lifetime of men using her Celie turns to Shug (Joanna Francis), a travelling jazz singer and starts a lesbian affair with her.

The first half of this musical is a litany of unrelenting domestic abuse and I found it difficult to watch. It seemed that the characters had barely shaken off the oppression of the old slave masters than they were trapped in a similar cycle of abuse by their own kind. The women especially seem to be controlled by both their menfolk and the church.

However, the second half starts to pick up as Celie finally finds her voice, breaks free of Albert’s cruelty and goes to live with Shug and her latest lover in Memphis, far from her roots in Georgia. With freedom she also discovers she has a gift for making pants and returns to open a shop left to her by her step father.

T’shan Williams as Celie has a voice to bring the house down, which she does spectacularly with I’m Here, especially. Much needed comic lightness is provided by Karen Mavundukure as Sofia (the Oprah Winfrey role in the film).

Writing a musical about such awful unrelenting abuse and making it entertaining must have been very difficult but you do come out of the theatre feeling that at least Celie has found peace and is her own woman

The set is very clever, a clapboard background that has various rooms sliding in and out while animations are projected onto it for effect.

This musical, originally produced on Broadway in 2005, is based on the Steven Spielberg film of 1985 starring Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey. This in turn was taken from the original 1982 book by Alice Walker.

The Color Purple is at Curve until 13 July when it moves to Birmingham Hippodrome on 16 July. Tickets are still available

Curve http://curveonline.co.uk
First published on Western Gazette

Afterglow

 

Review by: Paul Towers, 2/7/19

Afterglow by S Asher Gelman

An Adam Roebuck, Aaron Quintana and Justin Coffman presentation directed by Tom O’Brien

Southwark Playhouse, London 5 June to 20 July 2019

“a cautionary tale of an open relationship”

Dealing with nudity in a play is a difficult tightrope to tread. Timing it wrong and it becomes much more important than the story it is trying to tell. Afterglow solves this dilemma by starting this production naked from the start. It gets any audience embarrassment out of the way immediately.

Afterglow is a cautionary tale of how an open relationship can quickly turn sour. The fact that it is about a gay couple is fairly inconsequential although staging it with a straight couple would derail the narrative and it would end up just looking exploitative.

Josh (Sean Hart) and Alex (Danny Mahoney) are in a long standing relationship. They love each other deeply and are awaiting the birth of their surrogate child. All seems perfect except that Josh has a much higher sex drive than Alex. So, to spice up their bedroom adventures, they invite cute and younger Darius (Jesse Fox) into their lives. Inevitably love gets in the way and Josh and Darius fall for each other and everybody ultimately loses out.

A clever set moves around to show various bedrooms, a massage parlour, a shower room (yes they shower onstage) and even a rooftop terrace.

This play is not for the faint hearted with lots of nudity, plenty of simulated sex and a fair sprinkling of bad language. However, I would recommend it to anyone thinking of taking the step of moving a threesome from fantasy to real life.

Afterglow is on at the intimate space at Southwark Playhouse until 20^th July 2019

https://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/