The Homecoming

 

Review by Paul Towers, 27/4/22

The Homecoming by Harold Pinter

Directed by Jamie Glover

Produced by Theatre Royal, Bath

At Curve til Saturday 30^th April 2022

“a star studded cast”

A star-studded cast is led by Keith Allen as patronising, misogynistic patriarch Max, channelling both Alf Garnett and Albert Steptoe, snarling at his three sons who are, unusually, all at home at the same time. Teddy, the youngest (Sam Alexander) brings his wife, Ruth (Shanaya Rafaat) home from America for the first time in their six year marriage to meet his father and older brothers Lenny (Matthew Horne), Sam (Ian Bartholomew) and Joey (Geoffrey Lumb). This being Harold Pinter there are long pauses and lots of the darkest humour.

Lenny is a know-it-all wide boy pimp pontificating to imply intellect while Joey is the dim demolition worker and failed boxer. Father Max is a retired butcher with a gammy leg still missing his deceased wife. Max’s brother, Sam is a chauffeur and single, still lives in the family home.

Introducing his wife into this testosterone fuelled household is a big mistake for Teddy as the men all vie for her attention, thus adding coals to the fire of her fantasy of escaping her mundane life with her husband and three sons.

Just as you are coming to terms with the snarling point scoring of the men a lightening bolt of black humour pulls you up and we see the ridiculous machismo that is prevalent in the household.

Then downtrodden wifey, Ruth, suddenly bares her teeth and the tables are turned. In the end we have to wonder whether the men have succeeded in putting one over on her or whether she has subtly bent them to her will.

The set, a huge empty North London house echoes their lives while the real life lighting effects engender a layer of realism.

The Homecoming continues touring til May.

www.curveonline.co.uk

www.ptheatre.blogspot.co.uk

 

The Cher Show

Review by: Paul Towers, 19 April 2022

The Cher Show by Rick Elice, music as performed by Cher

Producer by Live Nation

At Curve: 15 – 23  April 2022 and then touring

 “packed with snappy one-liners ensuring there are plenty of laughs”

 For anyone around in the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, in fact right up to the modern day this is the music show for you. From the moment that the 16 year old Cherilyn Sarkisian met 27 year old Sonny Bono an icon was born. Through her (many) relationships Cher has continuously been faithful to her fans and, despite crippling self doubt, became what many refer to as the Goddess of Pop.

The Cher Show very cleverly uses a trio of actresses to represent each phase of her life but they also represent the combined strengths of her character.

Babe (Millie O’Connell) is the baby of the story, brought up by her mother Georgia (Tori Scott) who constantly told her she could be whatever she wants. Lady (Danielle Steers) is the mid life Cher, still working things out, mother to two and going through men like a knife through butter. But still not satisfied with her life. Finally there is Star (Debbie Kurup), the diva we have all grown to love. Together this triumvirate make up the whole Cher, independent and in control of her life.

All three of the actresses have amazing singing voices and all perfectly capture Cher’s vocals to perfection.

As Sonny Bono Lucas Rush portrays the only average singer but very controlling manager/husband who is the butt of all the jokes that Sony & Cher made on stage. Jake Mitchell is archly camp and over the top as Bob Mackie, Cher’s costume designer in later years.

This is a big show with a supporting ‘entourage’ of  12 outrageously choreographed by ex-Strictly professional Oti Mabuse. The direction by also ex-Strictly Arlene Phillips (last seen at Curve at the helm of Grease) is vibrant and highly energetic.

This is far from a jukebox musical as it has a strong storyline with some of the songs barely getting a line while others warrant a  full rendition. There is no feeling that songs have been shoehorned into the narrative.

The script by Rick Elice is packed with snappy one-liners ensuring there are plenty of laughs. But what else do you expect from Cher?

The singing is so good there is no need for auto-tune (as Georgia points out) and the only way this show could be any camper would be if Cher was played by a drag queen!

The Cher Show is at Curve until 23 April and then tours nationwide

 

Curve https://www.curveonline.co.uk/
https://cheronstage.com/

http://ptheatre.blogspot.co.uk/

 

Beautiful - The Carol King Musical

 Review by: Paul Towers, 03/03/22

Beautiful – The Carole King Musical

Book by Douglas McGraith, words and music by Gerry Goffin & Carole King, Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil

Directed by Nikolai Foster

A Curve, Royal Bath and Mayflower Southampton co-production

At Curve: 28 Feb – 12 March and then touring

 “a fabulous, musical production”

At just 16 years old New Yorker Carole King and precociously sells her first song to music publisher Donnie Krishner. She has no aspirations to be a singer and is happy putting music to her often unfulfilling lyrics. Then she meets lyricist Gerry Goffin and they start to collaborate, in all sorts of ways. Inevitably Carol falls pregnant and Gerry ‘does the decent thing’ and marries her. While slaving away at Krishner’s 1650 Broadway music factory the pair of songwriters come across another aspiring couple of composers, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. Immediately there is friction and competition as they battle for publishing kudos in the Billboard Chart. This spurs both couples on creatively. However the pressure of work spills over into their private life and Goffin strays, eventually splitting up the marriage.

The entire show is dependant on the actress playing Carol King and here Molly-Grace Cutler more than steps up to the plate as an accomplished singer and pianist. In fact all the cast play at least one instrument as well as sing. As Gerry Goffin Tom Milner is an accomplished rock musician having toured in, amongst other shows, American Idiot. While there are plenty of laughs throughout it is Seren Sandham-Davies’ Cynthia Weil and Jos Slovick as Barry Mann who have the main comedy moments.

While this is Carole King’s story there are plenty of songs that are not by her which add context to the era. There is great choral backup by The Shirelles (Naeomi Alade, Amenal El-Kindy and Louise Francis) and The Drifters (Kemi Clarke, Myles Miller & Kevin Yates).

The set is, as is by now a signature Curve feature, magnificently lit by Ben Cracknell and designed by Frankie Bradshaw.

This is a fabulous, musical production telling the story of Carole King’s early career. You will recognise lots of her songs but will also be surprised by the ones she wrote but never sang.

Once again Curve has been chosen to kick start a national tour, only this time with the added prestige of our very own resident director at the helm.

 Beautiful runs at Curve til 12 March and then tours round the country.

 https://beautifulmusical.co.uk/

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

 

Is He Musical

 Review by: Paul Towers, 23 February 2022

Is He Musical by  Jude Taylor

An MP Theatricals production

At Curve: 23 Feb as part of DMU Pride

 “Gay life in the 1930’s”

 

It’s 1933 and, between wars, the bright young things are partying. Tucked away in secret locations the gay sub culture of London has its own parties.

Laurence (Barry O’Reilly) and Wilfred (Teddy Hinde) meet up at the Trocadero away from prying eyes. Wilfred is an old hand on the gay scene and is a footman to a lord; Laurence is a wet-behind-the-ears son of a wealthy family and looking for a mentor to steer him through his initiation into gay life. Inevitably they fall out over a man but their friendship endures.

Laurence is a musician and makes a living working in West End shows while Wilfred’s footman is the sexual plaything of his employer.

This is an original musical by Jude Taylor and was work-shopped at Curve in June 2021 and is now back as a fully fledged musical.

The stage is set with a bar and a lounge while there is an onstage trio of musicians, including MD Francesca Fenech, along with a handy screen.

Is He Musical is at The Other Palace, London 25-26^th February

 

MP Theatricals : https://tinyurl.com/y7uj4kre

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

 

How to live a jellicle life

 

Review by: Paul Towers, 16 February 2022

how to live a jellicle life: life lessons from the 2019 hit movie musical ‘cats’

An Awkward Production

At Upstairs at The Globe 16-17 February 2022

 “Linus Karp’s acclaimed homage to the film Cats”

 Leicester Comedy Festival is back and for 3 weeks the city and surrounding area is alive with laughter.

I headed in to a new venue to me, The Globe on Silver Street, to see Linus Karp’s acclaimed homage to the film Cats.

Upstairs there is a bijou performance space that holds an audience of just 40 which makes any performance very intimate.

With two sold out runs which were interrupted by the dreaded Covid, Karp is now back with an updated show with uptodate references and is touring the whole of the UK.

This is an hilariously irreverent tribute to ‘the  2019 hit movie musical ‘cats’', as Linus insists on calling the critically mauled movie, is huge fun.

Delivered in Linus Karp’s cutely idiosyncratic Swedish accent it is sometimes hard to know if he is being serious or ironic. Whatever, we laughed anyway.

With an anarchic PowerPoint presentation causing chaos this is an entertaining and sometimes educational hour for both aficionados of the film and complete newbies.

How to live a jellicle life is on at Upstairs at The Globe again on Thursday 17^th Feb. Go see it and be jellicle!

 Book tickets at: linktr.ee/jellicle

Leicester Comedy Festival: https://comedy-festival.co.uk/

https://www.theglobeleicester.com/
http://ptheatre.blogspot.co.uk/

 

Bedknobs and broomsticks

Review by: Paul Towers, 10/2/2022

Disney’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks

A Michael Harrison presentation

Directed by Candice Edmunds and Jamie Harrison

Original music and lyrics Richard & Robert Sherman

New music and lyrics Neil Bartram

At Curve: 9 –13 February 2022

 “Bobbing along until Saturday”

 I must have seen the Disney film, released in 1971, on TV at some point but the only thing I can remember is Angela Lansbury singing Bobbing Along on a flying bed. Thankfully that little memory is still in the current touring stage version although the song is given mainly to the children.

So I went into the theatre with a fairly open mind and no unrealistic expectations. Which is probably a good thing as the first 5 minutes or so was baffling. It involved a simplistic scene setting dance with village hall style scenery which turned out to be at odds with the rest of the production. The purpose was to place the action at the outbreak of World War 2 with the parents of the children being killed in an air raid and the three siblings being evacuated to the country. This could have been done in a much more straightforward way and smacked of directorial self indulgence.

However once the children were ensconced in their safe house and the mysterious Eglantine Price (here played with great gusto by understudy Emma Thornett and channelling Mary Poppins at times) the story started to make sense.

The production relies a great deal on the children and their abilities.  Robin Simoes Da Silva (playing Charlie) was perfect as the older sibling while understudy Sam Lapton was an outrageous Emelius Browne, the failed magician. The other standout character was Mrs Hobday (Jacqui Dubois), the local post lady.

It is telling that included in the list of production staff is a Covid Manager. Sadly a sign of the times and, with such a large cast, a vital necessity if the show is not to be cancelled at short notice.

All in all this is a worthwhile production but don’t expect the full Disney treatment. This is a touring show that has to be economically viable. That said the flying of both the broomstick and the bed are very realistic and vast amounts of black light work keeps the magic flowing.

There is obviously a very complicated technical get-in for this show which is why in most venues it only stays for 4 days.

Tonight’s show was sold out but there are a few tickets left for the rest of the week and  is ideal for children of all ages

Bedknobs and Broomsticks is at Curve til Saturday 13^th February and then continues touring.

 

https://www.bedknobsonstage.com/tour-dates

Curve https://www.curveonline.co.uk/

http://ptheatre.blogspot.co.uk/