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/

Dear Sir

Review by: Paul Towers, 21/6/19

Dear Sir by Ross Thomson

A Ten 29 Theatre production

Upstairs @ The Western, 21 June 2019

“What Makes A Man a Man.”

We all look back at our lives and wonder what would have happened if we had taken a different path, made a different decision.

In Dear Sir 20-something Ross writes a series of letters to his younger self showing where he may have taken the wrong path and where he maybe worried too much.

Growing up in Scotland Ross was pressured from an early age to ‘be a man’, act manly, treat women in a certain way (very appropriate for the #MeToo generation’s sensibilities). Like so many young men he allowed himself to be swept along on that false premise of what a man should be. And of course he made mistakes. Fortunately not ones that hurt anyone else. However they did hurt his mental health.

Dear Sir is a very personal examination of  how those pressures and expectations can damage you.

Alongside the letters to his younger self, Ross uses a fairy tale to illustrate how imagination, fantasy and delusion can so easily combine to throw you onto the shipwrecked rocks of life if you are not careful and mindful.

This cautionary tale could so easily have been titled What Makes A Man a Man, especially as Ross finally finds his peace as a gay man. In turns thought provoking and funny this should be required viewing for all teenagers to reassure them that it will be alright in the end, if you let it.

Ten 29 Theatre - https://www.ten29theatre.com/

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

Our House

All pictures (c) Matthew Cawrey

Review by: Paul Towers, 30/5/19

Our House by Tim Firth, music & lyrics by Madness

A CYC, Made At Curve production directed by Alex Sutton

Curve 30 – 31^st May 2019

“funny, musical and energetic.”

When the original show premiered in London’s West End in 2002 it won an Olivier Award and has toured both nationally and internationally since. It is an ideal show for young theatre groups like Curve’s CYC as it can have as large a cast as you want and there are plenty of roles for good singers and actors.

The story of the show is of  Joe Casey, a 16 year old trying to impress girlfriend Sarah. He breaks into a building development to find something to sell but the police turn up. Taking its inspiration from Sliding Doors, Joe’s life splits into two very different directions. Good Joe (here played by Sam Cooper) stays and gives himself up to the police and his life follows his father’s into prison and dead end jobs. Bad Joe (Tom Morley in fine voice) runs away and leaves girlfriend Sarah (Fae North) to fend for herself. On the face of it Bad Joe makes something of himself while Good Joe languishes in the gutter. However Good and Bad turn out not to be what you think.

There is a huge and hugely talented cast of 33 in Curve’s studio space on a versatile set that includes an onstage band. Of course none of the cast will have had the faintest idea who Madness were before they started working on this show but I hope they now have an appreciation of the musical heritage that we had in the 80’s

There are plenty of Madness songs spread throughout the narrative and each one could almost have been written for the musical. Author Tim Firth is responsible for Calendar Girls and Kinky Boots so it is no wonder the show is infused with both comedy and pathos.

This is a funny, musical and energetic trip down memory lane for those of us old enough to remember the 80’s and a musical education for millennials.

Our House is at Curve again tomorrow (Friday) with a few seats left.

Curve – www.curveonline.co.uk
First published on Western Gazette

Ain't Misbehavin'

 Review by: Paul Towers, 221/5/19

Ain’t Misbehavin’ by Richard Maltby Jr

A Bill Kenwright production, choreographed by Oti Mabuse

Southwark Playhouse 19 April – 1 June 2019

“lively, funny, feel good show.”

Ain’t Misbehavin’ is another of those shows whose soundtrack I have had for many years and never got round to seeing a production. Until now.

The show is arguably the original juke box musical. There is very little narrative, it just lets the songs shine through. And boy do they shine.

Fats Waller was around at the start of the 20^th century(1904 – 1943), so nicknamed for his immense size (ultimately some 300lbs) . Despite such a comparatively short life he had a prodigious output of songs which varied in style from pure jazz to comedy to romance. Listening to the selection made for the show you get a taste of the talent that was sadly cut short. At the time of his career there was, of course, strict racial segregation but Waller was influential in black music and musicians becoming mainstream.

The show at the intimate Southwark Playhouse space is laid out very much like a cabaret venue with a dance floor in the middle, three sides of raked seating and a stage area that is built up to accommodate the four instrumentalists, Elias Jordan Atkinson, Blake Cascoe, Mebrakh Haughton-Johnson and Ruben Ramos Medina. These are led by orchestrator Mark Dickman on piano, who sits on a dais which moves remotely on and off the performance space. The stage area is decorated in gold with lights all around.

Now we come to the singers/dancers. Wow! They sure have some moves, which is not surprising considering they are choreographed by a Strictly professional, Oti Mabuse. The two guys, Adrian Hansel and Wayne Robinson, are more than a match for the three girls, Renee Lamb, Carly Mercedes Dyer and Landi Oshinowo who get all the funny lines as well as filling the dance floor with fine moves.

This is a lively, funny, feel good show with comedy and spectacle. I defy you not to tap your feet through most of the numbers!

The thing with Fats Waller music is that on the surface it seems to be macho, showboating, bragging of the boys. But when you scratch below the surface just a tiny bit you realise that the girls hold all the cards and always win.

Ain’t Misbehavin’ is director Tyrone Huntley’s directorial debut and runs until 1^st June

Southwark Playhouse https://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk
http://ptheatre.blogspot.co.uk/

Matthew Bourne's Romeo and Juliet

Review by: Paul Towers, 17/05/19

Romeo and Juliet by Matthew  Bourne after William Shakespeare

A New Adventures production

Curve 13 – 18 May 2019

“spectacularly, energetic and innovative”

The world premier of any work is something to be proud of. When it is a new Matthew Bourne ballet and is at Curve then Leicester can justifiably preen itself and crow from the rooftops.

We all know the rough story of Shakespeare’s most popular play in his lifetime. Boy meets girl, warring families refuse to let the lovers be together, lovers die together. In these times of religious tensions the story resonates even more than usual.

Bourne has reimagined and relocated the story to Verona Institute, a place where boys and girls are segregated, kept apart by sadistic guards led by Tybalt.

The set is typically spectacular, a curved wall of white tiles with prison gates in it and a balcony running up both sides. High above the sterile main room is a huge stained glass roof which lowers at appropriate times in the story.

Prokofiev’s atmospheric score is based around what we TV addicts will recognise as The Apprentice theme and reflects the emotional turmoil that thwarted lovers feel.

A hugely talented young cast are led by Paris Fitzpatrick as Romeo and Cordelia Braithwaite as Juliet. The main villain of the piece, Tybalt, is danced malevolently by Dan Wright. As well as the main New Adventures cast of 19 there are also 6 Leicester Young Company cast members. Each stop on the tour will have similar local new artistes who will have been trained and coached by New Adventures for the last year in order to appear in this new ballet.

There is a live orchestra of 19 at every performance which adds depth to the sound of this spectacularly, energetic and innovative ballet.

The entire run at Curve sold out within hours of going on sale so there are no tickets for tomorrow’s final two performances. Your only hope is to call the box office and pray for returns. But don’t hold your breath. If you are not lucky then look at booking at Northampton from 28^th May.

Curve – www.curveonline.co.uk
First published on Western Gazette