The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

 

Review by Paul Towers, 2/11/22

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel by Deborah Moggach

Directed by Lucy Bailey

Produced by Simon friend

At Curve til Saturday 5 November 2022

“Feel good theatre for a wet November”

This is a star-studded stage production of the beloved film and TV series by Deborah Moggach based on her novel These Foolish Things.

Taking inspiration from all the tales of ex-pats moving to the Costa Brava this takes it one stage further as a group of retirees up sticks and move to Bangalore in India. Their motivation is that it is warm and cheap.

Some just want to bask in the sun and wait for the inevitable end while others look upon it as a new adventure.

Heading up the cast is acting royalty, Hayley Mills as Evelyn, a shy, diffident widow who doesn’t know how to emerge from the shadow of her deceased husband. Alongside her is Rula Lenska as Madge, a statuesque redhead looking for a maharajah to whisk her off her feet and keep her in the manner to which she wants to be accustomed.

The rest of the cast of characters each have their own stories to tell, some happy, some sad but all thrown together in this exotic mix of cultures in a strange land.

While the locals are, initially, stereotyped as servile second class citizens it quickly becomes obvious that they have much to teach the ex-pats.

There are lots of laughs right from the start as well as pointed digs at colonialism, poverty, the caste system, old age and call centres! But at the heart of the story is how different people deal with loss and old age in their own ways.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is at Curve until Saturday 5^th November and then touring until it hits the West End next year

www.marigoldshow.com

www.curveonline.co.uk

www.ptheatre.blogspot.co.uk

 

The Shawshank Redemption 2022

Review by Paul Towers, 10/10/2022

The Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King, adapted for the stage by Owen O’Neill & Dave Johns

Directed by David Esbjornson

Produced by Bill Kenwright

At Curve til Saturday 15^th October 2022

“A strong production of this beloved classic ”

Many people will have seen the 1994 film with Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman and this stage version stays quite close to the storyline.
Adapted from a Stephen King short story, The Shawshank Redemption is the story of Andy Dufresne (Joe Absolom) who has been wrongly convicted of the double murder of his unfaithful wife and their daughter.  He is soon taken under the wing of Ellis ‘Red’ Redding (Ben Onwukwe), the prison supplier of all illicit goods.

While many would spend their last breath trying every way to prove their innocence Dusfresne decides to keep his head down and just try and get through his sentence with the least trouble. Unfortunately his fellow prisoners have other ideas and a vicious round of beatings and rapes force him to alter his survival strategy. Utilising his accounting abilities he inveigles himself in with the prison staff as a financial advisor. This doesn’t make him any less unpopular with the inmates but it does afford him some protection by the management.

A brutalistic set of concrete and girders by Gary McCann ensures this stage version is as claustrophobic and utilitarian as it needs to be. Furniture is carried on and off while a minimum of backdrops fly from above.

Joe Absolom has exactly the right air of naivety and innocence while Ben Onwukwe channels Morgan Freeman as the narrator addressing the audience.

The sex and violence is well choreographed while the ensemble raucously provide the chaos inherent whenever the delicate balance of power is upset.

The Shawshank Redemption continues to tour https://tinyurl.com/4bnk84z6 and is at Curve until Saturday 15 October 2022

 

www.curveonline.co.uk

www.ptheatre.blogspot.co.uk

 

The MP, Aunty Mandy & Me 2022

 

Review by Paul Towers, 16/8/22

The MP, Aunty Mandy and Me written and performed by Rob Ward

Directed by Clive Judd

Produced by Emerson Ward in association with Curve

At Curve til Saturday 17/8/22

“So good I saw it twice”

I was so blown away by this production when I first saw it in March 2020 that I jumped at the opportunity to revisit it.

Tucked away in Curve’s intimate Rehearsal Room No 2 on the mezzanine you feel as though you are part of the story. And in a way many of us are or were.

This is the story of Dom who is doing that thing all youngsters do and that is flail around looking for an identity, a purpose in life. He is convinced that if he can be a gay influencer he will find the perfect boyfriend and get away from his drug addled mother and the dreary, dead end town he lives in. Reclining permanently in an armchair and regularly topping herself up with MDMA, or her Aunty Mandy’s as she calls them, his mother is no role model.

But of course life never works out like that.

To get away from his mother’s nagging he takes a job as an intern with the local Labour MP, who happens to be gay and out. The MP, of course, takes advantage and subtly coerces Dom into a world of gay sex and drugs that he had never dreamed of. Although willingly led astray the MP is still taking advantage of Dom’s aspirations.  Of course when the next pretty face, bisexual Joey, turns up in the MP’s office Dom is gently dumped in favour of the new boy.

Ward’s clever script is liberally laced with innuendo, double entendre and hilarious misunderstandings. Under the expert guidance of director Clive Judd Ward slides effortlessly from character to character, each one easily identifiable.

Under Curve’s association Emerson Ward have been producing gems like this for nearly 10 years and the next production is in development as we speak.

The MP, Aunty Mandy & Me is back at Curve tomorrow, Saturday 17^th and then on tour. Details on Emmerson Ward’s website

www.emmersonandward.com

www.curveonline.co.uk

www.ptheatre.blogspot.co.uk

 

Billy Elliot

Review by Paul Towers, 20/7/22

Billy Elliot  The Musical

Music by Elton John, book & lyrics by Lee Hall

Directed by Nikolai Foster, choreographed by Lucy Hind

A Made at Curve production

At Curve til Saturday 20^th August 2022

“Nikolai Foster has taken an iconic favourite and given it a new perspective”

Way back in 2000 the original film of Billy Elliot (originally to be called The Dancer) took the Cannes Film Festival by storm and a musical adaptation was started work on. It was 2005 before it opened in London’s West End and that has been the definitive stage version ever since despite productions notably in Australia and the US. This is the first time a director (Nikolai Foster) has been given free reign to adapt the script and staging. The main differences seem to be the lack of tap dancing and quite a bit more laughter.

Set against the 1984 miners’ strike Billy (an astonishingly talented Jaden Shentall-Lee at tonight’s Press Night) is an orphaned 11 year old being brought up by a macho miner father (Joe Caffrey). His only real female role model is his aged grandmother (Rachel Izen) who shows him how dance helped her survive her abusive late husband. For Billy this is an escape route from the toxic masculine world of his home life. But trying to break free from the future he seems to have mapped out for him needs determination and strength. With the help of the formidable Mrs Wilkinson (Sally Ann Triplett) he discovers the wonderful world of ballet. Spurred on by his best friend Michael (Prem Masani) Billy embraces his differentness.

Having been trusted by the original creators to alter the show Foster has refocussed the story more on Billy. That said the extreme division the strike caused in communities not far from our city are still felt today which makes this revival especially pertinent especially with similar cracks today caused by Brexit and other social issues.

The set, designed by Michael Taylor is suitably industrial with gantries and chain fences as backdrops. Central to the story is the Elliot house, an intriguing 3 story edifice of kitchen bedroom and bathroom up and down which poor Billy has to climb regularly. Much use is made of the many ways to exit and enter the stage in Curve’s main house and crowds of striking miners and police frequently flooded  down the aisles.

Lighting designer Ben Cracknell has ignored the energy crisis and taken full advantage of Curve’s extensive lighting rig to provide atmosphere.

Musical director George Dyer has his 7 piece band ensconced in the eerie of the scaffolding at the back of the stage thus providing a full soundtrack to the action before them.

With a huge cast including local dancers and a team of four Billys this is a full blooded new production which, 40 years after the original action, still resonates across the Midlands and the North. Nikolai Foster has taken an iconic favourite and given it a new perspective.

A very welcome surprise during this unexpected heatwave was a free bottle of water left on every seat courtesy of Curve’s management. Much appreciated by this sweating hack!

Billy Elliot The Musical runs at Curve until Saturday 20^th August (not the 14^th as originally scheduled)

 

www.curveonline.co.uk

www.ptheatre.blogspot.co.uk