Category: Theatre
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THEATRE REVIEW | The White Feather
A New British Musical written by Ross Clark and directed by Andrew Keates ★★★★★
Union Theatre is a poky, spit-and-sawdust kinda playhouse. Once you’ve walked through the patio, you’ll be drawn into a small but amply sized bar with a piano nestled in the corner, bare brick walls, basement-jazz low lighting and a sort of smell that evolves from years of fermenting damp, old stone and no doubt decades of booze spillage. Utterly charming – even it you’ve no intention of watching a production you must pop by for a swift one or a caffeine fix.
Award winning journalist Ross Clark’s story highlights that allied soldiers were executed for cowardice, by British soldiers during the First World War, focusing on an underage recruit and some homosexual turmoil. Director Andrew Keates, also a trophy holder, breathes life into Ross’s quillings with emotion-elevating lyrics and compelling numbers that are implemented by nine talented actors.
Set in a village in Suffolk the performance confronts class hierarchy, a strong sibling bond, a sexuality struggle, and the injustice of how young men with no real political views were brainwashed to fight. A head stirrer with core-fondling harmonies.
Emma Cardinall (played by Cameron Leigh) brought a slight element of Downton Abbey meets Are You Being Served to her segments while Edith (Katie Brennan) could easily have walked in off the streets of an East Anglian village she was so lifelike. But the shiniest bauble on The White Feather’s theatrical tree is Georgina Briggs (Abigail Matthews) – pitch perfect. Abigail, buy your ticket to Hollywood and don’t forget to pack a red carpet number.
To learn what occurs in the Union Theatre trenches, and to see how the many layers of The White Feather unfold, no military tactics, tanks or weapons needed – just hop on a tube to SE1.
Union Theatre, 204 Union Street, London SE1 0LX – Wednesday 16th September – Saturday 17th October 2015Tickets are available starting at £15 from the Union Theatre Box Office and www.uniontheatre.biz – 020 7261 9876
by Thabian Sutherland -
THEATRE REVIEW | Kinky Boots, Adelphi Theatre, London
★★★ | Kinky Boots, London
It’s a huge hit on Broadway and it’s now finally opened in London. ‘Kinky Boots’ is in the house!
If the name rings a bell, it’s because Kinky Boots was a 2005 film about a struggling shoe factory about to go out of business until they change their product line and start making boots that are sexy, and, literally, not worn by the everyday woman. The musical version of Kinky Boots follows the same story, but it’s got a book by Harvey Fierstein (Torch Song Trilogy and La Cage Aux Folles – books he also wrote), music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper (“Girls Just Want to Have Fun”), and choreography by Jerry Mitchell (The Full Monty and Hairspray). That’s a lot of power and muscle behind a show, and it works, to a degree. (The show won six Tony Awards).
Killian Donnelly (the breakout star of The Commitments and co-star of Memphis) easily and comfortably plays Charlie Price, whose late father leaves him his shoe factory in Northhampton. It’s losing money, and Price might be forced to close it down, something that would make his London-bound fiancee Nicola (Amy Ross) happy. By chance, he comes to the aid of a drag queen who is being beaten up in a park. The Drag queen, Lola, played very ably and loudly by Matt Henry, is grateful to Price for saving him. But their meeting turns into a business relationship where Lola plants the idea into Price’s head to have his factory make Kinky Boots – boots for him and his fellow drag queens – boots that are big, flashy and preferably red! And eventually, Lola gives up her life (and leaves her fellow drag queens) in London to go up north to help in the factory to lead in the design of some Kinky Boots. But he’s not too accepted in a town and factory where no drag queen has walked in heels before. Even though he’s dressed as a man, some of the other workers make fun of him, especially Don (Jamie Braughan), who challenges Lola to a boxing match. Of course, conflict and arguments take place between Price and Lola, and Lola decides that she’s had enough of the northerners and heads back down to London. Meanwhile, Price is being wooed by one his employees – Lauren (Amy Lennox – wonderful) But it’s bad timing as Price is about to show his latest models of shoes at a Milan fashion show – he’s got no Lola, no models, and tons of shoes that need to be worn.
And you can only guess what will happen next. To say this show is predictable is an understatement.
While there are no surprises in the plot, it’s the music that raises the show up a notch or two. Lauper has injected her personality into songs that only she can write – when all the actors sing “Everybody Say Yeah” – it’s a song that will stick in your head for the rest of the night – in a good way. And of course each actor has their own song moment – Donnelly sings his heart out in “Soul of a Man” while Lola is given “Hold Me In Your Heart”- a song that highlights his very deep baritone voice in a soulful way (it sounds a bit like the song in Dreamgirls – “And I am Telling you I’m not Going”. If there’s one person who steals the show it’s Lennox – she’s hysterical in the role of Price’s colleague who pines for him while he’s focused on keeping the business afloat.
Production values are fine – the set morphs from factory to the fashion show. For me it’s the drag queens that make this show good – their sparkling clothing and sass and attitude and sequins are just right – for without them Kinky Boots wouldn’t be so Kinky at all.
At the Adelphi Theatre 020 3725 7068 | http://www.kinkybootsthemusical.co.uk/tickets.php
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THEATRE REVIEW | McQueen, Theatre Royal, Haymarket, London
Crass yob or fashion god? Both, actually. All bile, venom and spunk, Alexander McQueen was a mutant oik messiah, a sartorial serial-killer maniacally slashing mediocrity into mouth-watering magnificence. ★★★★
But that’s only when his brutally bi-polar, chemsex-twisted muse flew, of course, and new play McQueen – where he’s called Lee, his preferred name throughout – unflinchingly skewers his fatal, full-stop bungee-jump into oblivion.
If the plot’s simple, the treatment, like McQueen himself, is insolently audacious. It’s the night of McQueen’s suicide, and an anxious Lee – (Stephen Wight) is surprised late at night by impulsive house intruder Dahlia (Carly Bawden).
Instantly, Dahlia’s nerdy, conflicted, fan-girl worship acts as mental crystal-meth to Lee, and triggers an elegiac night of non-stop revelations. Burst after imagistic burst reveals Lee’s muses, mentors, likings and loathings, collapsing time and space with shockingly raw character expóses.
That’s where McQueen truly impresses. If his supposedly blunt, scumbag genius was secretly held in contempt by snobs – Givenchy called him ‘le football thug’ – Lee in reality was painfully self-aware and insightful. One scathing scene gorgeously massacres smug faux-sophistication; a vapid reporter’s dissection of a woman is witheringly undone by Lee’s breezily compassionate take.
So forget strict, dull, lazy biography nailed dead and rotting to the stage. Instead, this is fraught, suicide theatre superbly deployed as a multi-media, psychic minefield. Mime, pumping catwalk themes and video backdrops forensically flesh out Lee’s screaming inner self with an assurance clumsy naturalism would kill for.
It’s an exact, brilliantly nuanced barometer of a frenzied gay genius’s mind. Time and again, music indelibly stains the action and spotlights Lee’s moods, from Nirvana’s brooding ‘Come As You Are’ to the hallucinatory grandeur of Handel’s Sarabande. And linear logic, throughout, is blatantly sacrificed for wrenchingly exact, emotional precision.
That’s McQueen’s towering strength, shatteringly used in Lee’s lynchpin exchange with fashionista Isabella Blow, his triple-goddess muse, patron and financial angel.
As played by Tracy-Ann Oberman, Blow’s a virtuoso study in slinky, fatally insecure hauteur. Both terminally damaged, she and Lee cling like frightened children to each other, as needy, emotionally naked and iconic as Rolling Stone magazine’s cover of John Lennon cradled by Yoko Ono.
But that beautiful innocence makes only half of a shocking, Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf brutality. It’s as horribly fascinating as watching slow, incremental torture, a frenzied kaleidoscope of pain, grief, betrayal and back-stabbing, as Blow’s callously thrown aside, and Lee’s vicious need to succeed shapes his signature, ‘savage beauty’ ethic.
Directly sourced from Darwin’s take on nature – ‘red in tooth and claw’ – Lee’s manic, unstable, all-or-nothing creative process was pure Russian Roulette. Onstage, nightmare despair follows each ecstatic peak, awesomely mimicked by surging son et lumiere effects, as Lee, anxious, fragile and broken, exits his unbearable, trampoline existence to Marilyn Manson’s nihilistic, misfit anthem, ‘Beautiful People’.
Oddly inspirational, a slow-burn triumph of subtle but often savage insight, McQueen deliberately spits on hysterical, West End Wendy fireworks. Instead, it’s far more rewarding; resonant, fully adult theatre worthy of Tony Kushner and Patrick Marber, and more remarkably contemporary than either.
Until 7 November 2015. Tickets: 020 7930 8800; trh.co.uk
By Sasha DeSuinn | @msSashaDarling
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Transformer: A Night With Lou Reed At Soho Theatre, Polymorphous Perversity
Does gay culture have Alzheimer’s or rather, collective amnesia? Sure, for straight, non-artistic philistines Jonny Woo seems ground-breaking, but truthfully, he’s one rich link in a historically brilliant chain. ★★★★
The once-signature beard, teamed with trowelled-on make-up? Straight from the Cockettes, the 1960s, San Franciscan performance art troupe, via David Hoyle’s car-crash Liza Minelli make-over. Ditto the confrontational rants, identity politics and shot-gun conflation of trash and fine art – uh, hello, John Waters and Divine, anyone?
And let’s not forget gorgeous lifestyle peacocks Quentin Crisp and Colin Swift (don’t know them? Do a Google), the epitomes of waspishly debonair decadence. ‘I love watching ballet’, Crisp hissed, ‘You never know when the dancers will slip and break their necks’.
And something of that same, devilish relish instantly curdles easy, audience enjoyment tonight. Because, if ever a show demanded snarling contempt for punters, it’s this. See, Lou Reed – the ragingly gay, rock ‘n’ roll beast so timidly evoked tonight – wasn’t even borderline polite. Screw social graces – he brutally massacred finesse with the aplomb of a fresh, human turd served at a Buckingham Palace banquet. Sure, Woo serves up a live, Reed songbook and patter, but it’s a pale, disappointing Xerox of Warhol sleaze, venom and spunk, West End Wendies doing a Lou Reed-Lite karaoke.
Let’s get specific. The biggest, howlingly apparent problem is a skewed, dramatic spine, all Hunchback of Notre Dame excess but no pay-off. It’s the sin of pride. perhaps, or, less religiously, King Midas Syndrome, the belief that sexually diverse mind-sets turn everything they touch to pure gold.
Not here. Unshakeably sure of his own cachet, Woo simply assumes, limpet-like, that his blessed touch automatically annexes and glorifies all things queer in his own image. If only, if only, as Tennessee Williams should’ve said to Salvador Dali. Full points to Jonny for even trying, but I deeply missed Lou’s clinically insane, live-gig frazzled mania, nowhere evident tonight.
It’s unfair, perhaps, to compare Transformer to the utterly deranged, swamp-rock transvestism of The Christeene Machine, another Soho Theatre stand-out. But frankly, Jonny, bless his surely rock ‘n’ roll heart, just pussyfoots, and merely apes, but never memorably embraces, piss-stained leather pants dementia.
Still – as with the filthiest, most depraved sinner – there are points of brilliant redemption. Breaking London drag superstar Pretty Miss Cairo is an outstanding Candy Darling, even though that transsexual, Warhol luminary would rather cut her bashful, self-effacing dick off than get naked on stage. And better still is Fi McCluskey’s jaw-droppingly stunning Valerie Solanas, the militant feminist who shot Warhol nearly point-blank in ’68. Reciting still-incendiary verses from the SCUM manifesto – the Society for Cutting Up Men – McClusky gives every ounce of witchy, confrontational venom a sublime, poison perfection.
So should you see Transformer, and part with your hard-earned, precious shekels? Oh god, yes, even for just the memory of that glorious, unrepeatable era when the streets of early 70s Soho were awash with drugs, pansexuality and promise – a time, we hope, might soon come again.
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THEATRE REVIEW | The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Sheffield Lyceum & National Tour
Christopher Boone, a 15-year-old boy, discovers that his neighbour’s dog, Wellington, has been killed by someone (the poor dog having been stabbed with a garden fork), and sets off to find out who the culprit is. ★★★★
But Christopher has Asperger’s syndrome, which makes his perception and functioning very different to other boys his age and as the truth behind Wellington’s death starts to be revealed, it leads Christopher to embark on a remarkable adventure.
The show is based on the hugely successful book by Mark Haddon and has been a West End and Broadway hit. Utilising a virtually empty stage, the presentation of the show was intriguing, using screens on the back and sides of the stage, almost framing the show in a cube, reflective of Christopher’s constraints in his functioning. Lights flicker like the firing of neurons in his brain, and black and white projections are used to show both his thought process and to set the scene. The show, like the book, is written from Christopher’s point of view and the presentation effectively places the audience members squarely into the centre of his mind and thoughts. The simplicity of the set is reflective of the way in which Christopher perceives the world and worked very well. There were pieces of carefully choreographed movement throughout, and the scene where Christopher arrives in London and is overwhelmed by the overstimulation of his environment is superbly done. In this show, less certainly is more, and the monochrome set nicely mirrored Christopher’s rather binary thinking.
But placing the style and presentation to one side, the most impressive aspect of the show was the outstanding performance of Chris Ashby. Ashby’s portrayal of Christopher Boone was stunning – mixing the complexities of the characters personality, his physical traits and a childlike innocence which combined to provide a rounded and believable performance. It was up there with some of the best performances I have ever seen in the theatre. Surely big things must beckon for this young man. The other standout performance was provided by Stuart Laing, as Ed; Christopher’s father. The scenes between them were particularly moving and touching, and showcased two incredibly talented actors.
The show is beautifully written, with a script which imports large chunks of text from the book to provide a faithful adaptation of the source material and was filled with gentle humour and a myriad of characters that come in and out of Christopher’s life. But the show also has beautifully crafted moments of dramatic tension and emotionally powerful scenes which captivated the audience completely.
The show has won a slew of awards, including 7 Olivier Awards and 5 Tony Awards, and it is easy to see why. There is a lot of depth to the play, exploring the adult world of interpersonal relationships through a simplistic and innocent perspective. It is one which has stayed in my mind in the days after seeing it.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is currently playing at Sheffield Lyceum Theatre until Saturday 26th September 2015 (www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk) before continuing on its national tour until 26th November 2015. For further details, visit www.curiousonstage.com/
By Paul Szabo
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THEATRE REVIEW | The Sum Of Us
A father who loves and accepts his gay son is the theme of the new play ‘The Sum of Us.’ ★★★★
In 1994, a young Russell Crowe played the gay son in the movie version of The Sum of Us which was originally staged as a play in New York City in 1990. Now a new version of the play ‘The Sum of Us,’ which has never played in the UK, has just opened at the Above the Stag Theatre in Vauxhall.
Harry (Sephen Connery-Brown) is a forty-something widower raising his twenty-something young son Jeff (Tim McFarland), who happens be gay. Harry is not bothered about his son being gay, he actually encourages Jeff to go out and meet other guys, to enjoy life while you can while you are young. And Harry doesn’t mind when Jeff brings other guys over to their home. Jeff is good-looking and athletic with a very positive look on life, but he says there’s a space in his heart that is empty, a space that could be filled by another man. When he meets someone he likes (Greg – played by Rory Hawkins), he’s immediately smitten. But it’s Harry who interrupts the two young men who are on the couch getting to know each other. Harry says a bit too much about Jeff, and their close father and son relationship makes Greg feel insecure about his own relationship with his father. Meanwhile Harry, after being a widower for a number of years, also starts dating – he feels like it’s time to get out there and meet another woman. And he does. Her name is Joyce (Annabel Pemberton), and her and Harry are getting on like wildfire. But when she learns that he has a gay son, she just can’t accept this. Firstly she’s angry that Harry didn’t tell her when they started dating, secondly she just can’t accept gay people at all. Even after Harry proposes to her, she just doesn’t want to see him anymore. So thus we have a father and a son who both yearn to be with someone yet obstacles get in their way. And as Harry tells Jeff, he is the sum of us, the sum of him and his late wife, and the sum of his grandparents and great-grandparents. Actually, we are all the sum of us, and this is the message of the play.
Above the Stag Theatre really sets the bar high on this one. Their previous shows had names such as ‘Rent Boy: The Musical’ and ‘Bathhouse: The Musical.’ However, they have now produced a play that is serious, heartwarming and very well-acted. The Sum of Us is a story that most gay men may not relate to; who can say that their fathers have whole heartedly accepted their homosexuality. But the play, written by David Stevens, who also wrote the film version and the original play version, successfully combines the son’s and father’s search for love and the close relationship they have with each other. And in the end, the message is that we all want someone to love and someone to love us, no matter whether you are gay or straight.
Connery-Brown is great as Harry, as is McFarland as Jeff. They have a real rapport as father and son, and even resemble each other a bit. Hawkins and Pemberton are fine as the other halves, who may or may not wind up in the men’s lives. The set, down to the details of the1990’s script, cleverly goes from a living room to a park, in this cute theatre that is nice and cozy with a bar to match.
The Sum of Us is playing at Above the Stag Theatre until October 4th. Tickets can be bought here:
http://www.abovethestag.com/shows/
Buy tickets now – it’s selling out fast!
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THEATRE REVIEW | Dusty, Arrives In London With A Thud
A new musical about Dusty Springfield arrives in the West End – with a thud. ★★
There’s something just not right with ‘Dusty,’ which is playing at the Charing Cross Theatre. Could it be the singing? Could it be the acting? Could it be the directing and script? Could it be that it’s multi-media theme just doesn’t work?
I think it’s all of the above. Let’s start with that multi-media mularcky. The producers are calling this show a ‘Fusion Musical’ which means that the show is a combination of Alison Arnopp performing as Dusty mixed in with videos of the actual Dusty Springfield singing from her various television appearances (American Bandstand – 1964, The Ed Sullivan Show – 1965 and 1968, the Dusty TV series on the BBC – 1966 and 1967, Morecambe & Wise Show – 1970, plus others).
Twenty video clips are included in the show, and while a few are cleverly done as holograms, it’s unfortunate that these video clips are much better than any live singing that’s performed. And it’s quite funny because the audience claps at the video clips, like they’re actually seeing Dusty live! And it’s not fair to have Arnopp’s voice competing with Springfield’s in the videos.
And the acting and singing? Well, it’s OK. Arnopp is credible as Dusty. Sure she can sing, and sure she can dress like her, and she definitely can act, but Arnopp is a far cry from the real Dusty. And the wigs she wears? They’re a bit over the top – not her fault, but in a few scenes she looks a bit like a drag queen.
A bit better is Francesca Jackson as Dusty’s friend Nancy Jones. She’s just as pretty as Dusty yet it’s Dusty who becomes rich and famous, however Jackson is a fine singer in her own right. And Whitney White owns the stage in her short bit as Martha Reeves. She’s bound to a huge star in the West End in a few years time. But Arnopp’s singing is a far cry from any other biography musical that’s currently playing in the West End (think ‘Memphis’ where Beverly Knight wows them every night at the Shaftsbury Theatre and Katie Brayben who brings Carole King to life every night in ‘Beautiful’). The rest of the ensemble are quite good, energetic and vibrant, and I also couldn’t help but notice that they are all very young.
I’ll have to pin the blame on the direction and the script. Both by Chris Cowey, who used to be a producer on Top of the Pops. It’s not what you had hoped to expect from a musical tribute show to a British legend. Yes, Dusty Springfield is considered a legend, in her heyday and even today. She scored an incredible 18 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 from 1964 to 1970 – her peak years. She was a cultural icon of the 1960s and was one of the best-selling UK singers in that decade. She’s been inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the UK Music Hall of Fame, and was awarded on OBE. Yet, all this doesn’t seem to matter in the show ‘Dusty.’
It presents Dusty in flashbacks, with Dusty’s life story told by Nancy to a presenter for the television show ‘Talk of the Town.’ It’s a device that doesn’t quite work. And her sexuality is handled a bit clumsily on the show. She was a Lesbian, and in the show she has a minor relationship with a woman who lives in Los Angeles, but it’s a part of the show that appears to be thrown in at the last minute, and before you know it the relationship is over. It’s an acknowledgement of her sexuality but it’s too quick and not enough.
‘Dusty’ opened on 25 May 2015, and had it’s official press night this week. It took 14 weeks for the production team to get this show done as they wanted it. However, another few weeks of additional tweaking won’t really save this production. And they left out any mention of her last hit, which became one of her biggest – What Have I Done to Deserve This – sung with the Pet Shop Boys. It’s a song that past and current generations are familiar with. Instead of ‘Dusty’ being a celebration of her and her career, it’s more like a minor tribute to a woman who deserves to be remembered in a bigger and better show.
Performance Times:- Tuesday to Saturday at 7:30pm, Wednesdays & Thursdays at 2:30pm and Saturdays at 3pm
Run time approx. 2 hours.
Until November 21. Tickets: 08444 930650; charingcrosstheatre.co.uk
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Harvey Fierstein Backs Southwark Show Casa Valentina
Harvey Fierstein, the theatre genius who brought us Torch Song Trilogy and La Cage aux Folles, is the man behind two productions opening concurrently in London.
Kinky Boots, a musical version of the 2005 film, (which everyone’s heard about and dying to see) opens next week at the Adelphi Theatre. And his other new show, Casa Valentina, is at the Southwark Playhouse with previews beginning Sept. 10th. And like Kinky, Casa Valentina comes direct from Broadway where it was nominated for four Tony Awards.
It’s a story about the lives of several men who escape their humdrum Manhattan lives (and summer heat) and head on the weekends to the Catskill mountains. Not only are they escaping the summer heat, they are also escaping from their lives.
You see, these men like to dress as women. And in Casa Valentina, they leave their family and friends behind and become their inner selves. And in this first look at the production, we see some of the cast getting transformed into their costumes.
Expect a full review of the show next week!
Casa Valentina is currently playing at the Southwark Playhouse.