The Best of Times

Jerry Herman was a genius. That much is a given - indeed, he's our second favourite composer in the musical theatre world, after Stephen Sondheim (inevitably).

And so it was that I whooped for joy when I found out that his self-penned revue [and every showman simply has to have one of those!] Jerry's Girls was coming to a fave haunt of ours the Menier Chocolate Factory - so Madam Arcati, Hils, Crog and I trolled off to see it last Saturday!

It was a superbly-crafted show, and everything we could have wished for. From a review by Daz Gale at All That Dazzles:

Created by Jerry Herman and his collaborator Larry Alford in 1981, Jerry’s Girls opened off-Broadway before enjoying a national tour and a Tony-nominated run on Broadway. This musical revue crams in more than 30 of Jerry’s songs from eight classic shows including Mame, Mack & Mabel, La Cage Aux Folles and Hello, Dolly! as well as two new songs for this revue. This is done through a loose narrative that sees three performers getting ready in their dressing room for a performance and ultimately moving to the stage (and beyond, in some cases here).

The original concept by Jerry Herman, Larry Alford and Wayne Cliento is a clever way to incorporate the songs and make it feel cohesive. Though there is still an element of it being shoehorned in, having scenes move from the dressing room to the stage and back allows for a lot of fun and flair to be told in these songs, with elements of storytelling in several of the more emotive numbers. Hannah Chissick’s direction executes this flawlessly, with no shortage of ideas on how to make each number differentiate from the last and best use the versatile space of the Menier. This is elevated by Matt Cole’s always sensational choreography as we witness three of the very best of Jerry’s girls bring his numbers to life in spectacular fashion.

And what of those girls? This was a three-hander show, with the magnificently-talented combination of Julie Yammanee, Cassidy Janson and Jessica Martin, portraying the three ages of Vaudeville showgirls - the ingenue just starting out, the powerhouse current star, and the long-experienced trouper. In combination and each with their solo numbers, they were all utterly breathtaking!

Stand-out ensemble numbers - and there were so many! - included Before The Parade Passes By, Tap Your Troubles Away [on typewriters!], the Just Go To the Movies/Movies Were Movies segment [where we had Miss Janson, as one of the three "usherettes", sat in the row in front of us for a time], La Cage Aux Folles and Hello, Dolly!, Miss Jansen and Miss Martin also "trapped" Miss Yammanee in a trunk to do a marvellous version of Bosom Buddies, and the three of them were especially good in the utterly hilarious Take It All Off - in which Miss Martin was really able to exercise her "comedy chops".

In the absence of any Menier cast videos, here's Miss Dorothy Loudon's version of that number [I have also featured Miss Lorna Luft's version before]:

Dorothy Loudon - Take It All Off

Miss Yamanee got her moment in the spotlight with rollicking versions of That's How Young I Feel and Look What Happened to Mabel...

... while Miss Janson got many of the big torch-song numbers like I Won’t Send Roses, If He Walked Into My Life, The Best Of Times and Time Heals Everything...

Here's Miss Bernadette Peters' version:

Bernadette Peters - Time Heals Everything

...and Miss Martin, too, had some tear-jerkers of her own such as I Don’t Want to Know, And I Was Beautiful, I Am What I Am and the eternally poignant Song On The Sand.

Here's the laste, great Miss Mazzie's version of that:

Marin Mazzie - Song On The Sand

We were overawed by the whole evening, to be honest - even the unfamilar numbers - and it just reinforced my opening sentence.

A fitting tribute, by a hugely talented trio of singers. What more could anyone ask for?

To conclude, from Jonathan Whiting for Musical Magazine:

Special mention must go to the band under Music Director Sarah Travis; bar the keyboard/piano, the band is completely acoustic, which adds a rawness and an intimacy to the production. Travis’s orchestrations are incredibly versatile, often feeling much grander than a six-person band might typically sound.

The final number, Jerry’s Girls celebrates all the luminary women who have graced the stage in a Herman musical, from Ethel Merman and Bea Arthur to Angela Lansbury and Carol Channing, culminating with the names Cassidy Janson, Jessica Martin and Julie Yammanee. That they have been added to this list of legends feels absolutely right here – it’s difficult to imagine this show being performed by anyone else.

Amen.

Jerry's Girls is playing at the Menier Chocolate factory to 29th Jun 2024.

Book now!

The Floating Kingdom

Madam Arcati and I had a truly stunning theatrical experience last night, as we ventured to the oh-so-touristy environs of Borough (famous for its food market) - for our first visit in several years to an old fave venue the Menier Chocolate Factory, to see the much-lauded new production of Stephen Sondheim's Pacific Overtures.

A show that was last revived over here in 2003, it's certainly not one of The Maestro's most famous, and most people would be hard-pushed to hum along to any of its songs. But, heavens - especially with this setting, this scenery, this lighting and this cast [shame about the restricted view seats we ended up with] - it's a work of art! It was indeed one of Sondheim's own personal favourites.

Pacific Overtures - trailer 2024, Menier Chocolate Factory

[NB There are no videos from the Menier Chocolate Factory production, apart from this trailer]

Set in the the late 19th century era when the USA unanimously decided to force the secretive and feudal kingdom of Nippon [Japan] to "open its doors" to the world, the story is told largely from the perspective of its populace. Indeed, the opening number The Advantages of Floating in the Middle of the Sea highlights just how completely shielded from foreign influence they were, engrossed in ancient rituals:

As the centuries have come, they've gone
In the middle of the sea
Days arise to be replaced
Lines are drawn and lines erased
Life and death are but verses in a poem
Out there blood flows
Who knows?

Here we paint screens
Plant the rice
Arrange the flowers
View the moon
Exchange the gifts
Plant the rice
Arrange tomorrow like today
To float
Slide the screens
Exchange the poems
Stir the tea
Exchange the bows
Plant the rice
Arrange tomorrow to be like today
To float.

Of course, this blithe "innocence" proves to be their downfall - but Sondheim being Sondheim, this is not a show that wallows in tragedy. With the help of the excellent "Reciter" (narrator Eu Jin Hwang) to understand the nuances, there's much humour to be had poking fun at the absurdities on all sides in this tumultuous period. The Shogun (excellently played by actress Saori Oda) arrogantly believes that to merely send one man in a boat to face the fleet with a message from the (puppet) Emperor would be sufficient to send the Americans packing.

The hapless sap chosen for this (quite possibly suicidal) mission, Kayama (the superbly convincing Takuro Ohno) and his wife Tamate (Kanako Nakano) are understandably terrified (There Is No Other Way) - as are the locals, who, seeing the fleet approach believe them to be Four Black Dragons. Obviously the pompous and condescending US Admiral ignores Kayama's pleas. With the help of fisherman Manjiro (Joaquin Pedro Valdes) - who had visited the US and brought the original news of the impending threat to the Shogun's court - masquerading as "an important man" they try shouting ("as that's what they understand - who shouts loudest, gets heard"), but the only response from the Americans is a demand to meet the Shogun or else be bombed.

In the ensuing time of trepidation, Kayama and Tamate (having devised a cunning plan involving floating mats and floating house to accommodate the Americans without them setting foot on Nippon's "sacred soil") bond over Poems, and the local brothel-madam sees a business opportunity as she (hilariously) trains up "her girls" for the arrival of the sailors of the fleet (Welcome to Kanagawa). The Admiral lands, the meeting is held in secret, then the treaty house is ceremonially burned.

But what was actually said? Could those secrets be revealed by eavesdroppers? This beautiful number - Sondheim's own "proudest achievement" - is hopeful, but history is often based on unreliable testimony...

Ann Harada, Thom Sesma, Kelvin Moon Loh and Austin Ku - Someone In a Tree [Take Me to the World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration]

[The famous "lockdown gala"]

Regardless of what was said behind those closed doors it becomes obvious this was only the beginning, as the rest of the world's great empires - British, Dutch, Russian and French - all come-a-calling, with their warships, for their "share of the spoils". This is a brilliant number, full of Sondheim's signature tributes to the sounds and styles of other composers (notably Gilbert & Sullivan), and was probably the highlight of last night's show. Here's the original:

Pacific Overtures Original Broadway Cast - Please Hello [1976]

So the old Nippon is overrun by foreign tastes and styles - perfectly encapsulated by (the newly-elevated to governor) Kayama and A Bowler Hat. Conversely, Manjiro, who began as an enthusiast for all things American, has become completely integrated into Samurai traditions. Cultural clashes are exposed even more chillingly, however, in this production's treatment of (possibly) this show's most familiar number Pretty Lady - a song I only really knew from Side By Side By Sondheim as a light-hearted ode about a frustrated seduction attempt [see also here for the "gender-reversed" version] - as it all turns nasty indeed, culminating in murder.

As our Reciter (shifting seamlessly between setting the scene and portraying the Emperor) points out, this was the beginning of the end. The Samurai (unexpectedly led by Manjiro) stage a rebellion, both Shogun and Kayama are killed, and in retaliation Emperor Meiji abolishes the centuries-old Shogunate and decrees a return to Imperial rule, proclaiming that his country would henceforth embrace the modernity of the rest of the world (Next!).

The show closed with a whirlwind representation of how that modernisation developed, from industrialisation to the horrors of WWII, to the technological revolution of the late 20th century, and ended - in a sinister twist - with an AI avatar reciting the words: "Nippon. The Floating Kingdom. There was a time when foreigners were not welcome here. But that was long ago... Welcome to Japan."

Utterly, mind-blowingly brilliant. I am so glad we went!

Pacific Overtures is on at The Menier Chocolate Factory until 25th February 2024.

Everybody's got the right to their dreams

Hey, pal - feelin' blue?
Don't know what to do?
Hey, pal - I mean you -
Yeah. C'mere and kill a President.

No job? Cupboard bare?
One room, no one there?
Hey, pal, don't despair -
You wanna shoot a President?
C'mon and shoot a President...

Everybody's
Got the right
To be happy.
Don't stay mad,
Life's not as bad
As it seems.

If you keep your
Goal in sight,
You can climb to
Any height.
Everybody's
Got the right
To their dreams...

Judging by the way the show has been promoted to the press in advance, one might have been forgiven for thinking that Assassins was a star vehicle for the "national treasure" Catherine Tate. Of course, that is far from the truth, as we found out for ourselves when Al, John-John, Madame Arcati and I went along to one of our favourite theatres in London, the Menier Chocolate Factory on Thursday to see Jamie Lloyd's new production of Mr Stephen Sondheim's most - ahem - unusually themed musical.



For who else but Mr Sondheim would dare to create an entire musical about the imagined interplay between a group of people with nothing else in common but the fact that they had killed or attempted to kill the President of the United States?

This is an eerie enough construct to imagine - for in the classic music theatrical genre, there should normally be at least one character with whom one feels some empathy, surely? But that is the magic of Sondheim, of course. He has us rooting for a psychopath in Sweeney Todd, for a witch in Into The Woods, and for Ethel Merman's mother-from-Hell in Gypsy, after all. And in Assassins, each of the characters, deeply and truly mad as all of them are, has a little something in their character with which we can identify.

This achievement relies as heavily upon the skills of its ensemble cast as it does the writing, of course - and this cast is utterly superb! Two main characters hold the whole thing together, as we are introduced to each disturbed assassin in turn: The Proprietor (a deliciously mad, ever-goading, impressively demonic Simon Lipkin) and the Balladeer (the superbly confident Jamie Parker), and it is through their own interplay that we, the audience, are encouraged to understand (or if it were a panto, "boo", "hiss" or "cheer"; we did none of that, of course - this is Sondheim) what drove seemingly anonymous individuals to want to become assassins.

I think thereby hangs a tale - that word "anonymous". For in most cases, these people drove themselves to wield their fateful guns as a way to gain recognition/notoriety, to ensure they were not ignored or forgotten in history. This was certainly the case for John Wilkes Booth (the fabulous singer and elegantly handsome Aaron Tveit), whose murder of Abraham Lincoln was the first Presidential assassination, and the most earth-shattering, till the 20th century.



Lesser-known madmen followed in his wake - the would-be radical and downtrodden Polish-American Leon Czolgosz (a grandly dramatic David Roberts), who killed President McKinley; the pain-wracked and obsessive Giuseppe Zangara (sung and acted marvellously by the cute Stewart Clarke), who attempted to assassinate Roosevelt; and the hilariously loony Charles Guiteau (film star Andy Nyman), who killed President Garfield. It was the latter performance by Mr Nyman, skipping, dancing and convincingly delusional (adherent of several bizarre pseudo-religious cults, he petitioned the White House believing himself perfect for the role of Ambassador to France), that brought the finest snatches of comedic relief to the potentially very dark proceedings.

The more recent crop of killers included the totally unhinged Samuel Byck (the ever-wonderful Mike McShane), whose outrageous plan to hijack a plane and crash it into the White House to kill Richard Nixon was only balanced in its sheer oddness by the fact that Byck kept leaving voicemail messages outlining his plans for, of all people, Leonard Bernstein. In a shining moment of the production - and there were many! - the odd and lisping loner John Hinckley (played to perfection by by Harry Morrison), the attempted assassin of President Ronald Reagan, duets with Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme (a very scary Carly Bawden), one of the two women who tried to kill President Gerald Ford (the other being Miss Tate's character Sara Jane Moore) about their obsessive (unrequited) love for Jodie Foster and Charles Manson, respectively. Unworthy of Your Love is perhaps the most memorable of the show's songs, and they did it beautifully.



The denouement, of course, comes with the story of Lee Harvey Oswald (also played by "Balladeer" Jamie Parker) - the one assassin whose actions still resonate today, more than half-a-century later, and the final ensemble number, where all the killers pay Oswald their respects, waving their weapons menacingly in a dance macabre.

There are flaws, of course - not least Miss Tate's wobbly West Virginia accent; but we know she's a comedienne (accurately, and skilfully) playing a woman who was the object more of ridicule than of fear, so it didn't jar for me as much as it might for a purist. Some parts of the set and the sound-effects were a little wobbly too, but this was only a preview, so allowances must be made...

With its malevolent Circus/fairground set, and the fact it is staged "in traverse" (with the seating blocks either side and the performance in-between; our seats were right in the front row - in the midst of the action), we in the audience were spooked even before the show started. But at every turning point in the unfolding stories, to have actual guns pointed in one's face at regular intervals is utterly spine-tingling!

In all, this was a magnificent production, a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It is no wonder it is selling out rapidly...

As the press night has not even taken place yet, there is no video footage from the Menier. However, as a little taster of the music, here's the cast of the 2004 Broadway production of Assassins at the Tony Awards:

Stephen Sondheim's Assassins

In the words of one reviewer: "It’s madness, but it works."

Assassins is at the Menier Chocolate Factory until 7th March 2015.

More Aunt madness

“Soon after meeting his Aunt Augusta, he has had a run-in with the police, smoked weed on the Orient Express, smuggled money and been offered sex in a brothel in Paris.”

News that the lovely Menier Chocolate Factory is bringing back to London Giles Havergal's farcical all-male stage production of Graham Greene's Travels With My Aunt sent me immediately off to the interwebs for clips of the big screen version from the 70s.

To my chagrin, I have never yet seen the entire movie. I was too young for the original cinematic release, and don't recall it ever appearing on TV over here. However from the meagre evidence I have seen, Dame Maggie Smith appears to be having a field day, camping it up as "Aunt Augusta"...

Maggie Smith - Travels With My Aunt - Funeral Scene

Maggie Smith - Travels With My Aunt preview clip

"Aunts" seem popular at the Menier Chocolate Factory. Travels With My Aunt is on from 2nd May to 29th June 2013. I think we may try and get tickets...

Aunt, interrupted

Mat Horne



Eleven of our gang minced off to the fantabulosa Menier Chocolate Factory last night for the much-anticipated revival of that grand old British farce Charley's Aunt, starring the gorgeous Mat Horne (of Catherine Tate Show and Gavin and Stacey fame) and none other than Jane Asher.

We settled into our seats (amongst a conglomeration of keen and chattering drama students - it was reminiscent of a crèche, or maybe Jimmy Savile's pantry), and the show opened well, setting the scene whereby college students Jack (Dominic Tighe) and Charley (Benjamin Askew) - hamming it up as prototypes for David Cameron and Boris Johnson - inveigle their equally cash-strapped colleague Lord Fancourt "Babbs" Babberley into impersonating the eponymous Charley's Aunt, in order to not only "get the girls of their dreams" but also encourage a situation whereby they can get themselves some money out of the deception.

All of which would have been fine - and it was indeed a classy opener - but for the sudden grinding noises and the lack of an appearance of Mr Horne as "the Aunt", which led to an unexpected break in the performance after just half an hour, and then an announcement that "technical difficulties" meant the show was cancelled!

We hid our disappointment well with some gin, but nevertheless it is a shame not to have seen it. There is a scant possibility of rescheduling tickets - but not for all of us, so we have opted for a refund.

---

Ho hum. Never mind. Here's something jolly to cheer us up instead.

A colleague in work pointed me in the direction of this - Beethoven's Ode To Joy, as you have never heard it before, courtesy of Beaker from The Muppet show!

Beaker from The Muppet Show - Ode To Joy

Some sort of substitute, maybe...

Menier Chocolate Factory

You know there are easier things in this life than being a drag queen

We trolled off en masse to the marvellous Menier Chocolate Factory last night to see another of its famed revivals, Torch Song Trilogy, and we were utterly overwhelmed by its excellence.

Having read many of the reviews today, I find a bit of a thread going through the (mainly straight) reviewers' comments - "dated", "period piece", "look at what the gays have now", all slightly dismissive in tone. Even thirty years on from the era in which the play is set, all is not so rosy in the "gay garden", actually, folks! The opening night of Torch Song Trilogy coincided with the vitriolic condemnation of homosexuality (in the context of gay marriage) by those bigots in the Church of England, bullying of gay kids is on the rise not falling, and rejection by parents and families is still a frightening and confusing experience for many gays. Soap-box over, and on with the show...

Harvey Fierstein 's Torch Song Trilogy is a masterpiece, of that there really should be no doubt. Its premise - three chapters in the rollercoaster-ride that is the life of drag queen Arnold Beckoff - draws the audience into the position of not merely observer, but practically a participant. The stories themselves are fairly familiar - man meets man and falls in love, man loses man to another (this time to a woman), man finds new love, tragedy ensues and men meet again years later and try and disentangle their experiences. But this is bigger than just a soap opera. Arnold is perhaps one of the most sincere, believable and complex characters written in a drama of this kind - sympathetic yet selfish, put-upon yet acidly dismissive, above all defiant in the face of every melodrama the world can throw at him.

In the hands of the brilliant David Bedella, Arnold really shines. His sheer omnipresence in the role forces us, the witnesses to his unfolding story, to immerse ourselves in it all - for three hours the man is constantly in our sights, never off stage, never sidelined, never silenced. Not by widowhood, not by desertion, not even by his mother! Mr Bedella really brings his humour, the glitter, the warmth, the rage and the tears to life. Not least in my favourite monologue of all time (here are some extracts):

"I think my biggest problem is being young and beautiful. It's my biggest problem because I've never been young and beautiful. Oh, I've been beautiful. And God knows I've been young, but never the twain have met. Not so as anyone would notice anyway. Y'know a shrink acquaintance of mine believes this to be the root of my attraction to a class of men most subtly described as old and ugly. I think he's underestimating my wheedles. See, a ugly person who goes after a pretty person gets nothing but trouble, but a pretty person who goes after a ugly person gets at least cab fare. Now, I ain't sayin' I never fell for a pretty face, but when les jeux sont fais, gimme a toad with a pot o' gold and I'll give you three meals a day. Cuz honeys, ain't no such thing as a toad when the lights go down. It's either feast or famine. It's the daylight you gotta watch out for. Well face it, a thing of beauty is a joy 'til sunrise...

With a voice and a face like this, what do I got to worry about? I can always drive a cab. You know there are easier things in this life than being a drag queen. But I ain't got no choice. See, um... Try as I may, I just can't walk in flats!

You know there was one guy once. His name was Charlie. Aw, he was everything you could want in an affair and more: he was tall, handsome, rich, deaf. The deafness was the "more." He ain't never yelled at me, never complained if I snored. All his friends was nice and quiet. I even learned me some of that deaf sign language. Oh I…I remember some. [signs with hands] "Cockroach." Means "fuck." Oh this here's my favourite. Means "I love you." And I did too. But um…"not" "enough." You know, in my life I've slept with more men than are named and or numbered in the bible, old and new testaments put together. But not once has someone said "Arnold, I love you." That I could believe. And I ask myself: "Do you really care?" You know the only honest answer I can give myself is "yes." I care. I care a great deal. But, "not" "enough."

Part one, International Stud (a real-life Greenwich Village bar of the 80s), introduces us to Arnold, his formidable wit and tenacity and his hang-ups about sex (graphically depicted in the infamous dark-room scene), and to the man who is to become his big "love interest" Ed (played with remarkable aplomb by, in my opinion, one of Britain's sexiest actors Joe McFadden). Possibly the most self-absorbed man one could have the misfortune to fall in love with, Ed genuinely wants "to have his cake and eat it". Clumsily discarding Arnold's formerly central role in his life in favour of the easy option of marrying a woman, he deserves every second of the rage that the fiery drag diva fires at him.



In the second segment Fugue in a Nursery, blood has flowed under the bridge. Arnold is now enamoured of the ditzy blond model Alan - played in all his shallow, arrogant, attention-seeking glory by the utterly gorgeous Tom Rhys Harries - and the couple are invited by Ed and his idealistic wife Laurel (the impressive Laura Pyper) to spend a weekend in their rural "idyll" (in truth anything but). A game of emotional (and sexual) chess begins. Mostly played out (metaphorically) in eye-popping fashion on one outsized bed (we appreciated the many forward rolls, bends, squats and thrusts by Mr McFadden and Mr Rhys Harries in particular!), Laurel's apparent naiveté is soon rudely shaken by the reality of her own situation, as Alan and Ed fuck, and she and Arnold hissily exchange home truths like two pampered pedigree cats trapped in a cage. Of course, this unresolved merry-go-round is brought to a shattering conclusion when, back in New York, Alan is brutally murdered by homophobic thugs.

The whole theatre was in a stunned silence.



After the much-needed break [this is a long play - three hours in all], we find ourselves further down the line of complications in Arnold's life, in Widows and Children First. Still mourning Alan, he is now proud "mother" to traumatised gay teenager David (convincingly played as odd yet street-wise by Perry Millward), and Ed has hoved back into view after his relationship with Laurel finally petered out. The cobwebs of this almost-but-not-quite cosy situation are about to blown categorically out of the window however, with the arrival of the fearsome Mrs Beckoff, Arnold's own mother (magnificently played by theatrical grande dame Sara Kestelman). With some of the best interchanges in the whole epic, their showdown is simultaneously the excuse for blood-letting of the highest order, and the springboard for many of the deepest simmering realities of just who and what "makes" Arnold the man he is, to come - explosively - into the open.

""Whoops" is when you fall down an elevator shaft. "Whoops" is when you skinny-dip in a school of piranha. "Whoops" is when you accidentally douche with Drano! No, Ed. This was no "whoops." This was an AAAAAAAAAAAAAHA-HA-HA-HA!"

With the closing "torch song" I Will Never Turn My Back On You (a song previously unknown to me, performed beautifully by the entire cast) we were finally allowed to come to terms with the emotional wringer we had been put through. And yes, we cried. Even a hard-bitten bitch like me cried. We also gave the performers the most resounding ovation.

This is a theatrical experience I simply must recommend to everyone. Director Douglas Hodge has masterminded a staggeringly good production; the whole cast (and the clever sets) were superb. The music (thankfully) was subtly delivered on a harp, and the songs (each performed by members of the cast as an aside to the main scenes) such as My Funny Valentine and You Made Me Love You were just perfect.

Do I sense another West End transfer? I hope so!

Torch Song Trilogy is on at Menier Chocolate Factory until 12th August 2012.

Try as I might...

As the fabulous news breaks that a revival of Harvey Fierstein's seminal Torch Song Trilogy is coming to the Menier Chocolate Factory in May - a must-see! - I just had to post my favourite monologue...

Menier Chocolate Factory summer season 2012

"He said to me, he'd like to sellotape my mouth"

According to a recent interview with Jill Halfpenny in The Telegraph:

Mike Leigh came in for the cast read-through. “On a scale of one to 10 of intimidation it was 11 – it was big time,” she says, laughing. “The only way the situation could have been more intimidating would be if Alison Steadman had been sat next to him. At the end he said that as a rule he doesn’t like read-throughs because that’s not how he works, but that he enjoyed it. He took Lindsay aside and said: 'You’ve cast that well.’ We all breathed a sigh of relief.”

And of course the playwright was right, as we found out when our gang - eleven of us - turned out to see the new revival of Abigail's Party by Lindsay Posner at the Menier Chocolate Factory last night. They were indeed an excellent cast - Miss Halfpenny as the "she-ogre" Beverly, ably supported by Joe Absolom (Tony), Natalie Casey (Angela), Susannah Harker (Sue) and Andy Nyman (Laurence).

We initially had our reservations whether to go and see it at all. The classic original featuring Alison Steadman and Janine Duvitski is so engraved upon our collective consciousness, it would be hard to equal. However this production was superb in itself, perfectly recapturing the cringeworthy pretensions of 70s middle-class suburbia - and all the now-immortal and much-repeated lines - without resorting to either impersonation or pastiche.

We laughed, we gasped, and we half-secretly recited familiar quotes along with the actors. It was utterly captivating, superbly played - and we all loved it!

Abigail's Party is only on at the Menier Chocolate Factory until 21st April, so book now!

And here, of course, are some of the choicer quotable quotes:

• Laurence: [on Shakespeare] "Our nation's culture. Not something you can actually read, of course."
• Beverly: "Just because a picture happens to be erotic, does not make it pornographic."
• Angela: "Is it real silver?"
  Beverly: "Silver plate, yes."
• Beverly: "Now I can see what you've done, Ange - you've just sat down and put on your lipstick. Next time, will you try this for me? Just sit down, relax, and say to yourself "I have very beautiful lips" and I tell you, Ange, you're gonna see the difference! All right?!"
• Angela: "Pilchard curry is a very economical dish."
• Beverly: "The thought of actually having kids makes me heave."
• Beverly: "You're a boring little bugger, Laurence."
• Beverly: "Don't get me wrong - I do love Laurence - he's very good with money. He takes me shopping, I bung it in the wheelie, he writes a cheque and it's done for the week - know what I mean?"
• Angela: "Oh it's funny. We were all getting married about the same time as you were... getting divorced!"
• Angela: "No, he's not violent. Just a bit nasty. Like, the other day, he said to me, he'd like to sellotape my mouth. And that's not very nice, is it?"

Alison Steadman - Abigail's Party: "I have very beautiful lips"

Brilliant!

Isn't It Something?

We went to see the much-vaunted new Sondheim musical Road Show at the fabulous Menier Chocolate Factory on Thursday. Mere words cannot sum up what a magnificent and breathtaking evening's entertainment it was!

The product of more than a decade's unsuccessful tinkering (the show was originally conceived in 1999, and first produced as Bounce way back in 2003), the indefatigable combination of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman have finally let the acclaimed British director John Doyle (he of the award-winning productions of Sweeney Todd, Company and Mack and Mabel) loose on it. Unusual amongst musicals, he decided to let it run seamlessly (without an interval, a prospect we were originally a bit uncomfortable with) for ninety minutes, and, in the spirit of its new title Road Show, every scene runs into the next with very little time even for applause...

The story is based on the true lives of the pioneering entrepreneur brothers Addison and Wilson Mizner,who grabbed hold of the concept of "The American Dream" and shook it for all it was worth in a succession of crazy (and often shady) money-making deals that drew the attention of the rich, the famous and the media of the early 20th century.

From the early scene of Papa on his death bed singing to his sons about the prospects the new century could hold for them (It's In Your Hands Now), through the wild adventures of the Yukon Gold Rush (Gold!), gambling, fixed boxing matches and horse races (The Game), and travels across the world (Addison's Trip), the pair (and their dying but extravagant mother) finally reunite in the middle of the property boom in Florida where all the billionaires are vying for the bigger and better houses that architect Addison can offer them (You!).



En route Addison falls in love with Hollis, the wealthy son of an industrial magnate, and there is a glimmer of hope that this "wild child" may find a more settled existence, but soon the brothers begin to "revert to type" with the next big scam (Boca Raton) and everyone begins to realise that the real thing that drives the brothers is not their ability to help build America, but their insatiable and selfish desire for wealth. The show closes as it opens, with Addison on his own death bed being visited by the spirit of the dead Wilson.

With all these death-bed scenes you'd think Road Show would be really dark and gloomy, but it is far from it! The breakneck speed of the whole thing perfectly captures the energy of the brothers in the style of the Vaudeville/silent movie acts of the time. The cast of David Bedella (as Wilson), Michael Jibson (as Addison), the gorgeous John Robyns (as Hollis), Gillian Bevan (as Mama) and Glyn Kerslake (as Papa) - and the whole supporting ensemble - were outstanding.

The humour and the pathos are beautifully balanced, and the choreography and staging (in the round) is simply genius. We were in the third row - just in front of actor Scott Bakula and across from Michael Cashman, incidentally - and it was almost like being inside the show at times. Throughout the performance the audience is showered with handfuls of hundred-dollar bills, and we had laps full by the end!



Some of the showpiece numbers are absolutely stunning - most notably Mama singing about the (by now on the run) Wilson Isn't He Something?, and Addison and Hollis's love duet The Best Thing That Ever Happened.
[Both songs were originally written as "straight" love songs between a man and a woman in the original incarnation, which gives them much more of a typically Sondheim-esque twist in this production.]

So, just one word - BRILLIANT! We couldn't stop enthusing about it...

Sondheim's Road Show

Sondheim's Road Show - The Best Thing That Ever Happened

Sondheim's Road Show - Isn't He Something?

You really must see this show!

It runs until 17 September 2011 at the Menier Chocolate Factory. Book your tickets here. I rather hope it will follow the lead of the Menier's previous productions and get its transfer to the West End!

The Rhythm Of Life

As the post-party season starts and the gloom that is January sets in, our gang did what we usually do at this time of year - go and see something sparkly and musical to cheer us up. And so it was that we went to the wonderful Menier Chocolate Factory to see the new Matthew White production of Sweet Charity last night, and had a blast!

This being one of my favourite musicals (well, the film adaptation anyhow) I was full of anticipation - how would they treat the big dance numbers on such a small stage? How would a former Eastender fit into the part played to Oscar-winning glory by Shirley MacLaine? Where in London could they find truly trashy dance-hall whores? (Actually that one should be fairly easy!). With the able assistance of the best musical choreographer around, Stephen Mears, the Menier managed all this very well indeed, actually...

Although slightly too chirpy in what is essentially a tragic role, Tamsin Outhwaite is a surprisingly energetic and brassy Charity Hope Valentine, the "tart with a heart", shimmying her tits off to cover the pain of her failure to find true love.

Playing all of the various "love rats" in her life - including the ham actor and lothario Vittorio Vidal and the troubled Oscar Lindquist - the lovely Mark Umbers was simply superb. And as for the girls, they were indeed convincingly hard-bitten tarts, and brilliant dancers and singers (every one)!

Several scenes stand out in this production - in particular If They Could See Me Now in Mr Vidal's apartment, where much of Charity's action takes place inside the wardrobe, and the trapped-in-an-elevator scenario (I'm The Bravest Individual) - both capturing the humour and naivete of "Sweet" Charity to perfection.

The wonderfully OTT Rhythm of Life hippy "church" number was excellent - featuring another former Eastender Paul J Medford as "Daddy". The Rich Man's Frug was superbly done. The big second half number I'm A Brass Band was actually done better than in the film (which was always a weak spot for me), bringing on the girls as backing dancers rather than a marching band.

However, it is the BIG numbers we all want to see! The classic Hey Big Spender was outstanding - the girls capture that terrifying air of desperation and boredom as they try and entice their punters with an attitude that Bob Fosse would be proud of! And my favourite of all the show's routines, There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This was just a joy...

All in all, this version of Sweet Charity is excellent. How it will translate to a bigger West End stage is another question. Miss Outhwaite is very good at what she does, but will need to do a bit more emoting to truly capture the part if the show is going to hit the heights - or else the producers need to get someone with a bit more pathos to fill the role. That said, if you need a really entertaining pick-me-up at this time of year, you really should try this one!

Here's the original film version of Rhythm Of Life, featuring Sammy Davis Jr. Enjoy!

Sammy Davis Junior - The Rhythm of Life (Sweet Charity)

Menier Chocolate Factory

"They were always having tomato soup and she lost her faith"

We trolled off en masse to windy Southwark last night to see Victoria Wood's Talent at the Menier Chocolate Factory. A very entertaining evening indeed!



Although a bit dated in places (the original "play with music" was written in 1978 and many of the contemporary references in the script remain intact - would many people these days remember Mike and Bernie Winters or the "Oh, Malcolm" Vicks commercial, for instance?), Victoria Wood's wit and penchant for the sardonic quip shine through.

Set in the sleazy world of the Northern night-club scene (so brilliantly captured by the likes of Phoenix Nights), the dreadful stereotypes are all in place: the secretary with ambition but no discernible talent, her fat best friend, the sleazy groping club host, the long-lost rat of an ex-boyfriend, and the dreadful old-school variety acts. From the opening number with the cheesiest "vocal trio" in the world, we retreat to the grotty dressing room for the rest of the drama, as the relationships between the characters unfold.



The players are excellent - Suzie Toase is particularly good as the "fat friend" Maureen, as is Hi De Hi’s Jeffrey Holland as the crappy all-round entertainer, and, surprisingly, ex-Blue Peter presenter Mark Curry as the pervy MC. Shakespearean actor Mark Hadfield is great in the dual role of the (female) bookings organiser and the twitchy side-kick in the dire variety act. The weakest link was surprisingly the lead character Julie, played by Leanne Rowe, who really doesn't quite fit the part that was obviously created for Julie Walters - but fair play, who could?

But is of course for the dialogue that we love Victoria Wood's work. You cannot fault a play that throws out lines like "I thought coq au vin was a fuck in a lorry", "She used to be a nun. They were always having tomato soup and she lost her faith" and "Mine's the white Cortina up against the back wall in the VIP car park. Take your girdle off and bring a tissue." And of course, the songs are brilliant and sometimes poignant as you might expect...

Apparently one song from the show, Fourteen Again, had its lyrics adapted for another tune, Rusholme Ruffians by none other than The Smiths. Morrissey was a great fan of Wood's, and had even proposed marriage to her via the music press (to which she responded "Morrissey and I have been married for 11 months, though due to touring commitments, we have yet to meet.")

Of our evening, one of the most unintentionally hilarious moments was when Sally and Maria popped off for a pee (the show has no interval), but Maria took a wrong turn and ended up trying to get out through the curtains at the side of the seats. Their subsequent enjoyment of the play was rather spoiled after that as they were made to take seats near the (real) exit, and couldn't see the rest of the show properly. Hey ho. All in all, a very enjoyable evening - highly recommended for Victoria Wood fans in particular!

About Talent

It's but a pleasurable means to a measurable end

We went to see the Menier Chocolate Factory's new production of A Little Night Music last night - and what a show!

One of Stephen Sondheim's best works, the concept is relatively simple - a soap-opera plot revolving around generational differences, relationships and sex, all set to 4/4 waltz time. But in the hands of the master of all musicals (and a tremendous cast!) it becomes far more complicated as the lives of the characters unfold, and their various paths criss-cross. Based upon an Ingmar Bergman film, and set in the craziness of the Scandinavian eternal summer, it could hardly be straightforward...

Alexander Hanson is superb as the tormented Frederick, married for almost a year to Ann, a much younger wife who is "unfortunately still a virgin" despite his evident frustration at that fact. Events turn on their head when an old flame, the actress Desiree, comes to town. Brilliantly played by Hannah Waddingham (who was the "Lady of the Lake" in Spamalot), Desiree's reappearance after fourteen years, complete with teenage daughter, throws doubt into Frederick's life. Their duet You Must Meet My Wife is a skilful dissection of the foolishness of the marriage, at the hands of a much older, wiser woman.

Frederick and Desiree's rekindling relationship causes problems for everyone when one of her lovers, the Count (accurately played as a complete madman by Alistair Robins) becomes psychopathically jealous. He uses his long-suffering wife Charlotte (the wonderful Kelly Price) to stir things up by telling the naive Ann about their affair, and she pours her heart out about her own unhappiness in the fabulous number Every Day A Little Death.

Then it all gets really complicated as Desiree talks her mother Madame Armfeldt (played to bitter, imperious perfection by Maureen Lipman, who obviously relishes the part and delivers all the best lines in the show) into hosting a Weekend in the Country, where all the characters are uncomfortably thrown together. Delicious bitchiness ensues as everyone examines their own feelings about each other, and their relationships.



The most famous number of the whole show is of course Send in the Clowns, often treated as a torch song, but here magnificently delivered by Miss Waddingham as the desperate breakdown of a strong woman's defences in the face of a rapidly diminishing chance of happiness with her lost love. Utterly awe-inspiring - I could hardly breathe through her stunning performance.

Miss Lipman's Madame Armfeldt gets her own show-stopper too, of course, as she reminisces about the flimsiness of the sexual morés of the younger generation, compared to the profitable nature of her own affairs, with Liaisons - and she really does deliver it magnificently!

At the villa of the Baron De Signac,
Where I spent a somewhat infamous year,
At the villa of the Baron De Signac
I had ladies in attendance,
Fire-opal pendants...

Liaisons! What's happened to them?
Liaisons today.
Disgraceful! What's become of them?
Some of them
Hardly pay their shoddy way.

What once was a rare champagne
Is now just an amiable hock,
What once was a villa, at least,
Is "digs."
What once was a gown with train
Is now just a simple little frock,
What once was a sumptuous feast
Is figs.
No--not even figs--raisins!
Ah, liaisons!
Now, where was I? Where was I? Oh, yes...

At the palace of the Duke of Ferrara,
Who was prematurely deaf but a dear,
At the palace of the Duke of Ferrara
I acquired some position
Plus a tiny Titian...

Liaisons! What's happened to them?
Liaisons today.
To see them--indiscriminate
Women, it
Pains me more than I can say,
The lack of taste that they display!

Where is style?
Where is skill?
Where is forethought?
Where's discretion of the heart?
Where's passion in the art?
Where's craft?
With a smile
And a will
But with more thought,
I acquired a château
Extravagantly overstaffed.

Too many people muddle sex
With mere desire,
And when emotion intervenes
The nets descend.
It should on no account perplex,
Or worse, inspire;
It's but a pleasurable means
To a measurable end.
Why does no one comprehend?
Let us hope this lunacy's just a trend.
Now where was I? Where was I? Oh, yes...

In the castle of the King of the Belgians,
(We would visit through a false chiffonier)
In the castle of the King of the Belgians
Who, when things got rather touchy,
Deeded me a duchy...

Liaisons! What's happened to them?
Liaisons today.
Untidy! Take my daughter, I
Taught her, I
Tried my best to point the way.
I even named her Desiree.

In a world where the kings are employers,
Where the amateur prevails
And delicacy fails
To pay,
In a world where the princes are lawyers,
What can anyone expect
Except to recollect...

And while the bitterness of the lives of the guests is played out in full, the servants take the opportunity to enjoy themselves. The maid Petra (Kaisa Hammerlund) treats us to her own thoughts on life in the wonderfully bawdy The Miller’s Son, cocking a snook at the inflexibility of the upper classes, and her outlook on sex as a young woman cleverly mirrors yet contrasts the sentiments of the much older Mme Armfeldt:

It's a very short way
From the fling that's for fun
To the thigh pressing un-
Der the table.
It's a very short day
Till you're stuck with just one
Or it has to be done
On the sly.
In the meanwhile,
There are mouths to be kissed
Before mouths to be fed,
And there's many a tryst
And there's many a bed,
There's a lot I'll have missed
But I'll not have been dead
When I die!
And a person should celebrate everything
Passing by.

Many of the complex strands of these bizarre people's lives are drawn together in a denouement that leaves some wounds exposed, but resolves many more. Not a happy ending, nor entirely sad - just A Little Night Music.

We had a great time, and even got the chance to have a little drinkie in the Green Room bar with the whole cast, including Maureen Lipman, afterwards.

I highly recommend everyone to see this show! Although the entire run at the Menier Chocolate Factory sold out within weeks, the show transfers to the Garrick Theatre on 28th March.

No preview videos are available of the Menier cast yet, but here are a few songs from the show:

Regina Reznik - Liaisons

Len Cariou and Judi Dench - You Must Meet My Wife

Julia McKenzie - The Miller's Son

Judi Dench - Send In The Clowns

A Little Night Music at Menier Chocolate Factory

Go for the mystery, the magic and the mood

It's rather gaudy but it's also rather grand.
And while the waiter pads your check he'll kiss your hand.
The clever gigolos romance the wealthy matrons
At La Cage Aux Folles.

It's slightly forties, and a little bit "New Wave".
You may be dancing with a girl who needs a shave.
Where both the riffraff and the royalty are patrons
At La Cage Aux Folles.

La Cage Aux Folles,
The Maitre d' is dashing,
Cage Aux Folles,
The hat check girl is flashing,

It's bad and beautiful,
It's bawdy and bizarre.
I know a Duchess who got pregnant at the bar.
Just who is who and what is what
Is quite a question at La Cage Aux Folles.

Go for the mystery, the magic and the mood.
Avoid the hustlers,
And the men's room,
And the food.
For you get glamour and romance and indigestion
At La Cage Aux Folles.

La Cage Aux Folles,
a Saint Tropez tradition,
Cage Aux Folles
You'll lose each inhibition,

All week long we're wondering who
Left a green Givenchy gown in the loo.
You go alone to have the evening of your life.
You meet your mistress
And your boy-friend and your wife.

It's a bonanza, it's a mad extravaganza,
At La Cage Aux Folles.

Ten of us went to see the new production of La Cage Aux Folles at the Menier Chocolate Factory last night, full of anticipation. The show has seemed ill-fated, with several bouts of illness forcing the previews to be delayed three times - and indeed the intended lead Douglas Hodge is still unwell and was replaced by his understudy. But we were definitely in for a treat!!

Everyone should be familiar with the plot - whether from the original (brilliant) French film, its US remake The Birdcage, or indeed this, the Jerry Herman/Harvey Fierstein musical. Two ageing queens Albin and Georges, who run a drag club on the French Riviera, have their lives turned upside down when "their" son announces his engagement to the daughter of a right-wing politician, and farce follows...

Star of the show at La Cage Aux Folles is Zaza, alter-ego of the ultra-camp Albin, who was played to quivering perfection by (the understudy) Spencer Stafford.



Despite a bit of a shaky start, he really came into his own in the first half when Zaza's stage show begins. Spencer commands a breathtaking presence when, during the show's title number, he stands among the troupe stirring a Martini. The faster he stirs, the faster the "Cagelles" spin around him. When he stops stirring they stop twirling. When he eats the olive, they fall to his feet, and he/she stands there, queen of all he surveys. Genius!

The interplay between Albin and Georges (played subtly and skilfully by Philip Quast) provides a wonderful insight into the complexities of relationships, no matter who they are. Torn between his love for his son, and his loyalty and love for Albin, Georges has some of the most emotional and stirring numbers in the show, Song on the Sand and Look Over There - and Philip's beautiful renditions had several of us in tears. Even I welled up...

As the story unfolds, Albin's reaction to being told he is not welcome at the eventual meeting with the prospective in-laws leads him to sing the show's most famous and triumphal number I Am What I Am - revealing with bitterness just how strong and resilient he is, and providing us with an insight of just why the couple have stayed together so long.

Then the real farce ensues - Albin's attempts to "play it straight" as the boy's "uncle", and the eventual meeting with the girl's nauseating father and his dim wife (played by Una Stubbs), where Albin emerges as "Maman". The interplay between the characters (and their fabulous "maid" Jacob) is hilarious. And the restaurant scene, when Albin sings the show's most brilliant number The Best Of Times Is Now, is an absolute joy!

As in all classic shows there has to be a dazzling denouement, and the closing sequence where the politician father has to escape the paparazzi is played to glittering sequinned perfection. And there is a lovely happy ending...



I cannot fault this show! Every one of us enjoyed it so much - the tears and the laughs, and the sheer feeling of uplifting exuberance it gave us - that we are even talking about going to see it again before it closes in March 2008...

Given the Menier Theatre's record of success - their productions of Little Shop of Horrors and Sunday in the Park with George have both gone on to West End and worldwide acclaim - I sincerely hope that La Cage Aux Folles will see the same level of success. West End - here we come!

David Gaines - Song on the Sand

Menier Chocolate Factory

Footnote:

And for the homosexual in your life...

Camp Classics Collection: Some Like It Hot, Priscilla Queen Of The Desert, La Cage Aux Folles and The Birdcage.