Garyswordz

*****

This show has been garnering scintillating reviews ever since its Edinburgh Fringe debut , plaudits and subsequent tour, which continues.

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`I had been expecting improvised chaos. Instead  we were treated to a meticulously crafted comedy which was skilfully presented as improvised chaos in the manner which Morecambe and Wise perfected half a century ago.

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The  “Say it again sorry” company only use the Oscar Wilde original play as a very rough hook on which to hang proceedings. When the actor playing Earnest fails to appear an audience member is dragooned to replace him proving the centrepiece for the evening. Jake is apparently a teacher whose monosyllabic answers to prompts suggest that his lessons are very short and whose idea of a good time is to take his girlfriend to Nandos.

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Before long Holly is also prised from the audience, but not before successfully auditioning for her part by reciting the song “I’m a Believer” in a German accent.

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What follows is a carefully concocted alchemy of  pantomime, slapstick, farce and improvisation. Inevitably Director Simon is frequently needed on stage to sort things out. Played by Josh Haberfield whose appearance and laconic delivery is eerily close to that of Jimmy Carr, director Simon invariably makes things worse and is the dramatic pivot around which all else revolves. He has a sidekick, stage hand Josh, whose  ineptitude and doe eyes are eerily close to Manuel in Fawlty Towers. Playing an idiot is no easy task, and Ben Man does so to great comic effect.

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Judith Amsenga has great fun with the part of Lady Bracknell, one of the great  female parts in  British plays . Similarly Trynity Silk excels as Gwendolen becoming increasingly drunk as the story unfolds.

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Physical comedy abounds  as a  a jacket is not hung up on the correct peg and alcoholic and non alcoholic drinks swap places. Trynity Silk’s costuming I lush, her single set design utilitarian, functional and eye catching.

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This is unquestionably one of the most original and funny comic stage shows I have ever seen. The closing standing ovation demonstrated that I was not alone, as those who were lured out of Derby’s penumbral byways on an unseasonably wet  Tuesday night roared, laughed and cheered. “Earnest”  plays again tonight (29^th May”) then continues on nationwide tour appearing at  Mansfield, Bury St Edmunds, Horsham, Stevenage, Lichfield, Aberdeen. Then on to Edinburgh, and I am told London. Don’t miss it

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My introduction to this  story was via the 1992 film, starring Whoopi Goldberg  as  undercover nun Deloris, whose acting, comic and singing abilities defined the story. For this production Landi Oshinowo fills those FM boots.

The musical differs significantly from the film in narrative, script, characterisation, songs and score. Bafflingly,  “ I will follow him” is dropped, which is akin to dropping “Don’t Cry for me Argentina ” from “Evita”.

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On the night, the star of the show is  Alfie Parker as policeman Eddie Southern. His  vocals steal the show, and his comic stage presence lights up the evening. Sue Cleaver’s Mother Superior  is posh and restrained ( light years away from her Coronation St persona Eileen Grimshaw) and an effective foil for the effervescent  Oshinowo but this production is about the ensemble, not the leads, as Parker, and Elliot Gooch as TJ, demonstrated.

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The music is a curious affair. This is not a soul or gospel  show, nor is it  disco or funk, but an idiosyncratic hybrid in which each of those forms are referenced, laden by  in jokes, with Barry White and “funky weekend” amongst them. A live band in the pit, led by Tom Slade,  are punchy and loud with Johnny Mayer’s bass laying down some impressive funky rhythms.

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Numerous cameos entertain and impress from the ensemble. Julie Stark’s Sister Mary Lazarus is whacky, Isabel Canning’s Sister Mary Patrick is a strong comic turn and Eloise Runette Sister Mary Robert  who finds herself as the show evolves delivers a superb second half solo. The boys have their moment as the hoodlums with their singing trio in the second act.

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The stage set, by Morgan  Large is framed by a giant outer stained glass  clock face enabling scene changes to be established with props only, making it both imposing and extremely functional.

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I found the first act a little chaotic, but the second act came alive dramatically and musically, with Director Bill Buckhurst pulling out all the stops for a barnstorming finale which must have quadrupled the costume budget. There is a limit to what you can do with a troop of singing nuns in black habits,  and choreographer Alistair David combines eye catching routines, with sparkly costumes and a Studio 54 vibe  to provide a killer finish  which had a full house on its feet on an unseasonably wet and dank Monday evening opening night. The audience loved it, very much a case of “Sisters are doing it for themselves.”

My own view was that Sue Cleavers semi spoken songs (think Telly Savalas with “if”) were not good enough, and that Oshinowo did not have the commanding presence of a lead.

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Runs until Saturday 18^th may and continues on nationwide tour.

Author Tom Fletcher has declared: “I want kids to feel this is a show that they are a part of, not just coming to watch.” And for the fifty minutes of this performance he was as good as his word. The only question that adults need answering  is,  “Will children aged 2-7 be entertained and engaged by the production?” – the answer is a resounding yes.

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I took along a two and five year old as my expert reviewers : “brilliant” was their verdict. They loved not having to sit down and be quiet kind  and howled at the mischief  which is lovingly transposed  from the book, to the stage and helping  the monsters along the way.

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A pre show front of house routine sets the scene of how things are going to unfold and introduces the audience to the cast.

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The entire auditorium was dancing along to the choreographed routines led by the four energetic performers Aka the storymakers, it was compulsory for parents and grandparents to join in!

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The Little Monster is  the star of the show appearing around the  colourful stage and on backlit screens in pantomime style “it’s behind you” routines

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The story makers try everything to get the monster back in his book, but with no luck, until the children become involved, as  Little Monster is joined by his friends, Dragon, Alien and Unicorn, and all four go on a mischievous journey.

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The show is absolutely faithful to the original book instantly connecting with those children who have already read it and introducing it to those who have not. The 1pm start time was rewarded with an almost full house and ideal for very young children. It continues on nationwide tour: https://www.ents24.com/uk/tour-dates/theres-a-monster-in-your-show

Richard Shelton is Frank Sinatra in this self penned production. He is best known as a TV  actor  who performed in ITV’s Emmerdale playing  Adam Forsythe between 2005 and 2006, before going on to portray Frank Sinatra in Rat Pack Confidential in London’s West End.

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In RAW he takes us to the Purple Room in Palm Springs USA in 1971   to revisit his career with Dean Martin, Carey Grant,  and Sophia Loren in attendance, sadly Ava Gardner was unable to make it. Tonight he has only a keyboard player to accompany him, but on other dates he is joined by a full orchestra. The pared back presentation assists, rather than detracts from, his performance. Sinatra’s talent lay as much in his phrasing as his singing, stripped of peripheral noise we could hear not only every word, but every syllable of every word Of his songs.

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Inevitably the audience is predominantly older, 70+, reflecting his golden era which predates rock and pop. A superstardom fueled by a handful of tv and radio stations providing a media focus of massive intensity and a cinema presence which took him all over the globe.

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Shelton appears solo in an ubiquitous dinner jacket accompanied by a keyboard player only. The format is part concert recital, part “ an audience with”, as Sinatra delivers  chronological anecdotes about his career interspersed with live audience interaction and banter  which is very slick.

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The anecdotes are part entertainment, and part history, the majority of which I was unaware. Both seamlessly stitch together the song running order  capturing the highs and lows of Sinatra’s career. JFK, Bing Crosby, presidential elections, the Mafia Mob and the Civil Rights movement of 1964 are all touched upon.

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Split into two 45 minute halves the song selection is adroitly chosen and sumptuously delivered. Although I am not a devotee, I knew all the songs which were not confined to the big hits –  the lesser known “Summer Wind” was an absolute joy.

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Yes he did close the main set with “My Way”. Live, the debt that   David Bowie’s “Life on Mars” owes the song is strikingly apparent, before the “New York” encore brought down the final curtain. Shelton has put together something special, a show in which he plays Sinatra, acts Sinatra, adopts all of his mannerisms and sings Sinatra  superbly. Continues on nationwide tour including a Dudley date for Wolverhampton born Shelton: https://highfieldproductions.com/richard-shelton/tour-dates/

*****

As a  2003 film,   starring Helen Mirren, Calendar Girls  was hugely successful.  From The Top Theatre Company takes on the stage version, again written by Tim Firth, about a Northern Women’s institute   group  who produce a nude calendar for charity recrafted with Gary Barlow songs, as a musical, and first performed as such in 2015. This incarnation however is a significantly reworked version of the 2015 version with characters cut and  dialogue and songs reworked. Indeed director Dave Crump has sneaked in some contemporaneous new dialogue too. Knapley in Yorkshire arrives in Sutton Coldfield West Midlands for one week only.

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Its strength lies in its characterisation of some stock figures familiar to any member of a society or social group as   snooty Chairwoman  Marie  ( Paula Lumsden) valiantly tries to maintain order and  is lampooned  mercilessly  while   stalwart member  Annie struggles with the death of her husband from cancer.  Marie’s  venomous exchange with Annie   in the second act is one of the standout dramatic moments of the evening, not least because it represents such an abrupt mood gear change. This  musical is ideal for amateur societies as it has a flexible large cast, multiple female leads and solos, and the foibles of a WI membership are directly interchangeable with an Am Dram group. A school age sub plot with Molly Millen and Fin Waldron is well acted  and  well executed.

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Many of the audience around me were unaware  that this was a musical, their introduction having been via the film. Why the score is not better known is a mystery. Barlow’s songs are strong and appropriate and ooze “Take That” style melodic class. On the night , Williams’ , “Scarborough” was an emotional and technical delight, O’Borne’s “My Russian friend and I” ( Ruth’s  homage to vodka and a loveless marriage), Chris’s ( Deb Crump) lovely Sunflower and Paul Lumsden as Colin’s  contribution to “Girls” stood out. I encourage you to check out the soundtrack  to hear the songs  for yourself.

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Tina Williams  as Annie deftly manages establishing her relationship with her terminally ill husband John in the first Act before transferring her affections to vampy best friend Chris ( Deb Crump) in the second. It is a demanding task, Dave Crump  as John, has the onerous job of garnering our sympathy and support in the first half sufficient that the goodwill spills over into the second despite his absence which he does powerfully and unostentatiously. Deb Crump adeptly handles her friends heartbreak and her errant son’s misbehaviour with engaging stoicism.

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Robyn Klein Christofells pouts and smoulders pleasingly and  persuasively as a golfing toff  femme fatale.Cora (Tina Romano), and Jessie (Alison Cahill ) offer powerful and essential support, not least with  their own vocal slots.

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Director Dave Crump is  sure footed  and nimble  keeping things  light, but  never  flimsy. With a  talented cast that sparkle with wit  , warmth,  and considerable vocal talent. The  comedy is fully relaised but not at he expense  of the  sombre, reflective moments. His adroit handling of the the nude photo shoot  itself is logistically  brilliant fully utilising the digital wall operated by Dan Thompson. The wall itself ensures a limited set requirement providing an instant changing backdrop.

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Even a show about nudity requires clothes, and the costumes,  are well chosen  reflecting  the lives and personalities of each character with attention paid to each cast members diverse choice  shoes, a detail so often neglected in amateur productions.

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The uplifting finale song ‘Sunflowers of Yorkshire’, enables the show to conclude with a heart warming and uplifting ensemble number in a show which exudes  warmth, wisdom and positivity.  Runs until  11^th May

*****

Sixty two years ago, JFK, an alleged paramour of Marilyn, declared his intention for the USA to go to the moon not  “because it is  easy, but because it is  hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, and one which we intend to win”.  All involved in this production have made a similar commitment to this show – and won, thanks to a five star performance from leading lady, Georgina Kerr Jones

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Sutton Arts are to be thoroughly congratulated on producing this play by local author  Darren Haywood, that courage, to produce and support an unknown play by a relatively unknown author, was rewarded with a full house on opening night. There were easier options, Sutton Arts chose the challenging one.

Monroe  was amongst the greatest cultural icons of the 20^th  Century, the glittering jewel in  the Golden era of the silver screen. Her story is  nuanced and  complex, her beauty and charisma merely a veneer. Monroe was  known to everyone, but someone that very few knew,  in a time before social media and twenty four hour television. Consequently, there are numerous Monroes in the public consciousness. Haywood wisely  dodges taking on the entire myth, instead taking on  creating his own  faction of her final day alive reprising a device used by Malcom Lowry  in his novel “Under the Volcano”, a life in a day. Curiously the contemporaneous current film release “Back to Black” explores the tragic melodrama of Amy Winehouse’s life and death. So Haywood is on trend.

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Director Dexter Whitehead is faced with several challenges. This is  a single set play with no action and little movement.  There are only four actors. We all know the outcome- ( spoiler alert) she dies, so there is no jeopardy or dramatic tension. This is a Tragedy, it is not about if she dies, it is about how she dies. Whitehouse, skilfully and adeptly ekes the maximum out of this imbuing proceedings with a clawing sense of claustrophobia and omnipresent psychosis.

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At the heart of all this is Georgina Kerr Jones in the eponymous role, beautiful, sassy, and poised whilst simultaneously being neurotic, paranoid  and helpless, her final hours punctuated by telephone calls and a pounding heartbeat.

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  It is a hugely demanding role written almost as a series of monologues with minor interruptions by the supporting cast. Demanding physically, emotionally and artistically. Georgina, fortunately for both author and director, excels in this challenge.  Set designer Mark Nattrass and  Whitehead  fill out her bedroom with a mesh torn curtain backdrop, periodically backlit illuminating memorabilia from her career as her dreams ,and life are torn from this world.

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Maureen George provides the vital glue to proceedings as the long suffering, but optimistic,  housekeeper, Ailish Reel as Marilyn’s  friend,  quietly   and unobtrusively Pat takes the pressure off Georgina without stealing the lime light. Rachel Marshall and Emily Armstrong are similarly deft in their costume choice from wardrobe, Marilyn in demure dusky pink nightwear, and Pat in a striking A line  hooped brightly coloured sleeveless shift dress. Mark Nattrass  as  Marilyn’s Doctor affords a third party perspective on her neurosis whilst bewilderingly eschewing the opportunity of an evening with the scantily clad Marilyn in favour of an evening with his wife.

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A warm and generous closing ovation from an appreciative audience vindicated Sutton Arts decision to put on this production, and the commitment and energy of all in realising it. The best bit? You get to take your own Marilyn Monroe home with you after.

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 Marilyn has trouble sleeping during the show, an exhausted, but artistically satisfied, Georgina will have no trouble sleeping after it. Runs until Saturday 4^th May.

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This musical was first performed on stage in 1963, but it was the1969 film that made a mass  cultural impact. . Both of my grandfathers fought in World War 1 in the army, and my father served  for thirty years as an RAF Officer. Sixty years on its impact, and the controversy surrounding it should not be underestimated. The literati were fawning in their praise of the author Joan Littlewood , the establishment cautious of lampooning a conflict which still touched most families in this country.

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The film cast reads like a who is who of contemporary cinema including Maggie Smith, Dirk Bogarde, John Gielgud, John Mills, Kenneth More, Laurence Olivier, Jack Hawkins, Corin Redgrave, Michael Redgrave, Vanessa Redgrave, Ralph Richardson,, Nanette Newman, Edward Fox,  and Susannah York.

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The play opened at the Theatre Royal Stratford East but  the official censor did not grant permission for a transfer to the West End until Princess Margaret attended despite the objections of the family of Field Marshal Haig.

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Blackeyed Theatre embraces  the controversial material head on  presenting a cast of  actor-musicians,  counterpointing the farce of war with its  sobering wartime statistics illustrated  by Clive Elkington’s projections . The songs  were drawn  from  a book published in 1917 called Tommy’s Tunes which had new lyrics written in the trenches to well-known songs of the era, many from hymns or from West End shows that are still familiar today  including “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary”, “Pack up Your Troubles” and “Keep the Home Fires Burning”. Musical director Ellie Verkerk does a fine job in reinvigorating them .

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Curtain up  reveals a  band of Pierrots  in hybrid  show costumes with military paraphernalia  imaginatively realised by costume designer Naomi Gibbs.

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The comedy of three quarters a century ago feels surprisingly fresh in the hands of Director Nicky Allpress ,mixing  satire,  physical comedy , slapstick and straight forward gags. Fun is found  in soldiers in training,  a hilarious  choreographed housewives at the washing line scene, and mocking the  trademark  propaganda posters . Tom Crabtree , Tom Benjamin are in the thick of the laughs alongside  Alice Mayer. Chioma  Uma’s singing is  superb. J The Christmas Day ceasefire scene is  handled sensitively and poignantly skilfully avoiding mawkishness.

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This should be compulsory viewing in Russia, Ukraine, Gaza and Israel. A worthy and timeous revival

Continues to 200^th April then on nationwide tour to Mold, Wakefield,Wolverhampton,Basildon Worthing, Hoddesdon     and, Didcot

Blackeyed Theatre’s Oh What a Lovely War continues its tour until May 2024 – more information and tickets can be found here.

Drifters Girl- Birmingham  Hippodrome

“Come on over to my place- hey you, we’re having a party” and on Tuesday night the party was at the Birmingham Hippodrome as the music of one of the most enduring vocal harmony groups of the mid 20^th century roused a full house to its feet from the stalls to the balcony.

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In 1977 I turned on Top of the Pops to see an all black vocal  group singing “You’re more than a Number in My little Red book”. The harmonies were pin sharp, the choreography cheesy ( yes the little red book was produced in synchronized perfection) the combination was irresistible.

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 It was my first introduction to the Drifters who benefitted from a battery of distinguished songwriter’s over the years, including Greenaway/Macauley, Leiber/Stoller, Pomus/ Shuman and Ahmet Ertegun

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The Drifters are synonymous with two constants, Faye Treadwell  ( the eponymous Drifters Girl their manager, whose story this is) , and the constantly changing band line up. Wisely the show largely eschews the story of the  latter in favour of the former creating  a  musical hagiography of  Treadwell. The narrative is strong  on the challenges facing a woman of colour  in a white male dominated world but less sure footed in dealing with her actions, cynically creating a revolving door of around sixty members of the band for personal profit. All sixty are played by the same four  excellent and necessarily versatile performers which can be a little confusing to follow visually.

Quibbles about the narrative arc aside  the music is the beating heart of  the show which   features around  25 songs including ‘Kissin’ in the Back Row of the Movies’, ‘Saturday Night at the Movies’, ‘Save The Last Dance For Me’ and my personal favourite ‘You’re More Than A Number In My Little Red Book’. The  band under the musical direction of Dustin Conrad sounds vibrant and contemporary.

Miles Anthony Daley, Tarik Frimpong, Tré Copeland-Williams, an Ashford Campbell, multitask  as The Drifters band members. An unostentatious set works well  courtesy of Anthony Ward and  Ben Cracknell’s imaginative strip  lighting

Ed Curtis’ book provides the basis for events, and contains an inspired interlude mocking Brummie and Scouse accents which went down very well on the night skilfully and humorously highlighting the casual racism of the era. Carly Mercedes Dyer, resplendent in a stunning stylish skirt suit  not only holds the show together as Treadwell, but her powerhouse vocals also  provide a necessary counterpoint and variety to the male voices.

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An ensemble medley finale was great fun ( sadly the little red book themselves were left on the shelf) and hugely enjoyed by all. Runs until sat 20^th and continues on nationwide tour to Bromley, Edinburgh and Cardiff.