Peter Pan - Birmingham Rep Theatre

Peter Pan by JM Barrie adapted by Willis Hall

Music & Lyrics by George Stiles & Anthony Drew

Directed by Rachel Kavanaugh

Reviewed by Robert Yates

Peter Pan, A Musical Adventure at the Rep Theatre in Birmingham is a success story for musicals designed for both children and adults excellently written by Stiles & Drew. Before the musical had even begun ripples of laughter could be heard from the children and adults alike in the audience as Captain Hook, with his clever wit requested phones to be turned off. The musical opened with an atmospheric number featuring the company as members of the public on a cold wintry night setting the scene well for the first time we meet the Darling family. The storyteller, Gay Soper was brilliant as a guide through the story with a strong voice and a presence that meant she could dominate a scene while not looking out of place in all the different sets.

The arrival of Peter is a triumph for the cable guys back stage as his flights across the stage are a chance for them to show off. Peter Caulfield is confident in the flying scenes in contrast to Darling children, which fits with the story as Peter has flown an awful lot more than the Darling children.

The lost boys bring a youthful exuberance to the stage, full of fun and games, with boundless energy. They are a delight to watch. The pirates also bring a lot of character to the stage, each with a different accent bringing numerous comedy moments to the stage. Not least the musical number ‘It’s a Curse to be a Pirate with a Conscience’. Led by Smee, played by Gerard Carey, who excelled in the role and had a voice that had great character, the song and dance is brilliantly choreographed. The comedy even gets to Captain Hook, played by David Birrell, who is exceptional in the dichotomy of roles of tortured Captain and funny pirate. This musical number was definitely a personal highlight, and gained one of the largest applauses from the audience.

The final act of the show back in the Darling’s household brought the story back round full circle and allowed the storyteller to slip seamlessly into the role of old Wendy. Also with the final act comes Peter’s defiance to growing up. The final chorus with all the cast on stage provides a fitting end to an enjoyable show mainly for children but with just enough humour to appeal to the adults, especially those wishing they too had never grown up

Photos by Robert day - Top; Peter Caulfield (Peter) & Gina Beck (wendy), Middle; Lost Boys. Bottom; David Birrell (Hook) & Pirate Ensemble

Aladdin - Liverpool Everyman Theatre

Aladdin by Sarah Ann Nixon & Mark Chatterton
Liverpool Everyman Theatre
23rd Nov – 12th Jan
Directed by Mark Chatterton
Composer: Tayo Akinbode
Choreography: Beverley Edmonds
Review by The O’Toole Family

As press nights go, I am guessing a 10 minute delay on curtain up isn’t going to impress the hoards of reviewers coming to see this year’s festive offering at the Liverpool Everyman, all I can say is thank goodness that they have cooked up a first class show.

Everything about this show was of the highest quality and writers Mark Chatterton (also the director) & Sally Ann Nixon have created a fast flowing script full of humour for both children and adults alike. Chatterton has used the colourful and well designed set by Jocelyn Meall to its full extent, with traps and hidden entrances being used to full effect, even the props were so spectacular that you can’t help being enticed in this theatrical tour de force, he has wok’d up a festive delight that has great comic moments and is visual and aural candy, even the costumes looked good enough to eat (candy floss wig anyone?) This production never feels tired or shows a lack of energy, it is full of surprises and Christmas show magic that has seemed to have been lost by the big cold and lifeless panto’s full of z list celebrities, where value for money and entertainment don’t seem to be the highest on their list.

The casting of this show was amazing, it’s rare to find a panto where the cast aren’t trying to out do another, this really is ensemble performance at its best. Although the kids do want to point out that Francis Tuckers ‘Dottie Twanky’ was their favorite and had them laughing from beginning to end ‘especially the water pistol scene.’ For us adults watching Steve Simmonds’ genie is ‘Genie-us’ (see what I did there?) for our money he is the best genie in pantoland.

As a family that live in the Merseyside area we have seen lots of Christmas shows, and with the Gateway Theatre in Chester now closed we look to Liverpool to see a homegrown show that will delight our family. All I can say is Liverpool you have done it. In all my 38 years this has been the best Christmas production I have seen and I will now only be taking my family to the festive offerings of The Everyman Theatre

Girls Behind - Tour

Girls Behind by Louise Roche
New Wimbledon Theatre – Tour
Directed by Jack Randle
Review by Ann Bawtree

Can anything good come out of Milton Keynes? Answer A Certainly. The Milton Keynes Theatre Productions musical Girls Behind (no apostrophe) is delightful entertainment. Louise Roche has created three loveable young girls trying their luck as a singing group whose first gig is at the local Star Club. Over ten years they develop from gingham clad innocents into savvy women who eventually find their places in life, which are not what they imagined or aimed for. Lois, Sadie and Serena have in common their friendship and their music but also none too happy childhoods.

Sadie had dysfunctional parents, Lois is the poor little rich girl while Serena, was put into care at the age of seven for no discernable reason. Louise Roche also cleverly gives us at least nine other characters implied through the girls’ conversations.

The choice of songs is so appropriate that the story could have been written around them. Under the musical direction of Brendan McCormack they are not ear splittingly loud, despite the wardrobe sized amplifiers. Alex Eales simple set of the girl’s dressing room with the club’s stage denoted by the fall of a curtain of silver streamers is enhanced by Tony Simpson=s cruelly flat lighting which instantly changes to glamourous spots for the songs. The changes of costume speak volumes not only about the progress of the girls’ careers but also of their real lives. Look out particularly for the footwear!

The characters are portrayed clearly but subtly. We rejoice with Donna Hazelton’s Lois when she performs her happiest number with apparently uncontrolled leaping, worthy of Dawn French at her most exuberant. Yet we are sorry for her when her fortunes change and she tries to become hard. No wonder she did so well in Channel 4's Musicality. If, as the programme says, Maureen Nolan supported Sinatra in 1975 it was either as a babe in arms or she is the spirit of youth. If anyone believes that only Lulu can sing Shout they should think again. Sue Devaney’s depiction of Serena, the pint sized peacemaker, unsentimentally shows her character making a happy life out of emotional deprivation.

Jack Randle (director) keeps the show well paced and can move us on a week or five years by one character going off stage and coming back on again. With the simple but effective choreography of Debbie Young, this production would be less expensive than most to put on. All you would need is three very talented performers.

This is not necessarily a show for everyone, but is one you could take anybody to, however young or old. How refreshing to find a modern author whose rudest word is s**t and whose blasphemy is mild, if that is not a contradiction in terms. Anyone who enjoyed Mama Mia would enjoy Girls Behind and we sat though the whole evening with happy grins on our faces with only the occasional feeling of how sad... but true.

The Turn of the Screw - ENO

Turn of the Screw by Britten
Eno @ The Colliseum
26th November – 6th December
Directed by David McVicar
Conductor Gary Walker
Review by Mark Valencia

Britten is English National Opera’s lucky composer, with ne’er a flop in their recent history. The St Martin’s Lane house is able to summon up benchmark productions of Grimes, Budd, Lucretia and the Dream, all joined mere months ago by an inspired Death in Venice from Deborah Warner. And here comes Suffolk’s favourite son once again to lift the company’s flagging fortunes with another winner. David McVicar’s atmospheric and troubling staging of The Turn of the Screw started life at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersberg, so it arrives tried, tested and a safe bet. The powers that be at Fortress Coliseum must be relieved to see something this classy on their beleaguered stage.

In fact their earlier Screw was already pretty good, but McVicar’s wholly tangible vision of Bly inhabits a different world from Jonathan Miller’s screens and projections (last seen in 1993). A strong sense of period underpins Tanya McCallin’s semi-abstract setting, and a rocking horse – that potent symbol of Edwardian childhood – is prominent throughout. Only two misjudgements break the spell: some distractingly noisy sliding screens and, crucially, McVicar’s use of six supernumeraries who spend the evening pottering around Bly relocating the furniture, all clad in period costume and all indistinguishable on the dimly lit stage from Peter Quint and Miss Jessel. As a result, when the ghosts do appear they could just as easily have popped onstage to shift a piano or desk into position. We lose all sense of surprise or menace, and the problem is compounded by the fact that the four (living) principal characters really ought to exist in a huis clos of desolation borne of isolation. How else to explain the Governess’s fear of living far removed from her 'own kind'?

The cast is mostly terrific. Timothy Robinson brings a mood of incantation to the Prologue, while his Quint is appallingly seductive. Cheryl Barker ensures that the underwritten role of Miss Jessel makes a strong impression; Ann Murray’s housekeeper has an unaccustomed but wholly appropriate sternness, and Rebecca Evans interprets the Governess as a damaged soul to match her charges, in particular the superbly sung and acted Miles of George Longworth (a role he shares with Jacob Moriarty). Only Nazan Fikret disappoints, in a role she has now outgrown. I was more impressed when I saw her as Flora in Luc Bondy’s production a few years ago, but of course she was a real child then. Now approaching twenty, she should be given time to nurture her vocal development in private; as it is, she alone had me reaching for the surtitles.

Garry Walker makes his ENO début at the head of a variable instrumental ensemble (great strings but some sour double reeds) and chooses audacious tempi that rightly emphasise the unfulfilled voluptuousness of Britten’s score. Has there ever been a more expansive reading of the Governess’s letter scene? It was a glorious piece of romanticisation that Tchaikovsky himself would have envied, and all of a piece with McVicar’s staging. This fine production deserves to come back and haunt us for years to come.

42nd Street - on tour

42nd Street

On Tour

Directed by Mark Bramble

Choreographey by Graeme Henderson

Review by Adam Sheldon

This show demonstrates that if you can deliver to a high enough standard, there is no harm in the old adage: “Give the public what it wants”. From a musical, audience have traditionally hoped for a mix of romance, comedy, sentimental numbers and show-stoppers. What they get here is something simpler.

Adapted from the 1933 film of the same name, “42nd Street” nominally tells the story of Peggy Sawyer, an understudy who hits it big when the leading lady breaks her leg – but story and characterisation are very secondary concerns. What in fact it offers, in the main successfully, is an almost non-stop series of familiar Hollywood hits, presented with gusto and conviction by a large and very well-drilled cast. “I Only Have Eyes for You”, “Dames”, “We’re in the Money” and, naturally, the title number: they’re all there, and mostly shining out in commendably lush orchestrations (the nine-strong pit band works very hard).

The general standard of singing is no better than acceptable, marred by some wayward amplification on the opening night; but the be-all and end-all of this show will always be the dancing, and here, choreographer Graeme Henderson, who also fills the role in the fictional show, has excelled in keeping his team focused. The basic moves are standard – or look so now, when Busby Berkeley’s work is well absorbed into our collective memory – yet they are executed with precision, commitment and only a little of the glazed grimacing so typical of massed-ranks chorus lines. Lullaby of Broadway, in a neatly-set railway station concourse, is a real highlight at the top of Act Two. Strangely, among the weaker and less sharp of the dancers is Jessica Punch, playing Peggy; rather like the original diva in the show-within-the-show, though, she is surrounded by sufficiently good chorines for the overall effect to seem very smooth. In the big tap numbers, particularly the finale, with a satisfying walk-down on a glittering staircase, it seems that – literally – nobody puts a foot wrong. The synchronisation of the beat is virtually flawless, which is a real achievement.

So what is less good about an evening which clearly won over a determinedly uncritical audience right from the first, slightly underwhelming ensemble number (an utterly bland toes and teeth effort called Audition, which could hardly have been further from even the cynical emotionalism of “A Chorus Line”)? The first half is overcrowded, and needs to lose two numbers. The book is scarcely more sophisticated than a pantomime, and makes comparably low demands on the dramatic abilities of the cast: there is no emotional truth whatever in the various very fleeting attachments between characters (“a dame/ is just a temporary flame”, as one of the songs has it), the juveniles are all interchangeable, and Bruce Montague will be hoping none of his legit theatre colleagues catches him gargling vowels in the most creative Mid-West accent to be heard on the British stage. The few extended stretches of dialogue are marked through efficiently, with a metronomic regularity, and no great feeling: we are left in no doubt they are merely filler before the next outburst from the band. When, for example, the choreographer announces that Peggy is the best hoofer in the show (not true), there is no whisper of a reaction from the girls she has displaced.

Elsewhere, the sets are variable. Some of the backdrops, although charmingly of the period, look cheaply painted, and the stage occasionally looks yawningly bare: as when the cast of “Pretty Lady” repair to a fashionable nightclub - with no tables. When the show returns to New York after shifting to Philadelphia (a structural flaw in the original) the designer has already shot his bolt, and Broadway is indicated by three ill-assorted electric bulb signs, including, oddly, “Katherine Hepburn”. The lighting does its job unshowily: the one attempt at flamboyance, a shoehorned-in version of The Shadow Waltz featuring dancing silhouettes against a bare, off-white curtain, is a mistake.

Minor cavils aside, by the end of the 150 minute running time, it is hard to argue with the enthusiastic verdict of a virtually full house. While the show is now a creamy and homogenised entertainment, without any of the underlying sourness of the original (losing thirty dollars a week was no laughing matter then), it does what it says on the packaging. It is designed to provide value for the increasingly high seat prices charged on number one tours, and the energy and exuberance of the cast at this stage of the tour (the opening night) are undeniably impressive. How things will look after several months of three matinees a week is, of course, another matter.

Aida - ENO at the Colesium

Aida by Verdi
ENO at the Coliseum: 9 November – 7 December
Director: Jo Davies
Conductor: Edward Gardner
Reviewed By Crystal Alonsi

Jo Davis is to be congratulated on directing a vibrant, eye catching, imaginative production of this Aida, however I do not think that this performance attains greatness. The majesty, pomp, brutality and agonised sorrow that lie at the heart of this piece was strangely lacking.

Zandra Rhodes’s costumes were magnificent, individualized even in crowd scenes: from lapis lazuli, through the full range of turquoise from blue to green, peacock hues, contrasted with orange, terracotta, tangerine shot through with gold. Amongst these Aida’s (ClaireRutter) was strangely muted. When the lighting on her was subdued she had the disconcerting tendency of virtually disappearing, whilst still on stage, with only the odd glint or so of gold giving a clue as to her whereabouts. The peasant outfits in the very effective muted tones contrasted well with the main characters. There were several good performances amongst the crowd on a very cramped stage. Some Egyptian guards did look rather lumpish and out of their depth. I would not be surprised to hear that they were on work experience having ticked “Security work” on their placement forms.

The ‘elephant’ for the triumphal procession was formed by some of the cast with cleverly controlled head, trunk and tusks, unfortunately the ears were so huge and flappy that they obscured the conquering hero. In my part of the opera house a faint giggle rippled through the audience and Dumbo’s name was softly murmured. This was rather a bathetic arrival for Radames and surely unintentional. The parade included some energetic and accomplished dancers and acrobats who twirled, whirled and stamped with enthusiasm and skill. Aida’s captured people looked a suitable contrast to the polished and highly organized Egyptians.

Act 3 opens to reveal cartoon like trees and sketchy pyramids and a pair of Egyptian eyes on the backcloth which seemed at odds with the imposing staircase with its dramatic lighting on the left hand side of the stage. This dichotomy demonstrated the uneasiness that was present all the way through the performance: was ‘Aida’ being treated as a pantomime with spectacle and roughly sketched comic book characters or as tragedy with complicated people faced with agonizing choices and dilemmas, including unrequited love, consuming jealousy, war and massacre, slavery and hearts torn by divided loyalties? When Amonasro (Ian Paterson) suddenly emerges from behind a tree the drama did descend to a farcical level. Far from having the bearing and demeanor of a king, albeit a defeated one, he looked like the understudy in a low budget production of Robinson Crusoe.

Aida’s acting ability was somewhat limited however her singing ameliorated this. Radames also possessed a voice far richer and varied than his physical performance. The scenes with both Aida and Radames were stilted and awkward, there seemed to be no chemistry between them let alone a consuming passion worth dying for. Pharaoh (Gwynne Howell) owellHowgave a relaxed performance, his honeyed tones sounding very assured. Amneris (Jane Dutton) struggled in what is a rather a Bette Davis part although aided by some gorgeous costumes she was clearly hampered by her ugly and unwieldy headgear. Ramfis (Brindley Sherratt) had the best voice of all; caramel tones resonant and confident.

The orchestra gave a great performance under the superb conducting of Edward Gardner. They gave a masterful and coherent rendering of the score supporting the singers and creating much of the drama. The fanfare during the triumphal parade with its familiar and well-loved tune was executed crisply and dramatically and heightened the experience of the spectacle.

The final scene included the device of an open cage, rather suggestive of a dumb waiter slowly wafting Radames from on high down to the stage. This was hardly a dramatic flinging of an enemy of the state to their final doom. While he was singing of death and despair this strange contraption gently wobbled upwards and finally disappeared. It was a curious and unhelpful device at this point in the performance, totally out of keeping with the final awfulness of death and separation that the music conveyed. It undermined the already curiously unconvincing duet between the two main characters culminating in the unnoteworthy death of Aida.

So should you go or not? If you can get a ticket, and they are nearly all sold, you will certainly enjoy yourself. Will you experience a great and influential performance? Not really, but you will have a good evening out enhanced by many interesting effects and several satisfying performances.

Photos by Tristram Kenton top: Jane Rutter (Aida) & Iain Patterson (Amonasio) Bottom: Aida & Radames (John Hudson)

Salsa Saved The Girls - Old Red Lion

Salsa Saved The Girls by Rose Martula
Old Red Lion Theatre: 23rd October – 17th November
Directed by Rachel Parish.
Reviewed by Francesca Elliott

Salsa Saved the Girls by Rose Martula would be more aptly named ‘What not to wear and how not to parent' Cali and her two daughters live in a gaudy, screamingly 80s Long Island apartment filled with neon flamingos, leopard print and vodka.

The play begins with Kai and Sabrina waiting for their father (who they hate), while their mother (who also hates him) is waiting for a date. Sabrina is a sullen 17yr old Goth and Kai is a precocious child dying to be noticed. Dressed in a tutu and ballet shoes she spends the whole play pirouetting round the room, with hardly a glance from anyone thrown her way. Sally Ann Ramage who plays her does an extremely convincing ten year old, wide eyed, stroppy and excitable. It comes as a bit of a surprise therefore when we find out that she’s actually meant to be fourteen. This must be one of the most naïve New York 14yr olds in history, and the fact that she is playing her character so young, makes it all the more uncomfortable when we see her swearing like a trooper, downing shots and passing her spliff to her mother.

When the father, the date and her lovesick therapist all turn up, Cali is trapped in the flat with three of her lovers, none of whom are too happy to see the other. The script is mostly made up of people swearing and screaming at each other which becomes a bit tiresome and it’s difficult to see why a roomful of people who clearly hate each other don’t just politely take their leave. Cali is clearly not going to win any mother of the year award as she hands out drugs and booze to her daughters, but it’s her arrogant ex who comes off worst, revealed as a materialistic, greedy and neglectful father.

As the night goes on and the vodka flows more freely, each characters issues and insecurities are exposed. The play is very energetic and has some good one-liners. The intimate space of the Old Red Lion Theatre makes a perfect setting for the claustrophobic flat, and the cast all give good performances. However I have to warn you that the abundance of skin-tight purple Lycra is enough to make your eyes water, and don’t even get me started on the make-up!

Appologies

Dear Reader

We here at the public reviews would like to appologise for the lack of reviews over the last few weeks, this is due to a technical error, which has hopefully been fixed.

Thank you for your support over the last few months

The Editor

No Place Like Home - New Wimbledon

There’s No Place Like A Home by Paul Elliott
New Wimbledon Theatre
Director: Chris Colby
Reviewed by Tom Ryan

There is a moment in the first act of There's No Place Like A Home - the writing debut producing veteran Paul Elliott - where one of the group of ageing actors voices a desire for one last great show for them all. With a cast full of familiar faces, the team behind this production had clearly hoped for the same, but sadly they, and the audience, are likely to be left disappointed.

Set in the Stollberg Hall Retirement Home for Theatrical Performers, the play focuses on the reaction of the residents and staff to the news that closure is imminent. Lacking any money of their own, they look beyond the law and in no time at all a plan is hatched that, without giving too much away sets the scene for “a geriactric version of Ocean’s 11”, as one character puts it.

There is a definite old-fashioned sitcom feel about the piece, perhaps unsurprisingly given the likes of presence of former ‘Allo ‘Allo stars Gordon Kaye and Sue Hodge on stage, together with onetime Coronation Street light relief Ken Morley and children’s TV favourite Brian Cant. However, thoughts that they could match their former glories are quickly dashed by some faltering performances and a weak script that prizes jokes over plot – which wouldn’t be such a problem if they were funnier, or there were less of them. There are a few nice moments here and there, with some strong performances, in particular from Christopher Beeny and Jan Hunt, with a typically energetic showing from Hunt’s former Crackerjack co-star Don Maclean, but its not quite enough to power the play through.

Elliott is clearly very fond of his characters and the world they inhabit, and with a long history of producing plays in the West End and across the country has given a lot of pleasure to audiences but his first writing effort didn’t match my expectations. I hope though that any follow ups hit the mark better, and that his illustrious cast members do get that one last great show.

Floating - WYP

Floating by Hugh Hughes and Sioned Rowlands
West Yorkshire Playhouse 31t October – 3^rd November.
Reviewed by Gregory Hale and Lucy Cosens.

Floating is the fruit born out of the collaboration of Hugh Hughes and HoiPolloi, it was an Edinburgh Fringe smash hit and award winner (2006). The story follows the epic journey of the Isle of Anglesey when is breaks away from Wales and floats around the Atlantic, Arctic and back home again, encountering storms, whales, Icebergs, the stubborn Isle of Man and Wales. The story is concerned with, and told through, the memories of Hugh Hughes and his attempts to leave his homeland, to make that first step into the unknown.

Because Floating was conceived from the Fringe it brings with it a refreshing, unconventional style and charm, allowing the actors to make a connection with their audience. This also meant it lacked the rigid (thus limiting) conservative theatre structure; it was a very fluid performance that could adapt to its environment. An example of this is when an audience member came in late, Hugh jumped on this opportunity to make a connection, he stopped the show and persisted in a very polite manner (and for 10 minuets) to question, embarrass, harass and humiliate the audience member with a glitter in his eye, all adding to his humble persona. After clearly removing and defying conventional theatrical rules the audience felt comfortable enough to participate in the performance, consequently the show didn’t get started until we were 25 minutes in. Removing such barriers left Hugh vulnerable and tested his ability to keep control, at points he almost allowed this to go too far, some audience members started to get agitated, he was on thin ice though he never actually lost his grip. Ultimately this gave the performance a refreshing and unpredictable edge.

The set itself was a jumble, filled with panoply of costumes, props, screens and projectors. The space was utilised in a very effective manner, having the ability to reflect the intimate moments of isolation and lonesome angst, and then next showing the bridge collapse and the island floating off on its epic journey. The set as a whole is also reminiscent, playing to this idea that this is the jumbled up mind and (most importantly) imagination of Hugh. The several projection screens also helped create the conflated, distorted and intimate view of the memory and the lies the imagination makes the memory believe.

The writing, like the set, is very intimate and reveals the indecisive hardship that lies in us all, the struggle to make that first step into the unknown and the pressure and struggle to leave behind all that you know and leave behind the place that made you yourself. At times the writing wasn’t as dramatically tight as it could have been, nor was it really thrilling or intriguing, yet somehow that just did not matter. The ambience permeated the entire space, one could not help but feel elated about the piece as a whole, and the reason for this lies with the connection Hugh and Sioned made to their audience, without their enlightening skills and charms this piece would have been mediocre at best. The energy and charisma of these actors is easily reason enough to see this honest piece of theatre, come with an open heart and mind and you won’t leave disappointed.