Cameron Mackintosh has had a long association with the wonderful
Lionel Bart musical Oliver! which goes back to seeing the first production in
1960, being an ASM on the first British Tour, to remounting the show in 1994
with choreographer Matthew Bourne and representing the show across the world. We saw the 2009 revival at the Theatre Royal
Drury Lane with Rowan Atkinson and have staged an amateur production, so it is
show which like Cameron we know and love dearly. Yet the new staging at the Chichester
Festival Theatre surpasses all our expectations and makes a glorious virtue of
the venues huge thrust stage.
Lez Brotherton’s magical fluid setting with glorious
projections provides a brilliant platform for Matthew Bourne’s beautiful movement
and choreography which flows around the multiple levels of the setting. We move
seamlessly from the grim surroundings of the workhouse and Sowerberry’s funeral
parlour, to the teeming streets of London with their signage and street sellers
to the colourful crookedness of Fagin’s den with its traps to the simple
elegance of the house of Mr Brownlow and streets nearby. The bridges and
walkways are brilliantly used to create London Bridge and the rooftops of
London. It is perhaps the best theatrical setting of the century so far and yet
it somehow connects us back to the original production.
On this magnificent stage, brilliantly lit by Paule
Constable’s exquisite lighting palate the cast of 37 get to shine with the
wonderfully written Dicken’s characters and glorious Bart score. From the
opening Food Glorious Food, we are transported to the Dickensian world
of class, poverty, and violence in which hope and love somehow flourish. Song after
song enthrals us, develops the characters and story with a chilling contrast
for the grim Boy for Sale and My Name
, to the delightfully romantic It’s a fine life, Where is love? and Who will
buy? to the uplifting and heart-warming Consider yourself, I’d do anything
and Oompah-pah. It is simply one of the best British scores ever written.
In this production there are many stars who perfectly deliver
on the opportunity created by Bart’s writing. Oscar Conlon-Morrey is perfect as
Mr Bumble bringing out the comic side to his character while still creating the
fearsome self-satisfied workhouse beadle who uncaringly sells Oliver. Stephen Matthews
and Jamie Birkett create the wonderfully creepy funeral directors Mr and Mrs
Sowerberry. Philip Franks provides the contrast with the caring and sympathetic
Mr Brownlow. While at the centre of the story we saw Cian Eagle-Service charmingly
sing the songs of Oliver with clarity and vulnerability.
Yet the show is dominated by the performances of Simon
Lipkin as the notorious Fagin and Shanay Holmes as Nancy who virtually stop the
show with applause at every song. Lipkin creates the stereotypical miserly character
we all know and expect but adds his own theatrical magic to the performance. He
breaks the fourth wall to the delight of the audience and adds small magical flourishes
to enhance his delivery of
You’ve got to pick a pocket or two and
Reviewing
the situation. He creates a caring rogue who we genuinely feel for when he has
to start his life again with Billy Jenkins’s Artful Dodger at the end. Holmes
as Nancy is a revelation delivering each of her songs with gusto and passion and
a powerful soaring voice that fills the auditorium.
As long as he needs me
is extraordinary, plaintiff and loving with
a terrible sense of the inevitable end from Aaron Sidwell’s violent but subdued
Bill Sykes. She elevates the character to the core of the story, a caring
loving woman caught up in a deprived and violent landscape she can’t escape
from. The production does not shy away from the violence towards her or the
lack of protection for her from those around her but at the final curtain her
smile and laughter showed just how much she enjoyed playing the role.
This is a fresh well-crafted production of a classic musical
title in which the music soars, the young cast delight and the audiences is
uplifted and moved . It is a celebration of Bart and his contribution to musical
theatre and will be certain to have a successful
West End run once again.
Nick Wayne
Four stars
The background and context of this play based on the book by
Jamila Gavin is a powerful picture of Georgian society, philanthropy and
charity around the Coram Foundlings hospital in London and the divide between the
haves and the have nots of the period. At 368 pages it is not an overly long
book aimed at young adults but in its adaption by Helen Edmundson, first staged
at the National Theatre in 2005 and now revived at Chichester Festival Theatre,
it becomes a curiously unbalanced piece.
Act 1 is set around the Gloucestershire ancestral home in
1742 of the Ashbrook family and focuses not on the Hospital but on an unpleasant
character known as the Coram man who disposes, rather graphically, of unwanted babies
while blackmailing and extracting payment from the unfortunate families desperate
to save their reputations or their babies. The focus is on the domineering male
characters who ran society and the cheating low life who sought to profit from
their family’s misadventures. It is a
dark gothic and massively drawn out sprinkled with choral extracts by the young
choir. It hard to feel any sympathy for
any of the adult characters and with the young boys charmingly but unconvincingly
played by actresses you feel curiously detached from the horrors on stage.
Sir William Ashbrook (Harry Gostelow) is the unfeeling
domineering father of many and Claymore (James Staddon) the uncompromising and
duplicitous local magistrate. Opposite them are Otis Gardiner, the Coram Man, (Samuel
Oatley) and his simpleton son Meshak (Aled Gomer). The young heir to the Estate
Alexander (Louisa Binder) and his friend Thomas (Rebecca Hayes) are gifted musicians
( though they appear to mime playing the instruments on stage) and don’t fit Ashbook’s plans. Thomas is sent away, and Alexander
absconds. We do feel some sympathy for their circumstances, but it is not
enough to sustain our interest in the long drawn out episodic first act.
The second Act is much tighter focusing on eight year later
and two foundlings Aaron (played also by Louisa Binder) and Toby (Jewelle Hutchinson)
and on Alexander (now played by Will Antenbring) ) and Thomas ( now played by
Tom Hier) who have visibly grown up while no one else has aged in the passing years.
The tale has moved on from infanticide to female slavery but does introduce
more light and shade as we start to feel the redemptive power of love and music
on the Ashbrook family and the morality tale becomes clearer as the complex strands
of plot start to weave together into one (unlikely) conclusion.
It is sumptuously staged and costumed with a good sense of
the period (although everyone is pristinely dressed) and there is plenty of
high brow choral music and the appearance of Handel himself with a comical Germanic
accent (James Staddon) if you like that sort of thing. It is something of an
acquired taste and as a character says the music is “not very catchy”. Anna Ledwich,
the director, was clearly in awe of the piece and perhaps its underlying
message expressed by Mrs Lynch ( Jo McInnes) that “wealth is built on the suffering
of others” but needed to be ruthless and cut a third to half of the first act to
tighten up the narrative and pacing. There are several long speeches of
exposition for those who have not read the publicity or programme that seem artificial.
The multiplicity of locations with fantasy sequences, an underwater scene, characters
loitering in the shadows and formal dances creates a confusing picture which would
have benefited from simplification.
It promised a fascinating glimpse in Georgian Britain
between 1742 to 1750 and an uplifting tale of redemption and second chances but
instead it delivered an overlong melodramatic dark morality play that despite the
best efforts of the cast never connected with the audience but left you with a
sense that there was an interesting story at its heart that was trying to
escape the adaptation and production.
Nick Wayne
Three stars
The Other Boleyn Girl ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Henry VIII is perhaps one of the most fascinating historical British monarchs with a sharp contrast between the young athletic action hero and the later obese tyrant suffering from syphilis and ulcers. The change in his persona seems to be in the 1530’s when he divorced his first wife Catherine, married Anne Boleyn and suffered a severe jousting accident. The brilliant play A man for all seasons dealt with the role of Sir Thomas More in this period and the recent musical Six portrayed the period from the viewpoint of Henry’s wives. The Other Boleyn Girl explores the period from the viewpoint of the Boleyn family, Lady Elizabeth Boleyn (sister to Thomas Howard) and her children George, Mary and Anne based on Philippa Gregory’s fictional book on the characters. It gives a very different perspective on the period with the King himself a minor character despite his relationships being central to the narrative.
The Chichester Festival production adapted from the book by Mike Poulton takes its time to explore the political and sexual politics of Henry’s court as the Boleyn’s manoeuvre to increase their status and power in the country. It is clear to us all that it is dangerous game they are playing, the outcome of which we already know, but the fresh angle and story enhancements keep us interested and intrigued. It is the women who are centre stage, but Cardinal Wolsey is a watching power player in Act 1 and Thomas Cromwell replaces him in Act 2 at desks set upstage (both played by Roger Ringrose) while other courtiers hover in the shadows of the bridge behind them. It is a clever devise to portray the challenging court which the Boleyn’s sought to take control of and the period dances display subtly the manoeuvring amongst courtiers.
Katherine of Aragon (Kemi-Bo Jacobs) appears to be the only character who can ride above the double crossing, fully aware of what is happening but maintaining her dignity and loyalty. We are all familiar with the Court of King Henry VIII, his wives, and his most senior advisers but this play seeks to reveal a different political undercurrent guided by the ambition of the Boleyn/Norfolk families. Much of it appears to conjecture, or authors dramatic licence with a modern perspective on the historical events. Deformed foetuses, gay relationships , consummated relationships, and physical and verbal abuse of Henry by Anne create interesting theatrical moments but never convince that they actually might have happened.
The staging adds to the interest with a black and white face of a Boleyn on the circus ring stage and multiple hanging struts that might symbolise the jousting lances that were to dramatically injure Henry, four poster bedposts where Anne miscarries or simply swords of Damocles hanging over the family. We are constantly switched through simple changes in lighting state from the intimacy of family plotting to the grandeur of the Courtiers manoeuvring.
This is a fascinating production, full of intrigue and speculation that holds the attention of the audience through its near three-hour running time with many fine performances and some well used period music. Worth a look.
Nick Wayne
Four stars
The Sound of Music⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The
1959 hit musical Sound of Music has one of the best scores ever written with
wonderful Richard Rodgers tunes that tug at the heart strings, delightful
moment of gentle humour from Oscar Hammerstein II and an authentic grim context
that still resonates today with the daily news of invasions. It would be very
hard to fail in mounting a revival of this glorious musical but equally
difficult to escape the memory of Julie Andrews performance in the 1965 film.
Chichester Festival’s wonderful revival directed by Adam Penford certainly
manages to not only do the stage show full justice but also beautifully
differentiate itself from the memorable film version and magically make the
most of the theatre’s tricky thrust stage.
The
design by Robert Jones focuses us on the monastic lifestyle that oppresses
Maria free spirit but also creates a sense of entrapment by the mountains
around the Von Trapp home as the Nazi sympathisers and invaders start to circle
with the huge grey streaked cyclorama cliff face and walls framing all the
action. The design cleverly and slickly allows more intimate settings to be
created in the Abbesses office and grounds of the nunnery and the Von Trapp’s
Hall, bedroom and veranda as well as evocatively creating the Salzburg Festival
stage with the powerful presence of the occupying forces. It does mean we don’t
see the wonderful mountain scenery so memorably showcased in the film for “The
Sound of music” or the final uplifting escape over the mountains to the reprise
of “Climb every mountain” and the staging with Maria laying on the floor of a
rising trap in the first and climbing through the auditorium for the latter are
compromises that don’t quite have the same joyous sense of freedom as in the
original.
This
is a musical that revolves around the
female characters and Chichester has a very fine cast who each grab the chance
to delight us in the delivery of their songs. The opening sequence in the
nunnery with “Maria” and “My Favourite things” is a wonderfully evocative and
joyous celebration led by an outstanding Mother Abbess, Janice Kelly , a very
good set of supporting nuns including Wendy Ferguson, Julia Nagle and Laura
Chia and a brilliant Gina Beck returning to the Chichester stage as the
charmingly innocent Maria. They together delightfully create a strong sense of
both their strict chosen lifestyle but also the caring human and humour side
beneath the wimples. As always, the closing Act 1, “Climb every mountain” provides
an emotionally charged highlight with Kelly’s rich operatic tones filling the
auditorium.
The
choreography by Lizzie Gee is wonderfully fresh and precise especially with the
Von Trapp children led by Liesl (Lauren Conroy). The routine with Rolf (Dylan
Mason) around the fountain in “Sixteen going on seventeen” is romantically
sweet filling the stage with the sense of young love that is so critical to the
final scenes in the Nunnery. The six other children are all perfectly cast
(although their ages don’t quite match their heights in the line up!) and bring
joyous delight to their songs “The Lonely goatherd”, “So long, Farewell” and
the powerful and emotional reprise of “The sound of music “ with the Captain
(Edward Harrison). The transitions of acceptance of Maria by the nuns, then the
children and finally the Captain are beautifully and authentically played as
each melt under her sparkling and engaging personality.
There
are strong supporting performances too from Penelope Woodman as Frau Schmidt,
William Ilkley and Franz, Emma Williams
as Elsa Schraeder and Ako Williams as Max Detweiler each adding their own
nuances and impact to the relationship between the Captain and Maria and
displaying the tensions created by love and the German invasion. Their
behaviour and responses feel real though the songs “How can love survive?” and
“No way to stop it” don’t quite resonate as strongly as the other tunes and
fade quickly from the memory. Though some may regard the musical as overly
sentimental, this is a musical that has always grabbed me musically and
emotionally as it builds to dramatic and powerful conclusion in each act. The
final songs “Edelweiss”, “So long, Farewell” and “Climb every mountain” from
the stage of the Festival, so full of patriotism, sadness and hope are as
strong a finish to a show as in any
musical over the following sixty years.
This
is a title that deserves to run and run and a production that is certainly good
enough to transfer to the West End if the rights allow. It shows that you don’t
need to always reinvent classic shows to still make them relevant and enjoyable
for a 21st century audience , when they are this good and cast well,
they still engage, delight and thrill their audiences.
Nick
Wayne
Four stars
Assassins ⭐️⭐️
The
Chichester Festival Theatre production of Stephen Sondheim’s 1990 musical is
apparently the first professional staging of the show since the composer’s
death and is mounted just as American candidates are announcing their intention
to run for President in 2024. Director Polly Findlay and designer Lizzie
Clachan draw on this, setting in their restaging at a 2023 National Convention
rally and in the White House Oval Office. The Trump like arrival of the
Proprietor (Peter Forbes) and the large screens of 24-hour news coverage from
CNN and Fox makes a very obvious parallel to the historical stories. However,
something is lost in the modern, large scale, I would say, overblown, approach
compared to the joyous intimacy of my previous two viewings of this title at
the 200 seat Watermill in Newbury and a 50-seat studio amateur version. The
intimacy of those settings and staging as intended as a 20th century showman’s
fairground attraction is completely lost on this grand scale and too often
lonely 1 or 2 figures centre stage fail to have the same impact on us.
The
fact that we know, either from history or the programme, each of the nine would
be presidential assassins and the outcome of their attempts and that they are
all unsympathetic characters with apparently fairly bizarre motivations for
their actions means there is little drama or engagement in the story, so we are
left plenty of time to reflect on the staging and listen to Sondheim’s unique
musical style. Judging by the half empty Chichester Theatre many of the
regulars have already prejudged the show and know that the style is something
of an acquired taste. I doubt many visitors to this show will change their
views of the music after a very long one hundred- and five-minute (without an
interval) version.
We
meet eight of would-be assassins in the opening number “Everybody has got the
right” as the Trump like proprietor invites each character to collect a weapon
and it seems a costume . Naturally enough we first meet John Wilkes Booth
(played with a magnificent moustache by Danny Mac) who killed Abe Lincoln at
the Ford Theatre in Washington in 1861 and at least appeared to have a vehement
reason for his action. Then the 1933 attempt on Roosevelt by Guiseppe Zangara
(Luke Brady) with its chilling electrocution scene and the 1901 assassination
of McKinley by Leon Czolgosz (Sam Oladeinde).
The
back stories of four would be assassins follows. The 1975 failed attempts on
Gerald Ford by Lynette Frome (Carly Mercedes Dyer) and Sarah Jane Moore (Amy
Booth-Steel), the demented Santa Claus Samuel Byck (Nick Holder) who threatened
Nixon in 1974 and the deluded John Hinckley (Jack Swallow) whose attempt on
Reagan in 1981 seemed designed to impress the actress, Jodie Foster. By the
time Charles Guiteau (Harry Hepple) is hung for the murder of Garfield in 1881
in a gruesome song and dance up the gallows step it is all starting to feel a
bit tedious.
The
arrival of the most famous assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald (Samuel Thomas) whose
infamous assassination of Kennedy in 1963 finally lifts the show as the eight
others urge him to perform the deed with the seemingly flimsy rationale of
creating a lasting legacy of fame for himself and themselves . The song
“November 22, 1963” is the best moment in the show although the “will he, won’t
he” moment is rather lost by our familiarity with the black and white footage
of the actual event that we have seen so often before.
It
is framed as a musical revue, but the comedic elements seems suppressed in this
staging and the formidable talents of Carly Mercedes Dyer and Lizzie Connelly
are rather wasted in their roles . The quotation from Death of a Salesman that
“attention must be paid “ as a justification for their actions is rather
overwhelmed by the over produced staging. This is a musical that would have
been better in the Minerva Theatre where we could “pay attention” to the
madness in their eyes and the music rather than the multimedia razzamatazz of
the modern setting.
As
we watch the 2023/24 US Presidential election process you feel the candidates
are more likely to die of old age or an unfortunate fall but perhaps given the
horrific gun culture of the USA , this staging may prove to be prescient of
something to come with a 14th assassination attempt. We will have to wait and
see but in the meantime this production is one for hard core Sondheim fans and
not for those new to his work . For those, I recommend they start with Into the
Woods or Sweeney Todd where there is real drama, witty storytelling and
much better tunes and leave this one for the hardcore fans.
Nick
Wayne
Two stars
4000 Miles ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
In
sharp contrast to Noel Coward’s classic The Vortex in the main house at
Chichester, Amy Herzog’s 2011 play at the Minerva Studio opposite is a touching
and engaging tale of love, grief and growing old which is beautifully played by
the small cast on a glorious setting of ninety-one-year-old Vera’s Manhattan
flat led by the delightful Eileen Atkins.
When
nineteen-year-old Leo (Sebastian Croft) arrives at his grandmother’s flat
unexpectedly in the middle of the night after cycling across America from the
west coast to the east, a curious revealing relationship develops. We learn
that Vera’s husband died ten years prior and that they were both passionate
communists and she has lived alone since staying in contact with her neighbour,
Jenny by phone. He is a wayward son who during his epic cycle ride has
witnessed the death of his friend Mica in a car accident and responded by
continuing the journey alone without contact with his family. She is feeling
her age with occasional memory loss, and often “can’t find the words” and a
frail frame as she moves unsteadily and quietly around the flat. He is awkward
and isolated from friends and family with no money and no clear future. Yet as
he stays over the weeks, a strong bond develops between them as we see in episodic
scenes their companionship develops and he grows up visibly under her
influence.
There
are plenty of funny lines all delivered by Atkins with consummate comic timing
and a wonderful scene where the two relax and reminisce about sex while under
the influence of drugs which is beautifully played and slowly revealed. There
is good support too from Nell Barlow as Leo’s previous girlfriend, Bec and a
young lady he picks up for the night, Amanda (Elizabeth Cru) who Vera quietly
walks in on as they roll around the stage. We can sense both Vera and Leo’s
grief and loss and enjoy the contrast between her aged infirmity and his
thrusting youth. It resonates with any grandparent or parent dealing with their
teenage offspring as they grow up together.
Richard Eyre deft touch as Director ensures we warm to them, understand
their feelings, and engage with their relationship.
The
show’s sumptuous set designed by Peter Macintosh, is gloriously detailed with
glimpses of the entrance hall and kitchen and a spectacular library wall and
while it feels appropriate for a Manhattan apartment it does feel a little
incongruous with her left-wing communist background. The stage crew quietly
adjust the props and pillows to set each scene as their time together passes.
There is some delightful atmospheric lighting by Peter Mumford of light
streaming through an unseen window blind.
This
is a charming play, beautifully played, wonderfully set, a comic delight that
it is touching and engaging and a thoroughly entertaining well-paced
ninety-minute play that deserves a wide audience than the sold-out intimate
Minerva studio. It runs to the 10th June.
Nick
Wayne
Four stars
The
Vortex ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Noel
Coward wrote, directed, and starred in his 1924 production of The Vortex which
was seen at the time as scandalous with its depiction of sexual vanity, implied
homosexuality and cocaine abuse but was a commercial success. Written in three
acts it, like so many of Coward’s plays is full of acerbic witty lines and
reflects the social elite and theatrical types that he mixed with at the time,
It feels in the 21st century a classic time piece of an era and a
social group that although they probably exist today is far less familiar to
the Theatre going public. The challenge for Director Daniel Raggett is how to
bring it to life on the thrust stage of the Chichester Theatre in a way that
engages a modern audience. His solution
is to crush the action into a ninety-minute dash to the end spiralling down a
metaphorical vortex as the luscious period furniture of the opening act is
stripped away on a spinning revolve to leave us focused on the central mother
and son.
This
is a production that reminds us again of Coward’s wit and bitchy one liners,
some delightfully delivered by Richard Cant as Pauncefort, but it no longer
shocks and feels dated and old fashioned and in this frantic execution some
lines get lost in the rush. It is Lia Williams who carries the show with a
wonderful contrast between the vibrant energy of her opening scene and the
emotional desperation of the final scenes showing once again what a very fine
actress she is.
Nick
Wayne
Three stars
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