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Posts Tagged ‘Duke of York’s Theatre’

Shirley Valentine

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , on March 1, 2023| Leave a Comment »

It seems to me surprising that Willy Russel’s iconic play about a mid-life crisis, or empty nesting as we might call it today, has only had one West End revival since it’s first production here in 1988 with Pauline Collins. Thirteen years ago it was the turn of Meera Syal, now it’s a triumphant return to the stage for Sheridan Smith, and it proves to be timeless.

Shirley’s in a loveless marriage with Joe, her two children have left home and we find her talking to the wall and sipping wine whilst cooking Joe’s dinner. She reminisces about the fun she’s had, that she no longer does, and the rut she finds herself in at 42. She’s frustrated and unfulfilled. Her best friend Jane wants her to join her on a holiday in Greece, but she knows she can’t, until she reaches breaking point and decides to go without telling Joe.

Before they’ve even arrived, Jane deserts her; she met a man on the plane. Shirley makes the most of her opportunity, then the tables turn when she meets Costas. She’s not deluded and realises she’s the latest in a line of conquests for Costas, but she doesn’t care as she too just wants some fun. When it’s time to return, though, she just can’t, and ends up in a different relationship with Costas, as an employee in his bar.

The occasional period joke falls flat (the Mersey poet Henry Adrian), but the dialogue still sparkles, funny but also poignant. Shirley sometime talks direct to the audience (as if we’re also the wall) which is just one aspect where Sheridan Smith comes into her own, with unparalleled audience engagement. This role is made for her, and she for the role, and she performs it with a relaxed realism that hits every note, to the point where she herself can’t help laughing. You could feel the identification of the women in the audience with the story, but even men today find it easy to empathise with her.

A 35-year-old play still resonating with a contemporary audience. I call that a classic. Great suff.

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The Glass Menagerie

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 1, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Tennesse Williams’ memory play is often revived (this is the 5th major London production I’ve seen in 27 years) though it’s far from his best. It was his first success though, aged 33, eight years into a playwriting career that spanned some 48 years. Within 3 years, he’d produced one of his classics, A Streetcar Named Desire, and went on to deliver a lot more, as one of 20th Century’s greatest playwrights. This one also attracts actresses to the role of Amanda; I’ve seen Zoe Wanamaker, Jessica Lange, Deborah Findlay, Cherry Jones and now Amy Adams.

The Wingfield’s have been down on their luck since Amanda’s husband abandoned her 16 years before, when her two children were very young. It’s down to Tom, the youngest, to bring in what money they have to live on from his warehouse job. Amanda takes him for granted, obsessed with marrying off daughter Laura, though they don’t get as many ‘gentlemen callers’ as she claims to have had in her day, until Tom brings home colleague Jim, who he’d also been at school with (as well as Laura, it later transpires). Things seem to be going well until Jim makes his excuses (which may or may not be true) and leaves. As it’s a memory play, it’s narrated, by an older Tom.

It struck me this time that it wasn’t that much more substantial than some of his many one-act shorts, but what it lacks in depth it makes up for in atmosphere. There an other-worldliness and a lightness to Jeremy Herrin’s production, which seemed a good fit with the play, and Amy Adams plays Amanda with a similar lightness of touch, more girly and less Southern belle. They find more humour that I recall. It all takes place on a platform with just a cabinet of ‘the glass menagerie’ and a table, but it’s surrounded by lights, musical instruments and props which aren’t part of the set as such, but seem important in creating the atmosphere and mood. I wasn’t keen on this at first, but it grew on me.

Lizzie Annis became indisposed at the interval but her understudy Brydie Service played Laura in the second half, including her pivotal scene alone with Jim, so well it was seamless. I really liked Tom Glynn-Carney’s characterisation of Tom – suffocated by his mother, frustrated, unfulfilled, desperate to escape. Autobiographical, I’d say. Paul Hilton presided over it like an expert magician, fully in control of how the memories were recalled. Victor Alli’s Jim charmed everyone, a very assured and confident performance. It was good to see Amy Adams make Amanda her own, a fresh take on a well-known character.

If it takes a film star to fill a theatre for a classic like this, so be it, but it is the whole ensemble, and the originality of the staging which makes it well worth catching this revival.

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Touching the Void

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 28, 2019| Leave a Comment »

I clearly remember the moment twelve years ago when I gasped as an army officer raised his gun to shoot a horse. A puppet horse. In the Olivier Theatre. Almost the entire audience gasped with me. In the second half of this play I winced as a man with a broken leg in a makeshift splint crawled across moraine high in the Peruvian Andes, all imaginary. Thats the magic of theatre.

This must be one of the most unlikely stories to make it onto a West End stage, but then again it’s put there by Tom Morris, one of the creators of War Horse, and adapted by one of our finest playwrights, David Greig. You can write about your survival after a near fatal climbing accident, and you can film where it happened and take testimony from those involved in a documentary, but how on earth do you stage it? The answer is imagination, of the survivor as we hear what’s in his head and his dreams, and in the staging where you take the audience on a journey where they suspend disbelief.

Designer Ti Green uses just tables, chairs, pub features and a hanging frame to create both worlds. Movement with lighting, music, and a soundscape add tension and atmosphere. Four hugely talented young actors – Josh Williams as survivor Joe Simpson, Angus Yellowlees as his fellow climber Simon & Fiona Hampton as Joe’s feisty sister Sarah who he talks to in his head, all three in very athletic performances, and Patrick McNamee lightening the tone as backpacker Richard looking after basecamp. Greig’s structure and Tom Morris’ creative staging enables the story to be told like a thriller, even though you know the outcome.

I wasn’t convinced I wanted to see this, it’s not really my genre, but the buzz changed my mind and proved to be true. Great to see the work of three regional theatres working together to create something so good and being rewarded with a West End transfer that broadens the options for theatre-goers. Definitely one to recommend.

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The Best Theatre of 2018

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 3, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Best New Play – The Lehman Trilogy*, The Inheritance* & Sweat*

I find it impossible to choose between these three extraordinary evenings (well, afternoon and evening in the case of the The Inheritance) but they were in very good company with a dozen other new plays in contention. Also at the NT, Home, I’m Darling* and Nine Night* were great, and also at the Young Vic The Convert* became a late addition in December. At the Bush, both Misty and An Adventure impressed (though I saw the former when it transferred to Trafalgar Studios).The remaining London contenders were The Humans at Hampstead Theatre, Pressure at the Park Theatre, Things I Know To Be True at the Lyric Hammersmith and The Wipers Times at the Arts, though these last two weren’t new to London, just me. The Edinburgh Fringe added two, Class* and Ulster American*, both Irish, both at the Traverse and both heading to London, so look out for them. The eight starred are either still running or coming back in 2019, so be sure to catch them if you haven’t seen them already.

Best New Musical – Hamilton*

It opened right at the end of 2017, but I didn’t see it until January 2018 (and again in December 2018). It certainly lives up to the hype and is unquestionably ground-breaking in the same way West Side Story was sixty years before. It was a good year for new musicals, though 40% of my shortlist were out-of-town, headed by Flowers For Mrs Harris at Chichester, with Pieces of String in Colchester, Miss Littlewood in Stratford and Sting’s The Last Ship mooring briefly in Northampton. Back in London, the Young Vic continued to shine with Fun Home and Twelfth Night and the NT imported Hadestown*. Tina* proved to be in the premiere league of juke-box musicals and SIX* was a breath of fresh air at the Arts. Only four are still running, or coming back.

Best Play Revival – The York Realist and Summer and Smoke*

Another category where I can’t split the top two. The former a gem at the Donmar and the latter shining just as brightly at the Almeida. I didn’t see the Old Vic’s glorious A Christmas Carol* until January, so that was a contender too, along with The Daughter-in-Law* at the Arcola and The Lieutenant of Inishmore in the West End. Then there were four cracking Shakespeare’s – The Bridge Theatre’s promenade Julius Caesar, the RSC’s Hamlet with Paapa Essiedu visiting Hackney Empire, Ian McKellen’s King Lear transfer from Chichester, and the NT’s Anthony & Cleopatra* with Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okenedo. Another four still running / coming back.

Best Musical Revival – Company*

The leanest category this year, with Marianne Elliott’s revival of Sondheim’s Company exceeding expectations; I shall be back at the last night. Chichester brought yet more joy with Me & My Girl and right at the end of the year, the Mill at Sonning came up trumps for the third year running with a great favourite of mine, Guys & Dolls* Finally, The Rink at Southwark Playhouse, the only contender this year from the usually more prolific fringe. Two to catch if you haven’t already.

Theatre of the Year – The Young Vic

Though five of my thirty-seven contenders were at the NT, The Young Vic shone even more brightly with four, all new works. Only four originated in the West End, which further emphasises how crucial the subsidised sector and the regions are. You can still see half of them, but some close soon, so get booking!

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King Lear

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 20, 2018| Leave a Comment »

I’ve seen some amazing actors play Lear, seven of them knights of the realm, but this is the first time I’ve seen the same actor play him twice, only ten years apart (though I’ve seen five more Lear’s since the last time, not counting the one from Belarus and the one with sheep!). With Ian McKellen in his eightieth year, he’s the oldest, and the closest to the character’s age. I regret not booking to see this in Chichester. My thinking was that I’d seen McKellen’s Lear. I suspect it would have been better (and cheaper!), but it’s still a must-see in the West End, and I now realise how flawed my thinking had been.

They’ve put a platform through the centre of the stalls, leading to an entrance / exit at the rear, losing a handful of rows and quite a few other seats in the process. They also use the side aisles as entrances / exits. I don’t know the impact of this in the upper tiers, but it made the stalls space more intimate. On stage there’s floor-to-ceiling wood panelling with doors and entrances within it. The floor covering changes with the location, starting as red carpet as the royal family enter for Lear’s announcement that he is to divide the country between his daughters. I thought Paul Wills design was excellent.

Though it’s something like my 14th Lear, there were things about this one that changed my response to the story. I still think there’s more than a touch of implausibility in him falling for the sycophancy of two daughters rather than the sincerity of the third, but here there’s an ageism in Goneril and Regan, in addition to to my normal feelings of spoilt children and inheritance ruins, and Regan in particular becomes completely self-obsessed and self-centred. The Duke of Kent has become the Countess of Kent, and this subtly changes, softens, the character. Edmund seems more machiavellian in contrast to an even more empathetic Edgar. Lear’s madness at first seems eccentricity, before it becomes tragic. I thought Jonathan Munby’s production was very fresh and intelligent.

From the original Chichester cast, Sinead Cusak and Danny Webb are both excellent as Kent and Gloucester respectively, and Kirsty Bushell is simply terrific as Regan. Michael Matus makes much more of the role of Oswald. There are some great performances from new cast members too, not least a superb Edgar from Luke Thompson and an outstanding Edmund in James Corrigan. Lloyd Hutchison is a particularly good Fool. I felt privileged to be seeing Ian McKellen in this role again, a gentler, sadder reading. At the curtain call, memories of more than twenty earlier performances by this fine actor swept over me as I rose to my feet in tribute.

The programme is way better than normal flimsy West End fare and in one of its four essay’s, historian David Starkey suggests that Shakespeare may have been having a dialogue with his patron, King James, even sending him messages about the consequences of dividing a kingdom. Four hundred years later, it’s sending messages still, and I suspect will continue to do so for a long time to come.

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Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , , on August 8, 2017| Leave a Comment »

When I saw, and loved, this National Theatre of Scotland show at the Traverse Theatre during the Edinburgh fringe two years ago, I would never have predicted I’d be seeing it in a West End theatre; it might be the most unlikely transfer ever. If anything, Lee Hall’s anarchic play with music is better second time around.

Our Ladies are the choir of a catholic school of the same name, from a back-of-beyond part of Scotland, who go to Edinburgh for a singing competition which turns into a bender of epic proportions, involving copious amounts of alcohol, underage sex and a riot of fun. The individual stories of the six girls are interwoven with the illicit hedonistic pleasures of the group.

It starts with some heavenly a cappella choral singing before they burst into the songs of ELO accompanied by an excellent three-piece band; ladies, obviously. These continue throughout, with choral pieces returning occasionally. It’s raucous, anarchic, rude and funny, yet the personal coming of age stories are often very moving and you get to empathise with and love these girls. The accents are sometimes impenetrable, which somehow adds to the authenticity. The six actresses, who appear to be the original cast, are all terrific, maturing in their roles.

It might be an unlikely West End hit, but it’s a breath of fresh air and I was so pleased I returned to see it again. A great curtain-raiser for my return to Edfringe on Friday.

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The Glass Menagerie

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on February 10, 2017| Leave a Comment »

This much lauded revival of Tennessee Williams’ autobiographical first hit has travelled from Harvard to Broadway & the Edinburgh Festival en route to the West End, with two of its original cast staying with it. The Director and Designer are our own John Tiffany and Bob Crowley. It’s my fourth production in just over twenty years and that may be why I’m less euphoric than most.

The Wingfield family have fallen on hard times since Mr Wingfield deserted them. They live in an apartment in St Louis. Mother Amanda is a southern belle, a former debutante, who forever reminisces about her past. Her children are both her whole life and a disappointment to her. Son Tom works in a warehouse and escapes regularly from the confines of his stifling home life to ‘the movies’. His sister Laura has a small disability, though she’s referred to as ‘a cripple’, and seems to be somewhat unstable. She dropped out of high school and college and now sits at home tending and playing with her collection of glass animals. Amanda is obsessed with marrying off Laura and is thrilled when Tom brings hime a ‘a gentleman caller’, his more successful colleague Jim. At first Laura is too shy and withdrawn to engage with them and join in the dinner, but Jim turns out to be an obsession from her past and things begin to go a lot better – until Jim drops a bombshell and upsets both Laura and Amanda and provokes Tom’s planned departure for pastures new.

Bob Crowley’s beautiful impressionistic set, gorgeously lit by Natasha Katz,  has a fire escape rising to the heavens with stairs down beneath the stage emphasising the location, though from the front stalls I didn’t fully appreciate his design coup until I walked to the front of the stage at the end. John Tiffany’s staging, with ‘movement’ from regular collaborator Steven Hoggett, has a light touch with the pivotal second half scene between Laura and Jim masterly, but I didn’t engage with it emotionally. Cherry Jones as Amanda and Brian J Smith as Jim are hugely impressive, perhaps because they are the two stayers. Though we only see him in the second half, I thought Smith lifted the production. Michael Esper, fresh from his star turn in Lazarus, didn’t quite do it for me and Kate O’Flynn’s Laura was sometimes too squeaky and overly fey.

It’s a better production than the misguided one at the Young Vic six or seven years ago and as good as the last West End outing directed by Rupert Goold’s and starring Jessica Lange a few years before that, but it doesn’t live up to Sam Mendes Donmar production (will anything ever?) just over twenty years ago and it looks like that’s my curse; it stops me joining in the euphoria, even though I much admired it. Still, I’m glad I caught it and would certainly recommend it.

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