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Posts Tagged ‘Guys & Dolls’

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on May 17, 2023| Leave a Comment »

A show from the composer & lyricist of the iconic Guys & Dolls that came some ten years later, and his only other show that appears to have survived, though it’s rarely revived. It’s 18 years since I saw it in Chichester and six since a London fringe outing at Wilton’s Music Hall.

It doesn’t live up to the earlier show (what does), but it has some great tunes, it’s huge fun and the premise – how nepotism, sycophancy and back-stabbing can propel your career – proves rather timeless! The show’s title is a self-help book (it probably exists and is still in print!) which window-cleaner J Pierrepont Finch uses as his guide to enter the business world, starting his meteoric rise in the mailroom of the World Wide Wicket Company. In quick succession he becomes Mailroom Manager, then Junior Executive in Plans & Systems before being promoted to that department’s head. Finally he gets what has hitherto been the corporation’s poison chalice of Advertising Manager. His nemesis is company president J B Biggley’s nephew Bert Frump, but he even turns this to his advantage. Along the way he falls in love with secretary Rosemary Pilkington.

There’s a comic book quality to the show and the production has a charming tongue-in-cheek style which is well matched to this. The Southwark Playhouse space seemed particularly small on this occasion, so Georgie Rankcom’s staging and Alexzandra Sarmiento’s choreography face their challenges, even with just ten performers, but win. It may be the most diverse cast you’ll see in any London theatre, in every sense of the word. The roles of Biggley and Finch, usually played by men are here played by women, with Gabrielle Friedman bringing a cheeky but determined quality to Finch. In a cast that’s strong in both dance and vocal departments, Allie Daniel and Danny Lane stand out as Rosemary and mailroom boss Twimble / company chairman Womper respectively. MD Natalie Pound’s small band do a grand job, with particularly good orchestrations bringing strings to the fore.

It’s a touch long at 2 hours 45 minutes (particularly as the theatre website suggests 30 minutes less) but it is an infectious ball of fun which carries you away, and with his masterpiece a mile down the road at The Bridge, a great opportunity to see what Loesser did next. Catch it while you can.

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The Pajama Game – Chichester

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 5, 2013| 2 Comments »

For a man who gave us one of the greatest musical productions ever (Guys & Dolls at the NT in 1982 and 1996), Richard Eyre hasn’t directed many musicals. I can only remember two more before this (Mary Poppins & Betty Blue Eyes) and both were great. The question you have to ask after a fourth gem is Why?

There haven’t been many ‘blue collar’ musicals either, so this one, about a labour dispute in the Sleep Tite pyjama factory, is unusual. It hasn’t had many productions (another Why?), the last in London at the indispensable Union Theatre five years ago. With a track record of four musical transfers in the last 2.5 years, I’ll be surprised if this terrific Chichester production doesn’t follow.

The factory is run by tyrant Hasler (an excellent Colin Stinton, who doubles up as the leading lady’s dad) who has employed new superintendent Sid, a go-getter from Chicago, the third in next to no time. His Time & Motion man Vernon (a superb Peter Polycarpou, back for his third Chichester musical in as many years) stalks the shop floor. Union president Prez and union rep Babe are pushing for a 7.5c rise and it looks like they’ll have to strike to get it. Then Babe falls for Sid and it all gets a lot more complicated.

From the opening number, Racing with the Clock, it goes from one showstopper to another. There are a couple of standards – Hey There (You With the Stars in Your Eyes) & Hernando’s Hideaway – but the whole score’s good. We move swiftly and slickly from factory to office to picnic to nightclub to Babe’s home with little time to catch your breath in-between. Designer Tim Hatley puts a two-story building at the back of the space, from which sewing and pressing work stations emerge for the shop floor, desks for the offices and a kitchen for the home. Stephen Mear’s choreography is bright and fresh and with Gareth Valentine in charge of the music it all sounds great.

For a musicals obsessive like me, it’s a bit of a shock to come across a leading man I’m not sure I’ve seen before and Hadley Fraser is simply terrific as Sid, with a particularly fine voice. Joanna Riding is a delight as icy, feisty Babe who melts in the hands of Sid. Alexis Owen-Hobbs is great as secretary Gladys, and Vernon’s unlikely love interest, who follows Hasler everywhere except when she struts her stuff in the Act II opener Steam Heat (with actual steam!) and there’s a delightful cameo from Claire Machin as Sid’s secretary Mabel.

An uplifting delight from start to finish, which benefits from the smaller space if the Minerva Theatre, and well worth the trip south.

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The Best of 2012 at the Theatre

Posted in Comedy, Olympic Games, Paralympic Games, Theatre, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 31, 2012| Leave a Comment »

My review of 2012 takes the form of nine awards. There are none for performances as I find it impossible to choose and invidious to select from so much amazing talent. Here goes:

THEATRICAL EVENT OF THE YEAR – The Olympic Games Opening Ceremony, showing the world Britain at its theatrical best, and Globe to Globe, inviting the world to perform its greatest playwright on his ‘home stage’ – both once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Honourable mention to the The Bomb at the Tricycle, the latest in their deeply rewarding reviews of history, world events and global issues.

MOST EXCITING EVENING OF THE YEAR (or possibly my life!) – You Me Bum Bum Train, the most extraordinary adrenalin rush as you perform in 13 scenes from conducting an orchestra to operating a digger, travelling between them through pipes, holes & chutes.

SOLO SHOW – Mark Thomas’ autobiographical Bravo Figaro, funny and moving in equal measure.

BEST OUTSIDE LONDON – National Theatre of Wales’ CoriolanUs in an aircraft hanger at RAF St. Athan; the other highlight of the World Shakespeare Festival, part of the Cultural Olympiad. Wonderful Town is worthy of mention as the touring musical that really should have come to the West End.

NEW PLAY – This House at the Cottesloe, a play about British politics from 1974 to 1979 that was more enlightening than living through it (by a man who is too young to have lived through it), yet entertaining and funny. Honorable mentions to Red Velvet at the Tricycle, In Basildon at the Royal Court and Last of the Haussmanns & The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime – both also at the National, which at last found its new writing form.

PLAY REVIVAL – Desire Under the Elms at the Lyric Hammersmith, a stunning revival of an OK play in a year of many gems, amongst which I would single out A Doll’s House at the Young Vic, She Stoops to Conquer at the NT, Philadelphia, Here I Come at the Donmar, Cornelius at the Finborough,Vieux Carre at the King’s Head, A Long Day’s Journey into Night in the West End and both of the radical Julius Caesar’s – the African one for the RSC and the all-female one at the Donmar.

NEW MUSICAL – A Winter’s Tale at the Landor. The easiest category to call in a very lean year, with Soho Cinders, Daddy Long Legs and Loserville the only other contenders – but that takes nothing away from the gem that Howard Goodall’s show was.

MUSICAL REVIVAL – Sweeney Todd, though this is the toughest category with no less than 10 other contenders – Patience, The Fix and Call Me Madam at the Union, Gay’s the Word & Merrie England at the Finborough, Guys & Dolls Upstairs at the Gatehouse, Curtains at the Landor, Boy Meets Boy at Jermyn Street, Merrily We Roll Along at the Menier, Opera North’s Carousel at the Barbican and another Chichester transfer, Singing in the Rain, in the West End.

TURKEY OF THE YEAR – The NT’s Damned for Despair, though this year there were also a trio of visiting turkeys, all at the Barbican – Big & Small, Nosferatu and Forests – and a pair of site specific turkeys – Babel & The Architects.

2012 will be hard to beat!

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Copacabana @ The Watermill

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , , , on August 10, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Well, I never thought I’d confess to going to a Barry Manilow show – such is the draw of the Watermill’s musicals, with acting musicians on their pocket-handkerchief stage. This is the fourth I’ve seen here (plus another four on transfer to London) and though its is far from the best, largely because it isn’t a particularly good show, its well worth a visit to Newbury.

It’s a simple tale centring on one of those ‘cabaret’ clubs in post-war New York, though it jumps to Havana – in a Guys & Dolls sort of way – much like the clubs themselves did. Lola gets her break then falls into the clutches of a baddie but gets rescued, obviously. Along the way, we get a multitude of styles from Chicagoesque sexy to farcical comedy taking in a fair dose of camp (well, it is directed by Craig Revel Horwood), lots of feathers and even a dance routine where showgirls meet S&M boys! It doesn’t take itself seriously though, so you’re laughing along rather than laughing at it.

This ensemble may be the most talented they’ve ever put together here. Just 12 of them play every part and every instrument, including drums, piano, trumpet, clarinet, sax, guitar and bass! There isn’t a weak link in the casting. It should be preposterous watching a couple of scantily clad and feathered showgirls dance and play saxophone, but it isn’t.

Designer Diego Pitarch works wonders to create a two-tier set including a proscenium, grand piano, entrance stairs and four palm trees in a space not much bigger than my bedroom, his costumes are terrific  and there are even plastic flashing palm trees in the garden! Sarah Travis orchestrations are masterly – sounding just like a club big band when it needs to sound like a club big band.

Craig Revel Horwood has successfully picked up John Doyle’s ‘house style’ and you’d have thought that after eight such shows you’d tire of it, but you don’t. This proves that whatever the show, you are in awe of the talent and ingenuity of it all.

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