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Posts Tagged ‘Paul Robinson’

Promises, Promises

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , , , , , , on January 20, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Though it was revived on Broadway in 2010, this Neil Simon / Bacharach & David musical hasn’t been seen here since its 1969 London premiere. It’s based on Billy Wilder’s classic 1960 five Oscar winning film The Apartment featuring Jack Lemon and Shirley MacLaine. It may be the only musical to feature a Personnel Director!

In case you’ve never seen the film, the story concerns Chuck, a young insurance company employee who helps his career by loaning his apartment to senior executives’ for their affairs. When the Personnel Director Sheldrake becomes his fifth ‘customer’, he gets his promotion, but Sheldrake insists on exclusivity, so the other four turn on him. Then he realises Sheldrake’s mistress is Fran, the object of his own affections. With men lusting after girls young enough to be their daughters, what may have been just amusing c. 50 years ago seems more lecherous and distasteful today. It changes tone in the second half when these behaviours suddenly become unacceptable, seedy men are put in their place and true love wins.

Given the pedigree of the song-writing pair, the score is a bit of a disappointment. The best known song in the original production was I’ll Never Fall In Love Again, a hit for Dionne Warwick, but the Broadway revival added two other Bacharach & David hits – Say A Little Prayer and A House Is Not A Home – to their one and only musical score. Neil Simon’s book is pretty good though, but at just under three hours it’s desperately in need of some cuts, particularly in the longer first half. They could start with dumping the incongruous numbers Turkey Lurkey Time in the office Christmas party scene and A Young Pretty Girl Like You, when Chuck and the doctor are trying to cheer up their ‘patient’ Fran.

Simon Wells’ design and costumes capture the sixties faithfully (but he needs to do something about the dodgy door!). It’s a good ensemble, with Gabriel Vick and Daisy Maywood a fine pair of leads. There’s excellent support from John Guerrasio as the doctor and a terrific cameo from Alex Young as Marge. Paul Robinson makes a good baddie (and a believable Personnel Director, and I should know!).

It has dated more than its contemporaries, its overlong, the two contrasting halves seem like they might be from different shows and it doesn’t live up to the standards of its writers / composers, but I’m a fan of all three and I’m very glad I had the chance to catch it.

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My Mother Said I Never Should

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , , , on May 6, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Charlotte Keatley’s play is apparently the most performed play in English written by a woman, translated into 22 languages, so it’s somewhat surprising that it has taken twenty-seven years to get a London professional revival. Still, lets be thankful that it has at last, and that if anything it has matured with age, or maybe that’s me, or both.

We follow four generations of women over almost fifty years, from the Second World War to the late eighties. Doris has a daughter Margaret who marries an American airman. Margaret has a daughter called Jackie who becomes the first generation to go to college. Three months after the (unplanned) birth of her daughter Rosie, Jackie asks Margaret to bring her up. Margaret decides that to do so Rosie must think she is her mother. Over the years they all become distant and their meetings irregular, two generations in London and two in Manchester. When Rosie is in her mid-teens and her real mother has matured and become successful, it’s time for some truth, and tears.

The scenes are not chronological, so its structure is like a jigsaw which you gradually put together. There are also childhood scenes which appear to be more generic than specific. The lovely relationship between Doris and her great-granddaughter is constant, the others fluctuate and strain. The backdrop is both the events of the period and the changing roles of women, so it’s a slice of social history as well as a personal story. I was captivated even more so than I remember being by the original production at the Royal Court back in 1989. Paul Robinson’s excellent new production uses onstage TV’s to show dates, locations and footage contemporary to the scenes, which I thought helped you unravel it.

Serena Manteghi is terrific as Rosie, perfectly capturing the energy and naivety of her at every age. It’s lovely to be reminded how good a dramatic actress Katie Brayben is; Jackie is her first role since wowing us as Carole King in Beautiful. Maureen Lipman gives one of her best ever performances as Doris, and as one of the four very believable children. Hilary Tones took over the role of Margaret at short notice, following the withdrawal of another actress, but you wouldn’t know it as she plays her with great skill and empathy.

Great to see this again, and particularly pleasing that the play and I have aged so well!

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Land of our Fathers

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , , , on October 4, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Trafalgar Studio II continues to give fringe work a second outing, this time with Theatre 503’s 2013 hit, an excellent debut play by Chris Urch on the unlikely subject of six miners trapped down a mine as Thatcher triumphs for the first time as Tory leader. It’s extraordinary how many laughs you can get from such a situation without in any way detracting from the tragedy; indeed, probably heightening it.

Six miners are trapped after a rock fall. They have to decide to wait or dig. Deputy ‘Chopper’ takes the lead and insists on waiting in the first instance, switching strategy to digging if it becomes too long. The length of the wait stretches plausibility, but it provides the opportunity to explore the men’s lives, motivations and relationships and the characterisations are superb. Old lag Bomber with the driest of humour and naive young Mostyn, mummies boy and the most unlikeliest of miners on his first shift. Brothers Chewy & Curly, as dissimilar as brothers get, bickering but underneath loving. Thoughtful and calm Polish war hero Hovis and Chopper, the deputy in charge – well, initially. At first they cope through loyalty and humorous banter, but as the days without rescue mount up, everything breaks down. It gets ever more claustrophobic and intolerable, as the banter is replaced by argument and division.

The dialogue sparkles with realism and the 1979 setting anchors the piece in recent social history, without trying to score political points. Signe Beckmann’s brilliant set provides an appropriately claustrophobic, grubby environment – they really are on top of one another and the audience there with them. Paul Robinson’s direction squeezes every ounce of tragedy and comedy without being sentimental or disrespectful of the situation. In a fine set of performances, veteran Clive Merrison is superb as Bomber (though we do miss him in the second half) and Kyle Rees is hugely impressive as Curly.

Great to see a debut play in the West End, a rarity indeed. It ends today, so you’d better get your skates on!

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