Calamity Jane – Dormston Mill Theatre, Sedgley

I love the theatre, whether the productions are professional or amateur, and shows like this are the reason why.  Willenhall Musical Theatre Company have put on a terrific, fun-filled production of Calamity Jane, which was a joy to watch.

In Deadwood, in the Old American West, Calamity Jane is a match for any of her male counterparts, but despite her tomboy looks and behaviour, she is smitten with Lieutenant Danny Gilmartin.  When she goes to Chicago to bring singing sensation Adelaide Adams, a mix-up causes her to bring back Adelaide’s maid, Katie Brown instead.  After the residents of Deadwood reveal the truth, Katie decides to stay, and she and Calamity become good friends.  However, their friendship is threatened when Danny falls for Katie, and Calamity and her friend Wild Bill Hickok, who also loves Katie, find themselves out in the cold…

Lydia Lavill took on the role of Calamity, and played it with great relish.  Timothy Swallow looked exactly right, and was great as Wild Bill, and credit also should be given to Sam King as Katie Brown, and Will Phipps, who was absolutely wonderful as Francis Fryer (an act booked to appear in Deadwood, but who was mistakenly believed to be a female singer named Frances Fryer).

The staging was wonderfully imaginative, with fantastic sets, and the music is so joyful, with such songs as The Deadwood Stage (Whipcrackaway), It’s Harry I’m Going to Marry, The Black Hills of Dakota, and Secret Love.

All in all, a joyous production which left me with a huge smile on my face.

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Click here for my review of the 1953 film.

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Phantom of the Opera – Birmingham Hippodrome, Birmingham

It’s hard to believe that Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical adaptation of Gaston Leroux’s novel is over 25 years old, because in 2013, it still feels as fresh as ever.

Cameron Mackintosh has produced the current show which is touring in the UK, and which I was lucky enough to see at Birmingham Hippodrome, which was an ideal venue in which to see such a spectacular show.

Briefly, the story concerns the mysterious Phantom of the title who falls for Christine Daae, a young chorus girl, who is promoted to lead soprano at the Opera Populaire Playhouse.  The Phantom threatens the life of anyone who comes between him and Christine, but Christine has meanwhile fallen for Raoul, her childhood sweetheart…she fears however that she may never escape the hold of the mysterious Phantom.  (There are far more detailed synopses available online.)

In this production, the Phantom was played by Earl Carpenter, and he was superb in the role.  He elicited just the right amount of fear from the audience, while remaining charismatic and mysterious.  His voice, unsurprisingly, was excellent.  Equally superb were Katie Hall as Christine, and James Bisp as Raoul.  Bisp was actually the understudy, and he was wonderful in the role.  Claire Platt also appeared as the understudy for Carlotta, the soprano who is ousted by the Phantom’s desire to promote Christine.  Carlotta brings comic relief to proceedings, and Platt played the part to perfection.

The supporting cast were also terrific, with not one weak link.

The music is very familiar to audiences nowadays, but it was still mesmerising to hear, and the title song in particular made the hairs on the back of my next stand on end.

Finally, the costumes and stage sets were imaginative and wonderfully designed, with the chandelier which forms part of the story hanging high above the audience.

Overall, it was a wonderful show from start to end, and I would highly recommend it to anybody who enjoys good theatre.  A solid 10 out of 10 from me!

(For more information about this production, please click here.)

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Click here for my review of the 2004 film adaptation.

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Driving Miss Daisy – Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton

This heartwarming (often a cliche, but very true here) story, written by Alfred Uhry, about a cantankerous old Jewish lady and her black chauffeur, was made famous by the film starring Jessica Tandy (who won an Oscar for her part) Morgan Freeman and Dan Aykroyd (both men also received Oscar nominations).  Here, it is brought to the stage, starring Gwen Taylor as Daisy, Don Warrington as Hoke, and Ian Porter as Daisy’s son Boolie.

The story starts in 1948, in Georgia, USA, when elderly Daisy Werthan has yet another accident while driving, and her son insists that he will hire a chauffeur for her, and Hoke is the driver who he chooses.  Initially Daisy is reluctant, as she resents her loss of independence, but over the years, she and Hoke grow close and become good friends, who genuinely care for one another.  The story finishes in the 1970s, and as the times progress, the current affairs of the day are referred to, particularly Martin Luther King’s work to eradicate racism and inequality.

The cast of three were all stunning, and it’s incredibly hard to pick any as being better than the others, but I was totally bowled over by Don Warrington.  He played Hoke with charm, humour and tenderness.  Gwen Taylor was wonderful as the acerbic Daisy, who despite maintaining that she is not prejudiced against black people, makes a few remarks early on that suggest that she is, even if she doesn’t believe it herself.  So to see her become so enamoured of Martin Luther King, and be excited about the changes that are taking place (equality laws) is rather lovely.  Despite her initial hostility towards Hoke (which is not personal so much as what his presence represents, i.e., the fact that she is ageing and not as capable as she was), she still has a warmth about her.  Ian Porter was wonderful as the son caught between the old world which Hoke and his mother are familiar with, and the new world, with all the changes that it brings.  And yet, while he is not prejudiced, he still expresses fear about going to a banquet to celebrate Martin Luther King, because he fears that his business will suffer if he does.  However, it’s clear that he genuinely does like Hoke and grows to respect him.

The staging was also very clever – a simplistic set, but very effective, especially the driving scenes, with a backdrop of the places they visited being projected onto the back wall.  This worked extremely well.

The play was just about an hour and a half long, and there was no interval.  This worked to its advantage, as the play was probably not lengthy enough to warrant and break, and I think the flow of the story would have been broken if there had been an interval.

Driving Miss Daisy is at the end of it’s tour, which is a real shame, because I really want to recommend it to everyone I know!  It was a moving, thought-provoking, and often amusing story, and I had a tear in my eye at the end.  Just wonderful.

(For more information about this production, please click here.)

 

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As You Like It at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre (2009)

This stage production of the romantic comedy was performed at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, in 2009, and was first televised in 2010.  I watched the televised version, although I would have loved to have been in the actual audience at the theatre.

The story revolves around a young man called Orlando, who falls for Rosalind, daughter of the former Duke of Arden, who has been usurped by his own brother.  The former Duke has gone to live in the forest of Arden with some of his followers.  Rosalind was kept at the court of the new Duke, due to her friendship with her cousin Cecilia (daughter of the new Duke).  However, when Rosalind is exiled from the court, Cecilia decides to go with her, and together with Touchstone, the court fool – who they take along for entertainment purposes – the two women head off into the forest, with Rosalind disguised as a man named Gannymede, and Cecilia disguised as a poor lady named Aliena.  When Rosalind meets Orlando, he does not see through her disguise, and she agrees to train him to woo Rosalind properly.

There are other stories contained within the play – other romances, and a great deal of comedy – but the story of Rosalind and Orlando is the main plot.

This particular production, directed superbly by Thea Sharrock, was a delight from beginning to end.  It was filled with sparkling wit and humour, and all of the players were fantastic, although I would make special mention of Dominic Rowan as Touchstone – he had some of the best lines (and some of the best moves!) and he didn’t waste them.  Laura Rogers was also a stand-out as Cecilia, who for the most part was a supporting character to Rosalind.  Rosalind herself was played with verve and wit by Naomi Frederick, and the scenes with her and Jack Laskey as Orlando, were wonderful.

I always think that Shakespeare’s comedies should leave you feeling great, and with a smile on your face, and this one certainly did that.  I have not mentioned everyone who impressed, because to do so would mean naming the entire cast!  Suffice to say that not one of them disappointed.  The music was also wonderful, and the ending was filled with energy and joy.

Without hesitation, I would recommend this production to anybody.

Year of production: 2009 (first televised in 2010)

Director: Thea Sharrock

Writer: William Shakespeare (play)

Main cast: Philip Bird, Gareth Bennett-Ryan, Sophie Duval, Naomi Frederick, Brendan Hughes, Jack Laskey, Tim McMullan, Jamie Parker, Laura Rogers, Dominic Rowan

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Click here for my review of the 2006 film adaptation.

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Hamlet – Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon (minor spoilers)

Last time I saw Jonathan Slinger at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, he was playing Malvolio in the comedy Twelfth Night – and he very nearly stole the show.  Here, he takes on an entirely different role – that of Hamlet, the tortured, grieving young Prince of Denmark, who seeks to avenge the death of his father, who Hamlet is convinced was killed by Claude, the brother of Hamlet’s father.  Claude is now married to Hamlet’s mother Gertrude, and is also King of Denmark.

This particular performance seems to have divided the critics and the audience; I fall firmly on the side of ‘loved it’.  The play was enthralling throughout, and the whole cast were excellent.  Slinger was outstanding – his Hamlet teetered on the thin line between sanity and madness; his grief and fury at the loss of his father, and the subsequent rapid remarriage of his mother were all too believable.  He also injected some humour into some of his exchanges and mannerisms.  The whole cast was actually wonderful – as well as Slinger, I loved Pippa Nixon as Ophelia, who loved Hamlet but was tragically caught up in his extreme emotions, and who eventually suffered a breakdown with terrible consequences.  Alex Waldmann was perfect, and very endearing as Horatio, Hamlet’s kind (and rational) friend, and Robin Soans provided some great comedy as Polonius.

For this production, the play was set in the 1960s, with one character wearing a CND symbol on his coat, and Hamlet sharing a spliff with his old friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.  The stage was made to look like a gymnasium, complete with the necessary fencing equipment needed for the final scenes.

My favourite scenes were the famous ‘To Be or Not to Be’ soliloquy, and the final devastating scenes.  After the tense build-up, the showdown needed to be dramatic and shocking – and it was.

All in all, a wonderful production, and I recommend it whole-heartedly to fans of the play, and fans of good drama.

(To find out more about this production, or about the Royal Shakespeare Company, please click here.)

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High Society – Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton

I saw this show at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre, on 2nd March 2013.  For anyone who doesn’t know the story, it revolves around the imminent marriage of socialite Tracy Lord.  Events are complicated by the arrival of her first husband, C.K. Dexter Haven, and a journalist named Mike Connor, who has been sent to do a magazine article on the wedding.  Tracy realises that she has unresolved feelings for Dexter, and there is further trouble when she finds herself attracted to Mike!  It was adapted into a film starring Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant and James Stewart, in 1940, and it was again adapted, this time into a musical starring Grace Kelly, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra.  This play is an adaptation of the musical.

It was a wonderful performance.  Michael Praed was fantastic and just right for the role of Dexter (resembling Cary Grant’s portrayal more than Bing Crosby’s), and Sophie Bould was perfect as the cool and critical Tracy, who becomes warmer as the story with it’s unexpected romantic entanglements proceeds.  Daniel Boys struck just the right note as Mike, and Alex Young was great as Liz Imbrie, the photographer who accompanies Mike, and whose love for him is clear to everyone except Mike himself.  There was not a single weak link in the whole cast, which also included Teddy Kempner as Tracy’s alcohol sizzled Uncle Willie, Marilyn Cutts as Tracy’s mother Margaret, and Craig Pinder as her disgraced father Seth.  Katie Lee played Dinah, Tracy’s spunky and intelligent younger sister, and reminded me of the character as portrayed in The Philadelphia Story; she was terrific.  In the performance that I saw, George Kittredge, Tracy’s dull-as-dishwater fiancé, was played by the understudy Steven Butler.  He was extremely good in the role.

Finally, I must mention the rest of the cast who played the staff of the Lord household, and who put on some amazing dance displays, and performed some wonderful songs.  In fact, all of the cast had lovely voices, and brought the songs to life.

I thought the scene changes were highly effective, with the use of the revolving stage – the sets were imaginative and very evocative of the era.

This was a very high-energy, feel-good show, and I was laughing and smiling all the way through.  I saw a matinee performance, and I could easily have gone to see the show again that same evening, and would have thoroughly enjoyed it.  A wonderful show from beginning to end.

(For more information about this production, please click here.)

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Click here for my review of the 1940 film The Philadelphia Story.

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Singin’ In The Rain – Palace Theatre, London

I saw this show at the Palace Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London, on 23rd February 2013.

Singin’ In The Rain is one of my very favourite films, and Gene Kelly is also a favourite actor of mine, so the show had a lot to live up to.  And it did!  The show was a delight from start to finish.

The storyline – for anyone who doesn’t know it – concerns the switch from silent movies to ‘talkies’ and actually deals with a problem that was experienced by many silent film stars; when the talkies came in, the audience realised that their voice did not match the on-screen glamour, and a few careers ended because of it.  Also part of the story is the romance between famous film-star Don Lockwood and up-and-coming actress Kathy Selden, which is thwarted by the jealousy of Don’s on-screen partner, Lina Lamont.  And mainly of course, there is that mesmerising, breathtaking dancing.

In this production, Don Lockwood was played by Adam Cooper, a man physically very different to Gene Kelly, but who played the part well.  Cooper is a beautiful and elegant dancer, and his dancing sequences were a joy to watch.  My personal favourite was Good Morning, where he was accompanied by Louise Bowden as Kathy, and Stephane Anelli as Cosmo (Don’s childhood and lifelong friend).  The squeaky voiced and vindictive Lina was played with relish by Jennifer Ellison, who was very funny, if occasionally just a little too shrieky, even for Lina!  Actually for me, Stephane Anelli was the star of the production, playing Cosmo with just the right mixture of mischief and melancholy.

The staging was elaborate and wonderfully creative.  There were just a few changes to the film storyline, at least some of which were probably necessitated by the restrictions of performing on stage (for example in the film, Don meets Kathy when he leaps into her open-topped car; here, he meets her while she waits at a bus stop), but overall the storyline is faithful to the iconic film.

An added piece of genius where the film segments, where we see the actors in the roles that they are playing within the play, with all of their period costumes and props, and – hilariously – the problems they encounter when trying to film sound as well as vision.

As ever, the dancing was a joy to watch, and obviously the highlight of the show.  The title number was exuberant and energetic, even if the first few rows of the audience did get soaked!

Well worth watching – I imagine this show will be playing for along time, and I would recommend it to any fans of the film, or indeed any fans of happy musicals!

(For more information about this production, please click here.)

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Click here for my review of the 1952 film.

Click here for my review of the book ‘Singin’ In The Rain: The Making of an American Masterpiece’ by Earl J. Hess and Prathiba A. Dabholkar.

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Othello at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre (2007)

This is a review of a live performance at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London, and which was televised.

The story of Othello is a well known one, combining love, jealousy and betrayal.  Othello (Eamonn Walker) marries Desdemona (Zoe Tapper), and his jealous soldier Iago (Tim McInnery) conspires to make Othello believe – wrongly – that Desdemona has cheated on him.  Othello’s jealousy and rage wreaks devastating results.

What a fabulous production this was – I only wish I could have seen it live, rather than a televised performance.  Eamonn Walker was just superb as the title character – perfectly displaying in the first part of the play exactly why Desdemona has fallen in love with him (quite frankly, who wouldn’t fall in love with him?!)  He is noble, wise and devoted to his wife.  Which makes his breakdown as a result of his belief that his wife has been unfaithful, all the more devastating.  It is truly a stunningly good performance.  The same can be said of Tim McInnery, who played the diabolical Iago with such aplomb, bringing menace and humour to the role.

Zoe Tapper as Desdemona, and Lorraine Burroughs as Emilia both looked beautiful, and were excellent in their respective roles.  In fact, there was no weak link in the cast at all.  The staging was simple but effective, and the costumes were glorious.  But more importantly, the play was incredibly compelling and dramatic – at a little over three hours, it is not a short play, but every minute is worth watching.

I strongly recommend this, especially but not only, for Shakespeare fans.

Year of production: 2007 (first televised in 2008)

Director: Wilson Milam

Writer: William Shakespeare (play)

Main cast: Eamonn Walker, Tim McInnery, Zoe Tapper, Lorraine Burroughs, Sam Crane, Nick Barber

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The Winter’s Tale – Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon

I saw this production at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, in Stratford, on 12th February 2013.  The show that I saw was actually a public understudy run.  This meant that some actors played more than one part (and in one instance, one part was played by two actors).  This is no criticism, and was certainly not confusing.  The public understudy runs are a great way to see a full production for an extremely low price (£5.00 to non-RSC members; £2.50 for RSC members).

The Winter’s Tale is a story of love and misplaced revenge.  It was originally classed as a comedy, but is not now always considered so, although there are some very funny moments in the latter half of the play.  Briefly, King Leontes of Sicilia (wrongly) suspects that his pregnant wife Hermione has been unfaithful with the King’s friend, Polixenes of Bohemia.  He punishes his wife in the most horrible way, but is thrust into despair when he realises that his wife and friend were innocent of any wrong-doing.  Having banished their baby daughter as soon as she was born (believing at the time that she was Polixenes’ daughter, she grows up unaware of her royal heritage, believing that she is the daughter of the shepherd who found her as a baby and brought her up as his own.  However, she falls in love with Florizel – who is the son of King Polixenes…..

Considering that the cast and crew had just four days to prepare for this production, and that everyone was playing a different part to that which they normally play (the understudies are all part of the main cast), this production was excellent.  I was particularly impressed with Phil Snowden, who played the dual roles of Antigonus (the subject of the famous stage direction, “Exit pursued by a bear”) and the old Shepherd, who brings up the baby he finds.  He was distinctive in each role, and provided a lot of humour as the shepherd, aided by his character’s son, the young Shepherd (the two shepherds’ first names are not revealed), played by Kieran Knowles.  Duncan Wisbey, who played Autolycus, a roguish pedlar (and who plays Antigonus in the main cast) was also superb and extremely humorous.  Bethan Walker who in this production played both Hermione and Perdita was very impressive, and I really felt for her Hermione.

This is not my favourite Shakespeare – in some parts of the first half, it is actually quite a disturbing play, with Leontes becoming so doubting of his pregnant wife, and actually punching her in the stomach at one point.  The second half was much lighter, with much of the aforementioned humour to relieve the tension, and the story is rounded off nicely.

The staging was impressive, with a scene of bohemian decadence to show Leontes’ palace.  There was also some considerable use of CGI, which worked well, and for some reason, a huge sort of water tower, the reason for which was unfathomable, but nonetheless it somehow worked.

Overall, I enjoyed the production and thought it was very well done.  Another triumph for the RSC!

(For more information about this production, or the Royal Shakespeare Company, please click here.)

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The Ladykillers – Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton

I saw this fabulous production at the Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton, on 2nd February 2013.  The story concerns five robbers who pose as musicians, and the leader of whom rents a room from the elderly Mrs Wilburforce, with the plan that the room will be the perfect place to plan their upcoming robbery.  However, they have reckoned without the interference of the landlady, and when she discovers their plan, they have to come up with a way to…dispose of her.  But this seemingly frail old lady proves a much tougher match than they had realised!

The film The Ladykillers was made in the 1950s, starring Alec Guinness as the leader of the team of criminals, and Katie Johnson as Mrs Wilburforce.  In this stage production, these roles were taken respectively by Paul Bown and Michele Dotrice.  The rest of the cast is made of up Clive Mantle, Chris McCalphey, William Troughton Cliff Parisi (as the other robbers), Marcus Taylor as a police officer who is more than used to hearing Mrs Wilburforce’s suspicions about various members of the community, and Beverley Walding as a friend of the elderly lady.

The show was fantastic, with extremely clever staging.  Unlike in the film, this production takes place almost entirely within the house.  The sets were very imaginative, the house itself provided a few chuckles, being all lop-sided and haphazardly standing as it was.  All of the leads were excellent, as one would expect from a West End production, now touring.  The script was sharp and snappy, and the audience were laughing throughout.  The heist scene itself was very cleverly played out with the use of mechanical toy cars, and both the build-up to the robbery, and the aftermath were very funny, with the criminals having to maintain their pretence of being classical musicians whenever Mrs Wilburforce is around.

The show has been very successful, and it’s easy to see why.  I would have been delighted to see the same show again immediately afterwards.  Quite simply, it is a triumph all round, and a thoroughly enjoyable way to spend a few hours.

For more information about this production, please click here.)

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Click here for my review of the 1955 film.

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