Tag: musicals

not a book, theatre

Not a Book: Titanique

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Don’t panic everyone, it not a Sunday everyone, but we’re into December and I’ve seen so much stuff in recently that I want to talk about and as I try valiantly not to go too Christmas, too fast, and all the bookshops are Christmas central at this point with all the same book and gifts I thought I’d treat you to a bonus (non-Christmas) show today – although it would make a good festive outing if you wanted to, just saying.

So in case you can’t tell from the programme cover, Titanique is a jukebox musical parodying the film Titanic. It features the songs of Celine Dion and is told from Celine’s point of view after she interrupts a tour of a Titanic museum to claim that she is a survivor of the sinking. It’s another short show too – 100 or so minutes, no interval* and it really comes in, does it’s thing and ends on a high without outstaying its welcome.

I actually really struggled with how to describe this because it’s so off the wall but also at times it’s closer to a cabaret or comedy night than it is to a traditional musical. I would need to see it again to be sure, but it felt like there was a fair bit of improv coming from Astrid Harris as Celine. And you can see that dichotomy in the Olivier Awards categories it was in – it won Best Entertainement or Comedy Play (beating among others Ballet Shoes) but also Best Supporting Actor in a Musical for Layton Williams as the Iceberg (and various others). Lauren Drew, who was the original Celine was also nominated in Best Actress in a Musical.

I had a great time and would recommend it for people looking for a fun night out, but I think because of all the pop culture references it’s probably more one for adults, and maybe even millennials and up. I’ve never seen the film Titanic, but I’m old enough to remember it coming out and know what happens in it, so all the jokes about the film landed for me all the same. I can feel that this could end up being a show that groups go to on a night out – and there are definitely deals to be had on the tickets to make that happen. It’s in the Criterion which is at the smaller end of West End capacities (as well as being probably the most underground of them all) and also in one of the prime spots for passing footfall on Piccadilly Circus right next to Eros so it has that in its favour to keep it going for a while – The 39 Steps managed nearly a decade in there, and I think The Comedy about a Bank Robbery would have lasted longer than its four years if it hadn’t been for the pandemic. And I liked it enough that I’m not ruling out going back to see how the improv changes – or how a different cast handle it. But there are just so many shows I want to see that I haven’t already been to that I suspect it won’t happen in the near future!

Have a great Sunday.

*which made it three in a row in the West End for me – with Born With Teeth and Clarkston the other two.

not a book, theatre

Not a Book: The Producers is back

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Happy Sunday everyone and your reminder that if you missed the Menier Chocolate production of The Producers last Christmas, it’s now transferred to the West End and previews started last night (30th August). I’m off to see it again in about ten days time – so I may yet report back on how or whether it has changed a lot in the move from a very small theatre to a bigger one, but in the meantime, here is my review from last winter as well as their performance at West End Live in June.

book adjacent, theatre

Book Adjacent: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

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I’ve got another lovely theatre visit to tell you about this Sunday – but if you want to see it in London, you’ll need to hurry, because it is only on in London until September 7th, then it’s back out on tour around the UK.

I can’t believe there’s many people out here who don’t know the story, but in case you don’t the four Pevensie children have been evacuated to escape World War II and find themselves living in a big house, owned by a professor. In the house there is a wardrobe that leads to the land of Narnia, which the children help free from the tyranny of The White Witch, with the help of Aslan the Lion and some talking animals. This is a really neat and compact adaptation – it’s a tight two hours ten including interval, which considering the 2005 movie was two and a half hours, and the 1988 tv series which I grew up on was 6 parts and nearly three hours in total. It’s still got all the stuff you remember – Mr Tunmus, the Turkish Delight, the Beavers, Father Christmas etc – so you won’t be disappointed on that front, but short enough that children (hopefully) don’t get too fidgety*.

I wouldn’t exactly describe this as a musical, but it has got some songs – wartime inspired in the “real” world and then folky ones in Narnia. The supporting cast are playing the instruments as well as dancing and playing multiple characters so they’re a really talented group. The children near me seemed to find Maugrim (the chief of the secret police) scary, but that was the only bit that seemed to be an issue- and I think the child in question was about five. There are some great bits of stage illusion and puppetry too so it would make a great alternative to a panto if you’re near Salford at Christmas.

Honestly it really flew by and I would totally recommend it, maybe not as a first show for children but certainly as an early theatre experience. It’s got some really clever puppetry and set design to turn a stage into a magical land. I don’t even think you really need to be familiar with the original book to enjoy 5)3 show.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is at Sadlers wells until early September and then it goes back out on tour around the UK. You can find tour dates here.

*the night I was there someone had been giving out bags of popcorn and the noise was insane for the first 20 minutes or so, but there wasn’t any restlessness before the interval.

not a book, theatre

Not a Book: Sondheim Shows

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I did two Stephen Sondheim shows in just over a week and I have thoughts. I mean I always have thoughts, but I particularly do this time. You may remember from my post about Old Friends (which coincidentally has just finished up a run on Broadway) that I have seen a lot of Sondheim documentaries and love a lot of his music.

The first of the duo was Here We Are, Sondheim’s final show which he was working on for about the final decade of his life. It’s based on two Luis Bunel films and is as bonkers as you might expect considering that. It’s also, as you can probably tell from the video below possibly Peak Sondheim. There were a bunch of moments where the music reminded me of other Sondheim shows, which I don’t remember ever thinking at one of his shows before. I would not suggest you pick this for your first experience of Sondheim, but if you like him you will probably enjoy this – even though it has a lot less singing than I was expecting. The production at the NT had a brilliant cast – Jane Krakowski, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Rory Kinnear, Martha Plimpton, Paulo Szot and Tracie Bennett have got five Oliviers, three Tonys and an Emmy between them – and they were great. I am so glad I saw it, but I won’t be running back to see it again the way I did with Follies.

The second show was the Southwark Playhouse revival of The Frogs, which is Sondheim’s musical based on the ancient Greek comedy by Aristophanes from 405BC. Sondheim’s version premiered in the mid 1970s and was described as “freely adapted” from the original, and then in 2004 Nathan Lane “even more freely adapted” it to the current book and Sondheim wrote a bunch of new songs for it. The plot is that the god Dionysus and his slave Xanthius are going to Hades to bring back George Bernard Shaw to raise the standard of drama being produced. If you’ve watched the recorded version of the original Old Friends concert or the Sondheim 80th birthday concert, the song from this that you will know is Invocation and Instructions to the Audience.

And it was such a good night. The cast was great, especially the ensemble who were rotating through different roles as well as acting as a chorus and the dynamic between Kevin McHale (of Glee fame) as Xanthias and Dan Buckley as Dionysus was great. I laughed a lot and came away humming the music. I definitely liked it more than I liked Here We Are – if another production of Frogs come around in a few years time I would go and see it again, and this is the one that I would be recommending to people of the two.

From my observations the night that I saw it, there was a considerable amount of the audience who were there to see Kevin McNally, rather than because they love seeing Sondheim shows. But that’s fine. Sondheim can be a hard sell, and a plot based on an Ancient Greek comedy might also not appeal to the casual theatre goer, but this was so good and so much fun hopefully they all went away as happy as me and might give another Sondheim production a go in future. I hadn’t actually been to Southwark Playhouse since it moved to it’s current location (which is more than a decade ago so shame on me) and so I was playing seat roulette a little bit but my front row spot on one of the sides was great and you really were quite up close and personal with the cast!

Both of Here We are and The Frogs finished yesterday, so it’s already too late for you to go and see them so sorry about that. And as ever with Sondheim who knows when they will be put on again. Oh and by the way, I’m still hoping for a DVD of the National Theatre Follies…

not a book, theatre

Not a Book: Operation Mincemeat

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It’s Olivier Award Sunday everyone and although I have everything crossed for Simon Lipkin in the Best Actor in a Musical category for his turn as Fagin in Oliver and for Ballet Shoes in some of the other categories, I thought today was a great opportunity for me to talk about last year’s Best New Musical winner Operation Mincemeat, which I saw in the West End in mid-March.

Operation Mincemeat is a comedy musical devised by the group Split Lip, based on a deception operation carried out by British intelligence during World War Two. The Allies want to invade Sicily, but the island is swarming with Nazi troops. So they need to come up with a plan to disguise the invasion plans. There is a five person cast who all play multiple roles across the course of the show, with quick changes coming out of your ears.

This got total rave reviews when it opened – but I’ll admit that their Olivier Award performance left me more confused than enthused. Add in a complicated ticketing policy and it’s taken me a while to get around to it which is a bit of a more fool me situation because it’s so good. It’s funny and clever and it’s going to point out a few issues going on with the plan as well as highlighting some of the people that tend to get forgotten about in the history books.

I saw the new cast – because the original team have just opened the show on Broadway (press night was actually the same week that I went to see it in London) and they’re all giving cracking performances in what must be quite indimisating circumstances- given that the original cast was the four creators and the winner of the Olivier award for best supporting actor for his role in the show.

This has just extended again in London – so there’s plenty of time to go and see it – and as I said they run a range of schemes for tickets. Find the details here.

Operation Mincemeat is at the Fortune Theatre in London

Side note: I thought that this was the only West Emd Theatre I hadn’t been inside – it was previously the home to The Woman in Black for about 30 years and I don’t do horror – but then I realised that I haven’t been to the new Soho Place theatre yet so I haven’t actually completed my set yet. Still at least it’s an excuse to go and see something else…

book adjacent, theatre

Book Adjacent: Oliver!

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In case you don’t know, Oliver! is the musical by Lionel Bart, based on Charles Dickens’s novel Oliver Twist. It’s a while since I read the original novel, but from my memory the plot of the musical is somewhat simpler, and the character of Fagin is less evil, more sympathetic and comedic than the book. It’s a mainstay of school productions (I was in one at my primary school, the friend I went to see it with was in one at his secondary school) and the movie adaptation (it won six Oscars!) is a mainstay of Christmas television schedules. The casting of the role of Nancy for a revival of the show in 2008 was the subject of a Saturday Night TV singing contest. I don’t know how you can exist in this country without knowing at least one of the songs from this show. And this is the point where I will admit that it is not my favourite musical by any means, and that it would not usually be high on my list of shows to see. However…

And the however is that not only has this production – a sort-of transfer of one that ran in Chichester last summer – had pretty good reviews, but but it also has Simon Lipkin, who is getting the sort of rave reviews actors dream of. If that name sounds familiar that’s because he’s in that original cast of Avenue Q that I went to see in the anniversary concert in November, and then also a late night show the next night with his friend (and fellow Q star) Jon Robyns. And I’m one of the few that saw him not once, but twice in the doomed X Factor musical I Can’t Sing, which was actually way better than the length of run suggested*. That is to say, I’m a fan and so I will brave Oliver to see him giving what one reviewer called a “career defining performance”.

And I’m really glad I did. It’s absolutely cracking. It’s directed and choreographed by Matthew Bourne and designed by his regular collaborator Lez Brotherston and even from our cheap seats at the back of the stalls it looked amazing. We missed a bit of action on the catwalks (can’t be sure how much unless I go and see it again from better seats, which to be fair isn’t out of the realms of possibility). The orchestrations are good, it all whips along faster than I remember it doing, and – wonder of wonder – the child actors barely annoyed me once. But Lipkin really is the star turn. You find yourself waiting for him to reappear – a Pied Piper of pickpockets, dancing and weaving his way across the stage. He’s menacing when he needs to be, but he also cares (in his way) about his gang of children. Plus he’s a man in guyliner and we all know that that’s strongly my thing in musicals. One review described him as a piratical dandy and I would go with that. Here’s the show’s section from the Royal Variety performance – if you just want a taste of Fagin, skip to 3’40…

Anyway, this is rightly selling out all over the place and has just extended until 2026. Who knows how long this original cast will last though – they’ve all been doing it since Chichester so they’re already nearly a year into their commitment at this point and it’s worth seeing – not just for Lipkin, but for Shanay Holmes as Nancy too, and Aaron Sidwell as the very evil Bill Sykes. There aren’t a lot of family musicals in the West End at the moment that aren’t based on Disney shows, so it’s good to have one that is – and if you are thinking of taking kids, the shows at the start of the week start at 7pm (rather than 7.30) so you’re out of the theatre by quarter to ten.

Have a great Sunday!

Oliver! is at the Gielgud Theatre on Shaftsbury Avenue, and booking until March 2026.

*I Can’t Sing was definitely better than the Spice Girls musical Viva Forever, which opened around the same time, lasted slightly longer, got similarly bad reviews but remains the only show I’ve ever been to where the audience didn’t know it had finished until the actors jogged back on clapping for bows.

not a book, theatre

Not a Book: The Producers

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A modern classic of a musical today – and actually one that I saw early in December when it was still in previews but as the whole run was sold out before it even started previews, there was no point in rushing!

This is the first London revival of Mel Brooks’ musical version of his classic movie The Producers. It follows Max Bialystock, a down on his luck theatrical producer, and Leo Bloom, and accountant turned producer, who team up together to try and swindle investors by deliberately putting on a show that will fail. Except that their sure-fire flop (Springtime for Hitler: A Gay Romp with Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden) is a surprise hit – and now they have to pay back their investors.

My first exposure to this show was the Broadway message boards of the early 2000s and then I West End production, on about its third cast one summer holiday. And it was wonderful. It was big and brash and funny and had huge production numbers. I loved it – and the CD of the Broadway cast recording was in regular rotation for me for years. I think I could probably still sing along to almost the whole thing. But given how big the original production was, and how small the Menier Chocolate Factory is, I was fascinated to see what they did with it, especially given their reputation for transforming massive shows into more intimate productions. I am forever in love with their La Cage Aux Folles, where they did just that, and which remains one of my favourite things that I have ever see in a theatre.

And it was a brilliant night. The Producers is still hilarious and the performances were brilliant – Andy Nyman was just as good (maybe better?) in this as he was in Hello Dolly this summer as Max and his pairing with Mark Antolin as Leo was brilliant. And it felt rawer and less shiny than the Drury Lane original did. The sets are smaller, the cast is smaller with the ensemble doubling or even tripling roles (especially on the night I was there where the artistic director came out before the start to say they were three cast members and the stage manager down). But it also felt very familiar. But with so many jokes and so much there in the writing how much can you really change? And had they actually just changed enough to make it feel fresher and less like an Old School Musical than the original did – and thus more likely to appeal to new audiences, as opposed to jaded old theatre habitues like me? I went with someone who had never seen it before and she really enjoyed it. I got exactly what I wanted – another look at a favourite show, done a bit differently – and I would have gone again if I could have done. But I can’t because it’s sold out. But if it transfers to the West End…

Have a great Sunday everyone.

Oh and here’s the original London production on the Royal Variety Show back in the day so you can see the difference in scale…

concerts, not a book, theatre

Not a Book: Avenue Q

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Something a bit different this Sunday – some thoughts about a show, but not really a review because it’s a bit more than that but also there’s nothing for you to book right now.

I took this photo at the end of the Avenue Q 18th birthday concert last month. I said on my Instagram that I think it might be the best photo I’ve ever taken – the cast looking back at their younger selves at the end of the show. That it’s a good photo I know because most of the cast have used it in their Instagram posts about the show, which made my theatre nerd heart happy. That I was in the position to take such a good photo is down to being quick on the booking fingers when the tickets went on sale – and snagging us prime seats in the middle of the middle of the stalls for the matinee show.

Who is us in this context? Well it’s me and my little sister. The West End production of Avenue Q opened just as I was finishing university, and as she was doing her A Levels. I think every theatre geek has a couple of shows that are formative in their development as a theatre fan, and this was one for us. It wasn’t the one that got us into the world of theatre message boards, but it resonated with us at the points in our lives that we were at at the time. If you’ve never come across Avenue Q, it’s a comedy musical that tells the story of a new graduate, Princeton, who moves to New York to start his adult life and ends up living on Avenue Q – a sort of grown-up Sesame Street and through the show he learns life lessons from people and puppets. One of the writers went on to write Book of Mormon, and the music for Frozen (and Frozen 2). It premiered on Broadway in 2003 and it actually beat a little show you might have heard of called Wicked to the Best New Musical Tony in 2004.

I saw the original cast three, maybe four times, and then saw it on Broadway with Little Sis on our five days seven shows trip a year or two later, and again in London with Him Indoors a few years after that. One of those times I saw the original cast I took my then boyfriend, who subsequently blamed it as a factor in our break up for “giving you ideas about needing a purpose”* which was… a stretch. Anyway. Moving on. It’s a show that has a special place in my heart. And it was wonderful to go back to it and see it again, with the actors we loved that first time. Twenty years after its first production there are some things that haven’t aged that well – they did a disclaimer at the front to that end, which felt sensible – but there’s so much that’s wonderful and the nostalgia factor was great too.

And the other thing about Q is how well the original cast have gone on to do. Jon Robyns who played Princeton has just finished up a run as The Phantom in Phantom of the Opera. Simon Lipkin is about to play Fagin in Oliver! in the West End after a successful run Chichester in the summer. Giles Terera has pack of awards for his theatre work – including an Olivier for originating Aaron Burr in the West End production of Hamilton. The only original cast member who couldn’t make the reunion was Clare Foster – and that was because it was opening week for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button in which she’s playing the female lead.

Sometimes its hard to tell if seeing a show that you have such fond memories of will enhance your memories or detract from them – we actually avoided seeing a revival of one of the other shows that was seminal for the two of us a summer or two ago because we were worried that it would taint our memories of it – but I’m not sure we ever really worried about this one because it was the original cast and it was billed as “in Concert” although it was more staged than that suggests. So it was great to see the band back together and be reminded how good they are and how fun the show is. And for me and Little Sis it was great timing too – this was our last theatre outing before she has a baby and so seeing a show that means so much to us but that is also about new beginnings and new possibilities was a great way to mark a bit of a moment in both of our lives.

I hope you have a show you have as happy memories of as I do Avenue Q, and that you get the chance some day to have a moment like we did at the Stephen Sondheim for this.

*Other things he blamed: “those books you read and films you watch for giving you ideas about happy endings”. I hope your eyes are rolling as hard as mine are.

announcement, film, not a book, theatre

Not a Book: Kiss Me Kate in Cinemas

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You all know I saw this three times at the Barbican this summer, so it’s my duty to report that they recorded the revival of Kiss Me, Kate and it’s coming to cinemas from today (17th November) and I am in fact going to see it, in my local indie today because a) I loved it and b) I want to see how it comes across on screen. It’s one of those event-cinema releases, so the dates may vary (the cinema where I’m seeing it is only showing it twice a couple of days apart at the moment) and you may need to look at either an indie or a larger multiplex cinema, but hopefully if you want to see it you’ll be able to find it.

theatre

Not a Book: Hello, Dolly!

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Another week, another trip to the theatre, and this time to see this summer’s most anticipated and most hyped musical: Hello, Dolly! with Imelda Staunton.

This is the story of Dolly Levi, a widowed matchmaker and meddler who travels to Yonkers to try and find a match for the grumpy and miserly “half a millionaire” Horace Vandergelder, who she’s actually plotting to marry herself and so in the process needs to detach him from his other options whilst also helping his niece marry an artist – a match with Horace is against. Meanwhile Horace’s two clerks at the feed store, who have bene left in charge while their boss is away meeting potential brides, decide they would like to get out of Yonkers for the day and go to New York.

So this is the point where I admit that I had neither seen the whole film of this one before, let alone a live production. I’ve seen bits of the film and I know some of the songs, but nothing had stood out to me enough to get me to watch the whole film and I’d never felt inspired enough to look out a production. In fact I think the only song I’d seen live before was Put on Your Sunday Clothes, which I saw the John Wilson Orchestra do at the Proms which doesn’t feel like that long ago but was actually the summer of 2011. Goodness I feel old. Anyway, I’ve put the link to that at the bottom and now I’m going to talk about this production.

This is the summer musical at the Palladium, which is the biggest theatre in the West End, and I think it’s pretty clear that this wouldn’t have been put on if it wasn’t for Imelda Staunton in the lead role. Yes it’s a classic, but when you’ve got more than 2,000 seats to fill every night, and a show with more than 20 piece orchestra and sets that include a moving train (that is used once) and a street car, you need a big name. And it doesn’t get much bigger. I have seen her previously do Sondheim in both Follies (which I adored and saw three times across its two runs) and Sweeney Todd, but missed her Gypsy because I had loved the production of that that I had already seen (with Caroline O’Connor in the lead) and didn’t want to pay the prices and was hoping for discounts which of course never materialised. I learned my lesson and I bought these early. And I am glad I did because she is giving an absolutely barnstorming performance – she’s funny and touching, but also hard where she needs to be and she sounds great.

The supporting cast is similarly strong – with Andy Nyman (who I saw be amazing as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof a few years ago), Jenna Russell (who I’ve never seen do anything bad) and Harry Hepple (who was in the same production of Follies as Staunton, but who I also saw in Pippin more than a decade ago) doing fine work in the key supporting roles, but really there is no one giving a bad performance.

Now I don’t think Hello, Dolly! will ever be my favourite musical – to be honest, if it comes back around again I probably won’t go unless it’s got a really stellar name as Dolly because Imelda is enough – but if you do love the show (and the stalls this week was clearly full of people who do love it) and you’re in London this summer then you should really try and see it. And if you’ve never seen it before, I can vouch for this being worth your time – a work colleague who also went this week and wasn’t expecting to love it also really enjoyed it – and the good news is, there are still some reasonably prices seats available.

Enjoy your Sunday!