Nicole schreibt...

I must be a glutton for punishment, always returning to England in summer when the rest of Europe is basking in sunshine while my favorite island is grey, windy and rainy. But there I was again, with my London theatre visits split in half and a trip up north inbetween. Seeing a play at Shakespeare's rebuilt Globe Theatre had been an ambition of mine for a long time, but so far I never got around to it. Now it was more Tricia's wish than mine to see the play "Anne Boleyn" by Howard Benton there as she has a thing for the Tudors, but I willingly tagged along since seats are cheap (on hard benches) and I could finally visit the Globe. The play itself turned out worthwhile too, presenting Anne not as the usual bitchy social climber who over-reached herself when she pursued Henry VIII. and got him to break with the catholic church so he could marry her. Instead it focused on her (historical?) support of protestant writer William Tyndale and his new bible translation and getting Henry onto the protestant train so they could marry. Until her betrayal by everyone she trusted in - but in this play she finds a surprise supporter in King James I. who takes an interest in the long-deceased queen and whose famous "James Bible" is mostly based on the translation she had supported a hundred years before. Great performances all around, especially by Miranda Raison as Anne and James Garnon as James I. made it worthwhile enjoyment.
Next up was something nearly as historical (at least for me) - "Les Miserables", one of the shows that first got me interested in musicals in the late 80's and which I had seen several times in various places then. And which had also ironically brought Tricia and me together in the first place, so it made sense to see the show together. I had pretty much given up on Les Mis in the mid-90's, mostly because the CamMack "carbon copy" style meant it looked the same everywhere anyway and because of a bunch of really obnoxious obsessive fans with alarmingly low general knowledge while spending hours discussing different Valjean performers. I had bought the DVD of the "25th anniversary concert" at the O2 last year more out of a feeling that it should belong in the collection than out of a true desire to see it. But once I was watching, I was totally blown away by opera singer Alfie Boe's Valjean, especially his rendition of "Bring him home" that got me to both order his solo CD straightaway and nag Tricia to find us cheap front stall seats for Les Mis at the Queens Theatre for Alfie's run in the show. In the event we were doubly lucky, as CamMack decided to introduce the new orchestrations which meant adding musicians to the pit and removing the £20 seats in row BB we had bought. We were moved to the £45 seats in row A without having to pay more and these seats turned out to be truly excellent (just look at the picture - ready to storm the barricades with wine...)
And after this long long break it was really marvellous to see the show again and having seen so many other dire efforts at "pop opera" in the intervening years, it really becomes clear just how masterful the score is, so full of amazing tunes and engaging lyrics. And the star cast we saw was truly great all around. While I had expected great things from Alfie Boe and Hadley Fraser's Javert (and got them), I was most positively surprised by Matt Lucas who I had seriously disliked in the concert - and who was a fantastic Thenardier live, even managing to add a few new fun tidbits and ad libs to this worn out role, wonderfully supported by Katy Secombe as his wife. But there were also so many new faces to discover and fall in love with, mostly devastatingly handsome Liam Tamne as Enjolras, a guy I'd totally storm any barricade with, and baby-faced Craig Mather as Marius with a fabulous voice. Caroline Sheen was a moving Fantine, while Cosette (Lisa-Anne Wood) and Eponine were their usual bland selves. And in Alexia Khadime's case, while the girl can surely sing, I just can't get behind "colorblind" casting, especially with Eponine when her parents and her younger self are all white in the same performance.
It's quite amazing how this show has managed to keep fresh and more or less go through a reboot in the last 1-2 years with Susan Boyle's "I dreamed a dream" sparking fresh interest in the show, then the concert and now this starry cast selling the Queens Theatre out every night.
After a hiatus of a few days, travelling around Oxford and Liverpool, I came back to London to see a few new shows - the first one being "Ghost", an adaption of the popular movie with Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg. The music was written by Dave Stewart (of Eurythmics fame) and Glen Ballard, with Joel Rubin adapted his own screenplay for the stage. Overall I found the resulting show a little disappointing. There are great stage sets with animations going wild and flashing all over (how many shots of a Manhattan skyline by night do we need?) and some really amazing tricks (I loved the subway bits and the scene in Carl's office), but I missed the certain spark that made this show an individual piece of art and not just a movie slapped onto the stage with a few songs tacked on. Even though those were nice songs mostly. Caissie Levy got the best gig as Molly, looking nothing at all like Demi Moore and having the best songs to sing as the grieving young widow (without drifting off into whiney pathos) and the girl sure can sing. But the boys - Richard Fleeshman as Sam and Andrew Langtree als evil Carl - never really get away from their movie counterparts and remain somewhat bland. And while "bland" is not a word I would use for Sharon D. Clarke's performance as Oda Mae, she too, suffered the inevitable comparisons with Whoopi Goldberg (who did win an Oscar for the job after all). To me it seemed to be just another rehash of the "brassy sassy black woman"-cliche that abounds in Hollywood and though her big 11 o'clock number "I'm outta here" was quite fun, the whole thing just lacked originality. Sure the show is still worth seeing as it still IS a really lovely story, it has some great tricks, some great songs and a stunning leading lady - but personally I found it a bit lacklustre.
I didn't quite make it to my planned Friday viewing of Sondheim's "Road Show" at the Menier for reasons I shan't bore you with (ho hum), so next on the cards was "Betty Blue Eyes" at the Novello Theatre, another new creation based on a movie, this time "A Private Function" from 1984. Written by underrated duo George Stiles and Anthony Drewe the show drew attention because it was the first new show Cameron Mackintosh had deigned to produce in a long while and we all know the guy can smell a hit from far. Now many people associate CamMack with the big weepy blockbusters of the 80's but "Betty" is anything but. It's a small quirky tale set in post-war Britain when food was still rationed and the mood was glum. The royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth was set to lift spirits though and in the village of Shepardsford the local dignitaries have been hiding away a young pig to fatten up in time for the wedding banquet. Their plans are foiled by the Chilvers, social-climbing ambitious Joyce and her somewhat damp squib of a husband, Gilbert, who steal the pig. At the same time meat inspector Wormwold is haunting the village to make sure that rationing is being adhered to and naturally, he too, is soon chasing the pig. A good old farce ensues.
It was really seeing "Betty" that made me realize what had been lacking in "Ghost" for here was a show that really added a new dimension to a somewhat bland movie. Songs weren't padding but really served to give insights into the characters, making Joyce especially a far more interesting persona with her big tunes "Nobody" and "Lionheart" and Gilbert as well with "The kind of man I am". The comic potential was also greatly increased with the farcial "Pig No Pig" and Ann Emery's great comic turn as "Mother Dear", Joyce's dim-witted mother who thinks they are out to kill -her- and not butcher the pig. But the show really belongs to Sarah Lancashire who gives a great performance as Joyce and makes her both immensely funny and likeable (which couldn't be said for Maggie Smith in the movie), wonderfully supported by Reece Shearsmith's Gilbert who was also far more endearing than his drippy movie counterpart Michael Palin. "Betty Blue Eyes" is a very quirky English show at heart and will not appeal to the broad tourist masses that fill most West End theatres these days. But I can definitely see what CamMack saw in this show and I hope that even if Betty won't live very long in the West End, it should have a healthy life on tour and among the countless Am Dram companies in the country.
For the first time in a long while it had been hard for me to find shows to see as there were so few new musicals and half of those didn't really interest me all that much ("Shrek" and "Wizard of Oz" notably - I had planned to see the latter actually, if not for the alert that Hannah Waddingham wasn't playing this week, so I might try another time, whereas with Shrek I will wait until all the celebrity stunt cast performers have gone and discounts will be available). Since my hotel was just around the corner of the Old Vic and Kevin Spacey just so happened to give his swan song as Artistic Director there by tackling Shakespeare's superbaddie Richard III., it did seem a good opportunity to finally see the man live on stage and visit one of the most prestigious theatres in town. Especially since they sell "restricted view"-seats for £15 in the Dress Circle where the view is slightly obstructed by a pillar. Which didn't bother me at all though, since the pillar was to the right side of the stage and in those few moments when there was actually something happening there it was easy to lean to the side.
"Richard III." clocks in at three and a half hours and though I didn't understand all that much of their Shakespearean English, I was still completely swept up in the drama and some of the finest acting I've ever seen. It wasn't just Spacey's bravura performance as the evil scheming Richard, but everyone all around, especially Haydn Gwynne's Queen Elizabeth, Chuk Iwuji's Buckingham and Gemma Jones spooky appearances as former Queen Margaret that left me spellbound. And hey ho, know what? Sam Mendes didn't stuff people into historical clothes either. He set his show in some modern-clothes neverland and still it was brilliant. I'm bringing this up because the ceaseless arguments about Germany's ridiculous Regietheater so often boil down to "people play historical characters in jeans!" - and while that is true, too, there is just something else at play here, which I think has mostly to do with director "concepts" that bend plays out of shape (and often break them) and a kind of pompous high brow-acting that leaves the audience completely cold, while people here gave it their emotional all and swept you up completely in their rages, tears and despair. And THAT's what good theatre is about. You stagger out of the Old Vic after three and half hours, tired and exhausted but in a good emotionally exhausted way, not from suffering through three hours of boredom. And I've also noticed that both next trips to London have been planned around plays - the unexpected quickie in November, thanks to the much-hoped for return of "Jerusalem" and the planned trip in January to see Eddie Redmayne's Richard II. at the Donmar.