Nicole schreibt...

It's been an extraordinarly busy season in London with tons of stuff to see and despite four trips in five months I still had to select and leave a few by the roadside this winter (sorry, ALW and Woman in White). After the December trip with the mother in tow I returned once more now to at least catch up on some more brand-new shows. Among those the National Theatre's production of Pinocchio in collaboration with Disney and using the songs from the old animated Disney movie. When it was announced it was hyped up like it would be the next great thing in London, so I decided to be quick and nab one of the £15 front stalls seats at the Lyttleton Theatre. Then it opened and attracted lots of negative commentary, which made me consider tearing my ticket up. However, I had no alternative really screaming "see me!" and in the end it's always best to form your own opinion anyway. So here I was on Friday evening after a hassle-free Eurostar journey and a stroll through the West End and found myself glad that I bothered. The biggest problem, in my opinion, is the material itself, that perhaps belongs in the trash can of literature. Carlo Collodi wrote Pinocchio in 19th century as a cautionary tale for children to keep them in line and remind them to worship their parents and don't act out. This preachiness is never far, with Pinocchio, the wooden doll whom Gepetto carves out out of a block of wood, being a pretty unlikeable utter brat. In this adaptation Joe Idris-Roberts gave it his best as a very chipper energetic Pinocchio (who looked like he'd be at home as Harry Potter) and Jiminy Cricket (played and puppeteered by Audrey Brisson) appears throughout as his very talkative conscience. But he's still essentially unlikeable and this supposed musical makes the crucial mistake to leave us without a single good song until at least half an hour in when Pinocchio starts into his journey and the wily Fox (David Langham) leads him to join Stromboli's circus. I was also not sold on the idea to have the grown ups like Gepetto and Stromboli appear as huge puppet in relation to Pinocchio's size (to make the normal-sized actor look like a little doll). The puppets were clumsy and static and to be honest, I think they must have been pretty terrifying for children in the audience. These negatives aside, I was still quite entertained. People will probably have been disappointed if they were expecting a big glitzy American Disney spectacle, while this here was rooted in darker European traditions - the Grimm's fairy tales come to mind and Italian Commedia dell'Arte. There were some really gorgeous numbers in the circus, on the fairground and when Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket dive down into the whale to free Gepetto and of course the lovely finale when the Blue Fairy (Annette McLaughlin) sings the famous "When you wish upon a star" and turns Pinocchio into a real boy. When he embraces the human-sized actor Gepetto at last with the huge puppet gone, at least that falls into place too. For me it was a perfectly fine production, "very National Theatre" and reminiscent of War Horse and I don't regret going, especially for £15. The front row seat was wonderful, too, with Jiminy Cricket beeing puppeteered right in front of my nose a few time, so that was interesting to watch. For me it's the material that's the problem and no production could solve hat. With no one to meet on this trip and nothing in the way of exhibitions calling for my attention, I couldn't resist the siren call of the winter sales on Oxford Street on Saturday morning and spent a few hours spending money before it was time for the next show: "Everybody's talking about Jamie" arrived with great fanfare from a short Sheffield run and even friends, who otherwise wouldn't agree on the time of day, were suddenly unified in their love for this show. I had also enjoyed the concept cast recording from the get-go and with ticket sales picking up, I decided to not even bother with a day seat but book ahead - getting myself a box seat for only the second time since I've started theatre-travelling to London in the process. The musical is based on the BBC docu "Jamie - drag queen at 16" about real life Jamie Campbell from Durham, who had decided he wanted to attend prom night at school in a dress. The musical relocates the story to Sheffield, gives him another last name and fleshes out his friends, but otherwise sticks close to reality, especially in the tight relationship between Jamie and his supportive mother Margaret. Some had remarked on how little adversity Jamie faces and that "he's had it easy because everyone is supporting him" - which might be true to some extent, but isn't that true for most of our ambitions? So often it's not outside circumstances (although we love to blame them) but "The wall in my head" which Jamie so fittingly sings. John McCrea does a fantastic job as Jamie, wavering between a bubbly confident personality who knows absolutely for certain what he wants, and those moments of nerve-wracking self-doubt and misery, when you just want to hug him, especially after the confrontation with his unsupportive father. Jamie is surrounded by wonderful people though, first and foremost his mother Margaret who raises him alone. I had seen and loved Josie Walker many years ago in ALW's Beautiful Game and it was lovely to see her again at last and in such a wonderful part with two great solo songs, "If I met myself again" and the fabulous "He's my boy" late in second act which she duly knocked out of the park. There's her quirky best friend (and Jamie's second mother) Ray, played by Mina Anwar who I remember from "The Thin Blue Line" on telly years ago and of course Jamie's wonderful friend Pritti, possibly the first time ever a young muslim girl in hijab is pictured as a bright, energetic, wonderful friend and not some sort of victim and Lucie Shorthouse stole everyone's hearts with "It means beautiful". Sure, everyone who's been to a real school, knows that there isn't one single slightly evil bully (Luke Baker's Dean) who even comes round in the end, but clumps of snotty bullies, while most others don't give a shit for anyone's problems but their own, but it's nice to believe for just these two hours that there's actually young people rallying around Jamie's cause and being supportive. The audience ate it all up, too, I can't remember another show where so many lines were greeted with loud laughs and applause throughout. It really is such a gem of a sweet little show that sends you out on the street with a big smile and wanting to return to Jamie's world soon. With nothing much left to do afterwards, I killed time first at Pret, then at Costa until I could head down to the Trafalgar Studios for the last show, "The Grinning Man", which had arrived from Bristol's Old Vic. Based on Victor Hugo's pretty much unreadable novel, it's the tale of Gwynplaine (Grinpayne in the musical for some reason), a hideously disfigured boy who, along with a blind baby girl called Dea, finds refuge with wandering showman Ursus and his wolf Homo (who's been renamed Mojo in the show). Dea and Grinpayne grow up close like siblings and Dea, seeing only with her heart, loves Grinpayne dearly and he loves her in an innocent fashion, but then fate and hormones intervene in the shape of saucy Duchess Josiana (the wonderful Amanda Wilkin) and eventually the truth of Grinpayne's heritage and how he came by his disfigurement emerge. It has a lot of common with "Notre Dame de Paris", Hugo's other tale of a monster with a heart and this great little musical heightens the sense of the absurd, the bizarre and the morbid. And despite the somewhat depressing subject, it rejoices in its own delicious black humour with Julie Atherton as Queen Angelica stealing every scene she's in. Louis Maskell as Grinpayne holds the show together, carrying it well and managing all that despite only the upper half of his face being visible. If I had one complaint it's Sanne den Besten as Dea, as I had pictured her far more frail, slim and fairy-like in the book, but it's a minor irritation and not the actress's fault. "The Grinning Man" is definitely not as accessible as "Jamie" but it's amazing little piece that just dares to be different with great inventive stage sets, quirky costumes and a handful of decent songs along the way. Oh and a rather scary but very well puppeted wolf. I think it's too weird to become a big mainstream success, but I do hope it will complete the intended longer run at Trafalgar Studios - it deserves to. Seeing three brand-new shows on this trip now was a fabulous way to end this busy season and with these three, plus "Romantics Anonymous" before that and the quirky little "Adrian Mole" musical in September, I do think London has finally found its mojo again when it comes to producting fresh interesting new work (and surely it's not accidental that three of them first opened outside London and the fourth in a small theatre outside the West End). For now I'm a bit "done" with London and need a longer break, but then I'll be back in May (and then some!) when the bats are let lose in the Dominion Theatre and it's time to rock...