Nicole schreibt...

The first trip of a new era after what felt like a slightly longer break and with several new shows in town. Yet I didn't even try to see all the new big musicals, instead opting for a rather oddball mix that started at the Young Vic in Southwark on Thursday evening with Jesus Hopped The A-Train - one of the rare occasions where I was drawn in by the title alone, never mind that Stephen Adly Guirgis is, in my opinion, one of the most interesting contemporary American playwrights. This one is set on Rikers Island, New York's infamous prison island, where new inmate Angel, arrested for shooting a cult leader in the ass, meets older inmate Lucius, murderer of eight people, who's fighting extradition to Florida, where the death sentence awaits him. In the meantime he's found religion, but Angel is having none of it... initially. The play deals with all the big questions of faith, guilt and redemption, played out on a nearly empty stage, laid out as one long traverse with the audience on either side. It even finds some humour in its rather grim subject and the play zipped along nicely at 100 minutes without an interval, feeling at times like a typical American prison drama on TV. All praise belongs to the fabulous cast, led by Ukweli Roach as Angel and Oberon K.A. Adjepong as Lucius, joind by Dervla Kirwan as Angel's lawyer Mary Jane and Joplin Sibtain as evil prison guard Valdez (who has to remind us of Lucius' crimes before we start feeling all to sympathetic towards him). Since I had dragged my mother along (initially to take her to see proper Bat after the Oberhausen mess), we spent Friday morning shopping before an afternoon of relaxation at the hotel pool/sauna. I introduced her to a cheeky Nando's, before it was time to see our first show together. I had wanted her to see the wonderful Everybody's talking about Jamie anyway and my own interest in a return visit rose by a million when Layton Williams was announced as new Jamie. He had already blown me away as Angel in the recent UK-Tour of Rent and he didn't disappoint me here either, in fact I liked him better than original Jamie John McCrea, who had been both a tiny bit too old and too camp for me. Layton just got it exactly right, looking far more like a 16-year old school boy still trying to figure out who he is and who he wants to be. And what a stage presence in one so young! Sadly his new Mom Rebecca McKennis was no match for the fabulous Josie Walker last year in her two big songs. Shane Ritchie, who had taken over as Hugo aka former drag queen Loco Chanelle may be known as a soap star to most now, but I still remember seeing him as Danny in Grease many many years ago. Ah well, we all get older. Overall, it was still a fabulous show, full of energy, great songs and a huge heart, so I'm definitely glad I went again (and after sitting in a box the first time, it also made quite a difference to see the show from the front now!). My mother had decided to go and visit Madame Tussauds on Saturday morning and I really didn't feel like tagging along, though my first and only visit was way way long ago on a school trip (!). I rather just spent a quiet few hours in the hotel again before heading out to the West End on my own. Matinee for the day was Berberian Sound Studio at the Donmar Warehouse, based on Peter Strickland's horror movie of the same name. It had been an entirely hormone-based booking as dashing Ex-D'Artagnan Luke Pasqualino made his stage debut in this. Well, someone could have told me the chap would turn up for all of five minutes in the play! Not even the tight shirt made up for that. Nonetheless it was well worth the visit as the Donmar's size made for a perfect transformation into a dingy Italian sound studio, where English sound engineer Gilderoy is meant to help with the sound on an Italian "giallo" movie (rather questionable and misogynistic schlocky horror movies in which females will usually meet a sticky end). Gilderoy is very much a fish out of water, but gets a crash course in 70's gender politics (and presumably in Italian as well, which was spoken a lot on stage). The atmosphere was great in the small theatre and there were quite some fascinating sound effects being created live on stage by the two Massimos, Tom Espiner and Hemi Yeroham. The play belonged to Tom Brooke as Gilderoy though and the lovely Italian ladies Eugenia Caruso and Lara Rossi as the main voice artists in the studio. The whole thing lasted as long as the movie (90 mins) and despite young Luke's far too short appearance, was definitely an afternoon well spent. I met up with the mother again to have a lovely Indian dinner (which ended with a free dessert since they had forgotten to bring ours) before heading to our last show together: Come From Away, fresh from Broadway. It had an interesting genesis, starting out as a small workshop production in Ontario in 2012. Creators Irene Sankoff and David Hein had visited the small Canadian town of Gander in 2011 to witness the commemorations of the 10th anniversary of 9/11, the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. American airspace was abruptly closed after the attacks, leaving several transatlantic flights literally stranded in the air. Gander Airport, on Newfoundland, had played an important role as a re-fuelling stop when commercial aviation just got going but ever since jets could fly between Europe and the US without re-fuelling half way, fallen into oblivion. Now the oversized airport was the perfect place for a total of 38 aircraft to land and park until US airspace would re-open - leaving the 10,000 or so inhabitants of Gander to deal with roughly 7,000 passengers from all over the world. Their stories and their kindness towards the 'come from aways' (a Newfie term for non-locals) formed the backbone of the musical. It touched a nerve wherever it was performed, making its way from La Jolla via Seattle, Washington and Toronto to Broadway and now finally to London. On the surface there isn't much to it, a barebones stage-sets consisting mostly of chairs, a cast of 12 performing several roles (most double as one Gander local and one passenger) and folksy Newfoundland music (itself very much inspired by Irish-Gaelic music, there was even a Bodhran in evidence). But there's just something about the basic human kindness shown to these stranded confused scared people who are all dealing with the incredible shock of the terrorist attacks (brought home so sadly by Hannah (Cat Simmons) who can't reach her son, a firefighter in New York City), that goes so much deeper than most musical plots. Perhaps also because none of us will ever forget 9/11 and the days that followed and because most of us have been on flights at some point and could have been at the wrong time at the wrong place, relying on the kindness of strangers (Point in case: Among the flights stranded in Gander was Lufthansa LH400 Frankfurt - New York, which I'll be on myself next month...). The characters are also so well drawn, the "two Kevins" (Davin Shannon and Jonathan Andrew Hume), the budding love between Texan Diane (Helen Hobson) and awkward Englishman Nick (Robert Hands), caring locals Beulah (Jenna Boyd), Bonnie (Mary Doherty) and mayor Claude (Clive Carter) and of course the stand-out, Rachel Tucker as Captain Beverly Bass, the first female captain in aviation history, whose "Me and the Sky" isn't only the best song in the show but also finally a song where a female gets to sing about her career and ambitions instead of whining about a man. Come From Away is not a show I would need to re-visit several times or even listen to regularly, but it's a lovely little gem that - much like Jamie - warms the cockles with its touching story and strong community feeling, something that feels like it's truly needed in these dire days. And so another worthwhile trip to London ended on a fabulous note and now for a longer break until summer while I go and haunt the American cousins across the pond instead...