Nicole schreibt...

What better way to start a whole new decade than by going to good old London Town? But first off some architecture with the train stopping so perfectly for me for once, that I could take this snap of Santiago Calatrava's bank-breaking new roof for Liege Guillemins station (not so new anymore now, but quite the fuss back then). The trip was straightforward as it should be and after dumping my stuff at the Travelodge in Bethnal Green, I headed for the bright lights of the West End.
My first show was also the most oddball show I didn't really know what to make of. Titled &Juliet, it's a story-within-a-story in which Anne Hathaway (Cassidy Janson) disagrees with Shakespeare's ending of Romeo and Juliet and takes it upon herself to rewrite the story. She has Juliet survive and head for Paris with her trusty Nurse and a friend called May to have fun. Naturally Shakespeare (the hilarious Oliver Tompsett) isn't too pleased with the rewrites and sends Romeo after Juliet. While I enjoyed the premise, what made me hesitate was the fact that no original music was written for this. Instead the back catalogue of Swedish songwriter/producer Max Martin was plundered. He's the man behind all the godawful 90s pop trash that killed my interest in pop music back then with its never-ending samey-sounding annoying beats, including many of the hits by pop princesses like Britney Spears and Katy Perry. Luckily he also did write a few songs I like such as Bon Jovi's party banger "It's my life" and Celine Dion's "That's the way it is" and I've rarely heard so much almost entirely positive feedback on a new show as for this, so of course I got curious enough to want to check it out and form my own judgement.
Well, it's a tricky one. Full marks for a gorgeous fantastic staging that should win set designer Soutra Gilmour and costume designer Paloma Young every award going. The story zipped along speedily and while the music just isn't my bag, it also didn't actively bother me. In fact there was one hilarious number in the second act in which the male leads all pretend to be a spoof boyband with the perfect looks, attitude and choreography of the Backstreet Boys and their ilk, that I really loved. The hard-working cast was amazing too, with Arun Blair-Mangat (May) getting to sing the best and most moving song "I'm not a girl, not yet a woman", though to my own surprise the one cast member I liked most was the one I had expected to like least. Jordan Luke Gage had become the bane of my Bat fandom when he took over Strat after Andrew's departure and I didn't like his performance at all. To quote a friend "that Strat looks like he'd rather go shoe shopping with Raven than lead an underground rebellion". But here, as Romeo, he found the perfect part for himself and was so utterly adorable that I couldn't not love him. I wish I could say the same for his Juliet, but here the problem starts. I know it's not the performer. I saw Miriam-Teak Lee in "On the Town" a few years ago and she was fantastic. She IS certainly a fab performer but her tall athletic sassy Ghetto Queen Juliet just didn't work for me here. There was nothing vulnerable, sweet or curious about this Juliet and as a result I just couldn't care for her (although I did like the genius idea of have her sing Britney's "Oops, I did it again" when she thought her new beau Francois had died). And for all the writers' attempts to tap into the woke zeitgeist with having a black sassy Juliet and a non-binary lead character in May, they still weren't able to write a Juliet, who was happy to remain a free independent woman striking out on her own... nooooo.... she had to end up back with Romeo. Which jarred all the more here since Miriam's Juliet seemed so much more mature (and indeed older) than Jordan's goofy teen Romeo. So ultimately... it was an entertaining fun evening and if you actually like the 90s pop, you will probably LOVE it. Personally I might like to see it again with another Juliet (when seeing Six the next day I couldn't help thinking Zara MacIntosh would be a perfectly adorable Juliet), but all the same I won't be sad if I don't get to see it again.
The odd christmas schedule was at its end and funny enough it was Girl from the North Country, a show I had considered seeing anyway, that offered an extra Friday matinee. I decided to dayseat for it and rocked up at 9am, only to find myself alone until 9.45 and by the time the box office opened at 10am, we were three, so I felt rather foolish. But you never know and front row for £20 is not to be sniffed at. As I was feeling fairly knackered, I returned to the hotel for a brief nap, then back to the Gielgud Theatre. This one is (yet another) jukebox musical, using the music of Bob Dylan, notabene the man who won a Nobel prize for his lyrics. My own very thin connection to him are the songs he made popular during the 60s and 70s peace movement of which I only just caught the tail end with songs like "Blowin' in the Wind" being sung at choir and school. For some reason though, playwright Conor McPherson had decided to set this story in Duluth, Minnesota, during the Big Depression of the early 30s and virtually everyone is bogged down with massive problems. Frankly, it made for very heavy-going two and a half hours and the only ones I truly found myself caring about were boxer-on-a-run Joe Scott (Shaq Taylor) and pregnant Marianne (Gloria Obianyo, for me the best performance and a girl to look out for in future!). A main reason for wanting to see this had been Simon Gordon, another Ex-Strat, but sadly the Ensemble was criminally underused most of the time. So curiously, this was quite the complete opposite of &Juliet: Gorgeous music with brilliant lyrics, let down by a godawfully depressing script (Spoiler: Virtually everyone dies at the end, because Big Depression). This trip was starting to seem like a damp squib, but luckily the Queens were here to save the day. Six, the crazy re-telling of the stories of Henry VIII's six wives by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss has certainly been the biggest sensation to come out of British musical theatre in the last years, moving quickly from Cambridge via the Edinburgh Fringe to London (and onwards to Broadway and beyond), while amassing a devoted fan-following. On first hearing the album, all contemporary pop music modelled on the likes of Beyonce and Rihanna, I just thought, "OMG, just nope, I rather be old than get into this", but then upon paying more attention to the utterly brilliant lyrics I fell hopelessly in love with the show. Where Juliet just tries to tick woke boxes, this feels completely natural and perfect in how it embraces diversity (not just racial diversity, but also having some fuller-bodied girls on stage) and especially feminism without being frothy or aggressive about it. The icing on the cake was when Danielle Steers, my utter favourite from Bat days, joined the London cast, but as luck would have it, she was down with sinus infection this day. They were actually so short of performers that they had to haul one girl from the current UK Tour cast in to make up the numbers. Even so, I was happy to finally see the show live and the energy in the small shoddy Arts Theatre was incredible.
I can't single one out, I loved them all - original cast members Jarneia Richard-Noel as Catherine of Aragon and Natalie Paris as Jane Seymour, alternates Cherelle Jay as Anne Boleyn, Zara MacIntosh as Katherine Howard and Hana Stewart as Catherine Parr and Jennifer Caldwell from the UK Tour as Anna of Cleves. I can't even name a favourite song either - Jane Seymour gets to sing the gorgeous ballad "Heart of Stone" (modelled after Adele's big weepies), while Katherine Howard's "All you wanna do" sure has the biggest impact as she starts as chirpy flirty ingenue in her song but grows more angry and desperate with every man who took advantage of her. I also loved the fans' adoration for sassy Anne of Cleves, who didn't give two fucks that Henry rejected her for being too ugly and instead lived it up as Queen of her own castle in "Get Down" - if I had a teenage daughter, I would be so happy if she got into the Six fandom and these strong, cool, sassy ladies. I don't think I'd need to see it again and again Bat-style, but it's the first new show in years I've really become enthusiastic about and would definitely see again and feels like so much more worth the hype than all the stuff having come in or threatening to come in from Broadway.
Saturday, following a leisurely morning at the hotel and lunch with a friend, I was finally able to tick a double off my list: The Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, which I had wanted to see for a long time (both in terms of London Theatres and Famous Opera Houses in the World). I don't get to see half as many classical ballets as I would want to, but this time the stars aligned and I could book a ticket for Coppelia, paying a rather reasonable £70 for the front row on the third (out of five) tiers, cheap due to a supposed restricted view that wasn't bothersome at all. I'm not an expert on ballet, so far be it from me to judge the fabulous dancers. Nothing like classical ballet to make you feel like a fat clumsy oaf. Unqualified opinion though: Cesar Corrales is the hottest Mexican export since they let Gael Garcia Bernal loose on the world. It was a lovely afternoon, great to switch the brain off and just revel in the beauty of the dance and of course it was great to finally see the Royal Opera itself. Not surprisingly it was full of kids (among them many aspiring ballerinas I suppose) but also in general quite a different audience from most of the West End and I loved the exhibitions in the foyers and the view from above over Covent Garden. Must do this again. Last show and pre-booked ages ago to grab one of the cheapies at the outer sides of the stalls (which were perfect for £57, especially for seeing Mary's final flight over the audience) was Mary Poppins at the Prince Edward. So confession time: The first time I tried to watch the movie ages ago, I found it so unbearably saccharine, I turned it off after 20 minutes. And when the stage show arrived, I didn't care for it at all, so let it go by me everywhere - London, New York, Germany and Holland. Fast forward several years and having the movie for "free" at my Netflix finger tips, I gave it another go and suddenly liked it quite a bit. So I kicked myself for missing the stage show completely - but rescue was on hand in the shape of Cameron Mackintosh, who did me a double favour: Not just bringing Mary Poppins back, but casting the adorable Charlie Stemp in the male lead as Bert. He had been amazing in Half a Sixpence and I think with this part now he's really firmly established himself as a no.1 leading man, full of charisma and a first class dancer (who can still belt out a tune when hanging upside down from the proscenium arch). Not a weak link in the cast otherwise, too, with old favourites like Claire Moore and Joseph Millson back on stage and the charming Zizi Strallen (how many Strallens -are- there?!) leading the cast as Mary Poppins herself. Light-weight fun entertainment that made time fly by and I'm really glad to have finally seen this show after all. And so this trip ended on a happy note after all with three great shows in total, one okay show and one meh show. And here, because why not, the Six Megamix: