'The Rink' at Southwark Playhouse

Last week we went to see 'The Rink' by Kander & Ebb at Southwark Playhouse. Yes, the same Kander & Ebb that did 'Cabaret' and 'Chicago' and no, I hadn't heard of 'The Rink' either. I now understand why.

Southwark Playhouse has a good track record of putting on little played musicals in recent years and I particularly remember 'Grand Hotel', 'The Life' and 'Pippin'. All well worth seeing (I think we saw 'Grand Hotel' three or four times) with solid production values. And that's the same with 'The Rink' - great cast, great production, good band - but, well, it's just not the greatest show that Kander & Ebb ever did.

It starts off with the demolition crew arriving at the roller rink in some anonymous American east coast seaside resort that's seen better days. The owner has sold up and is leaving for a retirement in Florida when, unexpectedly, her 30 year old daughter turns up out of the blue to throw a spanner in the works with her rose-tinted memories of the place. The owner is the mother but the roller rink was left to both mother and daughter and she has forged her daughter's signature since she's only seen her daughter once since she ran away when she was 16.

We then get the story of their relationship in flashbacks to the daughter's childhood memories of her dad and the reality of the situation from the mother. The daughter runs away to find her father and she does eventually, only to find that he's started a new life with a new family and wants nothing to do with her. The arguments and memories continue and then we find out that the daughter actually has a young daughter of her own and she reconciles things between her mother and grandmother. Happy ending all round. But what a journey to get there.

I liked the production, it was serious and fun by turns and it's quite nicely constructed given the basic material but my problem was and is that I can't remember a single song. I left the theatre thinking that too. Not every song in every musical works and is memorable but there needs to be at least one really.  I can forgive many things for a good song but there weren't really any in this show.

Another thing that sort of turned me off were the costumes, particularly for the 30 year old daughter, Angel. Given Angel's age and the dad going off to fight in Korea after her birth then that places the show sometime in the early-mid '80s, so why is Angel wearing an early '70s tank top and green flared jeans? No-one dressed like that in the '80s, even in America. I know that's a silly point but it doesn't half draw the attention away from the singing and acting and the show when you're sitting there thinking 'that's just so wrong'.

Well done to Caroline O'Connor and to Gemma Sutton at the centre of the production as the mother and daughter. My overall verdict is well done to the cast and crew for their work and well done to Southwark Playhouse for putting it on, but it's a shame the material just isn't that good. Still, it was good to have an opportunity to see it.