'Showboat' at The Crucible, Sheffield

I've never seen 'Showboat' before, either on stage or the films and even though I know one song from the show (let's face it, we *all* know that song) I've never quite grasped the connotations. It's Daniel Evans' last season at The Crucible - and he directed this production - so it was worth hopping on a train and heading to wintry Sheffield for the matinee performance full of oldies and groups of women on a girls' afternoon out.

I didn't really know what to expect but I was sort of expecting Hollywood and Broadway glamour and glitz and, while that's exactly what we got, we also got racism, alcoholism, gambling addiction, an inter-generational story and sacrifice. The business that is show doesn't live in it's own safe little world, it's part of the world we all live in with smiles plastered on the faces.

The show moves along at a good pace, never dwelling on anything for too long. It opens on the docks with bales of cotton being moved before the show boat arrives and we meet the cast of the show in all their teasing glamour, performing scraps of the play to entice in paying customers. We get a glorious version of 'Old Man River' with the stevedore's loading cargo, and, in the end, helping each other, which was quite touching. We then learn from a jealous lover who reports her to the sheriff, that Julie, the star of the show boat is considered black since her mother was black. Her husband cuts her hand and drinks her blood so that he now has 'black blood' in him. This gives Magnolia, the daughter of the captain and Julie's great friend, her big chance to be a riverboat star.  By a strange coincidence, her leading man turns out to be the gambler she'd met earlier on the docks and they fall in love and get married.

The second half moves the story along so that Magnolia and Gaylord (yes, that's his name) are now in Chicago where Gay's gambling and drinking are becoming a problem but they still send their daughter to the convent school. Gaylord leaves and one of the turns from the show boat, Ellie and Frank, turn up to view an apartment that Magnolia is having to leave and they get her an audition at the theatre where Julie works. She's down on her luck, husband long gone and seeking happiness in the bottom of a glass. She hears Magnolia sing and leaves recommending that Magnolia is given the star role. Again, Julie's sacrifice is good for Magnolia without her knowing. Years pass and we're back on the boat again  when Gay turns up, is reunited with Magnolia and sees his grown up daughter. Is it happy ever after? Who knows...

I was very surprised at the power of this musical, it direct confrontation with racism and the dangers of drink and gambling. I've only ever heard 'Old Man River' on variety shows in the 70s, never seen it in context and it's an incredibly powerful song with the men carrying bales of cotton, collapsing with the weight of the bales and sheer weariness while the river keep on flowing. It was a great performance from Emmanuel Kojo as Joe, leading the other lads in a powerful rendition of the song. It got - and deserved - a great ovation from the audience.

Two other performances deserve mention, firstly Rebecca Trehearn as Julie who can pass as white and does so until she's unmasked. She gave a lovely performance as Magnolia's great friend in the first half and a powerful performance as the drunken lush singer in the second half. She has a great voice, clear and powerful but very well controlled. I saw her a couple of years ago in 'City of Angels' at the Donmar and, if anything, her voice is even better.

In the same Donmar production I also saw Sandra Marvin who played Queenie, Joe's wife. I also saw her as singer/dancer in Kate Bush's 'Before The Dawn' show at Hammersmith a couple of years ago. She was great as the queen of the boat, feeding and controlling the men and capturing Joe as her husband. It was lovely to see them, after the passing of the years, still together at the end of the show, keeping things real and giving us the message about what's important in life. Sandra has a powerful voice and a commanding stage presence and I want to see more of her.

The stars of the show are Gina Beck as Magnolia and Michael Xavier as Gaylord. Gina has a great voice and was great as our heroine, easily getting the audience on her side and wanting her marriage to work. She gets some great songs which is more than Michael got. It's an odd role for the male lead - he gets one song near the start and all the others are either duets or ensemble pieces. Michael is a singer and has a great voice but this show doesn't really let him rip. I've seen him in 'Into The Woods' and 'The Pyjama Game' and know he can sing the socks off almost anything.

All in all, this was a great production that does all the cast proud. Colourful, fast-paced and well acted and sung - with some really good voices. I don't know if there any plans for it to go on tour or transfer to London but it should do - people should see this production. I'm pleased I did.

'Hey, Old Friends!' Sondheim at Drury Lane

It's Stephen Sondheim's 85th birthday so the Sondheim Society put together a gala show at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in aid of the charity Silver Line, a telephone helpline for older folks of the silver variety. It was one of those things where you throw together some big names and some littler names and they all put on a show of Sondheim songs. I didn't know a lot of the folks on stage and some of the songs were new to me but it was fun nonetheless.

Various names wandered on and off to introduce the turns with the full orchestra filling the bacl of the stage. We had Julia McKenzie, Millicent Martin, Nicholas Parsons, Anita Dobson and others, all looking very glam.

Anita Harris (who I last saw singing an X-Ray Spex song at Polyfest a couple of years ago) did a song as did Rula Lenska (who will always be a star from 'Rock Follies' to me) along with some dancers jigging around her. Rula still has all that hair and her voice has become more smokey and reminded me a bit of Marianne Faithfull. Millicent Martin did a song and so did Daniel Evans (who I've seen in productions in London and Broadway). There were some lovely voices and some voices that have seen better days but it's good that they still get up there to belt out a song.

Special praise goes out to Bonnie Langford who, in a sparkly almost-nothing costume, danced and sang and didn't get out of breath even when picked up and twirled around by Anton Du Beke. She high kicked 180 degrees and did the splits on stage and got a huge ovation for the non-stop singing and dancing spectacular. Well done Bonnie!

At the end of the first half Ester Rantzen came on to explain what Silver Line was and to tell us the phone number (0800 4708090). At the start of the second half there was a spoken message from Sondheim who's sounding in good health and said he's working on a new show.

My favourite performances were from Lorna Dallas, Haydn Gwynne and Michael Xavier. Lorna sang a touching version of 'In Buddy's Eyes' from 'Follies', a tender love song by a mature person looking back. I've not heard of Lorna before so there's a name I will need to look out for again. Haydn did a lovely version of 'Send In The Clowns' singing to Daniel Evans, gentle and strong by turns. I last saw Haydn in 'Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown', the musical of the Almodovar film. She has a good voice and should do more singing.

The final performance was Michael Xavier's take on 'Being Alive' that kept in the dialogue from the show to help give it context and he was superb. It was a masterclass in how to deliver a song, building and building, with him moving slightly forward on the stage with each verse and that big 'ta-daa' ending having taken the audience along with him. Now, that's skill. I saw him in 'The Pyjama Game' a year or two back but I'll always think of him as the Prince in 'Into The Woods' singing 'Agony' and trying to out-agonise the other prince. He was also the Wolf, of course.

It was a very fun evening and it'll be interesting to see if any of the performances turn up on YouTube. One message I'll take away from this show, though, is to never book tickets in the vertiginous balcony of Drury Lane - never again!

Photos courtesy of Broadway World.com where you can find more.

'The Pajama Game' at the Shaftesbury Theatre

I went to a socialist rally tonight to hear dialectic Marxism and workers' rights and solidarity with the brothers and sisters and what did I get? Songs! And dancing! But, luckily, the striking workers won the argument and capitalism was shown to be corrupt and selfish *fist in the air*.

I went to see 'The Pajama Game' at the Shaftesbury Theatre. I've never seen it before (or the film) so I was coming to it fresh. It's the story of a dispute over wages at the Sleep Tite Pajama Factory embodied by the management and union leads falling in love and singing lovey-dovey songs while industrial relations fail around them.

There isn't much of a plot, really - boy (management) meets girl (union) they argue and fight then declare love at a works picnic then boy sacks girl and the union goes on strike over a 7.5 cent pay increase. Boy settles the strike by getting hold of the boss's secret accounts that shows he's been fiddling the books and pocketing the money and forces the company to give the workers the pay increase and then boy and girl can get back together. Of course, there's a lot more to it than that (but not much). There's a shedful of casual 1950s sexism in the text that, no matter how it's played, still comes through loud and clear. The politics is also quite odd for 1954, so close to the McCarthy show trials and portraying the little lady as the political one in the play (the union leader is clearly just out to have sex with as many union members as possible).

The play opens with the cast coming in from the floor of the theatre as if they're appearing at the gates at work in the morning. Then we have Gary Wilmot (yes, that Gary Wilmot) as the time and motion expert welcoming us to the factory before the stage is again invaded by the workers pushing their sewing machine tables and chairs on stage for the first big scene. The scenes mainly blur between the factory floor and the factory office with an outing to the local park for the annual works picnic, and, in the second half, with 'Hernando's Hideaway' nightclub. As well as the casual sexism there's also casual racism against native Americans with Gary Wilmot dressing as a 'red indian' for his knife throwing act and scalping lines in a later song. It really quite jarred with me.

Every now and then the stage exploded into colour but, in the main, I thought it was a bit drab. A factory is hardly the right setting for an explosion of colour but it's about pyjamas and they're all colours so it can be done. The colour all seemed to come later in the second half of the show. Oh, and our heroine never wears the yellow dress shown in the publicity posters. On the other hand, there's enough movement and vitality to make up for it, with never a dull moment on the stage.

I really liked the leads. It was great to see Gary Wilmot again - the first time in a couple of decades, I think - and he was great fun with great timing. I also really liked Michael Xavier as our hero Sid (who calls a hero Sid?). He has a great voice and it's a delight to see him again - I saw him as one of the princes in 'Into The Woods' at Regent Park a few years ago so it's nice to see his career progressing so that he's now playing the lead in a big West End show. I also liked Joanna Riding as Babe, the union rep who falls in love. She brought a nice feistiness to the part but didn't quite quash the casual sexism.

The sound wasn't terribly good and sometimes the cast were drowned out by the orchestra (maybe someone new was on the sound-desk for that performance?). Despite the sound and the occasional drabness of the stage, there was something about the production that kept a smile on my face for most of the performance. I don't know what it was but I was conscious that I was smiling. And not just for the daft 'Hernando's Hideaway' section.

It's on for another couple of months so see it if you can - it's not the best musical ever and there are some problems with it but it was great fun and a lovely way to spend a few hours. Solidarity!

PS: Pyjamas are spelled with a 'y' in British English. A minor annoyance having that rogue 'a' in the word on the poster...