A Decade of Musicals 2010-19

The end of the decade is a good time to look back at theatre trips over the last ten years and assess which were the best musicals I've seen. I saw a lot of musicals over the decade and many were good, very good indeed, but didn't have the certain something to get it into this list of favourites. So, in chronological order, here they are...

'Hair' @ The Gielgud Theatre 2010

I first saw 'Hair' in New York on the eve of Snowmageddon in February 2010 and, luckily, virtually the whole company transferred to London for a season at the Gielgud Theatre over the summer of 2010. I saw this joyous musical several times, getting up on the stage to dance with the hippies at the end. Gavin Creel, Caissie Levy, Will Swenson, Alison Case, Kacie Sheik and all those spaced out hippies singing and dancing their hearts out every night was fabulous. I still listen to the cast recording regularly.

'South Pacific' @ The Barbican 2011

I first saw 'South Pacific' on the evening of Snowmageddon in New York in February 2010 and remember floating down Broadway from Lincoln Centre on waves of a tropical love story between Nellie and Emile. I bought the cast recording with Kelli O'Hara singing (the original Nellie) and listen to it regularly. That production transferred to the Barbican for a short season before going on tour so I had to see it.

'The Color Purple' @ Menier Chocolate Factory 2013

This musical introduced me to the fabulous Cynthia Erivo as Celie, the central character in the play. Great acting and an astonishing voice coming out of Cynthia and a great cast generally - I thought their singing voices were so much better that the actors on the cast recording from America. I saw Cythia the following year in the all-woman 'Henry IV' at the Donmar and then in 'Songs For A New World' in 2015 and then she went off to reprise her role as Celie on Broadway and now she's been nominated for two Oscars...

'A Chorus Line' @ The London Palladium 2013

I slightly surprised myself by having 'A Chorus Line' in my top of the decade list but it was a great production. I've never liked the film (or seen it all the way through ) so I came to this production quite new since it's rarely performed - it needs a big stage and that's what the Palladium gives you. Scarlett Strallen played Cassie who utters the immortal line, 'God, I'm a dancer and dancers dance!'.

'Grand Hotel' @ Southwark Playhouse 2015

I first saw 'Grand Hotel' at the Donmar Warehouse in 2004 and fell in love with it's tale of 1930s Germany, Berlin, love and escape. Julian Ovendon played the Baron, Daniel Evans as Mr Kringelein and Mary Elizabeth Mastranatonio as the ballerina. The Southwark production made me fall in love with the musical all over again. Scott Garnham was the Baron, Victoria Serra was Flaemmchen and Valerie Cutko as the maid.

'Kinky Boots' @ The Adelphi Theatre 2015

'Kinky Boots' is the musical of the film of the same name, a tale of friendship and understanding and how red is the colour of sex and you can never have too much heel. I first saw it in preview but had to go back to see it again, a feel-good show with a happy ending, ideal to see after a hard week at work and let your imagination loose.

'Xanadu' @ Southwark Playhouse 2015

Another play I first saw on Broadway before it eventually got a London premier at Southwark Playhouse, 'Xanadu' tells the tale of the 1980s film of the same name with Olivia Newton-John in the main role. The musical is so much better than the film since it's played entirely for laughs, poking affectionate fun at the film and at the '80s, great songs by ELO, sparkles and love (obviously) plus hundreds of disco glitter balls. What more could you ask for? I saw it multiple times.

'The Threepenny Opera' @ The National Theatre 2016

I never thought I'd have a Brecht show in a list of favourites but I loved this production of 'The Threepenny Opera' at the National Theatre, with it's tale of sex and violence, crime and love. It was a new translation by Simon Stephens set in an imaginary time in London at the time of the King's jubilee. Rory Kinnear played Mack the Knife, Haydn Gwynne as Mrs Peachum, Rosalie Craig as Polly (aka Pirate Jenny) and Nick Holder as a menacing Peachum. I loved the wooden rotating set and can't help wonder how much brown paper they got through.

'Follies' @ The National Theatre 2017

There are many ways to do a show and this was a monster of a show, with a huge cast and set, glamour and glitz and the plain awfulness of the 1970s costumes, led by stellar performances by Imelda Staunton and Janie Dee. I loved the simple storytelling and having the young characters on stage whenever their older counterparts took the lead. Failed marriages, disappointing lives, happy lives, depression and almost madness, such a colourful show with some very powerful songs.

'Hamilton' @ The Victoria Palace Theatre 2018

'Hamilton' was laden with so much hype from it's Broadway run when it finally landed in Victoria that it couldn't possibly live up to it but you know what? It did. I avoided all reviews and avoided hearing the cast recording so I could experience it with fresh eyes and ears and was rightly rewarded for my efforts. The thing that really impressed me was the pace and movement in the show - it was never still. Well done people.

'Caroline. or Change' @ Hampstead Theatre 2018

A show I saw purely because Sharon D Clarke was in it, first up at Hampstead and then again when it transferred to the Playhouse. The story of a maid in the south of the USA in the '60s with civil rights going on in the background but Caroline's life revolves around the washing machine, the transistor radio, her children and the white Jewish family she works for. I've seen Sharon in various things over the years and you always get a great performance from her but her big song at the end of this play is truly a show-stopper, a masterclass in how to deliver a song. I'll remember that for a long time.

'Fiddler on the Roof' @ The Playhouse Theatre 2019

I've seen the film (an early '70's Sunday afternoon staple) and a version with Harvey Fierstein as the lead on Broadway years ago but this new production brought the show right up to date. It's a tale of minorities trying to blend in without losing their culture, of forced migration, of what happens to families forced apart. It felt so right for the times. The set spilled off into the audience which was probably much more powerful in the small surroundings of the Menier Chocolate Factory where it was first performed before transferring to the Playhouse.

'The Bridges of Madison County' @ Menier Chocolate Factory 2019

I've never seen the film this musical is based on so I was seeing it afresh when I took my seat at the Choccy Factory in the summer of 2019 - I'd booked it to see Jenna Russell in the lead role. It's the story of Francesca, a war bride who raises her family in small town America and then, out of nowhere, she meets the love of her life but it can't be. It's a tale of joy and sadness, of accepting, of memories, and Jenna was great as our heroine. I loved it.

There could have been so many other entries into this list but these are the stand-outs for me. I couldn't limit it to a top ten since they all deserve a mention. I wonder what joys the 2020s will bring?

'Blues in the Night' at the Kiln Theatre, Kilburn

Last week we went to see 'Blues In The Night' at The Kiln theatre in Kilburn (formerly the Tricycle Theatre, a much better name). It's not one of my regular haunts but I wanted to see Sharon D Clarke in her latest role as a blues singer in a boarding hotel back in the day with a score made up of classic blues songs from the canon. It's a sort of review show with songs by different people pulled together and worked on to tell the stories of three women and one man who seems to have something to do with each of them. But what?

The play is set in a boarding hotel and the stage is et with three separate rooms with a bar where the band play. The rooms are on risers around the stage and we meet an old blues singer, a woman of the world down on her luck and a young girl disappointed in love. The four-piece band play in the bar with a compere who visits the women at different times and for different reasons, maybe to seduce one or to deliver heroine to another. They each sing songs that illustrate their position and are surrounded by things in their rooms that show their position - the blues singer is waiting to make it big again, the women surrounded by furs that she gradually sells for drugs and the young lady by her one good frock. And the man? Well, he's the one with the drugs.

I quite like this kind of show since you're not constrained by the book or plot, the songs tell you enough to build your own picture of who these characters are and make up their back stories. I do that anyway. The old blues singer has seen it all over the years and is straight forward and the mother of the place, the young lady has clearly had a failed love affair but what about the worldly women with her furs? She was someone's mistress clearly, but what happened for her to end up in this low rent hotel and selling her furs for the next fix? I think she's the one who's back story I wanted to explore most.

The four main characters all have about the same time to shine and sing but the whole thing was dominated by Sharon D Clarke's presence - which is fine by me. Clive Rowe played the man, Debbie Kurup the lady and Gemma Sutton the young girl and they all shined at different times but it must've been a bit daunting to share the stage with Ms Clarke. She was on blistering form.

It would be good if the show transferred into the West End, that would probably galvanise the rest of the cast to up their game a bit to try to challenge Ms Clarke (and I don't think she'd mind in the slightest). I'd certainly go to see it again.

The Plastic Bag Awards 2018

The awards season is upon us again and it's no different in the Plastic Bag. It's been a very difficult years for the independent judging panel but, hey, that's their problem not mine. So here we have it, the Baggies 2018! The categories and nominees are:

Best Shakespeare

It's been a good year for seeing Shakespeare plays, particularly plays I haven't seen performed before like 'The Two Noble Kinsmen' and 'The Merry Wives of Windsor'.  The 'biggies' were produced as usual and I liked the Globe's version of 'Hamlet' with Michelle Terry as our prince and her bringing new life to Shakespeare's poetry. The nominees are:

Macbeth @ National Theatre
The Two Noble Kinsmen @ Shakespeare's Globe
Hamlet @ Shakespeare's Globe
The Merry Wives of Windsor @ RSC Stratford upon Avon
Anthony & Cleopatra @ National Theatre

The winner is 'Anthony & Cleopatra' at the National Theatre for the great performances and great staging. The two leads were excellent, particularly Sophie Okonedo, and I also really liked the two main supporting actresses of Gloria Obianyo and Georgia Landers.

Best Drama

A bumper year in the theatre with revivals and new works and I'm pleased to see that three new plays have made it into the nominations. I saw 'The Humans' in Boston earlier in the year and was pleased to see it again at Hampstead. 'The Lehman Trilogy' was a mammoth production with three actors and many, many words telling the story of the rise of the Lehman brothers in America. On the other hand, we had some great revivals of Oscar Wilde plays and my favourite was 'Lady Windermere's Fan'. The nominees are:

Red - Wyndham's Theatre
Lady Windermere's Fan - Vaudeville Theatre
The Lehman Trilogy - National Theatre
The Human's - Hampstead Theatre
The Inheritance (parts 1 & 2) - Noel Coward Theatre

The winner in this category must go to 'The Inheritance', a great piece of writing and acting over six hours on stage and spread across two performances. I never knew where the play was heading but it was a cohesive narrative and a thoroughly believable tale of modern life. Well done to everyone involved in the play.

Best Musical

It was a a bit of a mixed year on the musicals front with big names and new productions, some having a lot of hype built around them and not always living up to expectations. 'Caroline, or Change' was outstanding with its serious themes alongside a fun production and 'The King and I' was a glory from start to finish. The nominees are:

Caroline, or Change @ Hampstead Theatre
Hamilton @ Victoria Palace Theatre
The King and I @ London Palladium
Company @ Gielgud Theatre
Hadestown @ National Theatre

The winner is 'Hamilton' for it's novel approach, great songs and unbridled energy. Be prepared for a series of copycat musicals in the next few years until the next big thing arrives.

Best Entertainment

This category is for staged events that don't necessarily fall into any other categories. To show the diversity there's a great interview with Linton Kwei Johnson followed by Linton reciting some of his poetry; Zippo's Circus in a big tent; Bianca del Rio swearing all over the shop; a production of dance, music and words telling the tale of Elizabeth I;  and a political dance show by Scottee about what it's like to be a fat bloke.

Linton Kwesi Johnson @ Queen Elizabeth Hall
Zippo's Circus @ Figges Marsh
Elizabeth @ The Barbican
Bianca del Rio @ Hammersmith Odeon
Fat Blokes @ Purcell Room

This is a difficult category to judge since, by its nature the nominees are all very different, but the Baggie goes to Scottee's 'Fat Blokes' and their brave performances, sharing their personal stories, dancing and making the audience laugh as well as cry. Well done chaps!

Best Dance

I saw lots of dance this year, from experimental modern dance in Florence to a version of 'Romeo & Juliet' choreographed by John Cranko in Boston. The Royal Ballet feature strongly in their productions at the Royal Opera House with their one act ballets in triple bills as well as full length ballets. The classic 'Swan Lake' was updated by Liam Scarlett and Matthew Bourne updated his own great version of that tale.

Romeo & Juliet @ Boston Opera House
Manon @ Royal Opera House
Swan Lake @ Royal Opera House
Les Patineurs @ Royal Opera House
Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake @ Sadler's Wells

The winner is the Royal Ballet's new production of 'Swan Lake' which was a wonder to see. Great dancing, great staging, some beautiful scenes and the tragedy at the end. A very spectacular and engaging production.

Best Gig

I didn't go to many gigs this year but they were all very good and special in their own way. Kim Wilde was touring her latest album with as great band and stage show, Suzanne Vega delivered a set of hits and the Human League with synthtastic.

Kim Wilde @ The Sage, Gateshead
Suzanne Vega @ Queen Elizabeth Hall
The Dresden Dolls @ The Troxy, London
The Human League @ Hammersmith Odeon, London

The award for best gig must go to the Dresden Dolls for their first London gig in12 years, full of old songs and some new songs with the tease of a new record.

Best Performance

This award is for that one-off performance by a particular individual which could be acting, singing, reciting, just something a little bit special. Kelli O'Hara was magnificent as Anna Leonowens with her marvellous voice, particularly touching when singing 'Hello Young Lovers'. Jennifer Saunders was perfect as the Duchess of Berwick in 'Lady Windermere's Fan', coming out at the start of each act with the servants to do a comedy song. David Troughton was a formidable Falstaff, all fat and half-cut, especially when he demanded there was no pullet sperm in his drink. And Sophie Okonedo as Cleopatra delivering the Queen's final speech was spot on, she is an imperious queen, not some mere courtier.

Sharon D Clarke for 'Caroline, or Change' @ Hampstead Theatre and The Playhouse
Kelli O'Hara for 'The King and I' @ London Palladium
Jennifer Saunders for 'Lady Windermere's Fan' @ Vaudeville Theatre
David Troughton for 'The Merry Wives of Windsor' @ RSC Stratford
Sophia Okonedo for 'Anthony & Cleopatra' @ National Theatre

The award has to go to Sharon D Clarke for her blistering final song in 'Caroline. or Change' when she lets rip and the anger and frustration of a lifetime pour out onto the stage, a masterclass in how to deliver a song.

Best Exhibition

There have been a lot of top class exhibitions this year and it's been very difficult to whittle them down to just five nominations, let alone one winner. From the variety of the collection of Charles I to the Burne-Jones exhibition - and it was a delight to see so many of his works for a change, rather than the two or three he gets whenever there's a Pre-Raphaelite exhibition - there's been so much to see. Travelling to Boston to see four reliquaries by Fra Angelico reunited for the first time in hundreds of years and the treasures of Mantegna and Bellini.

Charles I: King and Collector @ Royal Academy of Arts
Fra Angelico: Heaven on Earth @ Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Picasso 1932 @ Tate Modern
Mantegna & Bellini @ National Gallery
Edward Burne-Jones @ Tate Britain

After much deliberation, the Baggie goes to the Picasso exhibition at Tate Modern for the sheer range of works Mr Picasso produced in only one year, how experimental he was and the careful curation of the exhibition. I particularly liked dating each exhibit to the actual day it was created. Such a great idea for an exhibition.

Best Film

I've seen more films this year than i have for several years, both documentaries and blockbusters. I particularly liked 'McQueen' the documentary about Alexander McQueen which was a thing of beauty in and of itself.

Punk & The Pistols
McQueen
Black Panther
Avengers Infinity War
The Happy Prince

The winner has to be the blockbuster to end all blockbusters (until the next one, of course) in the shape of 'Avengers: Infinity War'. What big film and such great special effects and that ending ... ah yes, whatever can happen next?

So there you have it, the Baggies 2018! During the year it often didn't seem like it was all that good, but, looking back over it, there have been some spectacularly good productions and exhibitions with actors giving the performances of their lifetimes with lots of good memories. Thanks everyone and congratulations to the winners.

'Caroline, or Change' at The Playhouse

I saw 'Caroline, or Change' at Hampstead Theatre at the start of the year and, when it was announced that there'd be a short run at The Playhouse with largely the same cast, I quickly nabbed tickets. The play is set in Louisiana in 1963 and Caroline is a maid stuck forever in the basement doing the family washing. Her job and her family are her entire life, no other joy other than a daily cigarette and no apparent hope for the future. We meet Caroline's friend, also a maid but who goes to night school to better herself, and her daughter who is a follower of Martin Luther King and burning for a better future. But Caroline is stuck in her own rut.

This is a really powerful play with some great performances, with the first surprise coming when the washing machine comes to life and sings and dances and the radio is a '60s girl group with matching frocks and choreography. I knew this was going to happen but it was still an 'oh, what's happening' moment when they emerge from behind the scenes. It's great fun despite the seriousness of the play. The radio trio, of course, have lots of costume changes every time they come own stage and that's part of the fun. Caroline stays in her white uniform throughout, other than for one scene when she's going to church with her children and that's when she finally lets rip with all her pent-up emotion and frustrations and Sharon aims that directly at the audience. Wow!

I've seen Sharon in a few things over the years but this was a magnificent performance and that show-stopper really blew the roof off, the acting, her voice, the sheer emotion of the scene when she lets go and it all pours out was spectacular. Sharon has an amazing voice and she know how to use it. That performance ought to be recorded and shown at drama schools around the country.

'Caroline, Or Change' at Hampstead Theatre

'Caroline, Or Change' is a strange show that was put on at Chichester last year with Sharon D Clarke in the lead role and it opened a month ago at Hampstead to a sold out run. It's transferring again the Playhouse in the West End later in the year so a wider audience will have a chance to see it. A strange show? Yes, it has singing washing machines and tumble driers, a trio of lovely singers perform as the radio and a young Jewish boy leaves small change in his pockets for the family servant to find. There's a lot going on in this play. Or, rather, musical.

It's about Caroline, the black maid to the middle class Jewish Gellman family in Louisiana. The mother has recently died and Mr Gellman has re-married to Rose but son Noah can't accept his new 'mother' and treats caroline as the replacement. Rose is also unsure of her role and, as a New Yorker, doesn't know how to react to having a black servant. Race is never far from the surface in this play and Caroline is very old school, keeping her head down and keeping quiet. Rose awkwardly tries to help Caroline by giving her food for her family, which Caroline declines, and then telling her to keep the change that Noah leaves in his pockets to teach him a lesson. Feeling uncomfortable about taking coins from a boy, Caroline eventually agrees and can now buy treats for her own children. Noah is, of course, deliberately leaving change in his trouser pockets for Caroline.

It all changes when Rose's father arrives from New York for a family get together and gives Noah a $20 note. The silly boy accidentally leaves it in his pocket and Caroline takes it as instructed. But it was an accident and Noah wants it back. No, you're not getting it and the confrontation between Caroline and Noah is really quite harrowing with Caroline's whispered words to the boy. Realising what she's done, she can't go back to her employers house and can't speak of it until she's been to church. And then, after a huge climactic, cathartic song, we see her again in the basement of the house doing the washing as usual.

There's a lot going on in this play and one thing I really enjoyed was hearing all the dialogue sung rather than speech followed by a song followed by speech. The thing is virtually all sung. Caroline's realm is the basement of the house, surrounded by a washing machine and dryer with only a radio for company but, in her world, all come to life to sing to her. I initially wondered 'what on earth is going on?' when the washing machine lady emerged, singing in her silver bubble costume and blowing bubbles. I was disappointed later in the play when the cooker didn't seem to have an alter-ego - that's discrimination, that is! I loved the washing machine but my favourite was the radio that took the form of a Sixties girl group slinking around in shiny dresses. That's what radios are really like, of course.

There's a lot of fun and energy in this play as well as the more serious messages. Something I really liked was being introduced to Caroline's children, particularly her eldest daughter who represents the future by not being satisfied with what she's got. She's a follower of Dr King and she wants more out of life and is not afraid to say so. Caroline is the old guard but her daughter is the new generation that wants more. This is really subtly done and very powerful without being over-stated.

The centre of the play is, of course, Caroline. In a short scene we see a young Caroline in love with her sailor husband who treats her badly when he comes home from war and beats her. The first time she takes it but the second time she throws him out and becomes a single parent bringing up her children in a safe household. I want to say there's so much repressed rage in this play but there isn't. Caroline accepts everything handed to her as her lot and that's why it's so refreshing to see her rebel daughter. And then we see her release it all in one magnificent song towards the end, on her way to church, and it is astonishing.

This is a powerhouse of a play that took my breath away. It was lovely to see (and hear) T'Shan Williams who was with Sharon in 'The Life' last year as one the Radio Girls and I was suitably impressed with Abiona Omonua as Caroline's daughter Emmie, the voice of the future and played with such energy. I also liked Me'sha Bryan as the Washing Machine but she needs to practice blowing better bubbles.

The show really focuses on Sharon D Clarke who was magnificent as Caroline. It must be a tiring role since she's on stage for most of the time. She was tense and serious throughout and it was joy to actually see her smile at the bows at the end of the show. I really need to know how she fits her locks under that tiny wig she wears in the show.

The show is transferring to the Playhouse in the West End with Sharon reprising the lead role at the end of the year so I'm looking forward to seeing it again.

'The Life' at Southwark Playhouse

Southwark Playhouse continues its current penchant for putting on musicals that are either little performed or haven't been performed in London before by giving 'This Life' its European premier. This is the latest in a line of shows it's put on over the past couple of years that keeps making us trek over to the unrelenting drabness of Elephant & Castle.

The show is a bit of an oddity really, written in the '90s and set supposedly in the '80s but shrieked '70s at me, with some great tunes but then others that hark back to the song and dance shows of the '50s (particularly the incongruity of the pimp, the stripper and the pornographer linking arms to dance and high kick at the prospect of yet more money). But, the book held it together, telling a tale that kept me engaged and interested and wanting to see what happens next. I didn't guess the ending at all, so well done on that!

It's a tale of pimps and prostitutes, violence and drugs set in seedy New York before it was cleaned up for tourists. We're introduced to a group of prostitutes and various pimps but the main characters are Queenie and Fleetwood, young lovers living on the street to get the money together to move away, and of Sonja and Memphis, an older prostitute and her pimp, all brought together by wannabe hustler Jojo. Sonja is the only one who has any time for Queenie and her lover Fleetwood just uses her to fund his drug habit.

The troupe of prostitutes were actually quite nice folks and the men were unrelenting bastards so it's a bit one-sided but struck me as true having seen all those '70s cop shows based in New York.  Did Fleetwood ever love Queenie or was she always just a meal ticket? Who knows? Does anyone have any real friends in that world where no-one seems to trust anyone once they're out of their sight apart from Sonja and Queenie?  What is clear is that Memphis in his pimp leather coat has no feelings for anyone but himself  and he's a really chilling character. You don't want to mess with Memphis.

There are lots of songs in this show, a song for every couple of minutes of dialogue, and that keeps the pace moving forward. One of the joys is the start of the second half and the Hookers Ball where they all come dressed to the nines in fantastic and glittery frocks, especially when Sonja appears with Memphis and poses, followed by Queenie in her golden shiny frock who takes her place behind Memphis. And then it all goes wrong. But you need to see the show to find out what's gone wrong.

I was very impressed - as ever - by Sharon D Clarke as Sonja, the prostitute who's about had enough of the streets and is tired and feels ill. She utters the only '80s-type words when she comments that she feels ill and maybe it's something new, alluding possibly to HIV and AIDS. She's a convincing matriarch to our little group, been there and done that so many times she's lost count. And what a great voice! Sharon never lets you down. 

The pleasant discovery of the show was T'Shan Williams as Queenie. She only graduated from acting school a couple of years ago so isn't that experienced but was terribly impressive playing the vulnerable Queenie. Plus she has a great voice and duets with Sharon and holds her own. T'Shan is definitely someone worth watching for in future. An actress of power, turning the mood on a word and a great singer. Shame about the strangely shaped wig she was wearing.

Something I'm noticing more and more is that the great female performances I see aren't matched by the male performances. I don't really understand that at all, but it does seem to be a trend at the moment. The lead men aren't really a patch on the women except for Cornell S John as Memphis who is as menacing a villain as you could want. He'd be a good Iago, I think, deeply nasty beneath the surface but can make you believe whatever he wants. Single-minded and focused and he deserves everything he gets. But you need to see the show to find out what that is.

All in all, I loved this show, faults included. It's always nice to see Sharon and it was lovely to discover T'Shan, but the whole show worked for me. I'm tempted to see it again...

'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' at the National Theatre

Ma Rainey was the 'mother' of the blues back in the 1920s before Bessie Smith and this play was written about her in the early 1980s. Well, maybe not about her but about an episode that might've happened in her life. A day in the life of Ma Rainey in a recording studio in Chicago in 1927. And what do you have in a recording studio? You have the star (obv), the manager, the producer, the band and, probably some hangers on. So that's what we get in August Wilson's play, one of a series he wrote to depict the 'black experience' in America.

What we see is a play about a group of people all trying to get the best of life in hard times. The hard times is because they're black. It couldn't be plainer. Each member of the band has they're own story to tell, of how they were formed and how they ended up in the recording studio that day. Broken marriages and racial violence, a child being slashed with a knife for trying to protect his mother from rape, a black woman stopped in her own car for having a car, it's all in there somewhere. But not as a polemic - it's a play after all so we learn this over the couple of hours of the play.

Ma Rainey has a reputation for being difficult in the studio, it's made plain right at the start, and she is, but that's because she understands her art and won't compromise. It's also her only lever with the Man (who is obviously white). They want her voice but she's not going to give them what they want for free or in a cowards way, she stands up for herself and her people because she has the upper hand for once. They want her voice after all.

It's on the big Lyttleton stage at the National and that's probably not the best place for it since all the action is clustered in the centre wasting all that space on the empty stage. The musicians' rehearsal room is a long thin room that rises at the front of the stage, claustrophobic and, presumably, deep in the bowels of the studio. That's where most of the action is set, emphasising the wasted space of that big stage. I remember they used that 'pop-up' corridor of a room as trenches in a play set in Russia I saw there a few years ago (what was it called?).

The acting was all excellent, particularly the imperious Sharon D Clark who I've seen in a few plays now and I certainly wouldn't want to fall foul of her in her Ma Rainey persona. She ruled that stage and the musicians in her employ, arguing with her white manager and winning. Small victories but important to her. I liked O-T Fagbenie as the young trumpet playing Levee with high hopes for the future since the record producer wants his songs and has hopes for his own band. But the Man decides to rip him off anyway and buy the songs for $5 to 'take them off his hands'. And then it all goes wrong for Levee and he lets his lifelong rage out and ... but I won't spoil it for you.

This isn't an easy play to watch and I don't suppose it's easy to act, either. There's a lot of pain in this play, a lot of history that's never been really addressed. I found it a very thoughtful play, very thought-provoking and chilling by turns. Did all that really happen? Sadly, I suspect it did...

'Everyman' at the National Theatre

Sometimes you see plays that make you laugh, bring you joy or make you wish you'd never bought tickets. And sometimes you see a play that makes you think and makes you wonder, and that's what I saw on Saturday night - 'Everyman' in the Olivier Theatre at the National Theatre with Chiwetel Ejiofor in the role of Everyman. The text is a new version of the old story by Carol Ann Duffy, the Poet Laureate, so it's thoughtful and lyrical by turns.

It's Everyman's 40th birthday and he has a flash party in a club with all his friends and ex-girlfriends and after the initial greetings the music starts pounding and the lights flashing. The bag of coke emerges and is spread out on tables for everyone to partake and get wild. Everyman has such a good time he passes out and his friends leave. Then God appears and summons Death. God wants Death to choose a representative human, an everyman, to justify humanity's existence and lo, there lies Everyman in a drugged-up stupor. So Death explains Everyman's challenge and sends him off on a journey to explore the soul of humanity.

Everyman calls on his friends to help him, help him travel to God and say he's a good man. But they can't do that. His ex-partner can't because he had affairs with other women and a man. They know him and his faults so friendship isn't core to humanity. He visits his family because they must have a good word for him - they're family after all. But Death comes a calling and Everyman escapes out the back door to protect his family. Money and possessions, yes, that's what everyone wants. So Everyman goes to a glitzy department store with everything for sale, including philanthropy on the top floor. He's spend tonnes of money in that store and they love him so he wants to buy the shop assistants to say a good word for him before God. But they can't do that, no, they're already on the other side of the glass wall that divides them from God. He can keep his credit cards since they can't be bought.

Down on his luck and despairing, Everyman finds himself with the down and outs and this is where he finds his 'conscience' in the form of a rough sleeper who used to be a whiz-kid but fell from her high place and now drinks vodka in back streets. She suggests he finds his good deeds during his life but Good Deeds is ill and bed-ridden because of the paucity of good deeds. He's swallowed by despair until a young boy appears on a scooter and he realises it's him and he can speak to his younger self.

Everyman's despair turns to revelation as we meet his senses and realises that man is a marvel to behold. He thanks God for his sense of smell, of touch, his sexuality, his successes over the years. O yes, man is a marvel. But we find out that it's too late and Everyman is already dead. Not so dead that he can't call Death a cunt as he leaves. Death is offended and says he's at his most dangerous when he's unpredictable and turns on the audience, choosing who to take with him and the lights go out.

All I can say is 'wow'. The play takes you on a journey and I bet all our journeys are different, a journey into our own soul exposing us to thoughts and concepts, situations that can only make you think. And I did.

The writing was superb and the production as a whole was great, with marvelous lighting, a minimal set and a pit at the back of the stage for characters to vanish into. A massive video-wall for projections and lights to sparkle when you least expect it made up the staging. Chiwetel Ejiofor was exellent as Everyman, marvelously controlled and underplayed and so powerful. Kate Duchene played God as a cleaning lady, suitably downcast and weary with mankind and her servant, Death, played by Dermot Crowley with a charming Irish brogue and implacable intent. I'd also single out Sharon D Clarke as Everyman's mother and singer to enhance the group singing with her great voice. I've seen Sharon in a few things now and always enjoy her on stage.

I had no idea what to expect with this play and that uncertainty continued for the first 10-15 minutes with Everyman's debauched birthday party with no words, just music and lights. Loud, pumping disco music and Donna Summer singing 'I Feel Love' with lights flashing makes me wonder what is it about disco that summons up hedonism and debauchery? 40 years after disco emerged and it's still considered to be the epitome of hedonism? What's that all about?

I was thinking medieval and this production is very 21st Century with Chiwetel Ejiofor as the perfect cypher for linking those changing eons with his calm and controlled delivery and that makes the scenes of despair even more powerful. It's an old, old story updated for the 21st Century and it works so well in 2015. Have we learned anything over the centuries since Everyman first strode the world searching for someone to speak for him before God? I don't think so. I didn't just buy the programme for the production, I also got the script.

 

Go and see it while it's on. You'll regret not seeing it and how will that fit with your ledger when you stand before God?