'Follies' at the National Theatre

I saw the revival of Steven Sondheim's 'Follies' at the National Theatre in 2017 (see here for that blog) and it was so successful that the production has been brought back with many of the original cast. It's a big show and isn't performed that often so it's nice to have the opportunity to see it again. It's back on the big Olivier stage with the same sets and staging but there are some small changes and it's these I'll focus on here.

The key changes are the addition of Joanna Riding and Alexander Hanson as Sally and Ben (replacing Imelda Staunton and Philip Quast) and the addition of Harry Hepple as the young Buddy. We also had Felicity Lott temporarily replacing Josephine Barstow as Heidi, the operative Weismann Girl. At first, it was odd seeing Joanna in Imelda's place but I gradually warmed to her in that role - it must've been a big decision (as well as a big opportunity) to step into Imelda's shoes but I think she did it quite successfully. It was also good to see Alexander again and he worked well with Janie Dee as his stage wife.

One of the most noticeable changes for me was to see the 'ghosts' of the past shadowing the 'current' selves throughout the performance. Whenever Sally or Phyllis or any of the cast were on stage they were clearly shadowed by their younger selves in full costume.  I really liked this link between the 'now' and the 'then' that they are all nostalgic about in a ruined theatre about to be turned into a car park.It worked really well.

It was nice to see Dawn Hope and Tracie Bennett belt out their show-stoppers (which is exactly what they are). Janie Dee was also on top form. Surprise of the evening went to Joanna Riding singing 'Losing My Mind' (which she is clearly doing) by downing a handful of pills (not really) and pulling off her wig on the final note of the song. That was a big wow moment.

Well done all, a great re-creation of the production that was a joy to see again. If you're in London you could do a lot worse that get tickets (if you can) to see this show.

'Company' at the Gielgud Theatre

'Company' by Stephen Sondheim has opened in the West End with a brand new production and some gender-swapped roles. I've never seen a fully staged production - costumes, scenery, lights - of 'Company' before but have seen an afternoon version as part of the 'Sondheim at 80' season in 2010 that starred Adrian Lester, Sophie Thompson and Haydn Gwynn, all in civvies. That was a 'traditional' version with Adrian Lester as Bobby considering marriage and commitment whereas this new version has Rosalie Craig as Bobbie and, you know what? I think it works better with a female lead.

It's a play very much of it's time - 1970 - on Bobbie's 35 birthday and all her friends are married but not necessarily happily. I can see how it would've been a breath of fresh air in 1970, challenging the traditional form of the musical with it's series of one act scenes with some narrative and a song all around the theme of marriage. Today, though, it seems a bit dated and that's where changing the gender of the lead player worked for me. Not only is there the question of settling down into a relationship (let's use that word rather than marriage) but there's also the biological clock ticking away. And, because it's updated, we also have a gay couple who are getting married (or possibly not).

I couldn't make up my mind about whether I liked the staging or not where most of the scenes took place in big neon light boxes that rolled on and off the stage effortlessly - I can't quite decide if they enhanced the production, detracted from it or were simply annoying. You have that nice big stage so use it, don't confine people in a claustrophobic box. Something that did annoy me was Rosalie Craig's red dress. Please people, give her a costume change? That red dress just really irritated me.

Rosalie Craig played Bobbie who was on stage for virtually the whole time, with friends played my Patti Lupone and Mel Giedroyc. I've seen Rosalie and Patti on stage before but this was the first time I'd seen Mel and I was quite impressed with her acting and (as you'd expect) her comic timing. It's odd to think that, as Chris mentioned, after the Sondheim nerds and theatre queens have seen the production, Mel's will be the biggest name on the bill but she's not very visible in the second half at all. I'm pleased we saw her.

The big draw for many people will be Patti Lupone, a Broadway legend who I saw in Sondheim's 'Gypsy' a decade ago. I saw her again five years ago in a short series of song and chat shows at Leicester Square Theatre. I liked her world-weary performance as the friend who's seen it all and then some, and her big song was 'Ladies Who Lunch' which was great fun.

I enjoyed the production and I'm pleased I saw it. It did rather make me want to see new productions of other Sondheim shows like 'Sunday in the Park'  and I'm sure that'll come back one day. In the meantime, enjoy 'Company'.

PS: I also liked the blue balloons that were all over the public areas of the theatre to mimic the poster for the show. Well done Gielgud!

'Into The Woods' at the Menier Chocolate Factory

Last week we went to see the new production of 'Into The Woods' at the Choccy Factory, possibly my most favouritist Sondheim show. I saw it at the Regents Park Open Air Theatre in the woods (an ideal location) a few years ago with Jenna Russell and Michael Xavier so any production has a lot to live up to. This version is imported from America with the Fiasco Theater's production and it is well worth seeing.

'Into The Woods' is the story of all those old tales bunched together so we have Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk and more all wrapped up together and interacting. Prince Charming marries Cinderella and his brother marries Rapunzel. And, of course, there's a witch, because there's always a witch and she lives next door. The first half of the play tells us the stories we all know (well, mainly, although there are some twists) and the second half tells of the potential consequences. Is Cinderella happy after marrying her Prince Charming? What happens to Red Riding Hood after her ordeal in the forest? And how does Jack turn out in the end? Do they all live happily ever after? You'll have to get a ticket to find out for yourself.

I liked the staging, with its backdrop of ropes strung floor to ceiling to give an impression of being in a wood and there's wood everywhere (and a smell of wood in the air). The piano is the main prop on the stage, wheeled around while being played and various chairs and tables brought on every now and then, including a set of step ladders to be Rapunzel's tower. It all worked very well. I liked the stripped back keyboards hung around the stage to decorate it and the small chandeliers hanging on stage and out into the audience.

The cast is a mix of Americans from the Fiasco Theater and British home grown actors and they gel really well together giving us a very organic production, growing and weaving stories together. I particularly liked Harry Hepple as the Baker (and who I've seen in a few things over the last few years, including 'Pippin' at the Choccy Factory), Laura Tebbutt as the Baker's Wife who has a lovely voice as does Claire Karpen as Cinderella (who turns out to be a hero, obvs) and Emily Young as Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel. Most of the actors played a couple of parts. I also liked Vanessa Reseland who brought a curious intensity to the role of the Witch who is so central to much of the action and leaves so heroically through the audience.

I enjoyed this production very much and so will you as soon as you buy tickets. And don't forget your magic beans.

'Sweeney Todd' at The Coliseum

Do you like meat pies and a nice, close shave, the closest shave in London? If you do then you're a bit late to see the latest production of 'Sweeney Todd' at the Coliseum, the home of the English National Opera. The production closed last week but I was lucky enough to catch it before it ended. This was 'Sweeney Todd' with Emma Thompson and Bryn Terfel.

The Coliseum is terribly ornate and old school but, when I walked into the auditorium, my spirits fell slightly when I saw a line of microphone stands at the front of the stage with the orchestra behind. O, I thought, it's a concert version. Not what I was expecting but it should still be good (I hoped).  After all, it was Emma Thompson's first time on the London stage since the '90s and Emma is always worth watching.

And then on came the cast carrying their songbooks, Emma and Bryn in the centre with the rest of the cast along the front of the stage. Bryn started singing and then after a minute or so stood at his microphone, picked up his songbook and dropped it on the stage. Emma tipped hers into the orchestra pit and the others started throwing their songbooks around. The other leading ladies went up to Emma and pulled the sleeves of her frock off and all of them began ripping clothes, moving around the stage, upturning the grand piano to make it a small platform and generally causing mayhem. This was more like it!

Bryn has a big operatic voice and menacing presence that needs a similar voice to challenge it so Emma didn't even try. Instead, she went for comedy and acting to hold her place against Bryn and she more than succeeded with her comedy East End accent and taking over the stage. I loved how she used the orchestra at the back of the stage, taking the conductor's baton at one point to help give Sweeney a hair cut, swiped the double bassist's stool to give Sweeney his first barber's chair and walked to the violin section when talking about pie made of fiddlers. Emma was great fun and easily ruled the stage. She seemed to be having a ball!

I'm very pleased to have seen this production - and seen Emma on stage at last. It certainly wasn't what I expected but that would've been boring, to just put on a standard version with a couple of big names. No, this was different and deservedly so and a production I'll remember for a long time.

'A Little Night Music' at the Palace Theatre

On Monday we went to the Palace Theatre to see a staged concert version of Sondheim's 'A Little Night Music' to celebrate the show's 40th anniversary in London. I've seen the show twice before and enjoyed it both times, firstly the revival at the Menier Chocolate Factory in 2008 and then the same production on Broadway in 2010 with Angela Lansbury and Catherine Zeta-Jones, and with Alexander Hanson playing Frederick in both shows.

This is possibly one of my favourite Sondheim's, not too challenging but quite delightful with great songs and roles for three generations of actors. It's nice and there's nothing wrong with nice. It's a tale of love, of ageing and still loving, of finding your true love and all of the characters find their lovers eventually (apart from Desiree's daughter, who has her life ahead of her). With some people it just takes a bit longer but it will come, don't worry...

There's a great score and some great songs - and not just 'Send In The Clowns' - with a lot of scope to make this show your own. I left this show wanting the concert cast to do a full on stage version - and a cast recording, obv - and I'd like it to open next weekend please. Can you arrange it?

It was the women who ruled this concert version, with Janie Dee as Desiree, Anne Reid as Mme Armfeldt (her mother), Joanna Riding as an incredibly deadpan Countess and Laura Pitt-Pulford as the earthy servant girl. They were all excellent and the sequence of Janie's 'Send In The Clowns', sitting at the front of the stage followed by Laura's feisty 'Millers Son' was marvellous. Anne Reid was great as the woman who's seen it all and Joanna was great fun as the disillusioned wife of the count who's having an affair with Desiree - such great one-liners! And kudos to Bibi Jay as Desiree's young daughter, Fredrika.

In the final moments of the show during the reprise of 'Send in the Clowns' Janie seemed to forget the lines of the song. Is that possible? So the orchestra stopped and started again so she and David Birrell (as Fredrick) could start again. Did she really forget the lines or was it an opportunity for her to milk the applause when she sang 'was that a farce' - I'm in two minds!

It was a great evening, lovely to hear that music and those songs again and to see those people on the stage. I'd say 'go if you can' but it was a one-off event. I hope there's another revival in the works since this is definitely a show worth seeing.

'Into The Woods' at Brixton Ritzy

I've been lucky enough to see two very different stage productions of Sondheim's 'Into The Woods'. Firstly at a small pub theatre in Clapham and then on a big stage at Regent's Park open air theatre which was, in effect, in the woods. That was a bit of a thrill and was the ideal place to stage the show amongst the tall trees blowing in the breeze of a summers night. The productions were very different and, I suppose, that prepared me to see something different in the film, a who-knows-what kind of scenario.

Of course, it's all doubly confusing when so many 'names' are associated with the film - Meryl Streep, Johnny Depp, Emily Blunt, James Corden, Simon Russell-Beale, Frances de la Tour, Tracey Ullman, Annette Crosby and a host of others. With so many 'names' then they've all got to have their own bit of the film and that can be the downfall of a star-laden film but this one really worked. It did (I'm surprised to say!). It was a particular surprise to see Tracey Ullman since I haven't seen (or heard of) her for years, but there she was, right as rain as Jack's mum.

The story takes place beside and inside a deep, dark wood, one of those ancient woods that anything can happen in. And it brings to life all those fairy tales we all know - Cinderella and her cruel step-mother, Jack who sells his cow for beans, the Baker and his wife who want to have children, Rapunzel with her long braids of hair and, of course, Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf. And, of course, the Witch - there's always a witch. The  Wood is almost a character itself, always there waiting to be discovered again by a new set of characters. It's still waiting.

We see these tales played out in front of us as we follow the tales to the end, or at least the end we know. But the show takes us further and deeper and lets us see what happens after the ending we know. Is Cinderella happy in her new palace and does the Prince still love her? What about the Giant's wife after Jack kills her husband? O yes, tales go on y'know, they don't just stop. Something has to happen next, and that's when the story gets darker. The characters are still wishing and hoping, but for different dreams as they've learned something along their journey. But the Wood is still the mysterious and magical place it's always been. It's still there.

There is joy and tragedy in the film, laughter and tears, mystery and suspense. Will they, won't they? Well, they might. And it's a proper film version of the stage show with no real dialogue, telling the take through the songs and it's really easy to follow.

Meryl Streep is really good as the Witch, both as hag and beauty, and delivered her songs excellently. I wouldn't want to live door to her! Emily Blunt was quite lovely as the Baker's Wife, with a nice presence and a lovely singing voice. The big surprise for me was James Corden as the Baker (who's also the narrator throughout since it's his tale) - I haven't liked anything he's done up to now, but he shone in this film. He's no singer but he did far better than just getting away with it - he made it work for him. It would be good to see him on stage in a musical role after this.

Other pleasing performances were from Anna Kendrick as a feisty Cinderella who talks to birds (I loved those scenes with her talking to the blackbirds) and has a good voice; Tracey Ullman as Jack's mother and salt of the earth; Christine Baranski as Cinderella's step-mother who takes the knife to her daughters' feet while trying on the golden slipper (I don't think I've seen a bad performance from Christine, who's looking good); and, of course, Johnny Depp as the Wolf. Annette Crosby had a small part (and a line) as the Grandmother but it was nice to see her.

Of the younger members of the cast, Lilla Crawford was perfectly feisty (as she's meant to be) as Little Red Riding Hood and Daniel Huttlestone was well cast as a very active Jack scrambling up and down beanstalks and trees and causing trouble. Lilla's speaking and singing accent did rather stand out as blatantly American compared to the other actors but that just emphasises her difference I suppose.

It took a little while to get going (and that's usually the case) but it carried me along nicely through the ups and downs of the characters' adventures. I loved it. Go and see it on the big screen while you can.

Be careful what you wish for… and take care in the woods...

My one disappointment was at the very when I looked at the credits and it said 'special effects by' - it should've said 'magic by' and listed the witches and magicians...

'Assassins' at the Menier Chocolate Factory

Our final theatre trip of 2014 was back to the Choccy Factory to see the new production of Sondheim's 'Assassins' and a less Christmassy musical would be hard to find. I saw a production of this play five or six years ago at the Union Theatre so I was familiar with the bones of the story but it's always interesting to see what the Choccy Factory does with its productions - several have transferred to the the West End and a couple to Broadway (both productions of Sondheim's work) so it has a good track record.

'Assassins' is loosely based on the stories of people who have assassinated - or attempted to assassinate - American presidents. It's an odd premise and probably makes more sense to Americans whose history this is (I hadn't heard of some of the presidents named).

It begins with John Wilkes Booth killing Abraham Lincoln and and he appears in subsequent scenes down the years persuading others to kill other presidents. The ensemble of assassins grows in the run up to the attempts on Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan and then we flash back to 1963 with Booth and the others, including those yet to come, persuading Lee Harvey Oswald to shoot the president. He is the assassin that gives them meaning, that will inspire future assassins, that will take them all into immortality. He takes aim and fires.

I'm not sure what to make of the play, really. It's an interesting concept but I'm not terribly interested in a set of killers and would-be killers. I'm also not sure about this production. I liked the minimal staging but, as a musical, it doesn't really stay with me. I know they sang lots of songs but none of them seem particularly memorable and they seem to be more talk-singing than singing-singing (if you know what I mean). I sat there waiting for it to take off and it didn't. Maybe I wasn't in the right mood?

The star turns were Mike McShane (as the drunken Santa Claus assassin) who seems to turn up every now and then (as he has over the past three decades) and Catherine Tate who throws bullets at Gerald Ford. I've not seen Catherine on stage before so it was nice to see her but I'm not sure why she's doing this play at all since it's hardly a star turn role and she's only doing it for another week or two before handing over to someone else. Maybe the hint is that she'll be doing more theatre in future? I hope so.

Anyway, there you have it, my final theatre visit for 2014. Let's see what 2015 has in store...

Patti LuPone - Leicester Square Theatre

This evening I was treated to a ticket to see Patti LuPone play a rare show in London, in the middle of the third row, no less. She's doing a short run of music and chat, singing her big songs and talking about her career with Seth Rudetsky.

I saw Patti in 'Gypsy' on Broadway in 2008 but that's really all I know about her, other than she's a big musical theatre star on both sides of the Atlantic. Clearly, I was in a minority in the audience since everyone seemed to know and love every song. She was interviewed by Seth who also played the piano for her songs and they work well together.

Patti talks about the shows she's been in - the successes and failures - and sings some of her biggest songs at random. She tells the story of her career in a series of memories prompted by Seth's questions, going off at tangents as she remembers anecdotes and experiences. She's got a nice line in name dropping patter.

The show isn't rehearsed (so we're told) with Seth suggesting songs at random and a couple of times Patti had to be reminded of the lyrics or held the lyrics as she sang. We had songs from all her big shows as well as some randoms from her cabaret shows, like 'I Regret Everything' from her Piaf show. Everyone seemed to get very excited about her singing songs from 'Evita', 'Les Miserables' and from 'Sunset Boulevard' but my favourite was a song from Sondheim's 'Company'.

Patti's second encore song was 'Ladies Who Lunch' at the start of which she was given a martini to sip on. She sang it slightly sloshed as a woman with too much money and time to kill, very believable and then, at the end of the song, she threw the contents of her glass over the audience in the front rows, including me! Patti LuPone threw her martini over me! Well, it was just water, really, but I'll remember it as martini. A rather damp me applauded.

Patti has an astonishing voice and the tales to go with it so, if you get the chance, go and see her. Who knows when she'll be back in London?

Theatre Trips February-March 2013

It's occurred to me that I've been depriving you of my visits to the theatre this year, and there have been several. Where shall I start?

Merrily We Roll Along @ The Menier Chocolate Factory

Another Sondheim production from the Choccy Factory. It's struck a vein of gold with it's Sondheim productions, with 'Sunday In The Park With George' and 'A Little Night Music' not only transferring to the West End but also to Broadway, so I had high hopes for 'Merrily'. I saw a concert version of it a few years back so was familiar with the outline of the play.

It's a bit of an oddity in that it heads back in time rather than forward. It opens at a Hollywood party for the director's first blockbuster and from there we head back to when he and his partner had a success on broadway, further back to when they were a revue troupe and, further back to when they first met. From the swaggers of life, excess and success we later see them as young, idealists and hopeful.

I prefer the younger characters and felt the older versions of themselves were just plain unlikeable and that influences my view of the production. They were too shouty, too full-on and in your face and, if not unpleasant, at least not very nice. And why were they mic'd up? The Choccy Factory is a small venue that means you don't - or shouldn't - need microphones. I don't know if it was the play or the cast, but I wasn't terribly thrilled by it. Or, perhaps, it was the '70s setting moving back into the '60s - not terribly attractive costumes? I liked Jenna Russell who I've seen in Sondheims before (most recently in 'Into The Woods' and in 'Sunday In The Park') but that was about it. She does good drunk heckler.

It's another success, of course, and is transferring to the West End so you can see it for yourself and make up your own mind.

Privates on Parade @ The Noel Coward Theatre

This production of 'Privates on Parade' has now closed but I thoroughly enjoyed it from it's opening barrage of foul language to the closing scene of boarding a ship from Singapore back to Old Blighty. I've never seen it before but sort of know what it's about and that 'It Ain't Half Hot, Mum' was a sort of comedy telly series version of it.

It's the tale of a private posted to a concert party in Malaya at the end of the Second World War, finding his feet and love in the strange environment of camp entertainers, homosexuality and racism, prostitutes and the black market, mad officers and, of course, the Malaysian rebels/freedom fighters. There are some lovely song & dance set pieces and some rather long (and dull) diatribes by the worthy officer. There's nudity when the soldiers take turns having a shower after rehearsals one day.

Even Simon Russell Beale gets in on the act when he's changing costumes between routines, wearing what looks like a corset and then stands up, turns round and there's his bare bum. Not the best sight but brave of him to do it. Other than that, he was great fun as the camp officer leading the troupe in his short shorts, with his many costume changes, singing and dancing as Vera Lynn, Marlene Dietrich and Carmen Miranda and giving good show.

I thoroughly enjoyed the production. It was nice to see Harry Hepple on stage again but he didn't have any solo songs. It was quite strange seeing actors acting badly in character, making themselves look like amateurs that just happen to have found themselves in the concert party and away from the front line. Simon Russell Beale was great fun with his various set pieces and, of course, becoming the gallant hero at the end when he marries the Anglo-Indian leading lady who's become pregnant by the private and takes her to her land of dreams, Britain.

Dear World @ The Charing Cross Theatre

If you've heard of this play before you're probably one of a small elite of theatricals - I'd never heard of it but I have heard of the film it was made into, 'The Madwoman of Chaillot'. I've only seen 'Madwoman' once, with the lead taken by Katherine Hepburn, but it's stayed with me over the years.

The play is set in Paris after the war as the world changes from olde to modern with old social mores changing to greed and exploitation. Naturally, a group of greedy entrepreneurs discover oil under Paris so need to exploit it. This is where Countess Aurelia (aka the Madwoman) enlists the help of the Sewerman, the Madwoman of the Parks and the Madwoman of the Dogs to save Paris and banish the greedy folks to a strange underworld which is conveniently accessed through a manhole in her cellar.


It's a rather dated piece from the late '60s with a simple environmentalist theme but I liked the wonder, simplicity and deft incisiveness of the Madwoman. She lost her lover many years ago and chooses to live a romantic world of her own creation but she sees through the modern world quite easily. Don't mess with the Madwoman.

It's a rather thin play and the songs are a bit over-long but it's great fun nonetheless. It stars Betty Buckley and Paul Nicholas (yes, that Paul Nicholas). The night we went it also hosted Una Stubbs and Trevor Nunn in the audience.

The Judas Kiss @ The Duke of York Theatre

The Judas Kiss is the tale of Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas in which the first act is set the day before Oscar is arrested and the second act sees him released from prison and living, penniless, in Naples. It stars Rupert Everett as Oscar and Freddie Fox as Bosie. We see Oscar at the height of his powers and then laid low by his time in Reading gaol.

Rupert Everett gave us a masterclass in understated acting, for the most part sitting in a chair just off centre-stage speaking calmly and letting the other characters whirl around him in passion and anger and frustration. No matter what the others do, the eye and attention always travels back to Rupert and his performance as Oscar. His deliberate indecisiveness and, later, world weariness, seems to drip from the stage, the ennui of being alive being so troublesome.

I wasn't terribly keen on Freddie Fox who seemed to stamp around the stage declaiming at the top of his voice like a spoilt child - the very role I last saw him in in 'Hay Fever' last year. Of course, some of that will have been the part and the direction, but two similar performances in the space of a year doesn't make me wish for more.

As with 'Privates on Parade' there was unexpected nudity and it seemed like all the men under the age of 30 had to get their kit of at some point. On the other hand, it allowed Rupert to make some choice comments about the equipment of the Italian sailor Bosie picks up one night.

So, which was the most fun? 'Privates on Parade'. Which was the most wondrous? 'Dear World'. Which was the most thoughtful? 'The Judas Kiss'.