'Sunny Afternoon' - Harold Pinter Theatre

'Sunny Afternoon' is the story of The Kinks in the 1960s. The play has transferred from the Hampstead Theatre to the Harold Pinter Theatre in the West End with the same cast. I saw it at Hampstead earlier this year and enjoyed it so much I had to return and I'm pleased I did.

It's billed as being 'based on the music of The Kinks' but it's really the story of Ray and Dave Davies and portrays Ray as an almost reluctant pop star while Dave embraces it and lives up to his nickname of Dave the Rave. Ray is credited as being responsible for the original story (as well as for the songs, of course) and, given that he likes to keep us guessing about what really happened in the past, I suspect some of the episodes aren't necessarily 100% accurate, but it's all good fun anyway. It has the same cast and staging as at Hampstead and if anything that means it's better and tighter since they're more used to each other by now.

The play opens with The Kinks as a backing band for a toff singing a toff's party until Dave lets rip with some energetic guitar and the toff and his friend become their managers. We see Dave inventing the riff to 'You Really Got Me' in his bedroom with Ray, making it dirtier by destroying the speaker and then their struggles in the studio and on tour. Ray gets married and has a daughter while the band want more songs out of him.

The second half opens with The Kinks on tour in America and getting banned, while Ray has a breakdown at home. He sues the management and writes 'Sunny Afternoon' to be sung on the terraces at Wembley for the World Cup in 1966. They return to Number 1 with 'Waterloo Sunset' and we jump forward to 1970 for a closing version of 'Lola' (with the audience on its feet, singing along) mixed with 'All Day And All Of The Night'.

The beauty of a musical based on Ray's songs is that he's got a song for every mood and every circumstance so nothing is strained or bent to make it fit. There are some lovely scenes and one of my favourites was Ray singing 'Long Way From Home' to Dave before signing the contract with Alan Klein that he didn't want to sign.

The cast were excellent and, having performed together at Hampstead, are already tight and on the ball.  John Dalgleish and George Maguire were excellent as Ray and Dave, playing off each other nicely even though they don't look at all like brothers. John does tortured genius very well and George lives up to the Rave nickname effortlessly.

The play is quick paced and keeps going at a gallop from scene to scene, packing in the action and the  music. There's still a runway out into the stalls and this gives the cast a lot of space to play and run around. The set is the same as Hampstead with mainly the amplifier background for most of the scenes, with an American flag for the American tour. There are approximately 2,357 costume changes for the girls, from fans at concerts to go-go dancers on telly shows and I applaud their quick-change skills.

It is, all in all, great fun and should be seen by anyone who appreciates music or some good sibling rivalry. The audience was definitely of a certain age to have seen the Kinks the first time around and it was great for the whole audience to get to our feet to sing along to 'Lola' (just as everyone does at Ray Davies shows). What is it about that song that drags people to their feet and sing a love song to a transexual? It was, of course, as I've mentioned before, my first ever 7" single.

I loved it. I even loved the lady behind me and a few seats over feeling the need to sing along to a few of the songs (especially 'Days'). It's the music, as well as the play, that's opening her mouth and making her sing (and she had a nice voice). The only downside was there was no programme and no merchandise. A West End theatre that runs out of programmes? What? And please, 'Sunny Afternoon' management, get some Kinks and Ray and Dave solo merch in - people will buy it y'know. Audiences like having something to take home as a memory. A cast recording with, I think, 28 songs, will be available at the end of this month so I'll certainly be getting that.

I hope this show runs for a long, long time. I'll be going back again, maybe a few rows nearer the stage so I get showered in confetti when… well, that would be telling. Go on people, go and see this excellent show. Keep it alive, keep it vibrant and keep it Kinky!

'Sunny Afternoon' at the Hampstead Theatre

There's a new musical on the block and this time it's about The Kinks with the original story, music and lyrics by Ray Davies. At one level it's another jukebox musical but this seems to work if only because it's not trying to shoe-horn the songs in to fit the story since Ray has written songs for every mood and every eventuality.

'Sunny Afternoon', named after the song that was at No 1 in the chart in 1966 when England won the World Cup, is the tale of the Kinks in the '60s as recalled by Ray. It says in the programme that it reflects Ray's memories rather than 'the truth' (whatever that might be) and that Dave remembers things slightly differently in some places. It's nice that Dave plays such a large part in the play from the schoolboy with a guitar to the rock star drunk and in a dress after nights of excess.

The majority of the play deals with the early Kinks carer between 1963 and 1966 - their rise and getting banned in America - before re-surfacing with new management in the form of Alan Klein and ends with 'Lola' in 1970. I have no idea how many Kinks songs are featured in the play since, in some scenes, we get a verse and chorus rather than the whole song or two or more songs mashed together so a lot of music is included, maybe up to 25 songs? Some songs are played in full, of course, with the actors behaving like a band as they blast out some of those klassic Kinks songs.

The staging is interesting, with a catwalk out into the seats to make the setting more three dimensional and more stage space (and I was sitting at the end of the catwalk, afraid I'd trip up the actors as they ran around). The stage had a background of a huge bank of amplifiers that set the scene instantly and these were only covered in the first part of the second half with a giant American flag while the Kinks were being busy being banned from America.

The background of amps made for a really powerful scene when Ray played the riff to 'You Really Got Me' on the piano and Dave played it on his guitar and the brothers agreeing it wasn't right. So they plugged the speaker into an amp and again shook their heads. Still not right. So Ray stuck a screwdriver into the speaker to make a dirtier sound and Dave went TWWAAAAANNGGG and it worked! Then Dave starts bouncing on his bed and riffing away as the rest of the family runs in and so do their managers. The play is full of little moments of humour like this.

Which is just as well because that's when business enters the picture, everyone wanting a piece of the action and the naive youngsters just going along for the ride. And this is where it differs from being a jukebox musical into being a proper musical since Ray and Dave's dad and family sing 'Dead End Street' while they deliberate over signing a contract on Dave's behalf since he's still a minor. The songs don't come in chronological order, they appear when they're needed to take the story forward and that's a good thing.

We see the lads gradually rise and appear on Top of the Pops, Ray getting married against almost everyone's wishes (the publicist points out that John Lennon has been married for years) and the stresses that brings.

The second half kicks off when they're on tour and hassled by musicians union people wanting their cut. The stress mounts on Ray and, to clearly demonstrate this isn't your standard jukebox musical, we have a scene with Ray sitting in his hotel room on the phone to his wife singing 'Sitting In My Hotel' to which his wife replies with a quiet version of 'I Go To Sleep'. That was quite touching.

The stresses of the American tour and law suits against rip-off managers take their toll as Ray hides away at home with exhaustion and re-surfaces to celebrate the World Cup with 'Sunny Afternoon' at No 1 in the chart. The song is played in full with the actors being the band and, at the end, the World Cup is lowered and showered with paper fluttering from the ceiling. That got a rousing applause.

We then see Ray and Dave arguing about whether to sign with Alan Klein as their manager with Ray arguing that they'll just be signing their lives away again. Dave argues it's the only thing to keep the band together and that's all he's got. In a touching moment Ray signs the contract against his better judgement. But that's what brothers do.

The other big hits played in full are 'Waterloo Sunset' and 'Lola' as time flies past in the late 60s and the band suddenly discover flared trousers in 1970! We then get a final song to close the show, a mash-up between 'Lola' and 'You Really Got Me' that got everyone up on their feet and singing along. Yes, even me.

It took a while to get going but the show won me over. Whether it's the lads pretending to be the Kinks or the girls changing for almost every song to be groovy go-go dancers or taking one of the roles. I think I saw the actor playing Ray's dad take four different parts - there are a lot of characters in the show and the actors take multiple roles. I liked seeing Ray's wife who sings backing vocals on the records finally get her wish to appear on stage with the band singing and strumming away - no idea whether this really happened but it worked a treat in the setting of the play.

John Dagleish played Ray and George Maguire was Dave (with a classic Dave haircut too) and I liked Lillie Flynn as Ray's wife, Rasa. I also liked Tam Williams and Dominic Tighe as the original upper class managers Grenville Collins and Robert Wace - the only problem was that Dominic looks just like Tony Hadley from Spandau Ballet, particularly in his sharp suit so I kept confusing the decades when he was on stage!

It's great fun and it's lovely to hear those old songs played live again, even the three I'd never heard before. The majority of the audience were of the age to be original fans (and good on them) but it was also nice to see some younger people in the audience, presumably there out of curiosity or friends of the cast. It would be nice to see this transfer into the West End for a run and see if it can find an audience. Most people will probably recognise most of the songs and there's certainly more of a story behind the show than something like 'Jersey Boys' that's been on in the West End for years now. The Kinks were London lads and Ray wrote about the changing world around him, around all  of us, so, in a sense, it's as much our story as his.

I claim part of the story. 'Lola' was my very first 7" vinyl single and at the tender age of 10 years old I had no idea what it was about but liked it. I recall asking my Mam what a 'dark brown voice' meant. My second or third 12" LP was 'Golden Hour of the Kinks', a compilation of all those great 1960s songs in 1971. The show cries out for a CD of the Kinks songs featured in the show.

The show is only on for another six weeks so book tickets now if you want to see it. It's a good night out and will remind you of those excellent songs that still resonate today. 

Advent #18 - 'Father Christmas'

Time for a second showing of Ray Davies in this years' advent calendar, this time with The Kinks for 'Father Christmas'.

Do You Remember Your First Record?

Well, do you? Mine was 'Lola' by The Kinks and I got it for Christmas in 1970. Over the summer 1970 me and my brothers went to stay with our aunt and uncle while my mother was in hospital for an operation so that my dad and grandma could focus on my mother. My cousin Jackie was a few years older than us and well into music. That summer there were two big records, 'Rainbow' by Marmalade and 'Lola' by The Kinks. They were played endlessly on the radio and on Top Of The Pops.

Back to school and my mam was out of hospital and doing fine. That Christmas we got a record player and I got my first record, 'Lola'. I never saw The Kinks play live but I've seen Ray Davies perform the song a few times and I love the way the middle aged audience sings along lustily in praise of a transexual. The magical Lola is a hero of the 20th Century and long may she reign.

L-O-L-A Lola!

'Come Dancing - The Concert' - Theatre Royal Stratford East

On Friday evening I went to Stratford to see a concert version of Ray Davies' musical, 'Come Dancing'. I saw the musical a few times on its run at Stratford in 2008 and loved the story and the music. The concert version is part of the Open Stage 2012 season that includes other concert versions of musicals, including 'The Harder They Come' at the end of June.

The stage was set with microphone stands across the front and a couple of risers for the cast to sit at tables when not singing. There was some dialogue to keep the story going inbetween songs but the star of the show was really the songs, some beautiful and some rousing.

I was pleased when the actors started filing the stage to see them coming on in their late '50s costumes and even happier to recognise some of the faces reprising their roles in the original production. That was a bit of a surprise and very welcome.

'Come Dancing' is a tale of change in the late '50s loosely based on Ray's childhood but with lots of invented family details. The local Palais dancehall was the focus of the community and everyone went dancing on a Saturday night. Ray's older sisters and parents go there regularly and that's where most of the action takes place. We're introduced to older sisters Rose and Brenda on the evening of their younger sister Julie's first evening at the Palais. We learn that Julie was disabled by polio, has difficulty dancing and is nervous. As the story progresses we learn more about the family and the community, dead-end jobs and a need to escape, of violence and love. We meet Tosher, the local Borstal boy, Frankie the owner of the Palais and part of the old world of the big bands and Hamilton, recently arrived from Kingston Jamaica.

It's a lovely story with a wistful ending when we learn what happened to the characters over the succeeding 30 years. It's the songs that make it work and they're all original Ray Davies compositions with the addition of 'Tired Of Waiting' and 'You Really Got Me'. In the original production Ray opened the show by strolling on singing 'Tired Of Waiting' but in this version Tosher sings it to Julie on a bomb-site outside the Palais, he's tired of waiting for Julie. 'You Really Got Me' is a new addition and used as Tosher's bands' audition to play at the Palais (it got a rousing cheer).

The songs written for the musical deserve to be recorded - maybe one day. I was mulling them over in my mind on the train home and decided that Julie's songs are personal, written at an individual level looking to the future and yearning for change. The lads songs are more aggressive and about social change and revolution, that things will have to change and they will. From personal to social. I'm not sure I can imaging Ray singing Julie's songs but it's a sign of his skills that he can write convincingly and tenderly for a teenage girl discovering love and freedom for the first time, knowing there's more to the world than her neighbourhood but not knowing how to reach out for it.

I remembered the ending of the play and was ready for it but still got moist eyed when Julie comes on after everyone else has told us what happened to them over the years. Julie went dancing.