I Believe! Book of Mormon London 1ST Preview

*****

 

Last night I saw the first preview of BOM in London, I planned to write this blog immediately after but it left me so blown away that it's taken me a few hours to get my thoughts together.

Let me start by saying that I'm a massive musical theatre fan, not listening to the soundtrack, not watching youtube videos, not succumbing to the badly recorded pirate video was possibly the greatest example of self control I can cite for my life thus far. If you are a fan of musicals and you're going to see this show I would advise you to do the same, avoid anything that could contain spoilers as half the laughs are in the songs and if you listen to the soundtrack in advance then it won't be so darn funny!

The producers of this show know what they are doing, I think this is the first time I have ever seen a show promoted in the UK that has embraced social media in such a successful way. By that I mean that the whole furore this first preview caused in the first place further solidified the hype around what is already a massive word of mouth success. This will survive as a word of twitter hit and the producers are fully aware of this.  I am a die-hard day seater and was outraged, almost to the point of strongly worded letter writing when I heard that instead of day seats (the earlier you get there the more you want it!) BOM will operate a NY style lottery system (blind luck). So you can imagine my excitement when I first heard that tickets would be sold for £20 for the whole house , finally a chance to prove my dedication by standing in the cold with fellow oddballs! I made sure I was near the front of the line, arriving at 8, even then they were tweeting and posting photos of us online. Last night was no different, some people arrived at mid day to have their pick of the unallocated house! I am a Brit and like my fellow countrymen I like to queue! For the second queuing experience I arrived at 5.30 and had great fun watching the raffle as the 'resting' actors working for the theatre ran excitedly up and down the growing line with megaphones giving out T-shirts. We even had the fun of a protest to watch!

This brings me to a point that I think will come up a lot in the reviews for this.  In the UK, BOM is post-Jerry Springer The Opera. Broadway never quite managed to get a run of Jerry, they had a concert version but for the average Broadway patron it will have passed them by. However we did the whole swearing outrageously and poking fun at religion in song ten years ago. When Jerry came out we also did the outraged religious people protesting on the street outside the theatre thing too, which is why I wasn't surprised to see a crowd of protesters sticking up posters and handing out leaflets last night. I naturally assumed they were Mormons, objecting to being ridiculed but when I received a flyer was amused to see that these protestors were anti-mormon and wanted to highlight the stupidity and evils of the religion (http://www.message4mormons.org.uk/). I don't think they had done their homework on the show, anyone leaving the musical and looking to sign up to Mormonism wouldn't be the sharpest steak knife in the drawer. Fair enough maybe the show makes a sinister cultish organised religoin look harmless and cute but it certainly doesn't portray it as credible and therefore did a better job than the crudely photocopied article these guys gave me.

So when the doors opened everyone rushed in, the atmosphere was incredible, my expertise and spare time dedicated to queuing ensured me the perfect seat about 5 rows back and in the centre. When the lights went down the audience went wild. Matt Stone, Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Casey Nicholaw then came on stage and thanked everyone for coming,  Trey Parker did the talking and introduced the team. The audience was insane, the whooping and cheering was like a football match. The creatives were then taken to their seats, Casey Nicholaw was afforded a lovely view of the back of my head and then it began!

The cast are phenomenal, here we have the fantastic Gavin Greel, last seen in Hair who is outstanding in the role of Elder Price. Jared Gertner puts in a star making performance, if only there were more roles suitable in the MT Cannon for a chubby, awkward romantic lead! I was really pleased to see Giles Terera in it, he was brilliant in the original London Avenue Q and a fantastic Sammy Davis JR in the Rat Pack. I'd say my personal favorite performance came from Stephen Ashfield as Elder McKinley, Ashfield cementing his place as one of London's finest performers. I could go on all day pointing out cast members who excelled but really they were all outstanding. The cast is large and excellent although I imagine white female actresses will be jealous there are no roles for them.

This musical succeeds by not only being an opportunity to engage in sick jokes and toilet humor but by also conveying a very important message. It powerfully hammers home the plight of Africa without any sense of pompous first world righteousness and is absolutely a love letter to the musical. It achieves the impossible, to be utterly irreverent but at the same time totally inoffensive, it cover's it's back at every turn! I'd take my grandmother to see this show and she would probably love it. Where Jerry could sometimes come across as a bitter satire, this is an earnest romp.

The highlight of the show for me was probably the set piece 'turn it off' which achieves a fantastic coup-de-theatre by fully utilizing the lighting desk at one point. The success of this show is the unity of all the elements, no doubt Nicholaw and Lopez are as much a part of that as Stone and Parker, and the lighting designer etc. The choreographed in-jokes to other musicals were a fantastic follow on from The Drowsy Chaperone and Spamalot and went straight over the head of my non musical loving friends. These were so subtle that at points I wondered if I was reading too much into them I spotted Les Mis, Fela, West Side Story, JCS, Rock of ages, Lion King, King and I (were the steam jets in Man up a nod to Jerry?).

It's been credited in the states as the resurrection of the Musical, I don't know if I can agree with that, it's more a maturing of the Jerry style fringe success that has always lurked on the outskirts of London and Edinburgh. Overall I think this will be the biggest USA transfer since the Lion King, maybe not the big shock it was across the pond because we are more used to this kind of pop-fiction-taboo but because of it's big set pieces and infectious moral code it will speak to the Brit's every bit as much as the Yanks! Plus it's just bloody hilarious!

Congratulations to the creatives and to the Producers who even on the way out gave us a card with the hashtag LoveMormon. Welcome to the modern age!

Old Vic Tunnel shaped hole in London!

Sad news came today that Old Vic Tunnels will be closing it's graffitied fire doors for good on March the 15th next month!

Such a shame as this has always been one of my favourite venues! Ever since its launch with its slightly dubious origin myth it has been full of culture. In its three years it packed a punch in site specific events like the crazy Punchdrunk chainsaw fest 'Tunnel 228' and the season of O Neil sea plays. I'll always remember it for its annual Lazarides art events, each more astounding than the last. It gave a brave stab at programming theatre, fantastic night club events courtesy of The Boom Boom Club, Future cinema ripoff style events and corporate bookings. Maybe it was a bit schizophrenic but it always maintained a certain dank charm! Although I did worry for the health of Hamish Jenkinson and his team's lungs and hope Spacey isn't faced with a load of chesty lawsuits in 20 years!

I don't know why it's closing, maybe the Waterloo redevelopment, maybe the economy, maybe Hamish is going to be Beyonce's next personal assistant. But I do know it will be sorely missed. First Shunt, then Southwark Playhouse and now the Old Vic Tunnels, who is going to set up shop in the next abandoned tunnel to be discovered? Now there's a challenge!

Utopia finale - why Aristotle wouldn't be happy

I have really enjoyed Dennis Kelly's bleak look at conspiracy theory thus far. Absolutely loved the first five episodes, the cinematography is beyond the best I've seen in UK drama and the constant twists and witty McDonagh-esque dialogue has held my attention. Plus which discerning musical theatre geek wouldn't love picking out ideas Kelly raised already in his musical 'Matilda': 'my mummy says I'm a miracle'.

Anyway I couldn't help feeling a little empty inside after the last episode of he's a good guy, he's a bad guy, no wait good guy revelry. The only reason I can give is that it doesn't comply to the basic rules of drama that we are used to TV conforming to. Now I get that this is about not knowing who has the right idea, are the good guys doing the wrong thing trying to stop Janus etc etc So I'm not condemning it, Kelly is a playwright by trade and in theatre writers have much more freedom to do what they like and why should everything have the same story anyway?! So I'm just presenting why I didn't feel rosy inside at the end, like I did at the end of the most recent Walking Dead episode.

Wether you were taught by those self help writing books, Pixar or Aristotle you will have been taught the same thing. Get a character, give him a want ( Nemo's dad want's to find Nemo), give him a need ( Nemo's dad needs to cut the apron strings). Once you have those two things present your character with a load of problems to resolve and end with the dilemma - are they prepared to accept the need in order to get what they want? To get that warm fuzzy feeling the character needs to get the need first and the want second.

Spoilers from now on!

In Utopia Becky wants to be happy and escape Deels, she needs to get over her pride and accept Ian's support - but she doesn't. Spineless civil servant Michael Dugdale needs to grow some balls to get his want, a kid. He kind of does this by killing the spy pretending to be his Russian lover (how didn't I see that coming!) but he doesn't stand up to his wife. We don't get that happy ending, in fact none of the other characters change either. All we get is some exploding vaccines which probably wouldn't have worked anyway. Then at the end of the episode we learn that the whole quest and search for the manuscript was pointless, presumably to pave the way to series two (which may never happen thus presenting another unfinished show like Deadwood and Carnivale). So all that was effectively for nothing.

As I said, this isn't condemnation as if we don't know which side is good and which is bad we can't really get that WAFF (warm and fuzzy feeling). Maybe that's the world and the point of this show. I don't know but if there is a series two I'll watch it- as long as Arby is alive

Oh Dear World!

***

It's tempting to give this a bad review as it wasn't really my cup of tea but I can't in good conscience do that. The plot is flimsy, less than flimsy and the songs pretty forgettable but the production itself is of a very high standard!

Jerry Herman's second most famous flop, second only to the wonderful Mack and Mabel, this is an odd odd piece. It's like a panto or children's tv show version of an absurdist play, imagine Sesame Street taking on Pirandello choreographed by Fosse and you might come close. I could blather about how odd the whole thing is all day but instead I'll just review the elements.

The ensemble cast is impressive, large! At times when they are all on stage together they can look cramped but it is lovely to see such a bunch of talent on stage. I'm guessing they must be making a loss on this, looking at the size of the cast and orchestra. The set is nice, it captures the postcard romanticism that the show oozes. The large orchestra makes a grandiose sound, probably the best this little theatre has heard for a long time!

Betty Buckley plays the lead role with a relaxed confidence that only comes from starring in a plethora of hits and flops. She is a big star for such a small venue and if I didn't know better I'd imagine she had been conned. "Betty darling, it's a wonderful venue, right on The Strand" much like the imagined conversation John Leguizamo might have had when he played there.

Stuart Matthew Price has a lovely singing voice, fact, he was outstanding in the Southwark Playhouse Mack and Mabel but he certainly isn't a young romantic lead. His immediate lover Katy Treharne (incidentally a doppelgänger for a young Debra Stephenson) is perfectly pleasant it's just a shame she didn't have more material to play with.

Palestinian Billy Elliot, Ayman Safia plays the mute, personally I don't like mimes, clowns etc but my friend who accompanied me does and assured me he was rather excellent. Certainly his bum has been the topic of much discussion on various forums and he certainly wiggles his posterior around as if playing up to this in act 2.

The evil bankers (boo hiss) were all fantastic, I could have watched them be dastardly all evening. Really all of the actors were doing their best with very little. Stop press, I didn't even hate Paul Nicholas!! I grew up out of London so was subjected to his production company touring tacky versions of popular shows with him miscast in the lead in each. This led me to be anti-Nicholas but in this he was very charismatic, maybe sewer man in his niche!

This was directed and choreographed by celebrated choreographer Gillian Lynne and choreographed it was! Not one line of dialogue escapes a flourish or a shimmy. My personal favourite moment was the finale which seemed to be a tick list of every musical theatre dance cliche in existence! It finished with a kick line!

Overall this piece is like the majority of the audience who attended it, antique. Definitely more of a collectors piece than a must see show.

Thinking about it on the way home I thought that if they had treated it as an absurdist play and done something clever with it then it could have been a powerful statement on memory and loss of beauty but as it stands it's just odd and incongruous.

Macbeth, Trafalgar Studios with James McAvoy

*****

I saw the first preview of this lovely production so things may well have changed since then.  Having on stage seats for this I was a little worried, too often this is just a gimmick, like when I sat on stage during Equus and had a birds eye view of Harry Potter's flaccid wand in a particularly famous scene. However when I took my seats it was immediately obvious that they had given serious thought to the staging of this and that Traverse worked well.

This production is set in a kind of (and I hate the phrase) 'post apocalyptic' dystopia, a bleak dirty world populated by violent warlords brandishing machetes and thick Scottish accents. Think Tank Girl in Call of Duty!

McAvoy gives an impressively strong performance, I had always thought of him as a little guy but he totally fills the space with charm and charisma and I certainly wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of him. Rather than hen pecked and weak he is a wrecking ball that once pushed into action can't be stopped. Macbeth is a monster, tormented by war, frustrated by his childless relationship and watched over by his creator, Lady Macbeth played slightly underwhelmingly by Claire Foy. 

There are some nice touches with the dagger scene being entirely a delusion and the 3 witches in the second act giving him a potion which then allows him to converse with the apparitions in a Gollum like way with himself. I also enjoyed the air freshener that Lady Macbeth brandishes to welcome royal guests, maybe it can be included in the next febreze advert

"This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air
Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
Unto our gentle senses."

Trafalgar transformer Lloyd does a great job balancing the tones of the play, the first third being frenzied organisation, then descent into madness. The biggest shift comes in act 2 when we move in to England, signaled by the frenzied, grey space becoming incredibly light and airy. The 'all my pretty ones' scene with Jamie Ballard's outstanding Macduff is by far the most devastating interpretation of this scene I have ever had the fortune to see. A lot of this production hinges on children and it is summed up brilliantly by Ballard's spot on delivery of the line 'He has no children' when Malcolm insensitively brings up revenge. The way this scene was given the space to breath made it stand out from the rest of the frenzied play and highlighted the dichotomy of dark and light, life and death central to it. I really can't heap enough superlatives on Ballard here, his reaction is expertly heartbreaking and would speak to anyone who has genuinely lost someone close to them.

Speaking of children, I loved that this production did away with the awful stage school kids that we usually are subjected to in productions of Macbeth. Sylvia Young will be fuming! Kids in Shakespeare always ring false, they just can't really act it. Instead we have a teenager, I don't know if they alternated as I didn't buy a program (5 quid!!!) but on the night I saw it, it was a Scottish lad that looked like a young Kevin Bridges who acts it remarkably well for his age. His death is great fun and involves a great sword in a box style magic trick. Also it was a good decision to cut the line "He has kill'd me, mother: Run away, I pray you!" which normally induces serious cringes when delivered by aforementioned stage school kids.

As well as Ballard's towering performance I should also gush about Forbes Masson, I love this guy. I've seen him in a lot of things, he was a great fool to Postlethwaite's Lear and fantastic in the 12th Night/ Comedy of Errors RSC season that launched Slinger properly. He is so good that I didn't recognise him until I looked at the cast list, in past roles he has been dainty and light whereas his Banqou is solid and earthy. Masson must get sick of never being mentioned without Alan Cumming as they were in a lot of comedy together earlier in their careers and I suppose he has been the Jessica Stevenson to Cumming's Simon Pegg.  However with Cumming taking his one man Macbeth to New York at the minute it's probably unavoidable, having seen Cumming in Bent at this very Venue I can say they are every bit as talented as each other!

Great staging moments include the opening of the back of the stage when the woods march to Macbeth, although this did mean that a crisp packet found its way onto the stage and McAvoy expertly had to push it out of the way. Macbeth's 'Carrie" style death was cool, as was McAvoy sliding down a ladder quickly!

It wasn't all fantastic, the shouty porter scene didn't really work for me, maybe the gas masks for the witches were a little heavy handed. Overall though this brings Macbeth to a new generation by being overtly in your face, it has all the darkness of the Goold production with added oomph and urgency.

 

Why I'm starting a blog

Recently I had a worrying thought about the future, one day I think I'm going to go into a job interview and rather than ask about my interests they'll present me with a tablet and ask me to bring up my blog.  Everyone seems to have one, it's easier than ever to throw your opinion out into the world so here is mine.

I have never been a fan of grammar so expect a lot of errors and while I will be reviewing theatre and TV I'll try not to be so formal with it. Rest assured while I have just started blogging I've been visiting theatre at least 3 times a month for the last 10 years. Anyway, here we go...