Review: The Apothecary - Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds

One of the frustrations with Shakespeare is, despite his prodigious output, there are often scenes and characters we fleetingly see in his works that we yearn to hear more about. Vividly drawn sketches who appear as mere supports to his better known characters but whom one feels have a fascinating back-story of their own to tell.

In Romeo and Juliet, we are offered a brief but fascinating glimpse into the world of the Apothecary, the man who provides the fatal poison that ends the tragic couple’s lives.

What drives a man who deals in poisons and potions? For a man who claims to be able to cure demons, what sort of demons is he battling himself?

That is the premise for the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds Summer School’s latest production. Rehearsed over just a two week period, The Apothecary steps inside the dark and shadowy world of the chemist shop and the equally dark mind of the practitioner himself.

With the tables turned, the warring Montague’s and Capulet’s feature as mere footnotes in this tale, a young Romeo opens the show requesting the fateful potion while the Friar bookends the piece with news of his intervention in the tragic tale. However, apart from these two scenes, the well-known Shakespeare tale doesn’t feature. Instead, we are offered a stream of vignettes centred around visitors to the shop and, while these scenes do provide the large cast with ample opportunity to demonstrate a variety of theatrical styles and characters, it does lack narrative cohesion.

We get a hint that the Apothecary is suffering from a crisis of confidence, perhaps based on his troubled childhood, but we never fully get to understand why or what the interaction with a variety of customers is supposed to tell us.

There are some nice cameos within the piece. A scene with a young girl who talks incessantly to the chagrin of her mother is well performed (Eve Chancellor and Hayley Murrow), while a scene with a band of strolling players managed to overcome a wardrobe malfunction with skill and professionalism.

As the title character Maylott Robinson develops from a quiet start into an assured performance, though one that never fully reveals all the characters depths.

Becca Gibbs and Paul Golynia’s set provide a wonderfully evocative playground for the cast, full of shady nooks and crannies for various sprites and demons to make surprise entrances.

The mix of devised work coupled with Sally Waters and Lynn Whitehead’s script isn’t always a comfortable marriage with the transition between styles not always resolved in the short rehearsal process.

The young company should, however, be applauded for staging such a complex show in such a short period. The skills learnt in having to work to such a short deadline will be invaluable both inside and outside theatre and at the end of the day there’s no stronger reason than that for such projects.

Target Audience?

Are you aged 25 – 65? Do you go to the theatre? If so, why? A cursory glance as some marketing strategies could easily make you think that you are not the target audience for some theatres.

With a huge focus on gaining a young audience and then a further focus on the senior citizen audience, some theatres seem to think those forty years between ‘youth’ and ‘senior’ are barren - not worth engaging with.

Of course there is huge value in encouraging a new young audience into theatre but what happens when they hit the 25+ age barrier? Do venues continue to engage with them to feed that burgeoning theatrical addiction or do they just move onto the next up and coming generation and leave the over 25s to fend for themselves. The engagement and incentive seems to kick in again once retirement beckons.

Schemes such as A Night Less Ordinary trumpeted the fact that they had given away thousands of free tickets. That scheme may have finished but have venues followed up on those who have graduated from schemes such as that to see if they have converted into long term paying customers?

While schemes such as this were helpful in making that first step and getting new audiences through the door the relationship needs constant work to convert these first time visitors into regular and engaged audiences. Are those audiences willing to pay full price for their burgeoning theatrical experiences once the discounts end?

Are we in danger of losing a generation of theatre-goers?

Of course young audiences are vital for the future of theatre and senior citizens are traditionally strong supporters but what about those intervening 40 years? Financial and time pressures for that age group are perhaps even more acute but, for some venues, the challenge of engaging this sector seems to be too hard a route to tread.

Some schemes such as the National Theatre’s Young Patron scheme are already addressing this age gap, offering a bridge between their youth scheme for supporters aged between 21 and 45. Those years give plenty of opportunity to build relationships with theatre goers and develop those relationships into long term support but it’s a relatively rare initiative.

One thing that all marketing guides agree on is that it is much easier to keep an existing customer than recruit a new one.

Time to have a fresh look at what you do to keep your customers in those 40 long years between 25 and 65?

Article originally written for Arts Professional Magazine.

Review: Batman Live - The O2 Arena

This is no place for Shakespeare quotes the Joker during Batman Live, and he may be right, but the Bard would have likely relished the opportunity to stage such a large scale spectacle in the O2 Arena.

In a production that cost a reputed £7.5 million to stage and has been in the planning for two and a half years, the caped crusader has been given the arena makeover.

Those expecting the darker undertones of the recent cinematic reboots may be disappointed; this is a Batman returning to his DC Comics roots – a Technicolor battle with an assembled posse of his villainous adversaries; The Joker, Riddler, Poison Ivy, Two Face, Scarecrow, Harlequin and Catwoman – all led by a suitably maniacal Joker.

This is also the potted back-story of how the young Bruce Wayne became Batman, how young circus acrobat Dick Grayson became sidekick Robin and how butler Alfred keeps more than vintage wine in the Wayne Manor cellars. There’s a huge canon of work to try and fit into a two hour run time and, given the scale of the venue its never a story that is going to be told with subtle emotional shading, resorting to much broader brush strokes to paint the dramatic tale.

The plot, however, is really only there as the framework for a series of spectacular effects that impress on sheer scale and delivery.

The aerial work impresses; performers drop, swing and fly out of the lighting rig with deceptive ease in a constantly moving visual feast. On stage level a series of impressive set pieces appear; cars, circus props, a giant Joker head and an impressive hot air balloon. Of course, no Batman show would be complete without an appearance of the Batmobile and Batman Live doesn’t disappoint. A futuristic F1-inspired Batmobile screeches on stage, shoots flares above the audience’s heads and comes complete with the trademark afterburner.

The true star of the evening, however, is the 100-feet wide video wall backdrop. Stunning animation takes us inside the comic book pages and provides an interactive backdrop to the action and an almost 3D set backdrop.

On a non-technology side, the cast comprised of actors and circus performers do well to carry the story in the cavernous space of the O2 Arena. Performances are over the top of course but they need to be in this environment. Nick Court’s Wayne/Batman and Kamran Darabi-Ford’s Robin work well together, while Mark Frost’s Joker is suitably deranged and chilling.

Batman Live is traditional family entertainment given a 21st Century makeover, though it’s questionable who is enjoying it most, the children or the parents who took them.

As Julie Taymor, U2 and the creative team behind Broadway’s Spiderman musical will attest, it’s not easy bringing a comic book superhero to the stage, but creative director Anthony Van Laast, set designer Es Devlin, lighting designer Patrick Woodroffe and video designer Sam Pattinson have created a spectacle that genuinely thrills.

Review: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat - Cliffs Pavilion, Southend On Sea

Bill Kenwright’s tour of Lloyd Webber and Rice’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is the stuff of theatrical legend. While Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap may be ensconced for ever in the West End, Kenwright’s touring version of the biblical rags to riches tale has been touring the regions for the over 20 years, breaking just about every theatrical musical longevity and box office record in the process.

The recent resurgence of interest in Joseph has in part been down to the BBC TV live casting couch ‘Any Dream Will Do’ that launched the career of tousle-haired winner Lee Mead. Now, however, its time for runner up in the series, Keith Jack, to don the famous multicoloured coat as the biblical prodigal son.

Jack has appeared in the show before, having played the Narrator but now steps into the spotlight in an assured and confident performance. His is a Joseph full of cheeky charm and a knowing wink that brings a fresh approach to the often doe-eyed innocence that Joseph is often played with.

Vocally it’s a performance that carries off Lloyd Webber’s score well though, if being picky, a bit more vocal power is needed in the big solo numbers. What he may lack in power, though, he more than makes up for in stage presence and warmth.

Of course, Joseph is more than a one man show and the current touring cast is obviously having great fun with the piece. Jennifer Potts as the Narrator demonstrates an impressive vocal range while Adam Jarrell suitably rocks as the Elvis-inspired Pharaoh.

It is, however, a company full of spot on performances, with Jacob’s eleven other sons providing plenty of humour and vitality – especially in the Parisian inspired ‘Those Canaan Days’ complete with berets, accordionists and strings of onions.

There is also impressive support from the children of local choir The Carmel Thomas Youth Singers, who add some well drilled harmonies to the professional cast.

Sean Cavanagh’s set provides plenty of tongue in cheek humour, complete with inflatable sheep, palm trees and golden Egyptian deities, while James McCullagh’s musical direction has great fun with Lloyd Webber’s quirky score.

The addition of extra reprises in the finale do seem to be extraneous but, by that point, the audience are having such a good time it would be churlish to deny them the opportunity to sing and dance along.

At the end of the day, the Joseph tour is never going to be a work on immense depth and intellectual challenge but it doesn’t need to be. For two hours of pure musical fun it’s hard to knock and this record-breaking tour shows no sign of fading yet.

Review originally written for The Public Reviews

 

Review: South Pacific - Barbican Theatre

Awards can be a double-edged sword for productions. While the acclaim can boost box office sales, it does also set expectations high.

New York’s Lincoln Centre revival of Rogers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific swept the board at the Tony Awards and sold out in New York for over two years. Its transfer to the UK has become one of the most talked about productions of the year, partly because of the wallet stinging £85 top ticket price but, more genuinely, of the expectation of seeing a landmark production.

Sadly the hype and expectation is poorly satisfied in a lacklustre production that leaves more than a sense of disappointment.

Despite some superficial candyfloss upbeat numbers, South Pacific packs a much darker punch dealing with war and deep-rooted racism. There’s an undercurrent of innocence lost in this tale of US servicemen on a small South Pacific island during the Second World War. At the time it was controversial stuff, the war being a fresh memory and the overt racism of two leading characters a shock to the American consciousness. It is an epic tale in a vaunted epic production but, here, it seems stilted, lacklustre and in desperate need of an injection of energy, pace and soul.

Something seems to have gotten lost in the transatlantic transfer that makes it hard to reconcile the critical plaudits preceding it.

Director Bartlett Sher has gone for a highly traditional approach to the show. No radical reinterpretation here, just a straightforward run through. While such an approach does allow the musical genius of Rogers and Hammerstein to shine, it does rob the piece of any real emotional heart. The racial undertones are watered down and even the traditionally exuberant big song and dance numbers such as There is Nothing Like Dame and I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair are robbed of much needed energy and showbiz pazazz.

Michael Yeargan’s designs also take the traditional path. Pieces of scenery are pushed on and off and a series of slatted blinds lower and rise to hide and reveal sections of the show. While it does allow the action to flow, the overall effect is flat and disappointing.

So, while the direction and staging disappoint the fatal blow is dealt by some idiosyncratic casting.

Two of the original Tony Award winning stars have transferred with the show, Paulo Szot and Loretta Ables Sayre as Emile de Becque and Bloody Mary and prove to be the two sole highlights in the evening.

Szot sings beautifully as de Becque, with his rendition of This Nearly Was Mine receiving by far the most rapturous response of the evening, while Ables Sayre provides a delightful Bloody Mary.

The UK additions to the cast however are more problematic. Daniel Koek as Lieutenant Cable can certainly sing but fails to give his character any real depth or convincing reason why local girl Liat would fall in love with him. There is no chemistry between Koek and Elizabeth Chong as Liat, making the tragic dénouement of their brief love affair a throwaway moment rather than the required emotional climax.

In the central role of nurse Nellie Forbush, sadly EastEnders actress Samantha Womack seems woefully miscast. Her portrayal of the character is paper thin at best with no emotional depth or conviction. Vocally Womack seems to battle with the score, delivering a thin rendition that, at times, struggles with the higher register and lacks the necessary power and punch to centre such a large production. Womack also fails to provide any believable emotional reasoning for her actions and, as such, sadly comes across as little than a walking, talking, singing mannequin.

In what seems to be a recurring theme, Womack and Szot lack any real chemistry that would define why the couple fall in love. Even to the defining strains of Some Enchanted Evening, the couple act like complete strangers wanting to keep each other at arm’s length. Indeed, during what is supposed to be a tear-inducing finale, the couple manage barely a handshake. Without a believable emotional heart this production is fatally flawed.

The normal caveats apply as technically this is a preview performance (although ticket prices are not reduced and no mention of preview is made in the advertising or tickets) ahead of official press night on August 23. However, with only one performance between this and the looming press night, the show is in desperate need of some work.

The show needs a vital injection of energy, the leads need to urgently develop some chemistry and overall characters need to be fleshed out to provide some believable depth and a realisation that this is a fully staged musical and not a concert rendition.

It is thankfully rare to see a show of this calibre in such bad shape, though it does go to show that despite the critical acclaim of the original it still takes considerable skill and hard work to replicate that success and on its current showing there’s still much work to do.

What should have been an enchanted evening falls flat as, without a convincing emotional hook, this South Pacific is adrift at sea.

Review: Parade - Southwark Playhouse

Think of America’s Deep South in the early 20th century and the struggle for race equality often springs to mind.

Alongside black rights, however, there was a lesser known, but equally abhorrent discrimination at work – anti-Semitism.

Jason Robert Brown’s Parade looks at the true story of Leo Frank, a Jewish factory manager, accused of the rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl who works in his factory. Desperate for a culprit, any culprit, the townsfolk, whipped up by the media and deep-seated tensions, are keen to convict and, having ‘hanged enough Negros’, the chance to hang a Jew seems a more populist option.

Jason Robert Brown’s Parade received its UK debut at the Donmar in 2007 but now receives a major revival at Southwark Playhouse’s Vault auditorium.

Director Thom Southerland has staged the piece in traverse in the vaulted auditorium on a bare wood stage bookended by two balustraded platforms. The approach allows the numerous scenes and locales to flow fluidly, though, in similar vein to the current Menier Chocolate Factory production of Road Show, it is reminiscent of watching a tennis match at times.

What Southerland’s production does achieve is a sublime mix of epic scale and intimacy. Robert Brown’s score combines soaring choral number that evoke traditional Deep South anthems, which segue in a tight-focused duet or solo. This simple staging allows such transitions to come to the fore and focuses attention on the characters.

Robert Brown’s lush, rich score has never sounded better, performed by a cast that often double roles but never at the expense of vocal performance.

Alistair Brookshaw’s Leo centres the piece with a beautifully detailed performance – full of nervous tension and incredulity over the events that overtake him. Laura Pitt-Pulford as his wife, Lucille, sings beautifully, full of passion and raw emotion. There’s also strong performances from David Haydn as the State Governor slowly realising a miscarriage of justice has occurred, Samuel J Weir as a young soldier who bookends the show with the moving anthem Old Blue Hills of Home, and Jessica Bastick-Vines as the young victim, Mary Phagan.

Michael Bradley extracts a rich sound from his six-piece band, though in this early preview there were a couple of moments when the orchestrations swamped the vocals.

Howard Hudson’s evocative Southern sunset-inspired lighting and John Risebero’s simple yet effective set provide an atmospheric backdrop to the piece that draws the audience into this dark, yet moving examination of love, fear and tension in 1913 Atlanta.

There are echoes of Miller’s Crucible and Kander and Ebb’s Chicago here, a mix of children being led into false testimony fuelled by the burgeoning media desire for sensationalism and ‘celebrity’; however, Alfred Uhry’s book and Robert Brown’s score and lyrics are no copycat creation, providing their own dark and moving look at lives torn apart by discrimination and fear.

There are sections in this early preview that still need some attention. Some work on the aforementioned sound balance, the need for clearer diction in a couple of passages and some thought to the current anti-climatic dénouement will reap wonders and tighten up what is already a strong production.

Jason Robert Brown is growing in reputation as one of America’s most promising musical theatre composers and Parade is possibly his strongest score so far. In Southwark Playhouse’s production it has never been delivered with such emotional intensity, performed by a small cast at the top of their game.

The Playhouse may currently be battling Network Rail for its long term future but, if the planning officers need any proof of the quality of the venue’s work, they would be hard pushed to find a stronger demonstration than Parade.

Normal caveat applies – this is a review of the 3rd preview performance and so elements may change.

Photo: Alistair Brookshaw and Laura Pitt-Pulford in Parade at Southwark Playhouse. Picture by Annabel Vere

Review: Cabaret- Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds

There is an odd moment in Cabaret when the audience is uncertain if it should applaud a song or not. It’s no reflection on the cast or the production but rather a deliberate move by the composers to unsettle their audience.


Indeed, in Suffolk Young People’s Theatre production of Kander and Ebb's look at the rise of the Nazis in 1930s Berlin, Tomorrow Belongs To Me is performed with haunting beauty. The song, which must be a contender for the most chilling number in musical theatre, sums up perfectly the counterpoint of this dark yet human musical. Starting off as a melodic folk anthem, extolling the joys of Germanic rural life, the song slides into horror as the audience slowly realise they are in fact listening to a Nazi recruitment anthem. As the harmonies rise so do the Nazi salutes and a shiver inevitably runs down the spine.

It’s a tribute to this company that no attempt is made to lighten the piece, anti-Semitism, abortion and the rise of Hitler are all tackled head on in a remarkably mature production from such a young cast.

Arriving in 1930s Berlin, struggling writer Cliff Bradshaw is swept up into the exotic world of the city’s nightlife and, in particular, the Kit Kat Klub, falling under the seductive charms of leading lady Sally Bowles.

Sally is a woman on the edge, battling drink and inner demons, her outward bravado concealing a frail interior. As the political situation in Germany becomes darker so does Cliff and Sally’s mismatched relationship, ultimately leaving both to come to terms with the consequences of their time in Berlin.

Those familiar with the iconic film adaptation will find the stage version a much grittier proposition, more accurately reflecting the shabby, run down nature of the clubs of the period.

In the film version Liza Minnelli’s Sally Bowles took centre stage and there is more than a passing resemblance to Minnelli in Katherine Engall’s rendition here. It’s by no means a mimic performance, however. Engall instils her Sally with an edginess of a woman on the constant battle to avoid a total breakdown, a battle she finally loses in an emotional finale.

As Clifford, Tom Menarry creates a believable innocent abroad, swept into the whirlwind of German politics and love while Leanne Rumsey’s Fraulein Schneider delivers an impressively powerful vocal performance that conveys perfectly the emotions of a woman torn between future happiness and politician conformity.

Overseeing the rapidly collapsing world is a show stealing performance from Matthew Turner as the Emcee. Delivering a performance with spot on comic timing, inflection, dance and vocal skill, young Mr Turner’s Emcee ranks up their with the very best professional performances seen in the role over the years. It is always a temptation to turn the role into the grotesque but here Turner creates just the right level of the clown versus the sinister.

One of the joys of watching youth theatre is to celebrate the wealth of talent our communities hold. Judging by this showing, the future of musical theatre is in very safe hands and there are many names to watch out for.

Forget the darker undertones of the lyrics for a moment, tomorrow certainly does belong to them.
Review originally written for The Public Reviews