The Caretaker **** TNT

Friday 29 January 2010 12:09 GMT

Inviting a tramp to share your junk-filled bedsit isn’t a smart move, but that’s what well-intentioned Aston does in this 1960 black comedy which marked Harold Pinter’s first commercial success.

Jonathan Pryce invests the stinking, calculating Davies with sudden tics, indignant outbursts and a desperate dependence as he tries to play off Peter McDonald’s sluggish Aston against his menacing brother Mick (a controlled but quick to spark Sam Spruell).

They all have plans – to get to Sidcup, to build a garden shed, convert the place into a dream home.

None is likely to come to fruition, but this fine revival builds in atmosphere as allegiances shift and the unlikely power struggle to take over the grubby attic exposes the damaged natures of all three men.

Trafalgar Studios 1, SW1A 2DY Charing Cross (0844 871 7632 ) ambassadortickets.com/trafalgarstudios) Until Apr 17. £20-£45

I Am Yusuf and This is My Brother **** TNT

Friday 29 January 2010 12:09 GMT

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I Am Yusuf and This Is My Brother

This article was first published on tntonline.co.uk on Friday 29 January 2010 11:48 GMT. It was last updated on Friday 29 January 2010 12:09 GMT.

There are no Israelis in Palestinian dramatist Amir Nizar Zuabi’s new play which he directs himself. A co-production between the Young Vic and his theatre company ShiberHur (“an inch of freedom”) it takes a very personal look at the effects of the end of the British Mandate in 1948 when Palestine was divided in two and the state of Israel established.

The Brits are represented by soldier Rufus – a mouthpiece for proclamations none of the villagers are likely to believe, but basically just a decent chap looking forward to going home to Sheffield. The main focus is on Yusuf (the gentle-hearted fool of a small village in Galilee) and his older brother Ali who wants to marry fellow villager Nada.

Her father refuses to permit the union in case they breed more simple minded souls. Performed in a combination of English and Arabic (with surtitles somewhat dodgily projected on a pair of screens and a metal bathtub) there’s no questioning the sincerity of Zuabi’s writing as ghostly figures from the past crowd the watery set.

Amer Hiehel’s likable young Yusuf (his words and actions sometimes mirrored by his older self some fifty years later) brings a touch of comedy – as well as the unsullied honesty of an unsophisticated mind - to this evocative drama. And although it takes a while to get used to the mix of languages, this is a poignant, poetic and heartfelt account of a country which (like Ali and Nada’s love) is destructively torn apart by politics and outside intervention

Young Vic, The Cut, SE1 8LZ ( 0207 922 2922) till 6th February (£22.50) under 26’s £10

Legally Blonde – The Musical **** (unedited)

A popular hit even before press night, this musical version of the 2001 film is as cheerfully chirpy as Californian sorority queen Elle Woods who sets out to prove that blondes have brains as well as a passion for pink. Determined to win back her preppie boyfriend, this ditzy, fun-loving graduate in fashion merchandising follows him to Harvard and finds that hard graft, integrity and a change of outfit transform her future.

It’s all as frothy and insubstantial as candyfloss – but it’s also lots of fun with Sheridan Smith a mischievously perky delight as Elle. Jill Halfpenny impresses as a lovelorn beautician, Peter Davison’s arrogant legal professor turns out to have feet of clay, Alex Gaumond’s reliable Emmet scrubs up a treat and the irresistible chihuahua performs like a pro.

Savoy, The Strand , WC2R 0ET (0844 871 7687) Charing Cross tube www.AmbassadorTickets.com www.legallyblondethemusical.co.uk currently booking till 23rd May – . (£20 - £62.50)

Legally Blonde - The Musical **** TNT
Friday 22 January 2010 17:27 GMT

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Legally Blonde – The Musical

This article was first published on tntonline.co.uk on Friday 22 January 2010 17:27 GMT.

A hit even before press night, this musical version of the 2001 film is as cheerfully chirpy as Californian sorority queen Elle Woods, who sets out to prove that blondes have brains.

It’s as insubstantial as candyfloss, but is lots of fun with Sheridan Smith playing a perky Elle.

Jill Halfpenny impresses as a beautician, Alex Gaumond’s reliable Emmet scrubs up a treat and the Chihuahua performs like a pro.

Savoy, The Strand, WC2R 0ET Charing Cross (0844 871 7687) legallyblonde themusical.co.uk). Until May 23. £20-£62.50

Greta Garbo Came to Donegal **** TNT

Friday 22 January 2010 17:27 GMT

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Greta Garbo came to Donegal

This article was first published on tntonline.co.uk on Friday 22 January 2010 17:13 GMT. It was last updated on Friday 22 January 2010 17:27 GMT.

Greta Garbo famously wanted to be alone even before she retired from the silver screen. So where better to seek out seclusion than a Donegal backwater?

Frank McGuinness’s fine new play puts a fictional spin on an event that really took place – the film goddess’s visit to Ireland as the guest of a painter. Set in the late 1960s in the large house once owned by the Catholic Hennessy family, but now in the hands of homosexual artist Sir Matthew (a fruity Daniel Gerroll), it imagines a brief stopover in a place “half way” between New York and Sweden.

Unmarried Paulie Hennessy has accepted the restrictions of life as his housekeeper, but for Colette, her teenage niece, the place has nothing to offer. Her hopes are pinned on winning a scholarship to study medicine in Dublin and escape from Sylvia and chauffeur James (Owen McDonnell), her bickering parents. Drunk or sober, resentment over the loss of the property and their reduced status as the new owner’s domestics fuels their vitriolic slanging matches.Cockney ex-boxer Harry completes the household, fulfilling the dual function of live-in lover and gardener - and making an early appearance completely starkers.

Garbo (in her sixties, and as aloof as ever in Caroline Lagerfelt’s ironically detached performance) arrives, takes an immediate dislike to Angeline Ball’s ignorant Sylvia, almost lets her guard slip as she forges an unexpected connection with Michelle Fairley’s excellent Paulie (whose drab pinafore belies the fun-loving girl she once was) and departs leaving an unexpected legacy behind her. Robert Jones’ clever design smoothly merges indoors and out, and Nicolas Kent’s well-acted production hints at imminent change and the Troubles just around the corner.

And although, in a Chekhovian sort of way, nothing much happens, that’s in no way a criticism of what proves to be a witty, compassionate and very enjoyable study of people trapped by a combination of circumstance and their own actions.

Tricycle, Kilburn High Road, NW6 7JR Kilburn Tube (020 7328 1000) till 20th February £10.00 - £20.00

Miracle ** TNT

Monday 18 January 2010 10:51 GMT

According to the programme, Reza De Wet has won more major South African theatre and literary awards than any other writer, including Athol Fugard. Unfortunately, on the evidence of this revival of her 1992 play Mirakel, I’m at a loss to understand why.

Leicester Square might seem an unlikely location for a play set in a crypt, but Ruby in the Dust’s production, transferred to this tiny subterranean space, does a decent job of recreating the chill, unwelcoming atmosphere which greets a troupe of down at heel travelling players during the Great Depression of 1936 as they prepare to stage the medieval allegory Everyman.

Arriving back in the small town which is still home to male ingénue Abel’s wife, Anna, it depicts a life of hardship and lost dreams, one in which the past is never shaken off. Susannah York’s faded Salome hankers after past glories, cherishing the ancient picture which is displayed to announce the company’s arrival.

Bombastic actor manager Du Pre (Tim Woodward) attempts, futilely, to hide his growing frailty and the advancing years, whilst musician Antoine is generally dissatisfied with his lot and Lenie is expecting Abel’s child. But none of them can give up their peripatetic existence.

Only the deserted, considerably older Anna (Lynne Miller) thrives. Ostentatiously wealthy, dressed like death in head to toe black, she brings food and the offer of hospitality. But there is a price to pay for her apparent largesse.

The piece says something about the cost of pursuing one’s dreams and looking for a better way to live, but the dialogue and the characters are clichéd and, disappointingly, there is little sense of “the presence of the extraordinary in the midst of the ordinary” that the playwright purports to depict.

Leicester Square Theatre, Basement, Leicester Place, WC2H 7BX (0844 847 2475), £20 to 24th January

Varekai - undedited version

Guarantee to banish “back to work” blues, this stunningly costumed, virtually plotless show has, mercifully, partially improved the dire clown sequences in a glossy production with a reptilian theme, blending the daring with the sinuous and pushing human physicality to the limit.

A trio of twirling tots proves that early training pays off, a shimmering serpentine contortionist twists into impossible shapes as she balances one-handed on a cane, and the juggler is almost as adept at chucking balls by mouth as by hand.

Best of all are the acrobats glittering in red and gold, who spin and flip each other with the ease of seals tossing a ball, and the jaw-droppingly intrepid Russians somersaulting between elongated swings with such amazing control that time stands still as they hover in mid air.

Varekai - Cirque du Soleil **** TNT

Friday 15 January 2010 11:03 GMT

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Cirque du Soleil:Varekai

This article was first published on tntonline.co.uk on Friday 15 January 2010 11:03 GMT.

Guaranteed to banish back-to-work blues, this stunningly costumed, virtually plotless show from Cirque du Soleil has, mercifully, partially improved the dire clown sequences in a glossy production with a reptilian theme, blending the daring with the sinuous, and pushing human physicality to the limit.

Best of all are the acrobats glittering in red and gold, who spin and flip each other with the ease of seals tossing a ball.

Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, SW7 2AP ( 020 7838 3122) Until Feb 14. £20-£75

Swan Lake **** TNT

Monday 11 January 2010 10:27 GMT

Although it’s 14 years since Matthew Bourne’s convention-breaking version of the perennial classic exploded on the stage, it still comes across as fresh and vibrant as ever.

The outlines of the story are only loosely similar - a prince meets a swan and falls in love and it all ends in tragedy – but Bourne completely updates the locations and turns the traditional female corps de ballet into a troupe of toned, barefoot young men, naked from the waist up and clad in feathery white breeches. Instead of a prima ballerina as Odette, there’s a muscular young man as the Swan, his torso streaked with sweat, who captivates the unhappy prince and offers him the warmth that his icy royal mother (Nina Goldman) finds impossible to give. A blissful leaping duet is just one of the highlights of this show of many pleasures.

Lez Brotherston’s witty designs take the action from palace to park and from seedy nightclub to glitzy ball, capturing the atmosphere of each as Bourne’s choreography finds humour then tragedy in the Queen’s penchant for toy boys. A cute quartet of jokey little cygnets adds a quirky touch and a quietly creepy Private Secretary tidies up the loose ends, including Madelaine Brennan’s unsuitably common Girlfriend with her tumble of blonde curls.

As the Swan, Richard Windsor gains assurance in the second act, though he seems more comfortable as his alter ego, the sinister, shamelessly flirtatious Stranger in black leather.And Richard Winsor’s suicidal Prince is truly touching in this accessible, multi-award winning ballet set to Tchaikovsky’s irresistible score and defined by its homoerotic overtones.

Sadler’s Wells Rosebery Avenue, EC1R 4TN (0844 412 4300) till 24th January (£10 - £50)

The Misanthrope **** TNT
Friday 08 January 2010 16:27 GMT

Martin Crimp’s witty, erudite version of Molière’s verse comedy doesn’t need a star to make it work, but Keira Knightley definitely cuts it in her West End debut as twenty-something American film star Jennifer.

Transposed from 17th Century Paris to a swanky London hotel and today’s celebrity culture, Crimp’s swiftly delivered, almost too-clever couplets mock the media world and all its trappings. Artists, agents, actors and journalists all come under fire from Damian Lewis’s angrily cynical playwright Alceste, who, ironically, is in thrall to the flirtatious, bitchy but beautiful Jennifer.

Thea Sharrock’s production could be funnier in places – but Tim McMullan’s critic with misplaced aspirations hits just the right note of overblown pomposity in this enjoyable satire.

Comedy, Panton St, SW1Y 4DN (0844 871 7622). Until Mar 13. £20-£49.50

Blood Brothers **** TNT

Friday 08 January 2010 16:56 GMT

Even a starry first night can’t guarantee a standing ovation, but on a cold, ordinary Monday evening at the beginning of January, the audience was on its feet applauding Willy Russell’s marvellous musical which has been running in the West End for over 20 years. Maybe that was partly because former Spice Girl Melanie C has taken over the central role of Mrs Johnstone, but there’s no question that this tragic tale of twins born into poverty but separated at birth has not only stood the test of time but is still one of the most moving shows currently on offer.

Already struggling to look after a handful of kids when her husband walks out even before the latest additions arrive, Liverpudlian Mrs. J. is persuaded to part with one of the newborns by her wealthy, childless employer.But there’s a price to pay for playing god.

It’s years since I’ve seen this musical drama and although Russell’s songs – both the haunting and the jaunty – still lingered clearly in my memory, I’d forgotten the cleverness of his dialogue as an ominous narrator in a suit fills in the details of the years whilst the boys grow up in total ignorance of their mothers’ closely guarded secret. And there’s more than enough contrasting comedy to make the heartache especially poignant.

Mel C sings with real feeling as working class Mrs Johnstone, catching the power and intensity of her conflicting maternal emotions as she copes with a difficult life and problematic offspring. And the twins are excellent, too, as they find unexpected friendship across the class divide – one (Richard Reynard’s Eddie) immaculate, polite and surely destined for success, the other (Stephen Palfreman’s Mickey) grubby in a holey jumper, much loved but definitely from the wrong side of the tracks.

Russell has a lot to say about privilege, poverty and the cycle of deprivation. But above all this is a very human story about love, friendship and the things that can go wrong when the truth isn’t told – and one of those shows that should be seen by everyone with a beating heart.

Phoenix, Charing Cross Road, WC2H 0JP 08448717629, ambassadortickets.com till 31st July (£ 22.50 - £52.50)