Groove on Down the Road - ZooNation

 TNT

Kate Prince’s latest venture for ZooNation harnesses the unstoppable energy of a talented batch of kids and teenagers – all under twenty – in her exuberant 75 minute rethink of The Wizard of Oz.

They positively light up the stage from the moment young Dorothy (a determined Arizona Snow at the performance I saw)  is  released from the framework of a dull schoolroom where creativity is stifled and only academic achievement is rewarded with praise.

As she puts on her glittering red trainers and with dog Toto (endearingly dynamic Michael McNeish) follows her dreams down the yellow brick road to Emerald City High, the class dunce becomes Scarecrow (superbly controlled, gravity defying Jaih Betote Dipito Akwa), the tough guy with attitude morphs into Tinman (Michael Ureta) and the grade A student becomes a cowardly Lion (Corey Culverwell) who hides in the dustbin.

Kids and audience of all ages lapped it up – delighted when Dorothy leads her newfound friends round and through the auditorium, dancing all the way to the music of Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Justin Timberlake and more. With its back flips, spins and exuberant choreography – not to mention Steven Pascua’s Wizard with attitude – this hip-hop musical is enormous fun, and a terrific showcase for the next generation of upcoming dancers all of whom deserve a mention.
A real treat.

Queen Elizabeth Hall
South Bank Centre,  Belvedere Road , SE1 8XX
Until 1st September
Tickets £10-£32
southbankcentre.co.uk

The Pride

 TNT

After a limited run in 2008, Alexi Kaye Campbell’s award-winning debut play finally makes it to the West End, completely recast but skilfully directed once again by Jamie Lloyd as part of his Trafalgar Transformed season.

It initially played in the small space of the Royal Court Upstairs, and Lloyd has wisely kept the intimate feel, restricting the playing area to a raised platform backed by a tarnished mirror.

What initially appears to be a stylish 50’s drawing room drama (think Terence Rattigan) soon develops into something far more ambitious and thought-provoking as it switches seamlessly between the past and the present day, with different versions of an Oliver, a Sylvia and a Philip appearing both in 1958 and fifty years later.

Things have changed significantly even in the last 5 years, but it’s devastating to see estate agent Philip (a deeply troubled Harry Hadden-Paton)  and his lonely book illustrator wife Sylvia (Hayley Atwell)  emotionally destroyed by his desperation to quell the irrepressible homosexual tendencies aroused when she introduces him to her colleague, gentle children’s author Oliver (Al Weaver).

Five decades down the track, and sexual freedom comes with its own consequences – promiscuous, gay, freelance journalist Oliver’s addiction to anonymous encounters has ruined his relationship with Philip, the man he loves. And best friend and confidante, actress Sylvia, is there to pick up the pieces whilst pursuing a busy sex life of her own.

Mathew Horne contributes a trio of memorable cameos  (from a pissed-off rent boy to a psychiatrist offering aversion therapy via a lad’s mad editor) and, as a reminder that homophobia is far from eradicated in 2013, the excellent cast take the curtain call bearing placards with the words “To Russia, With Love”   writ large.

Trafalgar Studios
Whitehall, SW1A 2DY
Tube | Charing Cross£24.50 - £54.5
thepridewestend.com

West Side Story

 TNT

It’s over half a century since the Broadway premiere of Arthur Laurents’ blue-collar reworking of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare’s tragic tale of doomed love, but the finger-clicking opening of this sexy, dangerous musical still generates an air of tension and excitement as rival gangs, the Jets and the Puerto Rican Sharks, clash over their patch in New York’s Upper West Side.

Stephen Sondheim’s clever lyrics aren’t always clear, which is a shame, and not all the singing voices match the vibrancy of the dancing.

But even fifty years down the track, Jerome Robbins’ recreated choreography is still exhilaratingly edgy and, as the star-crossed  lovers, Liam Tobin (a clear, resonant and vocally assured if rather too static, clean-cut Tony) and Elena Sancho-Pereg’s operatic, love-struck Maria sing beautifully, doing full justice to Leonard Bernstein’s glorious score.

And who can resist such classic numbers as Maria, I Feel Pretty, Tonight and the optimistic Somewhere with its still resonant plea for a society in which differences in race and background are resolved without resorting to knives and violence?

Sadler’s Wells, Rosebery Avenue EC1R 4TN
Tube | Angel
Until September 22
£15- £65 (£75 premium seats)
sadlerswells.com

Pipe Dream

 TNT

It’s hard to imagine Rodgers and Hammerstein II, the duo behind “Carousel”, “Oklahoma!” and “The Sound of Music” being responsible for a flop.

But this is the first fully staged London production of their 1955 collaboration (based on John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row and his short novel Sweet Thursday), which opened for what proved to be a limited Broadway run.

Director Sasha Regan employs a large cast of 17 in a tiny space to inhabit the brothel where homeless Suzy finds shelter, the makeshift lab where marine biologist Doc studies starfish and octopi, and the insalubrious Palace Flophouse where most of the rest of the male population of Cannery Row seem to doss down.

But the plot is basically boy meets unsuitable girl and Kieran Brown’s lonely Doc (who dances a rather charming duet with his silhouette) and Charlotte Scott’s insecure, superficially tough Suzy (who later takes up residence in a boiler accessed via a pipe) give sympathetic performances in the central roles.

It’s a welcome pleasure, too, to be able to make out every word of the lyrics even if they aren’t particularly inspiring. And the relevance of a song about Christmas cards is at best tenuous.

But there’s solid work from Virge Gilchrist’s whorehouse madam with a soft, matchmaking  heart, David Haydn’s layabout Mac and Nick Martland’s Hazel, a gentle giant who forgets the problem he’s trying to solve long before he’s worked out the answer.

 

Union Theatre, Union Street, SE1 0LX
Tube | Southwark
Until 31st August
£19.50
uniontheatre.biz

WAG! The Musical

 TNT

An extra fiver per ticket gets you a “large glass of house wine” and you’ll probably need it if you’re going to enjoy this flimsy musical, which has as much merit as the sort of inferior TV sitcom that would have you rapidly switching channels if you were watching at home.

Tim Flavin won an Olivier Award almost thirty years ago but is here reduced to flouncing around as the gay manager of an upmarket department store which is about to stage a launch with the help of a host of footballer’s spray-tanned wives and girlfriends.

Meanwhile, on the cosmetics counter, Daisy Wood-Davis’s Jenny really believes that footballer Charlie is going to leave his wife and whisk her away, and colleague Sharron’s abusive relationship blinds her to the devotion of cleaner Basement Pete with his singer-songwriter talents.

Among the “celebrity” guests are Alyssa Kyria’s Greek Ariadne whose comedy routine is barely integrated in the show, and a  tubby interloper called Blow-Jo  - not to mention a couple of real life WAGS who add a touch of glamour but not  a lot else.

A programme note states that writer Belvedere Pashun “re-energises his senses” camping in the Himalayas. On the evidence of this lacklustre show, another visit is long overdue.

 

Charing Cross Theatre
The Arches, Villiers Street, WC2N 6NL
Until 24th August, £12.50+ charingcrosstheatre.co.uk

The Sound of Music

  TNT

Don’t miss Rachel Kavanaugh’s delightful production of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II’s popular 1959 musical, a Broadway success, subsequently filmed, which proved to be their final collaboration.

Even on a damp Monday night, the Open Air venue provided a perfect backdrop, framing the single high-walled set, surrounded by a moat to paddle in. It serves both as the abbey (where postulant Maria can’t quite subdue the lively nature which suggests she really isn’t suited to becoming a fully-fledged nun) and as the opulent Austrian villa of the widowed naval Captain von Trapp, where she becomes tutor to his seven strictly disciplined children.

Packed full of familiar favourites - right from Maria’s eponymous first number to the final reprise of Mother Abbess Helen Hobson’s 'Climb Ev’ry Mountain', and with a host of numbers in between to showcase the talents of the von Trapp brood – it’s an absolute joy marred only by the shadow of the fast-approaching Anschluss, the increasing threat of Nazi occupation.

Michael Xavier’s withdrawn, unbending von Trapp (towering head and shoulders above Charlotte Wakefield’s tiny, radiant Maria) melts with a new love, but remains politically steadfast as the stormtroopers make their presence felt, Michael Matus adds an extra touch of comedy as his freeloading impresario friend Max, and the children – led by Faye Brookes’ Liesl and (on the night I went) kept on the straight and narrow by Imogen Gurney’s perceptive twelve year old Brigitta – perform to perfection in this immensely pleasurable  evening.

Open Air Theatre
Inner Circle, Regents Park, NW1 4NR
Tube | Baker Street
£25+, Until 7th Septemberopenairtheatre.org

The Color Purple

 TNT

Poor Celie – she’s black, she’s poor, she’s a woman and – as she’s frequently reminded – she’s plain ugly too, which puts her right at the bottom of the pile in Alice Walker’s 1982 Pulitzer prize winning novel. Set in 1930s rural Georgia, Walker's seminal novel has been joyfully adapted for the stage by Marsha Norman and was a hit on Broadway in 2005.

Of necessity, this musical version strips out several characters, and crucial revelations and events are often dealt with in a perfunctory manner. But its heart is definitely in the right place and it doesn’t ignore the distressing aspects of the book (and of Steven Spielberg’s subsequent film) – teenage Celie’s rape, her miserable “marriage” to the cruel, whip-wielding Mister (Christopher Colquhoun) who wishes he’d married another woman and treats her worse than a slave, the appalling treatment of her sassy, indomitable  daughter-in-law Sofia (Sophia Nomvete), and juke-joint singer Shug Avery’s reliance on her sex appeal to get her through.

The men are a pretty rotten lot – cruel, abusive or, at best, weak. No wonder Celie only finds sexual happiness, at least temporarily, with Shug.

And although John Doyle’s lively production (enacted on a stage almost bare bar rows of chairs suspended from the rear wall) has a feel-good atmosphere right from the start, filling the stage with the powerful voices of gossiping churchgoers, the tears are there too - the tissues were in evidence well before the end.

And among the talented all-black cast, tiny Cynthia Erivo stands out as Celie who, over three decades, movingly makes the transition from downtrodden victim to a self-sufficient woman who knows her own mind. Warmly recommended. 

 

Menier Chocolate Factory , 53 Southwark Street, SE1 1RU
Tube |  London Bridge
Until 14th September
£27.50 – 37.50 (Meal Deals £37.50- £43.00) menierchocolatefactory.com

A Season in the Congo

 TNT

Patrice Lumumba was the first democratically elected Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo, but his government of the newly independent country lasted a mere 12 weeks in 1960 before he was deposed in a coup and subsequently executed just a few months later at the age of 35.

Film director Joe Wright’s richly staged production of Aimé Césaire’s 1966 drama (the second in a trilogy concerning decolonization) transforms the auditorium into a vibrant Leopoldville as it follows Lumumba’s career from travelling beer salesman in 1955 to his final moments when the United Nations failed to step in to save him.

The narrative is fragmentary and at times there’s almost too much going on with a host of different  styles in evidence – from an old  likembe player (Kabongo Tshisensa) whose sayings are amusingly interpreted for an English audience, to huge-headed puppets and to the big pink nose-shaped masks sported by the all black cast to portray the Belgian colonials,  and from the strummed guitar of Kaspy N’Dia to the vibrant movement choreographed by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui who morphs a pulsating dance into a bloodbath.

But it’s all held together by a charismatic central performance from Chiwetel Ejiofor, returning to the stage to imbue Lumumba with both the charisma necessary to carry a nation and the naivety which could not prevent the civil war which followed.

Young Vic, The Cut, SE1 8LZ
Tube | Southwark / Waterloo
Extended to 24th August
£10.00 - £32.50
youngvic.org

Private Lives

 TNT

Noel Coward’s frequently revived 1930 comedy of very bad marital manners comes up fresh and sparkling in Jonathan Kent’s finely tuned production, a transfer from Chichester sumptuously designed by Anthony Hayward.

Reputedly dashed off in a matter of days, it centres on a divorced couple Elyot and Amanda who, after five years apart, find themselves honeymooning in adjoining Deauville hotels suites with their new partners – a neatly symmetrical scenario which inevitably leads to old flames being rekindled.

Toby Stephens makes a suave, dashing Elyot, with a cruel and careless undertone already apparent in his interactions with his pretty young wife, Sibyl (Anna-Louise Plowman who just happens to be Mrs Stephens in real life). He’s well-matched by Anna Chancellor’s equally privileged, overtly confident Amanda who is all too aware that she isn’t quite as young as she once was. Even her outfits are chosen to complement the bohemian décor of the Paris love nest where they escape to renew both the passion and the violence of their past relationship.

But it’s obvious from the start that settling for a pale shadow of her former spouse in the shape of stuffy, decent, tweedy Victor (excellent Anthony Calf), would never have led to happiness. Better, in Coward’s view, for sparks to fly and Stephens and Chancellor ensure that they do just that in this witty account of a turbulent couple who can’t live with each other but can’t live without each other either.

Gielgud, Shaftesbury Avenue, W1D 6AR
Tube | Piccadilly Circus
Until 21st September
£10.00 - £53.50privateliveswestend.com

Daytona

TNT

Actor Oliver Cotton’s new three-hander, set in 1986, can’t quite decide what sort of play it is. And, more crucially, the device that reunites his characters after a thirty year separation doesn’t ring true.

What begins as a comedy - with septuagenarian Jewish New Yorkers Elli and almost retired accountant husband Joe  (The Simpsons' Harry Shearer)  practicing for a senior ballroom dancing competition the following day - turns into an exposure of long-buried secrets and a moral debate about how justice should be meted out to war criminals.

Despite those reservations, the performances - and the matrimonial bickering of a long-established relationship - hold the attention.

As Joe’s estranged brother Billy who suddenly appears on their Brooklyn doorstep in the middle of winter, sockless and wearing a mismatched Hawaiian shirt and heavy suit, John Bowe makes the best of an unconvincing character who has, on the spur of the moment, taken matters into his own hands whilst holidaying in Florida and now feels the need for fraternal backup.

And Maureen Lipman’s Elli, combining spot on comic timing and later emotional desolation, goes a long way to compensate for the overload of exposition and predictability with which Cotton burdens David Grindley’s production.

Park Theatre, Clifton Terrace,
Finsbury Park, N4 3JP
Tube | Finsbury Park
Until 18th August, £22.50parktheatre.co.uk

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

 TNT

From impoverished Charlie Bucket himself (Louis Suc on the night I went) to rapping, gum-chewing Violet Beauregarde and snooty spoilt brat Veruca Salt in her pink tutu, the kids in this lavish musical are great, oozing confidence and not at all phased by having to contend with whizzing computer graphics and striking special effects.

Unlike my companion, I came to director Sam Mendes’ production with virtually no knowledge of Roald Dahl’s 1964 children’s book (here adapted and updated for the stage by David Greig), but it still felt like a pretty slow start with too much time spent in the company of Charlie’s quartet of bed-ridden grandparents before he finally finds the winning wrapper which entitles him to a coveted trip to chocolate heaven.

Things really look up, though, when Douglas Hodge’s charismatic Willy Wonka makes his entrance, bringing a touch of danger to the eccentric chocolatier as, one by one, the kids get their comeuppance on their guided tour of the mysterious factory.

The hard-working Oompa-Loompas are cleverly realised by set designer Mark Thompson who’s done an impressive job creating the various rooms where hyperactive Mike Teavee, greedy Augustus Gloop and the rest meet their appropriate fates which involve evil nut-cracking squirrels, a flowing chocolate fountain, some extreme expanding and even more drastic shrinking.

You’re unlikely to come out humming the songs, and the lyrics aren’t always clear. But it makes for an entertaining confection, suitable for all the family and with a timely warning in this reality TV age that no one ever gets back to normal once they’ve been on television

Theatre Royal, Drury Lane Catherine, Street WC2B 5JF
Tube | Charing Cross/Covent Garden
Currently booking till 31st May 2014
Tickets £ 25 - £67.50 (+ premium seats)www.seetickets.com

The American Plan

 TNT

Summering in the Catskills has long been popular with Jewish New Yorkers - offering a chance to get away from the heat of the city, and, for the young, the possibility of romance.

In multi-award-winning playwright Richard Greenberg’s superficially gentle drama, the title refers not only to the all-in hotel rate offering almost non-stop meals, but also to a way of life aspired to in the 60s which wealthy widow Eva (a Jewish émigré who claims to have caught the last boat out of Hitler’s Germany) wants to secure for her emotionally fragile daughter Lili – so long as the man in question meets with her approval, and that’s proving to be a pretty tough call.

When Luke Allen-Gale’s attractive Nick emerges, dripping, onto the jetty, Lili thinks her knight in shining armour has finally arrived – but Eva seems all set to scare him off, too.

None of the characters proves completely truthful, which leaves scope for various twists and the younger members of the cast persuasively handle the changes in mood, with Emily Taaffe touchingly vulnerable as Lili and Mark Edel-Hunt’s forceful Gil making a late appearance to throw another unexpected spanner in the works.

But Diana Quick’s Eva seems oddly ponderous for such a manipulative woman and although David Grindley’s production garnered excellent reviews in Bath earlier this year, this 1990 American drama with its debt to Tennessee Williams seems to have lost something in the transfer.

 

St James, 21 Palace Street, SW1E 5JA
Tube: Victoria
Until 10th August £15 –£40
(£50.00 Premium seats) stjamestheatre.co.uk

Propeller's The Taming of the Shrew & Twelfth Night

 TNT

Edward Hall, currently the artistic director at this address, made his name with his all-male touring company Propeller. It’s still going strong under his command and is stopping off here briefly with revivals of a couple of Shakespeare’s comedies both of which have an underlying vein of darkness.

Most accessible – and, here, most brutal -  is their interpretation of The Taming of the Shrew – a no holds barred account of a man viciously determined to break the will of his chosen woman, Kate, and gain her fortune too. The fact that Kate is played by a man (Dan Wheeler stomping around angrily in Doc Martens and head to toe black) gives licence for far more extreme violence than is usual.

Vince Leigh’s swaggering Petruchio doesn’t just humiliate her by turning up bare-buttocked at their wedding, but, once married, tugs her by her white-blond hair and stamps on her hand.

Yes, it’s amusing to see Bianca (fetching in a peach polka dot dress) played as a rather calculating coquette instead of the usual sweetly insipid foil to her older sister (her tutor brings The Joy of Sex  to their lessons together). But seeing Kate broken and cowed into total submission still leaves a nasty taste even though the whole episode is presented as a drunken dream.

Their Twelfth Night is a much more restrained affair - though there are bare bums to be seen here, too.  Designer Michael Pavelka’s wardrobes with their tarnished mirrors are now shrouded and masked characters oversee the proceedings.

But having a man playing a woman who disguises herself as a youth yields insufficient dividends – there’s nothing feminine about Joseph Chance’s shipwrecked Viola and little chemistry between him and the lovesick Duke Orsino.  Consequently it’s Gary Shelford’s subtly scheming servant woman Maria who steals the show -  a neat natural in heels with a nifty side-line in tap-dancing.

Hampstead, Eton Avenue, NW3 3EU
Tube | Swiss Cottage
Until 20th July
£22- £29 each
playhampsteadtheatre.com

Fences

 TNT

Lenny Henry was already into his fifties – and, as a comedian, a household name - when he picked up a Best Newcomer award for his performance of Othello.

But although he may have come to straight acting pretty late in a busy career, he’s gone on to prove that the accolade marked far more than a flash in the pan achievement. Now, at almost exactly the same age as Troy Maxson, the Pittsburgh garbage collector at the centre of American playwright August Wilson’s domestic drama (written in 1987 but set thirty years earlier) he gives a powerfully emotional account of a flawed and complex man who knows what he has, but can’t stop himself from destroying it.

It’s a rather unbalanced play which is sometimes over wordy and keeps us waiting rather too long for an unexpected bombshell.  But, before then, Henry and Tanya Moodie’s Rose (his devoted wife of 18 years) establish the loving, supportive warmth of what looks like a solid relationship, and his contentedly boozy payday banter with best buddy Bono (Colin McFarlane) confirms that this ex con has become a reliable, if not altogether satisfied, working man.

Yet, stuck in a dead end job and still resentful that his prowess at baseball was never fully recognised because of his colour, Troy seems set to deprive their teenage son (Ashley Zhangazha’s Cory) of his own chance at being signed up for a career in football and is dismissive of elder son Lyons’ (Peter Bankole) jazz gigs. Even his support of his war-damaged brother proves to be less than straightforward.

Wilson, who died in 2005, completed a cycle of ten plays, one for each decade, chronicling the African American experience and Paulette Randall’s revival of this Pulitzer prize-winning drama does him proud, with Henry’s totally convincing Troy taking his time to build the fence which will bothkeep intruders out and confine his family within.

Duchess, Catherine Street, WC2B 5LA
Tube | Covent Garden/ Charing Cross
Until 14th September
£20.00-£52.50 (Premium seats £65)
nimaxtheatres.com