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