Sunset Boulevard - Review

Savoy Theatre, London

***

Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber

Lyrics by Don Black & Christopher Hampton

Directed by Jamie Lloyd

Nicole Scherzinger

The essence of this production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard is in its advertised titling, 'Sunset Blvd.' The 'Blvd.' a staccato spelling, stripped back, laid bare – Jamie Lloyd stamping his imprimatur not just upon the staging of the show, but on its publicity too. It is disappointing to note however that the credits for this production make no reference whatsoever to Billy Wilder who directed and co-wrote the 1950 Oscar-winner that was to spawn the musical. How fickle creatives can be.

Nicole Scherzinger steps up to play Norma Desmond, the famously faded Hollywood idol, an actress who decades after her heyday insists that she is still “big, it’s the pictures that got small”. Make no mistake – Scherzinger has a voice of anthemic, stadium-filling power and in some of Fabian Aloise’s dance routines, a sublime athleticism that unhelpfully belies her age. Considering that Desmond is meant to be the ultimate Hollywood has-been, for Scherzinger to move so amazingly across the stage suggests a woman close to the peak of her career, rather than in its deepest trough. She makes fine work of Desmond’s early solo number With One Look, but is found wanting in the second-act’s blockbuster As If We Never Said Goodbye. This latter number has the potential to leave an audience broken, such is its insight into the deluded Desmond’s return to Paramount Studios. Here however, whilst Scherzinger’s vocals are again magnificent it is hard to connect her performance with Desmond’s disconnected despair.

The final act’s lyrics have been changed to fit the leading lady – Black and Hampton wrote “nothing's wrong with being fifty, unless you're acting twenty.” In this show, the “fifty” is changed to “forty”, that only highlights the weakness in having cast Scherzinger (who in close-up looks fabulous in her forties) as the ageing diva. Much like Desmond's futile dream of playing Salome, has Lloyd cast Scherzinger in a role that is ultimately beyond her? 

Distinctly minimalist, and under designer Soutra Gilmour’s vision, Lloyd’s actors are given no props to work with while on stage. The costuming and the staging is completely monochrome, a nod to the early days of Hollywood and there is some ingenious live video close-up work that reflects the show’s cinematic foundation. The black and white colour scheme works and makes for an exciting visual treat.

For no apparent reason the second half opens up backstage with a live video broadcast tracking the story's Hollywood screenwriter Joe Gillis (played by Tom Francis) as he zips through the cast’s dressing rooms before exiting out onto The Strand and back in to the Savoy Theatre, all while singing the title song. Impressive work for sure – but no explanation is offered for this brief movie-in-a show. And why, when Norma tells Joe that she’s got herself a revolver, are we shown a semi-automatic handgun placed on Scherzinger’s backstage dressing table? Sloppy detailing that undermines Lloyd's approach. 

In keeping with Lloyd’s harsh interpretation the two songs that offer a touch of comedy amidst the noir (the ensemble numbers The Lady’s Paying and  Eternal Youth Is Worth A Little Suffering) have been dropped. These excisions however don’t sit well alongside some of the the corny moments that have been incorporated into the video work. Down in the pit Alan Williams’ musical direction is magnificent, delivering a gorgeous interpretation of Lloyd Webber’s melodies.

This production of Sunset Boulevard will be remembered for its casting and its distinctive style. It’s a flawed interpretation for sure – but very entertaining. You won’t be bored.

Runs until 6th January 2024. Rachel Tucker plays the role of Norma Desmond on Mondays.

Photo credit: Manuel Harlan

The Third Man - Review

Menier Chocolate Factory, London

****

Music by George Fenton

Lyrics & book by Don Black & Christopher Hampton

Directed by Trevor Nunn

Sam Underwood and Natalie Dunne

Film noir clearly has an attraction for Don Black and Christopher Hampton. Having translated Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard from screen to stage, they now fix their canon on Carol Reed’s 1949 Oscar-winner The Third Man. Set to George Fenton’s score, Graham Greene’s Vienna-based story of mystery, romance and murderous corruption plays out in a modestly staged production at the Menier Chocolate Factory.

It’s an ambitious conceit to take such a tightly focused movie, famous for its shadows, intrigue and of course THAT theme tune, but Black and Hampton’s treatment under Trevor Nunn’s directing, never takes itself too seriously. Sam Underwood plays Holly Martins, the American writer (Why was it always an American writer who’s the protagonist in these tales of the 1930s and 40s? Sunset Boulevard, Cabaret etc etc) who finds himself caught up in the Austrian capital's murky black-market world as he searches for his old friend Harry Lime. Those familiar with the story will know of Lime’s treachery and it is a credit to this production as to how the serpentine twists of Greene’s plot are revealed.

Natalie Dunne smoulders with delicious contempt as femme fatale Anna Schmidt and there is an equally impressive turn from the talented Simon Bailey. The show’s ensemble make up a raft of two-dimensional characters that all add to creating the show’s Vienna-lite experience.

Above the performing space Tamara Saringer’s band are a delight, with Fenton’s score reverently acknowledging Anton Karas’ famous Harry Lime Theme from the movie, with the occasional motif. Down below, Paul Farnsworth’s set designs effectively utilise the Menier’s grimy heritage.

A loving tribute to a classic movie, The Third Man makes for an evening of charming musical theatre.

Runs until 9th September

Photo credit: Manuel Harlan

Aspects of Love - Review

Lyric Theatre, London

***

Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber

Lyrics by Don Black & Charles Hart

Based on the novel by David Garnett

Directed by Jonathan Kent

Michael Ball and Laura Pitt-Pulford

Returning to the London stage and complete with re-vamped orchestrations, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Don Black / Charles Hart’s Aspects of Love takes up a modest residency at the Lyric Theatre .

Michael Ball who starred in the original production as the young Alex, here tops the bill as the avuncular George, in this curious tale of love that according to Messrs. Black and Hart, changes everything.

Ball is magnificent and so too are his company of Laura Pitt-Pulford as Rose, Jamie Bogyo (Alex), soprano Danielle De Niese as Giuletta and Anna Unwin as Jenny (with on press night Millie Gubby as her character's pre-teen iteration). It all makes for a fabulously performed ménage à cinq that on closer inspection turns out to be a most unappetising minestrone of morals.

Technically, the show is a marvel. Not just in the actors’ glorious work, but in Lloyd Webber’s melodies married with John Macfarlane’s ingenious designs and projections, that make for an evening of exquisite stagecraft.

Ultimately though, the musical is little more than a sung-through panoply of privileged, priapic, polyamory. Go see it for the gorgeous songs.

Runs until 19th August

Photo credit: Johan Persson

Sunset Boulevard in Concert - at Home - Review

Curve Theatre, Leicester

****

Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber

Book & lyrics by Don Black & Christopher Hampton

Based on the Billy Wilder film

Directed by Nikolai Foster

Ria Jones

Art can have a curious and fascinating evolution. In 1950, Billy Wilder’s noir movie, Sunset Boulevard scooped three Oscars, including the award for Best Story. Some forty years later Andrew Lloyd Webber together with Don Black and Christopher Hampton gave Wilder’s picture a Tony-winning musical theatre makeover. Now, driven by the pandemic and with the vision of director Nikolai Foster, that musical production has itself been helmed back to the screen.

The story is a cinema classic - of Norma Desmond, a reclusive Hollywood star of the long since faded Silent Movies era, who fate throws together with Joe Gillis, a hack screenwriter down on his luck.

At his Curve Theatre in Leicester, Foster directed a critically acclaimed touring version of the show in 2017 - and it was that production that in these restricted times was scheduled to be reprised in a concert format, live at the Curve over the 2020 festive season. Heightened rules intervened to forbid live performances in front of an audience, leading to the production being re-imagined for cameras and for streaming.

What makes this particular stream so delicious, is that the videographers are not just capturing the image of a show staged for the benefit of a live audience with the cameras as an “add-on”. Here, Foster has taken his company and his venue and then carefully and thoughtfully, blended classy camera work into the mix. The result is a fresh interpretation of this musical that makes for a glorious two-act entertainment.

This website reviewed Foster’s original take on the musical when it first opened - It was stunning then with an imaginative use of projections that conveyed not only Hollywood, but also served well as settings for a show designed to be taken on the road. These projections have been neatly woven into the streamed musical, giving a further aspect of authenticity to a tale that is so deeply rooted in Tinseltown’s Golden Age. But even more than the show’s vision, projections and use of the Curve’s adaptable cavernous space, what makes this musical such a gorgeous experience remains Foster’s carefully assembled cast, originally brought together in 2017 and who return, almost in the company’s entirety, to create this revival.

Much praise has deservedly been showered upon Ria Jones’ take on Norma Desmond, a woman driven by a fatal combination of narcissism and depression, unable to grasp that the arrival of the “talkies” had extinguished the flame of her stardom and such praise remains as true today. Jones, here finally in close-up, is compelling in her take on Desmond’s slide into insanity. Vocally magnificent - live, her versions of With One Look and As If We Never Said Goodbye were spine-tingling - she condenses the energy previously projected into auditoria, and focusses it squarely at the cameras, with a compelling intensity.

Danny Mac’s Joe Gillis is equally at ease, performing for the cameras as in the theatre. Mac’s grasp of Joe Gillis’ wry cynicism - a man who understands his circumstances with a compelling immediacy - remains as sharp as ever, with a combination of both strength and tenderness in his vocals.

The sub-plot between Gillis and studio script editor Betty Schaefer is beautifully nuanced between Mac and Molly Lynch’s Schaefer. Lynch captures both fire and fragility in her turn and in the show’s final act - as she realises the tragedy that’s unfolding before her eyes - in close up, offers a glimpse of her character’s scorching pain that only adds further shading to Schaefer's complexity. Alongside Lynch as a featured role, Adam Pearce’s Max, Desmond’s long-time butler, remains a treat, with Pearce’s resonant baritones delivering some of the narrative’s most pathos fuelled moments.

This streamed take would be virtually perfect were it not for a couple of minor snags in Foster’s direction. When, in his second act reprise of New Ways To Dream, Max delivers a shocking revelation about Desmond’s past, it would have added value to have seen Joe Gillis’ face as he learns this fact rather than having the cameras trained on Pearce. This of course will always be a flaw of a screened show - that one can only see in any scene what the director chooses to show us, rather than allowing one's vision an unfettered view of the tableau as played live on stage. Likewise, and also in act two, there are moments of dialog spoken by Carl Sanderson’s (excellent) Cecil B. DeMille that should add a profound pathos and understanding to Desmond’s plight. Foster has allowed these lines to be spoken far too freely with the result that a degree of depth and nuance that deserved to have been tapped, is missed.

Above all, this re-translation of Sunset Boulevard, back to its filmic origins, is to be celebrated. The vision of Foster and his team at Curve, together with his top-notch creative and musical collaborators - now including the wizardry of Crosscut Media - have taken the cruel contemporary (and hopefully, short-lived)  imposition of social distancing and have worked around these legislative and safety-driven necessities to deliver a show that is as fresh and as moving as ever.

Traditionally, in the story’s final scene, Norma Desmond speaks her final words to the gathered press cameras assembled at her Sunset Boulevard mansion, mistaking them in her madness for a DeMille film crew. Here, amongst the deserted balcony of the Curve, and with only a (deliberately visible) Crosscut camera operator up close, the tragedy both of Norma's time and of our own is palpable and heart-breaking.

Go watch this show!

Streaming until 9th January 2021. For tickets, click here

Photo credit: Marc Brenner

Aspects of Love - Review

Southwark Playhouse, London


***


Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Lyrics by Don Black and Charles Hart
Based on the novel by David Garnett
Directed by Jonathan O’Boyle

Jerome Pradon and Madalena Alberto

In a rare London revival, Jonathan O’Boyle brings Aspects of Love down the M6 from Manchester’s Hope Mill Theatre to the Southwark Playhouse, delivering a show that wavers between a confection of complex cliché and a homage to the male ego.

Driving the narrative is Alex, (Felix Mosse), a man possessed with such apparent animal magnetism that he is rendered irresistible to the opposite sex from adolescent girls through to women approaching their third age. But for all that Alex may have been imbued with this Lothario-like psyche, it hasn’t rubbed off on Mosse, a young man who lacks both gravitas and vocal presence. As a consequence, too much of this production, especially in the second act, becomes literally in-credible and at times tedious. And in the #MeToo era especially there needs to be questions raised about performing a show that references a mutual love, even if non-consummated, between a 34 year old man and a child 19 years his junior.

Most of O’Boyle’s company turn in sound performances with fine work in particular from Kelly Price as Rose, the show’s leading female and Eleanor Walsh as Jenny, her daughter. The acting accolades of the night however belong to the cast’s more senior members with Jerome Pradon putting in a polished turn as George, Alex’s uncle and an incorrigible romantic. A man who hopelessly falls for any woman who chances to wear the gown worn by his first late wife, Pradon’s priapic predator masterfully steals his every scene, his acting through both song and presence proving immaculate. Madalena Alberto plays Giulietta, George’s Venetian lover. Alberto is the very essence of excellence in a role that is woefully too small for her sensational talent.

Aspects of Love, inhabiting that obscure fairy-tale world of love that Sondheim mastered far more effectively in A Little Night Music, demands flawlessness across the board if its creaking conceits are to work and the cynical 21st century disbeliefs of its audiences be suitably suspended. This requirement extends to the band too, for while Richard Bates’ trio put in a fine shift on Lloyd Webber’s score, the noble Lord's melodies crave a bigger ensemble of musicians if they are to soar effectively.

Fringe treatments of musical theatre can often be magical. Here however, a difficult story makes for an evening of uneven entertainment.

Runs until 9th February 2019

Photo credit: Pamela Raith

Sunset Boulevard - Review

New Wimbledon Theatre, London


*****


Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Book & lyrics by Don Black & Christopher Hampton
Based on the Billy Wilder film
Directed by Nikolai Foster

Ria Jones

It is a delight to return to this award-winning production of Sunset Boulevard as its week-long residency in Wimbledon brings it the closest to central London that its touring licence (which has already included venues in Italy and Holland) will allow.

Directed by the Curve’s Nikolai Foster, at its Leicester launch last September (for my review of that opening night see the foot of this page) the show was nigh-on perfect. Seeing the production some seven months on reveals that not only have this outstanding company gelled, but also how some of the cast have matured into their roles.

A packed house at the New Wimbledon Theatre rose as one to salute Ria Jones’ bow and with good reason. Jones remains magnificent, her definitive, decaying diva capturing Norma Desmond’s long-faded Hollywood majesty. Notwithstanding her remarkable association with the role (remember that she created it for Lloyd-Webber as he trialled the show, nearly ten-thousand midnights ago, at his Sydmonton Festival) Jones’ performance now reveals a greater depth to Desmond’s tragedy. Free of the distractions of movie mega-stardom that surrounded the show’s most recent Norma in both London and on Broadway, Jones’ portrayal of Desmond’s shattered mind stands only on its sheer artistic beauty. Her voice thrills, while her acting breaks our hearts. Ria Jones’ Norma Desmond has to be one of the finest musical theatre creations of the decade.

As Joe Gillis, Danny Mac now brings a fully formed wry, sardonic swagger to the part that completes his character. Billy Wilder’s original story (and if you haven’t yet watched the 1950 movie, it’s a must see) was a noir-satire, driven by Gillis’ narration. William Holden nailed the caustic hack on screen and Mac, now, displays a craft that truly inhabits Wilder’s writer. Gillis’ is a complex journey, with Mac convincing us of his ultimately irresistible charm to the young script editor Betty Schaefer and indeed, his love for her in return. 

On an interesting side issue, since September the #MeToo issue has exploded into our collective conscience. In a perceptive interview published late last year in her native Ireland, Molly Lynch (Schaefer in the show) referenced her understanding of the role to comment on an entertainment industry that had remained “toxic, negative and very difficult for women”. Considering the sexual politics that drive the show’s undercurrent - that of a 50 year old star desperately seeking the desirable glamour that she possessed some 30 years previously – one has to acknowledge that the industry’s ugliness and moral vacuity, only now in the headlines, has actually existed since the cameras first turned.

Thankfully Lynch’s vocal and stage presence is as en-pointe as her analysis. Wilder may have created Schaefer with an essential, if simple, 2-dimensionality. Lynch however, as reviewed back in September, delivers the role in a perfect support to the story.

Adam Pearce’s Max, the keeper not only of the flame, but also, perhaps, of one of the tale’s darkest secrets likewise retains his beautifully sonorous boom. As the audience still gasps at his devastating revelation late into the second half, there is a heartbreaking sensitivity to the devotion Pearce’s manservant shows to Norma.

The creatives here have always been top-notch. Lee Proud’s choreography lends an ingenious slickness to the onstage movement. Not just in the exciting ensemble numbers, but also in a gorgeous tango performed by Jones and Mac to The Perfect Year.

My September review omitted referencing Douglas O’Connell’s imaginative projection work that well supports Colin Richmond’s ingenious design. Likewise Ben Cracknell’s lighting work. Above all, a nod to Adrian Kirk in the pit, whose 14 piece orchestra brings a symphonic texture to Lloyd-Webber’s sumptuous score.

The tour is entering its final weeks and there’s only a few days left to catch it here in south west London. As Norma says to Joe: Now Go!


Runs at New Wimbledon Theatre until 14th April, then touring to the end of the month

Photo credit: Manuel Harlan





Sunset Boulevard at Leicester - First published in September 2017

There is a magic that pervades Nikolai Foster’s production of Sunset Boulevard and it flows from leading lady Ria Jones. 26 years after creating the role of Norma Desmond for Andrew Lloyd Webber at the composer’s Sydmonton Festival, Jones now leads the show and never has a casting been more perfect.

Some might argue that a quarter of a century ago she was too young to play Billy Wilder’s middle aged silent movie starlet. A 1920s screen goddess who with the arrival of the “talkies” was to lose first, her 30-million strong fan base and then, her mind. What is beyond question however is that Jones now owns the role, bringing a vocal excellence and power to Norma Desmond that has not been seen for decades. 

Rarely is a character created that is as magnificent, terrifying and ultimately tragic as Desmond and in playing her Jones, who has spent years preparing for the role, delivers what has to be one of the most sensational performances to be seen this year. Her take on With One Look, early on in the show as the narrative starts to unfold, drips with a thrilling energy, alongside pathos that reduces the audience to tears. Jones’ second half stunner, As If We Never Said Goodbye, proves another spine-tingler, wowing the packed Curve auditorium as she defines Desmond’s devastating decline. And in the finale, when it has all gone so horribly wrong and Jones, grotesquely made up, advances on a newsreel camera “ready for her close up”, the audience is floored. 

Several relationships flow through the show. Danny Mac plays writer Joe Gillis, over whom Desmond becomes dangerously obsessed. Mac delivers a powerful presence and style in the role. Elsewhere, Wilder sketched out love from Desmond’s devoted butler Max Von Meyerling and, on the Paramount lot, from the youthful script editor Betty Schaefer who finds herself falling for Gillis.

Adam Pearce’s Von Meyerling is a bald-headed booming monolith, bearing the most complex, tortuous and yet sensitive of loves. Pearce brings a vocal resonance that is as imposing as it is delicate – his take on The Greatest Star Of All is just gorgeous.

As Schaefer, Molly Lynch makes fine work of a delicious Billy Wilder creation. Her love for Gillis is pure film- noir, with Lynch bringing a gorgeously all American cliché to her performance, aspects of her work suggesting the vitality of a Roy Lichtenstein cartoon. Lovely stuff and so beautifully sung too, Lynch’s career is already on an impressive trajectory.

If there’s a minor niggle it’s that the two old hands at Paramount (Jonesey and Hog Eye) who recognise Desmond on her return to the studios, should ideally be played by men in their fifties rather than Foster’s two youthful (albeit very able) lads from his ensemble. Carl Sanderson however as Cecil B. De Mille is spot on in his cameo of the old and wise director who must sensitively grapple with Desmond’s mental decline.

Planned to tour from the outset, all credit to the Curve’s co-producers Michael Harrison and David Ian for boldly creating such a lavish experience, and to the show’s creatives for their ingeniously transportable work. Lee Proud’s choreography is enchanting, while Colin Richmond’s design work, (enhanced by Ben Cracknell’s lighting) makes fine use of projections, screens and the hangar doors of a Paramount sound stage to convincingly create a 1950s Hollywood.

Adrian Kirk's lavish 17 piece orchestra give Lloyd Webber's score a sumptuous treatment, but understand this. In 2017, it is Ria Jones who is making Sunset Boulevard unmissable.  Back as Norma Desmond, it’s as if she never said goodbye.

Sunset Boulevard - Review

Curve Theatre, Leicester

*****

Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber

Book & lyrics by Don Black & Christopher Hampton

Based on the Billy Wilder film

Directed by Nikolai Foster

Ria Jones and Carl Sanderson

There is a magic that pervades Nikolai Foster’s production of Sunset Boulevard and it flows from leading lady Ria Jones. 26 years after creating the role of Norma Desmond for Andrew Lloyd Webber at the composer’s Sydmonton Festival, Jones now leads the show and never has a casting been more perfect.

Some might argue that a quarter of a century ago she was too young to play Billy Wilder’s middle aged silent movie starlet. A 1920s screen goddess who with the arrival of the “talkies” was to lose first, her 30-million strong fan base and then, her mind. What is beyond question however is that Jones now owns the role, bringing a vocal excellence and power to Norma Desmond that has not been seen for decades. 

Rarely is a character created that is as magnificent, terrifying and ultimately tragic as Desmond and in playing her Jones, who has spent years preparing for the role, delivers what has to be one of the most sensational performances to be seen this year. Her take on With One Look, early on in the show as the narrative starts to unfold, drips with a thrilling energy, alongside pathos that reduces the audience to tears. Jones’ second half stunner, As If We Never Said Goodbye, proves another spine-tingler, wowing the packed Curve auditorium as she defines Desmond’s devastating decline. And in the finale, when it has all gone so horribly wrong and Jones, grotesquely made up, advances on a newsreel camera “ready for her close up”, the audience is floored. 

Several relationships flow through the show. Danny Mac plays writer Joe Gillis, over whom Desmond becomes dangerously obsessed. Mac delivers a powerful presence and style in the role. Elsewhere, Wilder sketched out love from Desmond’s devoted butler Max Von Meyerling and, on the Paramount lot, from the youthful script editor Betty Schaefer who finds herself falling for Gillis.

Danny Mac

Adam Pearce’s Von Meyerling is a bald-headed booming monolith, bearing the most complex, tortuous and yet sensitive of loves. Pearce brings a vocal resonance that is as imposing as it is delicate – his take on The Greatest Star Of All is just gorgeous.

As Schaefer, Molly Lynch makes fine work of a delicious Billy Wilder creation. Her love for Gillis is pure film- noir, with Lynch bringing a gorgeously all American cliché to her performance, aspects of her work suggesting the vitality of a Roy Lichtenstein cartoon. Lovely stuff and so beautifully sung too, Lynch’s career is already on an impressive trajectory.

Molly Lynch

If there’s a minor niggle it’s that the two old hands at Paramount (Jonesey and Hog Eye) who recognise Desmond on her return to the studios, should ideally be played by men in their fifties rather than Foster’s two youthful (albeit very able) lads from his ensemble. Carl Sanderson however as Cecil B. De Mille is spot on in his cameo of the old and wise director who must sensitively grapple with Desmond’s mental decline.

Planned to tour from the outset, all credit to the Curve’s co-producers Michael Harrison and David Ian for boldly creating such a lavish experience, and to the show’s creatives for their ingeniously transportable work. Lee Proud’s choreography is enchanting, while Colin Richmond’s design work, (enhanced by Ben Cracknell’s lighting) makes fine use of projections, screens and the hangar doors of a Paramount sound stage to convincingly create a 1950s Hollywood.

Adrian Kirk's lavish 17 piece orchestra give Lloyd Webber's score a sumptuous treatment, but understand this. In 2017, it is Ria Jones who is making Sunset Boulevard unmissable.  Back as Norma Desmond, it’s as if she never said goodbye.

Runs until 30th September and then tours. Full touring details here.

Photo credit: Manuel Harlan

Born Free - Review

Certificate U, 1966


****

Based on the book by Joy Adamson
Screenplay by Lester Cole
Directed by James Hill

Born Free, one of the most successful British films of the 1960s has just been released on Blu-Ray. Acclaimed for capturing the true stories of Joy and George Adamson, Kenya-based naturalists from the UK who raised a lioness from cub to fully grown maturity before eventually managing to release her back to the wild, the story is a passionate tale of belief and commitment.

The movie is remarkable, even more so viewed from the prism of 2017, some 50 years after its release. James Hill’s photography of lions in the Serengeti is, for the most part, breathtaking in its un-retouched honesty. There's no CGI here and neither is the treatment Disney-fied. The film’s opening shot is of lions feeding on the carcass of a freshly killed zebra.

While the film's sexual and racial politics were very much of their time and aside from the excellent if dated performances from Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers as the Adamsons and Hill’s gorgeous imagery, it was Born Free's double Oscar-winning title-song and score that were to seal its place in the pantheon.

It was Don Black who penned the winning lyrics and he recently spoke to me about the number.

"Before the movie was released, Carl Foreman [credited as a "presenter" but in truth one of Born Free's producers] wasn’t impressed with John Barry's writing, describing it as too syrupy. Foreman also had little love for my lyrics that had been recorded for the film by Matt Monroe and demanded that the song be cut from the final print before the movie’s release.

However.... over in the States Roger Williams had released Born Free as a single where it topped the Billboard charts for 6 weeks. The song’s popularity prompted Foreman and co. to re-instate Monroe's version over the end credits, allowing the song (in addition to the already qualifying score) to be considered by the Academy. After I'd received the Oscar from Dean Martin, later that evening at the after-party, Foreman begrudgingly admitted that the song "grows on you"."

The rest, as they say, is history, with 1966 proving to be a very good year for Black and Barry (and incidentally for Frank Sinatra too, whose song It Was A Very Good Year also reached #1 that February)

Born Free is a beautiful piece of musical and cinematic history and if you haven’t already seen it, go grab the Blu-Ray and enjoy.

To view the trailer click here

To order from Amazon click here

DUAL FORMAT SPECIAL FEATURES:

• Stunning High-Definition presentation
• Uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Isolated score track
• Audio Commentary with Film Historians Jon Burlingame, Julie Kirgo, and Nick Redman
• Spirit of Elsa – a featurette on the Born Free Foundation's work in Kenya
• Elsa the Lioness 60th Anniversary – a short featurette about Elsa, the lioness whose story is the basis for Born Free
• Promotional featurette, generously provided by the Born Free Foundation
• Original Theatrical Trailers

Golden Days - Review

****

Released this week, Golden Days marks another delicious collaboration of queen and Queen as Kerry Ellis, arguably the finest musical theatre performer of her generation, combines with Brian May (he, famously, of the eponymous rock band) to release their latest collection latter-day classics covered, as ever, with a startling originality.

Ellis' voice has an ethereal timbre that for some years now has been found to sit oh so smoothly alongside May's virtuoso work on the guitar. This album only seals the quality of this inspired partnership. In a range of songs that spans decades, Ellis and May's selection is unconventional. Opening with Amazing Grace, Ellis imbues the hymn with with an unexpected divinity thats deftly picked out by May's fine fingerwork. 

The title track references a cover of Golden Days first recorded by the late Minako Honda. May has some history with the number and together with Ellis, offers up an enchanting take on this unfamiliar song steeped, in a tribute to Honda, in a richly Japanese style. 

The pair have a fine recent history working with Don Black compositions, giving Black's numbers a typically inspiring re-interpretation. For this album they've chosen his Oscar-winning title song from the 1966 movie Born Free and again Ellis offers up a take on the tune that is as reflective of the African landscape as could possibly have been imagined. John Barry may not have imagined the symphonic vista of his melody being given such a mellow-rock treatment - but such is the finesse of Ellis and May's craft that the song sounds as if it had been originally penned with them in mind.

There's an ambitious leap in tackling Gary Moore's Parisienne Walkways. Connoisseurs of fine guitar work (both of the electric and, ahem, the air varieties) rank the number high in the Pantheon of hits, and to hear May magnificently maraud through Moore's masterpiece is nothing short of wonderful. Ellis' take on the lyrics is of course flawless, though it remains a matter of taste as to whether Moore's gritty original is enhanced by Ellis' filigree (albeit one of understated power) treatment.

In an enchanting nod to Rodgers and Hammerstein, one discovers Carousel's  If I Loved You. The song is one of Broadway's most carefully created crafted, coming close to defining the human condition as it moves, relentlessly, through subtly piquant key changes. Ellis and May treat the song with the respect of the gifted craftspeople that they are - and the result is like stumbling across a newly cut diamond that has been fashioned and re-worked from a beautiful original.

From Queen to The King - there's some Elvis here too, as the pair take on Cant Help Falling In Love, May offering up a gorgeous acoustic treatment.

Comprising 13 tracks in all, with Golden Days Kerry Ellis and Brian May have, yet again, created beautiful music. Add it to your collectio.


Available to download from Amazon, iTunes and available from usual retailers

Stephen Sondheim Society Student Performer of the Year Awards 2016

Sunday May 15th saw the Stephen Sondheim Society Student Performer of the Year Awards 2016 take place at London's Novello Theatre. 

Catherine Francoise was at the event for www.jonathanbaz.com and reports. 

Courtney Bowman (centre) and her fellow finalists

10 years on from the start of this innovative showcase awards competition,  it has evolved into a major influence, showcasing some of the  best final year student performers from the UK’s training academies, also discovering  new writers of songs and indeed complete shows. Stiles & Drewe’s writing partnership and career were majorly boosted when they won the Vivian Ellis prize in 1986 and their initiative in setting up the MTI Mentorship Award is to provide something similar for new writers in the 21st Century.

The platform the competition provides for young performers at the start of their careers is invaluable. Previous winners with now developing and established  careers sang Sondheim’s Old Friends from Merrily We Roll Along: Erin Doherty (2015) Corrine Priest (2014) Kris Olsen (2012) Alex Young (2010) Michael Peavoy (2009) and Natasha Cottrail performed Dougal Irvine’s 2012 Stiles & Drewe prize winning song Do You Want A Baby Baby? from the current production of The Busker’s Opera now playing at Park Theatre 4 years later.

We were also reminded that some non-winners have gone on to great things including Cynthio Erivo, now nominated for a Tony for her tremendous performance in the Broadway production of The Colour Purple (originated at the Menier Chocolate Factory).

From just 10 entrants in 2007 the competition has grown in numbers every year. There were 80 entrants this year of which 12 students were chosen as finalists as follows:

Courtney Bowman, Guildford School of Acting
Emily Day, Performance Preparation Academy
Lauren Drew, Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts
Abigail Fitzgerald, Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA)
Dafydd Gape, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama
Eleanor Jackson, Bristol Old Vic Theatre School
Kirsty Ingram, Arts Educational Schools (ArtsEd)
Edward Laurenson, Guildhall School Of Music & Drama
Callum McGuire, Oxford School of Drama
Ashley Reyes, London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art
Adam Small, Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts
Tabitha Tingey, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland

Each singer was accompanied and supported by MD Mark Warman.

The 2016 Student Performer of the Year and £1000 was deservedly awarded to Guildford School of Acting final-year student Courtney Bowman. The fact that Courtney played corrupt mayoress Cora Hoover in GSA’s production of Sondheim’s Anyone Can Whistle in 2015 was clearly evident in her barnstorming performance of Me and My Town. Her second song The Driving Lesson was a hilarious tour de force by this year’s Best New Song award winner Tim Connor (although Tim actually won his award for a different song in the competition).  Courtney’s characterful and tremendously well sung performances lit up the stage. 

Bristol Old Vic Theatre School final-year student Eleanor Jackson was a very popular runner up, winning £500 with a beautiful, detailed rendition of the title song from Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George, and a wonderful song highlighted by the judges, by James Burn called More To Life.  A truly beautiful voice and compelling, intelligent actress.  Definitely another name to watch out for

Stiles & Drewe praised all the new songs and writers presented this afternoon, but wanted a particular ‘shout out’ of 3 of the songs (which I also loved!)…

Rivets by David Perkins, Dominic & Joe Male, a witty, wordy quirky song indeed which Dafydd Gape of Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama obviously enjoyed performing very much.

More To Life by James Burn, as mentioned sung wonderfully by runner-up Eleanor Jackson.

Little Wooden Horse by Chris Bush and MattWinkworth sung movingly by Royal Conservatoire of Scotland student Tabitha Tingey. 

I also very much enjoyed Wallpaper Girl by Rebecca Applin & Susannah Pears sung by Abigail Fitzgerald, studying at Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA)

Alongside the celebration of Sondheim’s work, the competition was also set up to showcase and promote new writing and this year Stiles & Drewe divided this award into two parts.  Tim Connor won his £1,000 Best New Song award for Back to School.  London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art Ashley Reyes who sang Back to School received a £100 bonus prize from The Newsome Family.

Perhaps the most exciting and intriguing winner was that of the tremendously valuable inaugural MTI Mentorship award, which will offer support, feedback, workshops, writing & progress evaluations and mentoring for full year, culminating in a professional industry showcase (who wouldn’t be ecstatic to win this award!).  Composer/lyricist Darren Clark and book writer Rhys Jennings for Wicker Husband, both looked excited, overwhelmed and truly grateful to receive this award.  We heard a tantalising taste of this new musical when Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts student Lauren Drew sang a very beautiful evocative song, My Wicker Man. George Stiles described the show as ‘a sort of Folk Tale’ and ‘other worldly with all sorts of possibilities’ ~ I personally can’t wait to hear more!

Demonstrating a wide range and variety of songs and performance skills we are certain to see some, if not all these finalist performers and writers in productions in the future. Sondheim is notoriously challenging to sing and whilst everyone acquitted themselves well, a few young singers could have possibly chosen songs which suited their ages and technical abilities as they are now rather than as they will be in a few years or even 10 years’ time.  Tempting as it is to sing the big Sondheim ‘torch songs’ there are so many wonderful songs to choose from, it might have served them better to choose lesser known songs that may have showcased them even more strongly than the iconic songs did. 

The tremendous calibre of the judges should also be noted. There is a separate panel of judges for each element of the competition enabling them to concentrate on their specific area.

Judging the STUDENT PERFORMER OF THE YEAR Edward Seckerson as chair was this year joined by Jason Carr, Sophie-Louise Dann, Anne Reid and director Thea Sharrock. 

Judging BEST NEW SONG were Don Black, Paul Hart, Lotte Wakeham, George Siles & Anthony Drewe. 

Finalist judges for the MTI STILES & DREWE MEMBERSHIP AWARD were Vicky Graham, Paul Hart, Luke Sheppard, George Stiles & Anthony Drewe.

A wonderful afternoon of young music makers was also further enhanced by truly wonderful performances from Julian Ovenden and Sophie-Louise Dann who finished the first half by singing the powerful soul-searing duet Move On from Sunday in the Park with George.  Sophie-Louise Dann also sang a touching new song by Stiles who accompanied her, Six and Half Inches from your Heart from a new musical called Becoming Nancy. Whilst the judges were deliberating Julian Ovenden sang two songs from Sondheim’s earlier work: Love I Hear from A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum (1962) finishing with a tremendous Being Alive from Company (1970).

There are so many people involved with the SSSSPOTY awards and everyone has to be named and thanked which unavoidably means fairly long lists of names and credits which could make it feel like an end of term school event.  As well as singing, Ovenden was a warm, witty and very charming compère and host.  Ovenden’s repartee, genuine love of Sondheim & Music Theatre and respect for all performers, kept things flowing whilst also ensuring we got all the necessary information.   

Congratulations to all writers and finalists. Musical Theatre is fortunate indeed to have Stiles & Drewe, Julia McKenzie and Edward Seckerson providing this tremendous opportunity and being so passionately committed to young performers and new writing.   And we are in for a treat with The Wicker Husband methinks!


Photo credit: David Ovenden

Sunset Boulevard - Review

Coliseum, London

*****

Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber

Book & lyrics by Don Black & Christopher Hampton

Based on the Billy Wilder film

Directed by Lonny Price

Glenn Close and Michael Xavier

Billy Wilder's seminal 1950 movie Sunset Boulevard is a satirical gem that scooped three Oscars back in its day and is still ranked amongst the top 20 of American films of the last century. If you've never seen it, then read this review and then go watch it. A link to view the movie online is at the foot of this page.

Wilder’s genius lay not only in his script and direction, but in hiring so many Hollywood greats to act in his meta-movie. Norma Desmond, his fictitious, faded Hollywood star was played by Gloria Swanson, herself a legend of the silent movie era. Cecil B. DeMille played himself and Max, her loyal butler was played by Erich von Stroheim, back in the day a silent-movie directing genius.

Where Singin’ In The Rain was all about the death of silent-movies and later Mack and Mabel celebrated their very existence (and note how Swanson’s name pops up in that show’s song Movies Were Movies), Sunset Boulevard explored a far darker world – that of the impact on a megastar whose 30 million fans have deserted her and who is now isolated and deranged, holed up in her mansion on Sunset Boulevard, with just a chimpanzee for company. Wilder could almost have been foretelling aspects of Michael Jackson’s lifestyle…

So, it is a remarkable credit to Andrew Lloyd Webber, Don Black and Christopher Hampton that their musical is such a homage to Wilder’s classic. And in Lonny Price’s iteration, to see Glenn Close as Norma Desmond, offers perfection in casting.

For sure, Close is not deranged (neither was Swanson in 1950) and nor has she been deserted by her fans (the adulatory cheers as she walks on stage in what is her West End debut, even before the final rave ovation prove that). But what Close is, is a Hollywood Legend of the grandest order, ranking in her generation alongside Meryl Streep, but not really many others. And that defines part of the magic of this production at the Coliseum. A Hollywood diva is in London, playing …a Hollywood diva. This will not happen often in our lifetimes.

Sunset Boulevard makes for a sensational night in the theatre. Close, returning to the role that she created in the USA 20 years ago is a remarkable presence. The show is at its strongest revolving around Norma Desmond’s mania and her two big numbers With One Look, defining how she filled the screen in her heyday and As If We Never Said Goodbye, sung as she makes a heartbreaking return to a Paramount sound stage, connect strongly with the pulse of the original movie.

As the hack writer Joe Gillis, Michael Xavier is perfect. As his character is hardened to the trash of Tinseltown and possessing a body to die for (literally), there are few people in town who could match Xavier’s presence and vocal excellence. Opening the second half, his big number Sunset Boulevard defines Hollywood’s rapacious brutality.

The youthful love-interest comes from Siobhan Dillon’s Betty Schaefer. Wilder created Schaefer very much as a two-dimensional, film-noir, femme fatale and Dillon nails the woman’s beautiful allure.

Perhaps after Close, the most ingenious casting decision has been to select the Swedish Fred Johanson to play Max. Johanson not only brings the most carefully crafted interpretation to Madame’s “keeper of the flame”, striving to preserve the paper-thin illusions of her deluded world – but he is also a dead-ringer for von Stroheim’s creation. There’s not a lot for Max to sing in the show, but Johanson makes fine work of the haunting New Ways To Dream.

Fred Johanson

The economical concert staging is pulled off with aplomb. Michael Reed’s on-stage 48-piece orchestra provide a lavish treatment of Lloyd-Webber’s score, whilst Stephen Mear’s inspired choreography makes versatile use of the Coliseum’s space and walkways.

It all makes for a very stylish musical, Glenn Close's Norma Desmond proving unforgettable.

To watch Sunset Boulevard online click the link below

http://ffilms.org/sunset-blvd-1950/

The show runs until 7th May

Photo credit: Richard Hubert Smith

The movie's title shot