Cruel Intentions - Review

The Other Palace, London

****

Created by Jordan Price, Lindsey Rosin & Roger Kumble

Based on the original film by Roger Kumble

Directed by Jonathan O'Boyle

Choreographer and associate director Gary Lloyd

Rhianne-Louise McCaulsky and the cast of Cruel Intentions

In its London premier, Cruel Intentions is a cracking night at the theatre.

More playlist than musical, this homage to the 1990s and translated from the screen is a ghastly tale about horrible people, but set to some banging tunes. Les Liaisons Dangereuses was the inspiration for Roger Kumble’s 1999 movie - a film about naïfs, exploiters and the exploited and the challenges of adolescents discovering their sexuality.

Driving the show is Rhianne-Louise McCaulsky as Kathryn with an energy and powerhouse presence that electrifies. McCaulsky’s West End credentials are impeccable and when she’s on stage she classily owns every scene. Alongside McCaulsky in the female leads are two debutantes  Abbie Budden and Rose Galbraith as Annette and Cecile respectively. Both young women shine, with Galbraith in particular displaying excellent comic timing in her numbers. Daniel Bravo completes the quartet of leads in the complex role of Sebastian, a young man who struggles when feelings of true love catch up with his hitherto predatory instincts.

The company make fine work of anthems such as Kiss Me, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Losing My Religion and The Verve’s Bittersweet Symphony powerfully supported by Denise Crowley’s 4-piece band.

Jonathan O’Boyle directs with wit, assisted by Gary Lloyd who also choreographs - there are few better than Lloyd for translating modern pop and rock classics into dance.

Don't look too closely at the cliched plot - just wallow in this glorious tribute to the 90s.

Runs until 14th April

Photo credit: Pamela Raith

Frank and Percy - Review

The Other Palace, London

***

Written by Ben Weatherill

Directed by Sean Mathias

Ian McKellen and Roger Allam

It is said that Ian McKellen could enchant an audience if he simply ready a telephone directory aloud. The man’s physical and vocal presence is unmatched, as is his versatility and good job too, for without McKellen’s finely honed craft Frank and Percy would make for a far less entertaining night in the theatre.

Frank (played by Roger Allam) and Percy (McKellen) are two men in their third-age who meet by chance encounter while walking their dogs on Hampstead Heath. Allam, another fine performer, proving the perfect foil to McKellen’s razor sharp timing and wit. There’s a spark of interest between them that blossoms into a tender love and as a study of latter-years romance, Ben Weatherill’s drama had the potential to be quite the power-play.

That chance is squandered however as notwithstanding some episodes of finely nuanced pathos - Percy describing the angst of being outed in his youth, or his fragile vulnerability as he awaits a frightening medical appointment - too much of the dialogue comprises moments of maudlin mediocrity, seasoned with a skimming of contemporary hot-topics so shallow it almost insults the talent on stage delivering the script. There is some well observed comment on the importance of dog ownership to a person’s emotional well-being, sentiments that will fall warmly on the dog-lovers in the audience.

See it if only to catch that rarest of masterclasses, in which McKellen and Allam breathe life into a well-intentioned but surprisingly flawed text.

Runs until 17th December

Photo credit: Jack Merriman

Falsettos - Review

The Other Palace, London


****


Music & Lyrics by William Finn
Book by William Finn and James Lapine
Directed by Tara Overfield-Wilkinson

Daniel Boys

When the patriarchal Marvin leaves his wife and young son for another man his family life is thrown into disarray. Trina, his frazzled spouse hooks up with Marvin’s psychiatrist Mendel, Marvin’s lover Whizzer is reluctantly inducted into the family’s day-to-day activities for the sake of maintaining some sense of normalcy as 10 year old Jason find himself caught in the middle of the pandemonium. 

William Finn and James Lapine’s Falsettos, originally envisioned as a pair of one act chamber musicals, really is a show of two halves. Act one, while slightly disjointed, is a fairly breezy affair, filled with pithy recitatives interspersed with zippy ensemble numbers. It’s all good fun, but while the show is funny, cutting and witty, as the interval arrives it also seems a little bit directionless. 

Not so in the second half. Picking up two years later and introducing Marvin’s delightful next door neighbours, caterer Cordelia and doctor Charlotte (‘the lesbians next door’), Falsettos delves into the confusion and chaos of the AIDS crisis. It’s a gut-wrenching decent – the darkening tone jarring uncomfortably with production designer PJ McEvoy’s kitschy set, with its cartoonish colour palette washed over with blinding bright primary coloured lighting. Tara Overfield-Wilkinson directs the turn from mayhem to tragedy perfectly, seamlessly balancing the laughs and the tears.

And, of course, the production is elevated by an outrageously good ensemble cast. Daniel Boys gives a masterfully complex performance as Marvin, a man who is constantly in the middle of a precarious balancing act with Oliver Savile charming as Marvin’s sardonic and seemingly self-absorbed boyfriend. Meanwhile Laura Pitt-Pulford’s Trina is as brilliant as ever, the jilted wife putting on a happy face for the sake of her family. 

Having picked up a cult following amongst UK musical theatre lovers after its well-received 2016 Broadway revival, the UK premiere of Falsettos was massively anticipated, and this production goes a long way to showing just why. It’s a shame though that it has been marred by controversy, with some in the UK’s Jewish community  calling out the lack of Jewish representation within the production’s cast and creative team. As the story centres closely upon the Jewish experience, including a touching subplot that centres on young Jason’s looming Bar Mitzvah, it remains essential that the show never dips into distasteful parody. There’s definitely a lesson to be learned here for future iterations of this show and indeed, others. 

Judging the production at face-value though, Falsettos is well sung, ultra-smart and ultimately gutting. Those who buy a ticket will have plenty to look forward to.

Runs until 23rd November
Reviewed by Charlotte O'Growney
Photo credit: The Standout Company

Parade - Review

The Other Palace, London


*****


Book by Alfred Uhry
Music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown
Directed by Hannah Chissick

Matt Pettifor and Lucy Carter

This year’s National Youth Music Theatre (NYMT) residency at the Other Palace sees this remarkable theatre company tackle Jason Robert Brown’s Parade, a musical that is as technically demanding as its story is grim and harrowing. A true story that stained the USA's early 20th Century, Parade tells of Leo Frank, a Jewish bookkeeper in Atlanta, Georgia who was accused of the murder of Mary Phagan, a 13 yo Christian girl who worked at the pencil factory he supervised. This being America’s Southland, racial prejudice was (and many will argue, still is) prevalent, with the show’s narrative being driven by the hatred of antisemitism.

Brown’s score is a musical wonder - the staccato phrasing of the opening number, The Old Red Hills Of Home setting the tone, not only for the inhumanity that is to follow but also, brilliantly, defining the bruised brutality of the Confederate states that were left licking their wounds following defeat in the Civil War barely a few decades earlier. Brown's music spans a range of Southern styles and under Laurence Stannard’s baton the ten piece band make perfect work of the demanding compositions. Rarely does one hear Brown’s melodies played to this remarkable standard.

Hannah Chissick has delivered a work of sensitive perception from her youthful cast. On the night of this review (for the two lead roles are shared) Matt Pettifor and Lucy Carter played Leo Frank and his wife Lucille. The love between the Franks is complex - he is a dominant man who struggles with his wife’s aspirations and initiative, while she has to journey from being a compliant spouse, to contemplating the horror that her husband may have been a paedophile and murderer, to finally (together with Leo) discovering their shared deep and profound love as she fights to prove his innocence. Pettifor and Carter are magnificent in their roles, melding convincing acting with well weighted vocal work. Pettifor shining in particular with How Can I Call This Home? and Come Up To My Office while Carter makes fine work of You Don’t Know This Man. The pair’s duet of All The Wasted Time in the musical’s penultimate moments is heartbreaking in its perfectly pitched poignancy.

Brown’s lyrics in Parade are razor sharp and, for the most part, this youthful cast have captured the writer's brilliantly barbed irony and comment. Conor Cox and Reuben Browne open the show with flair as the Young and Old Soldiers, respectively - and it remains a masterstroke of Brown’s genius that we do not see the Old Soldier again until the show’s closing moment of horror. Their talent however is swiftly followed by the Zoe Troy’s Mary Phagan and Ben Skym’s Frankie Epps. All too often productions of Parade will deploy adults to perform these key child roles so to see them played out by teenagers, in line with story’s narrative, and to be performed so well only adds a further layer of distinctive excellence to this production.

There is fine work throughout - Robin Franklin as Govenor Slaton (and, in a tiny role, with flawless support from Matilda Boulay as his wise supportive spouse Sally) catches the troubled gravitas of the Democrat politician. Alfie Richards as chief of police Hugh Dorsey, a man more interested in securing a conviction by any means rather than the truth is similarly on fine form. There is a turn of chilling genius from Joseph Beach as the vile, racist propagandist Tom Watson and a stylish insouciance to Iyinoluwa Michael Akintoye’s Jim Conley, the African American janitor at the pencil factory.

Perhaps the most musically uplifting moment of the show’s second half (where the lyrics could be slowed down just a fraction) is in Samuelle Durojaiye in the modest role of Angela, leading A Rumblin’ And A Rollin’ that opens the act. The song is another masterful composition from Brown, contexting the lived, oppressed, experience of Georgia’s black population - and remember that slavery had not long been abolished - with the attention and support that Frank was receiving, as the North clamoured to see the injustice against him overturned. The line in the song “There's a black man swingin' in ev'ry tree,But they don't never pay attention!” is as precise as it is tragically timeless. The song is undoubtedly grim, but Durojaiye comes close to taking the roof of The Other Palace with her wonderful delivery.

It is worth noting that the show does not just highlight racial prejudice, but picks out other failings that are still around today. In Real Big News (well led by Ciaran McCormack as journalist Britt Craig) Brown reminds us that biased media and 'fake news' have been around forever. 

The show’s design from Diego Pitarch is simply stated - and it is a credit to all that the show’s varied scenes that encompass a sun-drenched riverbank through to the Governor’s Mansion are all so well suggested.

Choreography from Matt Cole is inspired. Chissick has rightly placed much emphasis on the strength of the show’s ensemble numbers, with many moments of the show's full company proving spine-tingling. Cole’s visionary movement however sees the cast only emphasising the passion of the show’s drama through his ingenious routines.

Jason Robert Brown would do well to contemplate a quick hop across the pond. Productions of Parade are rarely finer than this!

Runs until 10th August

Photo credit: Konrad Bartelski

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - Review

The Other Palace Theatre, London


****


Music and Lyrics by Eamonn O’Dwyer
Book by Helen Watts
Directed by Alex Sutton

Members of the company of NYMT's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Based on the short horror story by Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is perhaps best known for Tim Burton’s blockbuster movie starring Johnny Depp. Now it’s been brought to life in a new musical by Helen Watts and Eamonn O’Dwyer, commissioned by the National Youth Music Theatre and performed at the Other Palace Theatre as part of the company’s summer residency.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow tells the tale of a 19th century New England town, where farming is the way of life and residents believe not only in God but in local superstitions, particularly the legendary tale of the Headless Horseman said to patrol the nearby woods looking for his next victim. Their lives are disrupted by the arrival of new schoolteacher Ichabod Crane (George Renshaw) from Connecticut, a progressive man who believes in science rather than religion and encourages his students to question the world around them. His new way of thinking inspires local farmers to fight to buy their own land, and also captures the attention of Katrina Van Fleet (Hayley Canham), the daughter of evil, greedy land owner Baltus Van Fleet and a woman betrothed to Brom Van Brunt, leading to disastrous consequences. 

Under Alex Sutton’s direction this all makes for a compelling and eerie tale, frightening at times. At odd moments the story drags, particularly in the first act. After the interval, the production really comes alive with performances, lighting, music and scenery combining to produce a gripping, atmospheric and spine-tingling piece of theatre. 

Very much an ensemble piece, it is hard to believe that this talented cast only had two weeks of rehearsal time given such polished performances. George Renshaw and Hayley Canham are believable and endearing as the star-crossed lovers and really have the audience rooting for them, while Joe Usher puts in a strong, well-rounded performance as Brom. Special mention must also go to Alfie Richards’ Baltus Van Fleet and also Jade Oswald, who as the troubled Sabine threatens to steal the show with her exquisite, haunting voice. 

The music by Eamonn O’Dwyer, skilfully played by musicians from the NYMT, is key to adding to the atmosphere of this production, from haunting songs such as Strange Child to catchier, lighter numbers like The Tale of the Drunkard Jack, a particular highlight showcasing both the company’s musical talents and Rebecca Brower’s clever design. Likewise Christopher Nairne’s lighting design builds tension perfectly, adding to the creepiness of the tale. 

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a strong production all round, theatre at its best, and this new musical is well written, brilliantly creepy and highlights the talents of the NYMT and the production team, who are all sure to have bright futures ahead of them.

Reviewed by Kirsty Herrington

Photo credit: Rob Youngson

Sunday In The Park With George - Review

The Other Palace, London

****

Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

Book by James Lapine

Directed by Hannah Chissick

The Company

Sunday In The Park With George is probably the most mind-bending, time-bending poly-mesmeric musical of recent decades. Stephen Sondheim (again working his fruitful partnership with book-writer James Lapine) has ingeniously fashioned the show around a study on George Seurat’s famous painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. 

Act One revolves around Seurat himself, in 1884 Paris. The pointillist painting is taking shape, consuming the artist’s attention as Dot, his mistress and sometime model, endures the rigours of both posing for him and competing for his attention over the emerging picture. The true genius of Sondheim’s work in this half of the show is to build characters and songs around the people that Seurat includes in the picture. As more and more faces and images become defined, the act builds towards a stunning crescendo.

The second half shoots forward 100 years to New York. Georges’ great-grandson – also named George – is an artist, working like his predecessor with color and light. This however is the late 20th century and in place of a canvas, George’s creation is the electronic “Chromolume”. His elderly grandmother Marie (the daughter of Georges and Dot) provides a link through the generations, and as George is invited to France to make a presentation on the eponymous Parisian island, time and characters merge into a whirl, with Sondheim weaving the complex themes of love and art into a tapestry of the human condition.

It says much for the National Youth Music Theatre (NYMT) that they have amongst their young company the talent and resource to deliver what is unquestionably an impressive take on this most adult of musicals. The narrative demands that Georges / George and Dot / Marie are played by the same performers and Thomas Josling and Laura Barnard make fine work of leading their troupe. 

Barnard has form with the NYMT having grown with them over the last couple of years. Josling however is a newcomer and together they create a compelling chemistry. Their duetted numbers are magnificent throughout, with Color and Light proving a particular treat. Amongst their solo responsibilities Josling’s Finishing The Hat is a classy turn, while Barnard’s careful interpretation of Children And Art, captures a special sensitivity.

Chissick has fashioned some gorgeous work from her cast who are all in their teens or early twenties, with the full company numbers proving a delight. Sunday, the pre-interval song (reprised at the finale) is spine-tingling in its intensity. This cast are at their best in the second half, where Sondheim’s dialog allows them a more comfortable immersion into the modern idiom.

Technically, as ever, the NYMT offer creative excellence. Alex Aitken intuitively directs his chamber-sized 6 piece band (also all young players) to deliver Sondheim’s complex melodies, while Sam Spencer-Lane’s choreography, Matt Kinley’s set design and Jason Denvir’s costuming go a long way to creating firstly the illusion of Seurat’s 19th century Paris and then after the break, the cliched pretensions of New York’s modern art community.

The themes of Sunday In The Park With George are immense and complex and Chissick, alongside the NYMT should be rightfully proud of what this company has achieved. It's only on for one more night in what is deservedly a sold-out success. 

Runs until 19th August

Photo credit: Rob Youngson

Imaginary - Review

The Other Palace, London


*****


Music & lyrics by Stuart Matthew Price

Book & lyrics by Timothy Knapman

Directed by Shaun Kerrison

Tom Price and Josh Gottlieb

“Never Leave A Man Behind” is the pact made at the very start of Imaginary. A simple declaration of trust, loyalty and friendship that in many ways lies at the core of this endearing zany, and almost Pixar-esque musical, a show that marks the 2017 return of the National Youth Music Theatre (NYMT) to London’s The Other Palace. 

Creating good new musical theatre continues to be a challenge across the industry, but Timothy Knapman and Stuart Matthew Price can be deservedly proud of their achievement. Knapman’s book and lyrics indulge in glorious wit and charm, complete with thrilling revelations and even the odd cliff hanger. Price has written an equally dreamy score, with melodies that you can’t help but find yourself whistling all the way home. Under Shaun Kerrison’s direction the NYMT company (ages 11 – 23) rise to the challenge of putting on a new musical with apparent ease. Kerrison captures the natural energy of the youngsters at all the right moments, yet never loses sight of the show’s clarity. 

Imaginary follows the friendship of two young boys, Milo (Tom Price) and Sam (Josh Gottlieb). As Sam’s only friend the pair do everything together, playing all day and letting their imaginations run wild. It all seems too good to be true until Sam starts secondary school and he and Milo find themselves facing a whole new dilemma.  

Aged 13 and 11 respectively, Price and Gottlieb turn in compelling perfomances that drive the show’s sense of adventure and discovery from the start. Their energy makes the piece a rollercoaster for audiences, played out against a backdrop of the universally recognized concepts of imagination and childhood. There's some great work too from 11yo Lizzie Wells as Sam's schoolfriend Alice. 

Alongside the child characters, Robin Franklin as the school’s Headmaster commands both his students and the stage with a frightening presence and character. Toby Turpin also delivers a dazzling performance as the 7ft (!) tall Big Brenda, giving a performance that’s even bigger than his colossal outfit and wig (costume credit: Jason Denvir) 

The tunes are gorgeous with She Played Guitar, Imaginary, The Adventurers Code and Upgrade Time all proving equally wonderful numbers, the latter in particular featuring some stylish choreography from Anthony Whiteman. Among the entire cast there isn't a weak link, with Charlie Ingles having done some cracking work, both on the ensemble’s harmonies as well as the score's orchestrations. 

At a time when many producers struggle to bring new writing to a stage, yet again the NYMT’s Jeremy Walker delivers just that. Both book and score are tremendous and if last night’s audience are anything to go by, Imaginary will be bringing about tears of laughter, sadness and just sheer awe at this company’s remarkable talent.

Runs until 12th August

Reviewed by Josh Adams 

Brexodus! - Review

The Other Palace, London


***


Composed by Frederick Appleby and Russell Sarre
Libretto by David Shirreff
Directed by Lucy Appleby

Airlie Scott as Theresa May

The performances in Brexodus! are, for the most part, top notch – it’s only a shame that the written material doesn’t quite match up to the acting talent on stage. Over a lengthy two hours the talented cast of 5 offer up a whirlwind tour of the political issues that have gripped the nation since early last year.

The show’s lampooning takes no prisoners, placing all our current political figures squarely in its sights. However, whilst Brexodus! takes aim at politicos of all sides, David Shirreff’s sentiments are resolutely Remain. By all means mock political life (and heaven knows post June 8th, it merits mockery even further) but when the balance tips towards bias, the evening ultimately evolves into little more than an immaculate and polished professional performance of a schoolboy script.

The performances are memorable. Paul Croft turns in an excellent Nigel Farage, Recip Erdogan and Lord Heseltine (amongst many others) with their identifiable traits honed to perfection. Croft’s rock-star/communist interpretation of Jeremy Corbyn is cutely chuckle worthy – but the text’s lack of reference to Corbyn’s long avowed contempt for the EU was perhaps an overly convenient omission by Shirreff?

Airlie Scott as the only woman on stage offers up a wonderful Theresa May, as well as a strikingly believable Sarah Vine (aka Mrs Michael Gove). James Sanderson’s blustering take on a buffoon-like Boris is instantly recognisable – but by the second act the novelty of his cycle helmeted garb has worn off. Also Sanderson’s take on Trump needs to shake off its orange-faced clumsiness.

Technically Frederick Appleby’s piano work is crisp and the cast have clearly been rehearsed into a polished performance of pinpoint timing – brava Lucy Appleby.

The words may be as clichéd as the caricatures are good, but while you’re unlikely to cry with laughter, there’s much in the show to chuckle at.

Paul Croft as Jeremy Corbyn

Runs until 15th July

The Wild Party - Review

The Other Palace, London


****


Book, music and lyrics by Michael John LaChiusa
Book by George C. Wolfe
Directed and choreographed by Drew McOnie

Frances Ruffelle and John Owen-Jones

The arrival of Michael John LaChiusa's The Wild Party in London marks a number of premiere moments. It is: the first production of the show this side of the Atlantic; it is also the debut production staged in the newly re-branded The Other Palace (formerly known as the St James Theatre); and even more importantly the production marks choreographer Drew McOnie’s elevation to director, alongside his recognized craft of choreography. 

Drawn from Joseph Moncure March's 1928 poem of the same name the show is an unrelenting tale of bastardry in 1920s New York. Frances Ruffelle's Queenie and her husband Burrs are a pair of fading Vaudeville artistes. But Queenie loves to party, wildly and the musical evolves into a blurred flurry of decadent debauchery that is ultimately to end in rape and murder. The details of the plot are barely significant - think of The Great Gatsby without the glamour, or perhaps a glimpse into what Stephen King's Overlook Hotel may have been like in its once wonderful pomp.

John Owen-Jones is the terrifyingly brilliant Burrs - at times grotesquely sporting a clown's white slap and red lips. To Gavin Mallett's muted trumpet early on in the show his compelling voice and presence defines misogyny - his white-gloved jazz hands as capable of beating up a woman as whipping up an audience. Owen-Jones is never less than compelling, think Archie Rice with a hint of Amos Hart and you start to get close to his monstrous creation. (There's a doomed mania to the partnership of Owen-Jones and Ruffelle that makes one long for a one-day future pairing as Sweeney Todd and Mrs Lovett.)

It's hard to track the flow of guests - there are so many cameo turns, for the most part performed flawlessly, that the plot's details dissolve into a carefully choreographed cocktail of humanity. These are partying gadflies desperately clinging to a life of social semblance, yet all, for the most part, little more than vapid, vacuous vamps. And throughout there's a pulse of jealousy fuelled by Victoria Hamilton-Barritt's Kate and her insouciant lover Black played by Simon Thomas.

LaChiusa has structured his work so that all the ensemble get their moment(s) in the spotlight and to be fair, with only a couple of exceptions, they all give of their entirety to make this punishing show deliver its punch. Memorable amongst the cast are Genesis Lynea and Gloria Obianyo's androgynous twins, Tiffany Graves intriguing Madeleine, Steven Serlin's violated Goldberg and Dex Lee's serpentine Jackie.

As with any McOnie production, the movement comes first - and The Wild Party is a virtually constant flow of lithe fluidity as the cast writhe through their roles. Where perhaps the flaws in McOnie's directing skills peek through, is in the occasional moments where the acting sometimes fades away. Seasoned troupers like Owen-Jones and Ruffelle can act their hearts out blindfolded - but elsewhere McOnie needs to have taken some of the cast deeper into their roles.

Soutra Gilmour's set is a multi layered confection that's a treat to look at,  save for Richard Howell's lighting which a tad too often blinds the audience with its stadium-powered wash. Up above the stage, Theo Jamieson's eight piece band are nothing short of remarkable as they deliver LaChiusa's score, a composition as relentlessly brilliant as the narrative.

Whilst the music and movement are stunning, The Wild Party's not easy on both eyes and ears and is probably best enjoyed by genre aficionados. A couple of pre-show gins or juleps are recommended too.

Runs until 1st April

Photo credit: Scott Rylander