Some You Gershwin…

CRAZY FOR YOU

Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton, Tuesday 8^th May, 2018

 

The songs of George and Ira Gershwin provide the music in this musical comedy – and there are some timeless classics here: Someone To Watch Over Me, They Can’t Take That Away From Me to name but two.   There are also a few lesser known ditties and, hearing them tonight, you can see why.  But the super-talented company do their best with these bland numbers – the cast play instruments live on stage, without sheet music, and play flawlessly.  It seems in musical theatre, being a triple threat is no longer sufficient.  As well as singing, dancing and acting, you now have to be a musical virtuoso!

The plot is sheer musical comedy froth.  Chap is sent West to foreclose on a theatre but decides to save the building by putting on a show because, wouldn’t you know it, he happens to fall for the daughter of the theatre owner and, because nothing is straightforward, has to adopt disguise and subterfuge in order to secure the girl’s affections…  You can tell where it’s going but Ken Ludwig’s lively script with some zinging one-liners keeps the laughs coming.

Claire Sweeney is every curvaceous inch the glamorous vamp, Irene, strutting around, shooting her smart mouth off.  It’s a shame we have to wait until well into the second act before she gets a big production number.  Kate Milner-Evans matches Irene barb for barb as domineering matriarch Lottie Child, but it is Charlotte Wakefield’s Polly who takes the crown.  Her singing voice is sweet, even when she’s belting, and her solos are standout moments: But Not For Me is shiver-inducingly good.

Ned Rudkins-Stowe is quietly dashing as nominal baddie of the piece, saloon-owner Lank, and Neil Ditt amuses as Ziegfeld-like impresario Bela Zangler.

Heading the bill is Strictly alumnus Tom Chambers, who is hardly ever off, and hardly seems to stop dancing.  His tap skills are impressive, especially when he’s leaping around the set, from balcony to piano, or scaling the proscenium arch without use of a safety net.  It’s a star turn, to be sure, but unfortunately I fail to warm to his characterisation.  Bobby Child is a child by name and also by nature.  He’s a full-on ‘funny guy’ show-off who becomes annoying very quickly, and Chambers plays him to the hilt.  What he gains in over-the-top goofiness, he loses in truth and charm.  I think he should be less Jerry Lewis and more Bob Hope.

This is light-hearted stuff that needs a light touch.  Escapist fluff that, due to the impressive display of talent from the entire cast, does its job, taking us out of ourselves for a couple of hours and allowing us to visit a fantasy world where problems aren’t all that serious and can be overcome with a positive attitude and a spirit of cooperation.  There is a fundamental goodness in people, the show reminds us, even if real people don’t spontaneously burst into song.

Happy hoofers: Tom Chambers and Charlotte Wakefield

Public Laughs

PRIVATE LIVES

New Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham, Monday 8^th February, 2016

 

Noel Coward’s comedy comes to town in this new touring production and yet again passes the test of time.   Yes, certain words have changed, and so have some attitudes, but the play’s underlying humanity remains the key to its longevity. On the surface, it’s a conventional, drawing-room comedy, of the well-to-do, living the high life, with only romantic complications to contend with. Coward subverts the genre by having two of those characters, Elyot and Amanda, behaving despicably. Divorced from each other for five years, they are both on honeymoons with brand new spouses. But as soon as they meet, the sparks fly, rekindling their former, decidedly destructive passion. They run off together and this is when we get to see them behind closed doors. Moments of intimacy are interrupted by outbursts of violence. The couple sling barbed comments, brickbats and objets d’art at each other. They’re like Japanese fighting carp, unable to co-exist in the same space without conflict and yet needing each other in order to exist at all.

Laura Rogers is spot on as Amanda, combining cool elegance with hot-headed passion, often in the same epigram. Tom Chambers’s Elyot may not be able to match her in managing the plummy language but his physical comedy and his double-take reactions are superb. Of course, his Strictly background comes out: the couple dance a loose Charleston in their Paris flat, a lovely moment in contrast with all the verbal bombardments. Director Tom Attenborough allows Chambers to play to his strengths, giving him plenty of larger-than-life comic business.

Richard Teverson gives strong support as Amanda’s fuddy-duddy second husband, Victor, while Charlotte Ritchie’s Sybil, Elyot’s second wife, encapsulates the innocence of the era – that is until she loses her rag with the infuriating Victor in a tremendous loss of temper, enabling the show to finish on a moment of high comedy. A magnificent performance – you wouldn’t think Sybil would have it in her.

Lucy Osborne’s set hints at the glamour of the south of France, with its art deco hotel balconies and also grounds us in the cosy chic of the stylish apartment, contrasting the airy public spaces with the solid, private rooms. It is behind closed doors that we reveal who we really are.

Of course, it is Coward’s audacious script that is the star of the show. The wit effervesces like champagne while the undercurrents of the characters’ true natures bubble to the surface in shocking glimpses. Elyot and Amanda deserve each other but Coward is also showing us that behind the public façade, even the most rarefied creatures have hidden depths.

A thoroughly enjoyable production of an absolute classic.

Strictly entre nous. Laura Rogers and Tom Chambers (Photo: Alastair Muir)