|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
Reviews |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
THE WIZ TICKS ALL THE BOXES FOR SUCCESSFUL YOUTH PROJECT AT PALACE
This year’s HQ Theatres Youth Project The Wiz at Westcliff’s Palace Theatre until Sunday (August 8) ticks all the boxes for success and provides a wonderful introduction to the professional theatre for nearly 80 youngsters, yet it lacks some of the heart of the first two productions in 2008 and 2009.
Perhaps it is the material of this rock and soul version of the Wizard of Oz, which featured an all black cast when it was a hit in New York featuring a young Michael Jackson.
Strangely it feels more dated than plenty of much older shows though the youngsters love the chance to rock and jive away under the guidance of choreographer Michaela Headford.
Under producer Emily Malcolm and director Marc Mollica there is a really professional feel to the show and the principals headed up by young Amy Burrows as Doeothy play the show up for all its worth with great teamwork and vocal work from Amy, the outstanding Darius Vapiwala as the Tin Man, a nice portrayal by Joshua Kelly as the cowardly lion and a very well acted and sung scarecrow by Biancha-Maria Szynal.
Another outstanding performance comes from Natasha Stone as the evil witch Evilene.
But the format of a team of backing singers, who bring a lot of quality vocally, seems very dated and reminiscent of my misspent youth.
Technically the Palace team have really pulled the stops out with more lighting than I ever remember seeing at the theate, two smoke machines and fire pots and the use of projected images to create an impressive hurricane as Dorothy is whirled off from Kansas to the Land of Oz.
One of the weaknesses of the show is its lack of hit songs and the ending seems very weak with the complete lack of a dramatic final scene.
The Wiz is a successful youth project for HQ but in the end how really good it is very much depends on the material of the chosen show.
JOHN GILES
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
GEORGE A FUTURE YOUNG STAR - SSC's Henry V summer show.
Southend Shakespeare Company have discovered a possible young star of the future in talented young George Kemp. who played the title role in Henry V, the fine summer touring outdoor production directed by the experienced Peter Finlay for the Company.
I saw the production at its final performance in Southchurch Hall grounds where it had plenty of space to show off its battle scenes and it seemed one of the best open-air productions that SSC have presented in recent times.
George looked and sounded magnificent as the young king, though he could do with a little more voice training to get the very best from his accomplished rendering of the two famous speeches in the play, Once more into the breach…., and Here we few, we happy few…, which make the play so memorable.
George has a lovely relaxed upright-standing acting style which should stand him in good stead in the future and could take him a long way if he decides on an acting future.
But there was far more in this production than the title role with some superb group playing by the reliable old hands like Stephen Jones and James Carter, both doubling up on character roles and particularly outstanding performances from Chris Storozynski as Fluellen and young John Oakes as the Messenger, even if at times he sounded a trifle hoarse, another example of how taxing on the voice open-air theatre is in comparison with working in the tiny Dixon Studio at the Palace. A few voice lessons could help again with this, John.
I am always sorry that Falstaff is not in Henry V and Madeleine Ayres as Nell Quickly was left to deliver news of his death to his gang of thieves and vagabonds.
Dave Lobley really caught the eye in the comedy stakes as Pistol. This was a very accomplished and complete performance. Well done, Dave!
There were plenty of polished performances and young Elena Clements again showed her proficiency at French and gave a lovely sympathetic performance in the final scene when she was betrothed to Henry though hardly speaking a word of English.
Peter Finlay and his team can be very proud of this summer’s open-air production and could not wish for better weather on their tour of Essex venues.
JOHN GILES |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
SUPERFICIAL JOE EGG TRIUMPH FOR LINDISFARNE at Dixon Studio, Palace Theatre until Sat July 3rd
Peter Nichols’ A Day in the Life of Joe Egg, the story of just one day in the life of severely handicapped Josephine, unable to talk and barely able to communicate and the effect after 10 years of caring and attempts to solve the problems of her illness on her parents, school teacher Brian and Sheila.
The play a blackish comedy was first seen in 1967 and now Lindisfarne at the Dixon Studio this week are trying to revive it again in its original period 43 years later. Superficially Lindisfarne are scoring a triumph with Belinda Belt’s production.
It is a challenge for any director and company of actors for Peter Nichols’ works, a particular favourite of mine, are not easy to handle for he often requires the actors at the very centre of the action to create completely natural performances but lesser characters can often be near caricatures.
Toni Taylor is magnificent as the mother, Sheila, and I could not fault her portrayal but I had many more doubts about Robert Stow’s Brian, her weak but clever school master husband, who hates his teaching job and tries to turn his love for his daughter into a series of sick jokes which involve thoughts of death and escape.
The true Brian only appears very occasionally in his performance, often when things go slightly wrong in the production and he is surprised.
This makes me wonder how much time these two key actors and their director spent in research of the period in which the play takes place and improvisation of the words and their actions, a sure requirement for revealing the reasons behind their actions.
That said the whole thing has a lot of theatrical magic and supporting performances by Trevor Corner as the liberal thinking do-gooder rich man and Kim Tobin as his rather obnoxious, wife are good., while the director gives a nice cameo performance as Brian’s mother, who quickly shows why he behaves still like a spoilt little boy.
Young Tamsin Edwards is a convincingly attractive Josephine stranded helplessly in her wheelchair.
Lindisfarne have got beyond the merely competent as a group and can advance to being one of the great amateur groups in South Essex.
JOHN GILES
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
THRILLER WHICH IN 20 YEARS HAS BECOME CLASSIC at Palace Theatre until Sat 3rd July
Stephen Mallatratt’s stqge adaptation of Susan Hill’s novel The Woman in Black has in the space of just over 20 years become a classic piece of theatre beloved by audiences and by drama teachers who now use it as a set book for GCSEs.
In its latest national tour version directed by the play’s original director Robin Herford and starring Robert Demeger, who appeared in the play in the London production for several years and was a familiar and much respected actor on the Palace Theatre stage in the Green and Lenagan era when he re-created the role of solicitor Arthur Kipps, whose mysterious story of the ghostly going-on in the marshlands of the remote north east make up the basis of this superb thriller’s plot.
In this tour production. which started in January in Richmond and closes next week in Worthing, Peter Bramhill co-stars as the young actor who is hired by Kipps to help him bring the written word to life on stage.
This is another superb production using all the techniques of recorded sound, simple props and costumes and with effective lighting captures every possible nuance of tension and excitement.
A notable feature is that every one of the six productions of The Woman in Black that I have seen over the past 21 years have produced the same effect on noisy school audiences for the youngsters have all been enthralled within 10 minutes of the play’s opening and apart from shrieks of terror at the play’s climax completely silent generally throughout its 135 minutes.
If you have never seen The Woman in Black catch it at the Palace during its run until Saturday, July 3: if you have seen it before you will know how good a thriller it is and enjoy it again in this latest production.
JOHN GILES
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
TRINITY’S COMPETENT SUMMER END from 17th - 19th June.
Southchurch’s Trinity Players, who perform on the tiny stage in the Parish House in Southchurch Boulevard, presented Mervyn Howell’s postponed production of Eric Chappell’s comedy thriller Summer End last week in a generally very competent production.
Summer End, which was completely new to me, was obviously written several decades ago before the days of mass television and mobile phones.
It is of a genre of plays that are no longer written for the modern professional theatre and seemed typical grist to the treadmill of weekly and fortnightly rep in years past.
Set in the shared room of Emily Baines and May Brewer in the Summer End Retirement Home at an unnamed date it enabled Sian Mayoh as the wheelbound moaner to top all moaners, who suspected all the home’s residents and staff of everything from theft to murder, to give a bravura and outstanding performance.
Sian brought some lovely ironic touches to her performance and backed up by some good acting by Christine Harvey as the long-suffering May kept up a well-sustained duologue, which was at times very funny, throughout the play, only lapsing into some disjointedness during the last 10 minutes.
One of Trinity’s strongest actresses, Jacquee Storozynski-Toll, kept up the high standard of her recent past performances as the ambivalent matron of the home, while Ali Greaves after a tentative opening in which she tended to gabble, came good as the home’s maid of all-work, Sally, who was saving all her money for her up and coming marriage.
Unfortunately Chris Hammond as the only man in the cast really was not good enough as Emily’s son with some wild waving about of hands and a general lack of acting discipline. Chris is always much better in character roles but has proved a very loyal member of the Players over many years.
Lastly we come back to the main problem with Mervyn Howell’s production for it was not at all clear when it was set for it definitely should not have been 2010, with no attempt having been made to update it and mention for instance of a visit to the theatre including a fish and chip supper for £5!
Personally, I think the best option is always to settle for the time it was written with period costumes and a clear time frame.
In this case this would have been easy for clothes worn in rest home bedrooms have not changed much over the years and the other characters were less liable to abide by changes in fashion than in many other plays.
But overall well done Trinity and special congratulations to the director and backstage team for managing to get two beds, two easy-chairs, a table plus sundry little cupboards and Emily’s wheelchair on the tiny stage and make the whole thing look credible.
JOHN GILES |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
SODS PRODUCERS THEIR BEST PRODUCTION FOR MANY YEARS
at Cliffs Pavilion until Sat 15th May.
Southend Operatic and Dramatic Society’s production of the controversial Mel Brooks’ musical The Producers at the Cliffs Pavilion, Westcliff, until Saturday (May 15) is just their best production in recent times.
The large cast capture perfectly the satirical cynicism in the musical and the whole production directed by the brilliant Sallie Warrington is nearly faultless with beautifully staged and danced ensemble numbers matched by some great performances.
This show provides SODS stalwart Les Cannon with his greatest and most testing role as cheating two-timing Broadway producer Max Bialystock, who raises money for his shows by persuading aged ladies to put their savings in his productions but ensures he never risks his own cash.
Les makes the role his own and drives the whole show forward literally from curtain up to its finale -- a superbly judged and timed performance.
He is teamed up with the talented young Nick Bright as naïve young accountant Leo Bloom, who points out to Max there is a way of making more money from a flop on Broadway than a success and after many doubts joins Max in a two million dollar fraud.
In their search for a certain they finally Springtime for Hitler, which stars Hitler himself and pick the worst director in New York, overt homosexual Roger De Bris to direct the show and finally ensure it will be a one night flop.
De Gris’ partner Carmen Ghia and his entourage of gay hangers-on provide one of the highlight scenes in the production with the whole show getting more and more outrageous with superb performances from Paul Tarrant as De Bris and an even finer performance from young Matthew Giles as Carmen.
Jon Buxton enjoys himself as the play’s author Nazi Franz Leibkind, while Laura Hurrell makes an impressive Swedish blonde bombshell Ulla, whose lack of English in no way stops her from taking the lead in Springtime and quickly convinces Leo that there are more benefits to being a producer than even he dreamt about!
At the end of the first half of the production I had decided that I enjoyed the show even more with SODS than I did in the West End and there was still an outstanding second half to follow in which disaster hit the producers for Springtime in Hitler proved the hit of the Broadway season with disastrous results
.
Great singing and dancing with the zimmer frame ballet of the old ladies one of the highlights and the chorus number for Springtime another all add to the fun and the result is a production with great scenery and costumes and music with a showbiz sound to it from the pit directed by Andrew Denyer to make a great show outstanding.
Those SODS regular supporters who decided to miss out on The Producers because of its content are missing out on the chance to see overall the best production staged by one of England’s finest operatic societies in many a long year and I have seen most of SODS shows in the past 30 years.
John Giles |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
LODS GREAT EVENING OF ‘30S FUN at Palace Theatre until 8th May
Anything Goes is one of those 1930s musicals that is very light in plot, has some great characters and best of all some great numbers by Cole Porter and is altogether great fun if done well.
In Leigh Operatic’s version at the Palace Theatre, Westcliff,, until Saturday (May 10) it is done extremely well with some fine performances, good staging, an outstanding sound from the pit orchestra under Stuart Woolner’s baton and musical direction of Elizabeth Elliott and is a good first time production by Helen Sharpe.
With the music of Porter and characters created by the likes of P.G. Wodehouse this is a show which has stood the test of time very well and shows that the celebrity culture of today was just as prevalent in the 1930s among the upper classes in the States and Britain, for the show follows the fortunes on a transatlantic crossing in the first class of a liner of a group of passengers from both sides of the pond.
Travelling are the likes of the aristocratic nincompoop Sir Evelyn Oakley, straight from a Wodehouse novel, his beautiful fiancée, Hope, a small-time crook on the run from the FBI, Moonface Martin, Reno Sweeney, a big-time entertainer, who is famous for her evangelising night club act and, last but not least, Billy Crocker, who has fallen madly in love with Hope and in one night won her heart but finds the only way to join her crossing the Atlantic is by travelling as a stowaway.
Julie-Dawn Newman as Sweeney, a role created for a young Ethel Merman, has the pick of the big Porter numbers such You’re the Tops, I Get a Kick Out of You , Blow Gabriel Blow and the title number, Anything Goes, which is guaranteed to bring the house down. Julie-Dawn makes the most of all her opportunities,
James Moore makes a great Billy Crocker, slipping in and out of disguises to evade capture by the Purser and his men and brilliantly showing how true love can finally capture the girl, while Neil Lamb makes a hilarious Moonface Martin disguised as a clergyman but with a machine gun in his case.
Peter Brown grows in stature almost literally as silly-idiot Sir Evelyn and really comes to life when Sweeney decides he will be her future.
The show has some excellent dance sequences with a well-trained chorus line in some lovely tap routines choreographed by Sarah Parmenter, while director Helen Sharpe gets a great pace from the production and generally handles well the large cast on the small Palace stage.
Anything Goes is great to see again, provides a wonderful escapist evening in the theatre and is a great credit to LODS.
JOHN GILES |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
GREAT ENSEMBLE PLAYING IN RARE CHANCE TO SEE BEHAN
at Dixon Studio until Saturday 17th April.
Dixon Studio audiences this week have the rare chance to see Brendan Behan's 1950’s tragi-comedy The Hostage in a production for Southend Shakespeare Company directed by Malcolm Toll.
Made famous by Joan Littlewood’s production at Stratford East in 1958 it tells the story of a plan by the IRA to capture an English squaddie and use him as hostage as the British in Belfast hold the threat of hanging over an IRA prisoner.
The plan is to take the hostage to a rundown boarding house in Dublin which is also a brothel run by old IRA member Pat, beautifully portrayed by John Newell, who lost a leg in the troubles in the 1920s and who is ruled by his down-to-earth wife Meg, an outstanding performance by Sandra Smith.
The whole thing is played in a quite non-realistic style with the sundry inhabitants ranging from prostitutes to homosexuals and a couple of Roman Catholic diehards to a Russian sailor, providing a rich canvas of wonderfully drawn characters who are all liable to burst into song with Irish traditional ballads, music hall songs and traditional ditties accompanied by a group of four musicians, who are themselves part of the action.
The whole thing provides a wonderful opportunity for great ensemble playing at which the present-day SSC excel.
A longish first act introduces all the sundry characters including Monsewer, another great portrayal by Stephen Jones as the bagpipe playing Anglo-Irishman in the kilt, who was Pat’s commander in the ‘20s and still his commander.
The action does not really start until the arrival of the “hostage” guarded by an officious IRA officer (Chris Storozynski) and a very incompetent Volunteer (Andrew Sugden).
As the news through the night filters through that the IRA prisoner is set to die at dawn in Belfast the threat to the hostage, young Leslie from London, grows and his little romance with convent girl servant Teresa, like him an orphan, begins to blossom.
Elena Clements is turning into one of the best young actresses in the SSC and with her sweet singing voice enchants us and the handsome young cockney Englishman, another effective performance from George Kemp.
One always has the feeling that nobody believes he could possibly die in the friendly atmosphere of the boarding house so the final tragedy is even more hard hitting.
An accomplished production by Malcolm Toll and his team in which the music arranged by Michael Clements is a vital part.
JOHN GILES |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
LINDISFARNE’S GREAT PRODUCTION OF COONEY CLASSIC at Dixon Studio, Palace Theatre until Sat 27th March
Lindisfarne Players are excelling themselves at the Palace Theatre’s Dixon Studio this week until Saturday, March 27 with a really almost flawless production of the great Ray Cooney classic farce Run for Your Wife. Ray Cooney, who has close associations with Southend, living for a long time in the area and running the Palace Theatre for more than a year as the base for his touring company. Run for Your wife from the 1980s is considered by many including this reviewer his finest farce in the long series he wrote for the Whitehall Theatre company.
Steve McCartney, the director of Run for Your Wife, takes Lindisfarne to new heights with the quality of his production and is to be congratulated for getting performances of such a high standard from his whole cast and getting a superb pace to the whole production as the story of how taxi driver John Smith negotiates successfully his double life with two wives living in similar flats with his first, Mary in Wimbledon and his second, Barbara, in Streatham…
The whole thing takes place in a single set with half of the stage devoted to one flat and the second half to the other with doors used exclusively for each flat but the rest of the stage in common use but exclusive phones for each flat which produce many of the misunderstandings. It is with the phones that I have my only doubts about the production for it originally was set in the 1980s before mobile phones and this production has been updated to the present day and it is hard to believe that the taxi driver and the police would not have their own mobiles in these days. But that quibble apart the characters are played in a beautifully contrasted way.
All goes well with John’s complicated life until he is involved in an accident and seemingly disappears with both wives phoning their respective local police stations to report him missing. When he does reappear with bandaged head a detective sergeant from Wimbledon brings him home to Mary with accounts of his heroism in tackling muggers but with a mystery about the two addresses he appears to have. From then on the fun waxes fast and furious with lodger Stanley from the top flat at Wimbledon trying to help John out and being let into the secrets of John’s secret bigamous goings on.
Nathan Spencer makes a superb very ordinary Smith, who has got himself into an extraordinary situation while Robert Stow gives another fine performance as the extrovert layabout lodger Stanley. Kim Tobin is wonderfully believable as Mary, who really does not know quite what has hit her.
As the plot thickens and more and more lies are told the pace gets hotter with Toni Taylor making a nice contrast as sexy Barbara, who has Ian Morton as a very gay Bobby from her upper flat getting involved in the action and Trevor Corner as home loving Detective Sergeant Porterhouse from Streatham trying to help out with what he sees as a domestic issue. Rory Joscelyne is excellent as tough Detective Sergeant Troughton from Wimbledon who tries to lay down the firm hand of the law but in the end jumps to very much the wrong conclusions.
Rarely have I seen such a fine set of performances in modern farce from an amateur group for all the characters literally live their roles and the rich vein of laughter is fully exploited in the play which runs for just under two hours but literally has a laugh and more a minute. Well done Lindisfarne Players and may you get the full houses in the Dixon you deserve for the rest of the week
JOHN GILES |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
SSC’S KNOCKABOUT HILARIOUS FEYDEAU
There is a huge amount of laughter in the Dixon Studio at the Palace Theatre, Westcliff, this week where Southend Shakespeare Company are romping through Georges Feydeau classic farce A Flea in Her Ear.
At its best it is marvellously inventive with director Madeleine Ayres dispensing with the traditional many doors but requiring a small revolve which enables a hidden room for sexual liaisons to be revealed.
The play has a plot so complicated and with so many twists that it would take the space of this review to outline it in full but suffice to say that it starts with Raymonde (Vanessa Osborne) suspecting her elderly husband Chandrise (Stephen Jones) of having a mistress as he has lost interest in sex with her.
She is determined to prove this by arranging a meeting with the help of her best friend Lucienne (Tracey Anne Bourne) writing a letter of a meeting in a hotel of doubtful repute Hotel Coq D’Or that evening.
As this is Paris in 1900 the talk is all of sex, society gossip and seemingly every man has a mistress and the whole life is a sexual game.
This is a play with wonderful hilarious characters including Lucienne’s wild Spanish husband Homenides always bradishing his revolvers and threatening death to any man who tries to seduce his wife, a wonderful over the top performance by Andrew Sugden, a smoothly seductive Tournel (James Carter), who is hoping to add Raymonde to his succession of mistresses and even the jealous butler (John Newell) who is always on the alert to catch his wife out.
Young Alex Milbank gives an outstanding performance as a young man with a speech impediment which prevents you understanding clearly his speech who is being treated by Dr Finache (Ross Norman Clarke), who is everyones adviser on everything medical and sexual and at the same time has his own liaisons.
Now this is all in a longish act one. When the action moves on to the hotel things get completely chaotic with a drunken porter the double of Chandrise a wild and violent German who speaks no French and the hotel proprietor laying down the law with staff and clients alike in French army NCO style.
Action is piled on action and even the scene changing becomes fun with the hidden room and what goes on on it revealed and the French workmen style stage staff joining in with the chaotic scene changes
The action is continuous, gets more and more physical and piles laughs on laughs.
The third act in which everything is revealed and sorted out comes as rather an anticlimax with the final running time nearly three hours --. far too long by present standards for any comedy or farce.
Director Madeleine Ayres and her production team have done a brilliant job on this period farce in a great ensemble production but would it have been possible somewhere to cut at least 15 minutes from the first and third acts by some very careful pruning?.
JOHN GILES |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
DAD’S ARMY MARCHES ON TRIUMPHANTLY AT PALACE
It is rare nowadays to get a No 1 tour of a play with a cast of 15 featuring only one star actor, Leslie Grantham of Dirty Den fame as spiv Pte Walker, with the other leading parts played by comparative unknowns.
But with Dad’s Army it is different for the stars of the show are the likes of Captain Mannering, Sgt Wilson, Pte Godfrey and Cpl Jones.
Dad’s Army the Lost Episodes set the standard with its eight months record-breaking tour and with virtually the same cast the new selection of episodes from the much-loved television series including Jimmy Perry and David Croft’s own two favourite episodes, Branded and Mum’s Army, are featured together with some wonderful recollections of the 1940s now 70 years ago.
These include Mannering falling in love in an episode very reminiscent of Brief Encounter and climaxing on the station at Warmington-on-Sea. where, of course, all the action of Dad’s Army was sited.
The quality of the series and this stage version is, of course, in the brilliant writing of Perry and Croft and the development of the great characters they created and the selected episodes really bring this out to the full.
The leading members of the cast have grown in stature with their experience in the previous long tour and Timothy Kightley as Mannering, David Warwick as Wilson and particularly Maitland Chandler as the lovable Godfrey really excel for within a few minutes of the opening one forgets they are not the original cast from television.
We see many more of the platoon members’ girl friends and associates in the new version of Dad’s Army on stage and Sarah Berger particularly caught my eye with the quality of her acting.
Director James Robert Carson uses the minimalist settings by designer Nancy Surman to keep the sometimes brief episodes moving and ensures a lively pace for the show and the whole production at Westcliff was greeted with a packed and enthusiastic audience on ithe opening night of its week’s run at the Palace Theatre, Westcliff where it can be seen until Saturday, March 20.
Calibre Productions are on another winner with Dad’s Army Marches On and the tour is already booked into theatres around Britain to the near end of July.
review by JOHN GILES
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
HOLLYWOOD STARS IN A QUALITY NEW YORK TWO-HANDER
at Palace Theatre until Sat Jan 30.
Kelly McGillis and Rolf Saxon are both familiar Hollywood faces from the past, who are still working in the film capital between giving superb stage performances both on and off Broadway.
Kelly is still remembered for her iconic performance as the love interest in the hit Top Gun from 1986, the era in which Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune is set in a downtown New York apartment.
Kelly plays failed aging actress Frankie who has ended up as a waitress in a New York café and the apartment is hers in which as the play opens we find her in bed with the new café cook Johnny (Rolf Saxon).
Jewish New Yorker Johnny believes in the coincidences of life which have brought them together and in a matter of days considers Frankie is the love of his life though knowing very little about her.
Frankie scarred both physically and mentally by her experiences with her former lover wants to take thing much slowly and for them to explore each other over a longer period of time.
So we are left to see them enjoying sex physically and sparring with each other verbally over the two and a half hours of the play and one night together in play time.
The play is beautifully written by Tony winning author Terence McNally,, who hails from Texas but quickly settled in New York.
Though some of the language and frank talk about sex may shock those easily offended it is compensated for by the quick-fire New York witticisms and quips i and a lot of moving moments when the two characters reveal themselves like peeling layers from an onion.
This is a production with fine acting and clever production for making interesting stage pictures with just two characters is incredibly difficult.
Director Michael Lunney, who also designed his own set for the production, makes a great job of it by superb control of pace and varying climaxes and different use of acting areas but is badly let down by some really awful lighting, for though the action takes place through the night until dawn it is essential to be able to see the actors’ faces clearly at all times.
One other slight grumble is that Kelly McGillis’ very 21st Century tattoos are not covered by makeup and clash with the beautiful period atmosphere created by set, costume and acting.
But it is a top-class production of an American comedy which was new to me and brings welcome variety to the Palace drama programme.
Frankie and Johnny runs at Westcliff until Saturday, January 30, before it continues on its long nation-wide tour until the end of April.
JOHN GILES |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
THE TRUE MAGIC OF NARNIA BROUGHT TO LIFE ON PALACE STAGE
at Palace Theatre until Jan 3rd 2010.
Bruce James with his production company have done a great job in bringing the true magic of Narnia from C.S Lewis’ classic children’s novel The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe wonderfully to life in his production at the Palace Theatre, Westcliff, over Christmas.
He has wisely chosen the adaptation for the RSC by the late Adrian Mitchell from 1998 with the beautiful music with an Irish touch by Shaun Davey.
To me generally the whole thing is a theatrical gem without any of the coarsening up of children’s classics seen in recent years by trying to introduce a panto atmosphere.
A very young audience with many of them of early infant school age saw the opening performance on Friday, December 11 and apart from necessary toilet visits sat through it with amazement on their faces and loud cheers at the end. In truth, I suppose the production is ideal for junior school age children who enjoy the likes of Harry Potter and can follow clearly the intricacies of a family of four evacuee children in World War 2, who find themselves in the large and generally empty house of the benevolent Professor Kirk and his housekeeper Mrs Macready.
The youngest girl, Lucy, hides in a wardrobe and finds it is the doorway to the frozen world of Narnia, where a wicked White Witch has ruled and it is always winter and Christmas never arrives.
She escapes back to her two brothers and elder sister, Peter and Edward and Susan, and they think she is making up stories but it happens again when Edward enters Narnia by the same route and the White Witch seduces Edward with the promise of endless Turkish Delight, his favourite sweetmeat almost impossible to obtain in wartime England.
After a short time the four children are involved in a battle to save Narnia with Edward an apparent traitor and the mysterious Lion King Aslan rumoured back in the magical country. After treks and battles between good and evil the children triumph with magical battles and become the rulers of the country before returning home through the wardrobe in triumph.
There are outstanding performances from the upright Peter, Christopher Perry, while the other children’s parts are shared between Emelye Moulton, who particularly impressed as Lucy on the day I saw the show, and Rhianna Alderson, Amy Burrows and Lily Streames as Susan and James Burgess and Max Longmuir as Edmund. Local actor Sebastian Abineri makes the perfect professor while equally beautifully doubling as A Father Christmas with some very unusual but useful presents.
Alice Fernbank is the really evil White Witch, who is so terrifying and powerful that it is difficult to know whether to clap her for her acting or boo her off the stage for her sheer evil in turning animals to stone and whipping people she captures. Another local favourite, David Streames, makes a lovely warm character of Mr Beaver aided and abetted by Lorinda King as his warm-hearted wife, while Ross Hugill deserves special mention for his Mr Tumnis, the fawn, who saves Lucy from capture. Mark Holden makes a strong and powerful Aslan, but with his American accent seemed likely to have escaped from Disney’s Lion King.
But it is the sheer effect of quality in every department from choreography, music and lighting to sheer production that makes this a Christmas at the Palace to remember.
There are twice daily performances at various times most days of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe until Sunday, January 3.
John Giles |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
AYCKBOURN DELIGHT AT PALACE at Palace Theatre until Sat Dec 5th
Alan Strachan’s production of the Ayckbourn 1970s classic Absurd Person Singular is a delight at Westcliff’s Palace Theatre for the week ending Saturday, December 5.
This national tour production from the Bill Kenwright organisation produced by Kenwright himself is top quality in every respect with one of Britain’s top directors, great designs and a cast of top television and stage performers, who achieve the perfect timing of laughs and capture the pathos required in the story of three couples, who though intensely disliking one another meet for Christmas parties over three years with the settings the kitchens of their so different homes.
The wives are persecuted by their husband and in one case driven to attempted suicide, while snobbery, drunkenness and sheer male and female bullying take place where often the persecutors become the persecuted as the years pass and laughter builds with a sense of embarrassment as dominating roles in not only individual marriages but the power of the couples socially are swapped.
Each Christmas nicely build on the past one with the rising Hopcrofts in their little semi trying to keep up with the Joneses of bank manager Ronald and his so snooty wife Marion and the free-living style couple of architect Geoffrey and his pill swilling nervous wreck of a wife, Eva, and, of course, their frightening dog George.
The acting of all six performers is so finely tuned and of such ensemble quality that it is hard to pick out who shines most but Matthew Cottle as the ubiquitous Sidney Hopcroft really deserves a very special mention, while Elizabeth Carling, in an almost silent performance in the second act by her attempts at suicide being frustrated by the unwitting efforts of the two other couples, gives a complete acting gem.
Deborah Grant as the by then drunken alcoholic Marion, tops the last act led by Hopcroft’s parlour games and muscal statues, while Lisa Kay, Stephen Beckett and Robert Duncan contribute equally to a production of quality Ayckbourn.
A great production that produced belly laughs from me and a crowded Palace on the opening night and sets another high standard after Kenwright’s brilliant The Grass is Greener a few weeks ago.
But it also left one wondering how Christmas 2009 would turn out in our own families!
JOHN GILES |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FINE PERFORMANCES IN TRINITY’S CEMETERY CLUB
Two performances in Trinity Players’ production of Cemetery Club at the Parish House in Southchurch Boulevard this week by Sian Mayoh and Jacquee Stozynski-Toll are as good as any seen on the Southend drama scene this year.
They play two of the trio of New York Jewish widows that are at the centre of this delightful quick-fire American comedy by Ivan Menchell.
They are nicely contrasted, for Jacquee is the extrovert Lucille, a woman who has retained all the “good-time” characteristics into late middle-age from her youth and glories in clothes, jewellery and over the top behaviour ,
Sian is the quieter but charming Ida who wants to rebuild her life after the death of her husband three years before.
For the two women meeting up with another widow, Doris, played by the less experienced Christine Harvey giving a more than adequate performance as Doris, meet up once a month for a gossip over tea and talk about the past in the close knit wealthy community of Jewish New York.
After tea they always go to the Jewish cemetery to have little one-way talks with their late husbands at their individual graves. All goes well until Ida meets up with wealthy but very quiet Kosher master butcher Sam, who is visiting his late wife’s grave and strikes up a stumbling relationship with Ida.
Over a period of weeks Lucille and Doris contrive to undermine this relationship and frighten off Sam, solidly played by a Chris Hammond, who also directs.
The comedy comes to a wonderful climax in a drunken wedding scene in which the widows really let down their hair and end in a wonderfully played drunken row scene.
Veteran actress Jean Tyler gives a delightful cameo performance in the second half as another wealthy Jewish matriarch, Mildred.
The whole thing is generally very funny with loads of wonderful one-liners and some moments of real pathos.
The pace is essentially kept up throughout the production and shows just how accomplished Trinity Players can be given the opportunity.
The settings, costumes and properties are first-class and the use of a special forestage for the cemetery scenes works well.
One tip for Christine is to try to avoid standing with her arms crossed in front of her for it looks very awkward and restricts her delivery of speeches but she really does extremely well in matching the performance of the stars of the show, Sian and Jacquee.
One tip for stage management and lighting is it is better to use black outs at scene ends rather than try to time the closing of front curtains thus adding extra polish to the good production.
JOHN GILES |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
RARELY STAGED HENRY VI TRIUMPH FOR SSC at Dixon Studio until Saturday 28th November
Tackling Shakespeare’s Henry VI with its three parts and more than 70 characters most of whom are male is a huge project for any drama company whether it be professional or amateur.That Southend Shakespeare Company led by their most senior director, Michael Clements, and backed by a talented team both on stage and behind the scenes, make it as great a success as it is at the Palace Theatre’s Dixon Studio is a triumph indeed and shows just how the SSC has grown in strength and commitment in recent years.
For a start Michael had to cut the verbose script of the Bard’s two earliest plays and rid it of much of the excess and wandering verbosity in it and also trim it to fit the span of two plays, which are entitled The Descent into Chaos and The Triumph of Evil., which are being presented in repertory at the Dixon until Saturday ,November 28.
The first opens in France after the death of the heroic Henry V with his son Henry VI, a muxh quieter studious man taking the throne in a troubled country with its wars with France.
Subsequently the weaknesses of the new king are exposed with battles for power among his nobles and their subsequent treachery leading to the country spiralling down into chaos with a final rebellion by the people.
This is a play about weakness in the face of a search for ultimate power with the King not aided by his decision to marry Margaret, a woman with a mind of her own who quickly learns to despise Henry for his weaknesses.
The play consists of the machinations and fights between the English nobles like York, Gloucester and Suffolk with the very powerful Warwick always in the background.
The SSC is very strong in older, experienced actors and Roy Foster, Keith Chanter, Stephen Jones and Dave Lobley deliver their usual fine performances, while James Carter plays the weak king, a nice contrast for him, and he delivers an outstanding performance throughout the two plays. But it is with the younger members that the star performances are a surprise..
Young Elena Clements after some great little cameo performances in recent productions, makes her Joan of Arc a very special character, while among the other female characters Tracey-Anne Bourne makes Margaret a strong woman who is willing to fight for her husband but obviously loves Peter Mack’s treacherous Suffolk raised to the heights of power by Henry only to betray him.
There are a few fine set piece speeches, a touch of witchcraft, precursor to the witches in Macbeth, and the most astonishing revolt of the peasants led by Dave Lobley’s Cade, which provides a fantastic climax to the first part.
The second half Triumph of Evil is aptly named with the Civil War of the Roses resulting in even more bloodshed and the challengers for the throne murdering the younger members of families with claims to the throne to eliminate them from possibilities of succession. Rarely can there have been such a demand for stage blood capsules than this play requires.
Tracey- Anne shows even more of her acting skills, York and his family are disgraced and Andrew Sugden as Edward son of York eventually takes the throne while Henry is incarcerated in the Tower.
But it is the appearance of another superb young performer, George Kemp, as a young hunchbacked, deformed Richard of York, who was the future infamous Richard III, who steals the whole show with a truly magnetic performance with his final killing of Henry in the Tower and some superbly spoken and performed speeches.
Keith Chanter’s death as Warwick is also a fine moment in a play which is one continuous mass of murders, feuds and treachery and lacks even one touch of humour.
There are echoes of the great things to come in the writings of Shakespeare and SSC make the two parts of Henry VI memorable in many ways and enabled me to see one of the few Shakespeare’s I had never seen. Well done!
JOHN GILES. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FINE PERFORMANCES IN PATCHY FAIR LADY at Cliffs Pavilion until Saturday 7th November
Southend Operatic and Dramatic Society’s production of that classic musical My Fair Lady at the Cliffs Pavilion, Southend, this week contains some really fine performances in a very patchy production, which reaches the heights on occasions but also some very low points.
Roger Davis’ portrayal of Professor Henry Higgins, the phonetics expert who undertakes to transform a Covent Garden flower girl into a duchess in six months, is one of the best portrayals of the role I have seen in a lifetime of theatre-going.
He captures the essence of Higgins in every detail both in his acting and singing, while Daryl Kane recaptures his success in the SODS’ last production of My Fair Lady as Alfred Doolittle, the dustman father of flower girl Eliza, and is if anything even better.
His exuberant true cockney accent is in contrast to the awful stage cockney of Laura Hurrell in the starring part of Liza, the object of the whole exercise of turning a cockney Covent Garden girl into a lady and giving her a true-blue accent fit to pass in the highest of Edwardian society.
This is a great pity for Laura has a beautiful singing voice and displays great acting skills as her accent slowly disappears and she gives a beautiful acting and singing performance in the second half of this three hour production.
Dick Davies makes the wealthy Col Pickering, who shares the transformation and finances the phonetics experiment, a quirky fellow and carries the story forward very well but is too fidgety to really stay absolutely true to the character.
Among the supporting roles I liked Annette McGibbon as Mrs Higgins particularly in her second half cameo with the now lady-like Eliza, while Darius Vapriwala as her love-sick son Freddy sings his one big number On the Street Where You Live beautifully but fails to build up in his few lines Freddy as a character.
This is one of the major faults among the lesser characters in this production directed by Les Cannon with even more important weaknesses in grouping and staging of the crowd scenes which are not helped by David Street’s rather pedestrian and unimaginative choreography. The staging of the Ascot races scene, one of the usual highlights of the show is just dire.
With flat lighting and unimaginative staging the really big scenes including the opening just do not work effectively and there is a need for a lot more polishing of the whole production and more attention paid by the director to the stage pictures and exploitation of the beautiful costumes with more imaginative lighting.
Musical director Andrew Denyer gets a great sound from the SODS in the big chorus numbers but the orchestra sounded strangely thin from my seat on Wednesday night.
This My Fair Lady is worth seeing for some wonderful performances but is not one of SODS best productions overall.
JOHN GILES |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
MOST PERFECT PRODUCTION SEEN AT PALACE THIS YEAR at Palace Theate until 7th November
Bill Kenwright’s touring production of the lightweight period comedy The Grass is Greener is simply as good a production as you are likely to see anywhere and is most certainly the best seen at the Palace Theatre, Westcliff, this year.
As light and fluffy as a master chef’s great soufflé it is just perfect in every department with top director Joe Harmston getting beautiful performances from each one of the cast of five led by Liza Goddard and Christopher Cazenove as the impoverished Lady Hilary and Lord Victor, who open their stately home tin the 1960s to visitors and raise more money by growing mushrooms.
Jack Ellis is equally strong as American millionaire Charles touring the house, who is bewitched by Lady Hilary’s voice and she is equally bewitched by him on learning his millionaire status and the moment of instantaneous love in which they come into each others arms is a moment to remember as a masterpiece of timing
I was equally bewitched by Sophie Ward as Hattie, a friend who likes to keep up to date with all the gossip and has had her eye on Victor for a long time. Sophie’s fluid movement and wonderful timing are a joy to watch.
Even the butler, nicely played by Giles Fagan, is different for he is writing a book on people’s behaviour and is quick to correct the lord on his considered frailties while being a truly loyal employee in times of crisis.
This play by husband and wife team Hugh and Margaret Williams was a classic of the 1960s and is a masterpiece of period comedy now in this production with lovely period coatumes and a setting ny Simon Scullion which really is faultless in completing the perfect picture .
See this two hours of delight at the Palace until Saturday. The packed audience showed that they loved it as much as me on the opening night.. The only pity for me is that its two hours seemed to just fly by.
JOHN GILES |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
LODS PREMIERE A NOVELTY AT PALACE
at Palace Theatre Westcliff until Sat 24th October
Leigh Operatic and Dramatic Society are premiering in South Essex a novelty in Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s The Likes of Us at the Palace Theatre, Westcliff, until Saturday (October 24).
It is a musical which is a novelty in many respects in that it was the famous couple’s first collaboration in 1965 when Webber was just 16 and Rice was 21 preceding their runaway success, Joseph.
It is also unusual that after being hidden away in a forgotten drawer for more than 40 years and never having received any production it has been released to a limited number of amateur groups in this country with LODS the chosen group for South Essex thus reversing the usual pattern of national tour, West End, further professional tours and years later release to amateurs.
Finally, it is a musical without dialogue, which was lost some time in the 40 plus years with the story told by a narrator with words written by Stephen Fry.
All that said this is a show to see for all lovers of the musical theatre and Lloyd Webber fans in particular.
Overall it is very well sung and the tunes are really catchy with special credit due to musical directpr Rachel Plunkett and her conductor Stuart Woolner and their strong 11-piece outfit in the pit, who tackle for them quite an unusual musical experience in playing music that they are performing for the first time.
The story, which is narrated with some nice touches of humour by Craig Kirby, is of love and romance in the East End of the 1860s with a golden- hearted prostitute, Rose, and battles in the gin sodden population with a young Dr Barnardo turning from his crusade to sell the Bible to the East Enders and become a missionary in China to taking up the cause of homeless youngsters living in the rooftops of the London slums.
Love blossoms for Barnardo when suffragette campaigner Syrie Elmsleigh joins him in his drive to bring the children’s plight to the self-satisfied ministers of the government and divides the loyalty of her servant Jenny between her mistress and cockney love for her sweetheart Johnny , who is one of the protesters at the attempts of Barnardo to interfere with the traditional life of the East End and drinking of beer and gin.
Oliver Gourley has a superb singing voice and makes the most of the opportunities offered by the Rice and Webber numbers, which at times have distinct flavours of the tunes which were to make them famous in so many later musicals, but Oliver's performance could have made him a look a little wooden if he had actually had to act the part. For me the hit of the show is Kathy Clarke as prostitute Rose, who brings to life the whole show in her numbers.
Amy Pryce and James Moore are delightful as Rose and Johnny respectively, but Dani De Gregorio makes a less convincing Syrie.
The young children who make up the Barnardo orphans are all charmers but like most of the East End characters look far too clean and well dressed. A black mark this to director Tessa Davies, who sets a nice pace for the production but should really no better in this respect.
Overall a show well worth doing, so well done LODS.
JOHN GILES
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
