Welcome to today’s edition of ShentonSTAGE Daily, in which I look back on the last seven days of theatre news and reviews (including my own).
FRIDAY MARCH 1
I made a brief trip to Manchester for an overnight stay to see revivals of plays by two of our foremost playwrights, David Eldridge and Simon Stephens, each of whom specialise in giving moving voice to ordinary people — falling in love in the first play as two people both seek to move out of the isolation that they’ve become accustomed to (she because of her career, he after a failed marriage which has resulted in him losing regular contact with his young daughter); and dealing with grief, in the second, as a man returns to his native Holland from New York where he has made his home, to attend the funeral of his brother
Beginning, by David Eldridge, was originally premiered at the National in 2017 (where last year the second part in a planned trilogy of plays about modern couples, Middle, was debuted last year). This achingly lovely play about two people tentatively moving towards each other constantly surprises: both are scared of intimacy, but unusually here it is the man, 42, who is more afraid of sex, while the woman, who is 38, may be answering the siren call of biology as she seeks someone to make her pregnant.
But out of a dance of opposing intentions — with a long sequence of actual dancing between them – Eldridge creates an intimate, tender portrait of a relationship in its kindling phases.
A two-hander — especially one as intimate and exposing as this one, and in the nowhere-to-hide in the round environment of the Royal Exchange — is a particular challenge in the casting department. And given that the show ended its run last Saturday, I’ll spare their blushes by not identifying the 50% of the cast I really didn’t like. But I loved the other actor; and the production had a raw intensity in these close-up quarters.
SATURDAY MARCH 11
If a two-hander is problematic if you don’t like one of the actors, a solo monologue is even more of a worry.
Fortunately, Will Young — the pop singer who has turned into an increasingly accomplished stage actor — is easily up to the task of holding our attention for the 70 minutes that Songs from Far Away takes. He gives a tenderly reflective performance of this moody and marvellous meditation on grief. He even gets to sing a bit! What a play and what a performance!
Kirk Jameson directs with unobtrusive shifts in mood signalled by the subtle lighting and reconfigurations of the physical space as the curtains are re-arranged. I hope it has an extended life: London needs to see it.
SUNDAY MARCH 12
I fell in love with Once, a gentle, low-key musical about falling in love, when it first received its off-Broadway premiere at New York Theatre Workshop in 2011 (after a prior try-out at American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, MA); and then saw it repeatedly when it transferred to both Broadway in 2012 and then the West End in 2013.
It is the perfect “chamber” musical — a piece of organic, moody perfection that folds in and out of some achingly beautiful songs (by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová) and seamless book scenes (by playwright Enda Walsh) with crisp, undulating movement in the original production by Steven Hoggett.
I saw every one of the actors who played Guy in the West End: Declan Bennett, Arthur Darvill, David Hunter and Ronan Keating, each of whom had their own qualities; but the rare combination of emotional vulnerability and a powerful voice never quite matched that of Broadway original Steve Kazee’s breathtaking break-out performance (though I still loved all of them).
In a sell-out one night concert production in London tonight, Jamie Muscato finally brought the same crushing feeling to bear that made the aching void he experiences palpable. It’s even more remarkable that he conveyed this in a theatre as large as the London Palladium; but the stripped back aesthetic worked in his favour, as did the supreme generosity of co-star Carrie Hope Fletcher in ceding the stage to him in a performance of understated, unshowy beauty as she unobtrusively supported him.
There were moments when it felt almost like gig-theatre, as the cast of actor-musicians filled the stage making glorious music and creating a vibrant community.
MONDAY MARCH 13
In my newsletter today, I wrote about the Union Theatre’s new production of BETTY BLUE EYES (running March 29 to April 22, with a press night on April 4), and how little the cast were being paid for the engagement: an all-in fee of just £250, to cover rehearsals and a run of 21 performances across a likely six week period, plus a possible profit share once all other costs had been met after the run is completed.
Of course the actors are free to make their own decisions as to whether to accept these conditions. Just as I am free, as I have chosen to do, to no longer cover shows that are produced this way.
After I wrote the newsletter, and published it via Twitter as well, I got a heartening amount of support for my stand on social media, in private emails and in public when I ran into actors; I also got a message from Equity, applauding me and whom I plan to engage with more about this.
But I also got a backlash from some quarters, who thought that it was somehow my duty to give the actors my support to encourage audiences to actually go (which pre-supposes, of course, a favourable review), which would increase their chances of a bigger profit to share.
One actor tweeted (you can read my reply there below, too):
The hostile actor tweet was retweeted by the show’s paid press agent Kevin Wilson. I messaged him privately, and he replied to say how he happened to agree with it — and was angry at me.
I can’t, of course, control people’s emotions, but you have to wonder why he’s angry. I expect him to be loyal to his client, naturally, but has holding the production to account ( in every sense) hit a nerve? I enquired in return to ask how much he was being paid for his services, and he replied tersely: “Just leave it alone.”
I’m afraid that’s not something I am willing to do.
As I tweeted,
Sean Gray, who heads up MTI who license the show, replied, and I in turn to him, on our public timelines:
A fringe producer — soon to stage How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying — at Southwark Playhouse in the spring, also replied:
Of course I appreciate the risk that producers take. But that’s THEIR job; the actors job, meanwhile, is to serve the production as best they can, but their investment in the show cannot be a financial one where they accept derisory fees.
A sell-out that’s not sold out after all
Having apparently sold out its entire run in a record two hours, the transfer of A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE from the Almeida to the Phoenix, it’s strange to go online today and find some availability in premium seating — not the odd scattered seat, but a whole bunch of them — at prices of up to £300 each.
This is clearly an intentional fraud being perpetrated against the ticket buying public by greedy producers. They’ve held back the seats deliberately so they can inflate them now.
It’s funny, though, that a single ticket for Streetcar is more than the actors will be paid for rehearsing and appearing in the entire 21 performance run of BETTY BLUE EYES that I wrote about in that newsletter today.
Lozza lozza laughs….
Laurence Fox — the one-time actor turned anti-lockdown and Covid vaccine activist and twitter provocateur — today tweeted after Gary Lineker was reinstated to Match of the Day — and I replied:
This sent him into full victim status, as he replied to me publicly:
It’s amazing how people like him won’t accept the consequences of their own actions. But I appreciate there may be something traumatic in his own personal history that has brought him to his extreme positions, so I feel a kind of sadness and sympathy for him at the same time.
TUESDAY MARCH 14
I’ve been following the career of New Yorker singer-songwriter Benjamin Scheuer for some time now, ever since I fell in love with his first solo autobiographical musical The Lion in 2014.
He’s now resident in London with his wife and two children, and the arrival of his first child is now the story of his new solo show Eloise’s Mountain that he has in development. He’s doing some of this work in public view.
Tonight I dropped in, for the third time, on its latest iteration, at Crazy Coqs; not all the songs are in place yet to tell the story, but already it’s gaining shape and momentum (the director Polly Findlay is helping to guide the process). It’s fascinating to watch a show being built up from the inside — and a privilege, too. The audience, in fact, is helping to shape or with our reactions.
I’m beginning to recognise some of the songs as old friends, too; but every time there’s new material too, some only completed earlier today!
It’s a bit like the old process of building musicals out-of-town used to be on the road to Broadway, but just in this case in a studio space with just his guitars for company and accompaniment, plus a toy piano (which he also plays!) alongside a grand one!
WEDNESDAY MARCH 15
Today I finally caught up with Sylvia, the funk and rap musical that tells the tale of the suffragettes struggle for women to get the vote, that opened at the Old Vic last month.
I’d seen the earlier try-out version that was staged pre-pandemic; it was supposed to have been an official run but was converted into a work-in-progress. I’m so glad they’ve now completed the process, because the show is a dazzler.
Yes, there are times when it seems to be channelling Hamilton in telling a story based on historical reality through a modern rap and funk score, but it is also its own dynamic, pulsating wonder of song and thrilling movement.
The cast is also truly astonishing. Beverley Knight, one of the very best voices on the British stage, soars as Emmeline Pankhurst, with Sharon Rose also thrilling as her daughter Sylvia; the brilliant Alex Gaumond makes a vivid impression as Labour politician Keir Hardie.
I also returned today to see Guys and Dolls again at the Bridge. I’d previously seen — and written about — attending the first preview of this utterly blissful production. It’s sheer happiness — and ground-breaking, too, as I explain in my full review for PLAYS INTERNATIONAL here.
THURSDAY MARCH 16
My two show-day today was of two new plays, running respectively an hour and 80 minutes only, but both packing a much bigger punch.
The world premiere of Roy Williams’s All Roads was in the tiny upstairs studio above Wimbledon Studio — a world away from the National’s Olivier, where his last play Death of England: Delroy — co-written with Clint Dyer — premiered in November 2020 (with its original run suddenly curtailed by another lockdown).
Presented by Attic Theatre Company at New Wimbledon’s studio before touring to 3 more venues, it is a spellbinding two-hander drama about two teens bonded by a trauma that both feel guilty about. It is piercingly well acted by the utterly natural Kudzai Mangombe and Tristan Waterson (pictured above).
Meanwhile the Menier Chocolate Factory, still rather bleakly without its welcoming restaurant, is at least offering nourishing theatrical fare in its stage, with the UK premiere of Jordan Harrison’s terrific Pulitzer nominated play Marjorie Prime that speculates a near future in which bereavement and memories can be challenged by AI versions of people we’ve lost — including ourselves.
An absolutely A-list cast comprises 87-year-old acting legend Anne Reid (above right) as Marjorie, a haunting Nancy Carroll as her daughter, Tony Jayawardena as her son-in-law, and Richard Fleeshman as her late husband (when he was in his 30s, above left). Together, they keep intriguing ideas buoyant in this challenging and provocative play.
SHOWS AHEAD IN LONDON, SELECTED REGIONAL THEATRES AND ON BROADWAY
My regularly updated feature on shows in London, selected regional theatres and on Broadway is here: https://shentonstage.com/theatre-openings-from-w-c-march-6/ As noted above, owing to technical problems, I’ve been unable to update it yet for this week, but when the website comes back online, this is where you will be able to find it.
I head to New York first thing tomorrow morning, catching the next round of Broadway openings that include Bob Fosse’s DANCIN’ (opening Sunday March 19), BAD CINDERELLA (March 23) and SWEENEY TODD (March 26), plus this weekend’s Encores! presentation of Jerry Herman’s musical DEAR WORLD at New York City Center, the final performance of Disney’s HERCULES at Paper Mill on Sunday, and the National Theatre transfer of LOVE to Park Avenue Armory.
I’ll be reporting on these and more over the next week.
See you here on Monday
I will be back on Monday. If you can’t wait that long, I may also be found on Twitter (for the moment) here: https://twitter.com/ShentonStage/ (though not as regularly on weekends)