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 APRIL 28
Sally Greene, former chief executive of the Old Vic Theatre, who appointed Kevin Spacey to run the venue, has stepped away from her association with the theatre entirely now, resigning as a director of the Old Vic Theatre Trust, along with her husband, property developer Robert Bourne. (Greene is pictured with Spacey below, in happier times)
As Spacey now goes on criminal trial next month in London, on charges relating to four men, it is interesting to recall her statement when allegations about Spacey’s predatory and inappropriate behaviour first came to public light:
“I would like to make it clear that prior to the emergence of these recent claims, I was unaware of any allegations involving Kevin Spacey, or any form of sexual impropriety, whether connected to the Old Vic or not. Had I known, I would never have appointed him.” She also said she felt “sick to her stomach to think that people may have suffered from harassment or abuse as a result of their association with the theatre”.
Spacey denies the accusations made against him; the jury will decide in due course. But Greene’s deniability of being at all aware of any accusations against him is difficult to credit. Stories had been long in circulation in London theatrical circles; but victims had been reluctant to come forward, until Antony Rapp did so about working with him as a child actor and the dam finally broke.
Last year Rapp lost his civil suit against Spacey, and stated afterwards, “I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to have my case heard before a jury, and I thank the members of the jury for their service. Bringing this lawsuit was always about shining a light, as part of the larger movement to stand up against all forms of sexual violence.”
Last night I caught the sublime musical partnership of Barb Jungr, a cabaret performance legend from Stockport who now lives near me in West Sussex, and John McDaniel doing their thrilling programme of songs by the Beatles and Sting at Crazy Coqs. What arrangements — and what a rapport between each other as well as with the audience.
One of my guests was Ashley Robinson, currently in town overseeing rehearsals for his stage adaptation of BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, opening at @sohoplace next month. He was delighted to see McDaniel, who he grew up seeing as a role model when he was MD on Rosie O’Donnell’s long-running daily TV show: “I love John McDaniel. He was this small town gay kid’s hero!”
SATURDAY APRIL 29
When BELUSCONI, a new musical about the former, disgraced populist Italian PM opened at Southwark Playhouse, it was variously dismissed in a slew of two-star reviews as “aimless” (Nick Curtis in the Evening Standard), “banal and interminable” (Arifa Akbar in The Guardian) , and “a punishing watch” (Fiona Mountford for the I paper).
None are critics I particularly rate or trust, so I had to see for myself. So I caught the penultimate performance at today’s matinee, and they’re actually right: it’s absolutely a misfire — a bonkers musical mess that, much like Brutus in Julius Caesar, can’t sort out whether it’s here to bury Berlusconi or to praise him. A formidable cast — led by Sebastien Torka as Silvio Berlusconi (pictured above), and also including the always-terrific Sally Anne Triplett and Emma Hatton — go above and beyond the call of duty.
Marooned by a nearly vertical set that constricts the playing area to a series of narrow platforms and the stage floor, the actors get a lot of steps in as they scurry up and down it; they also get a lot of notes to sing, but the score is no EVITA (which Hatton has played).
SUNDAY APRIL 30
BLUE was the name of Derek Jarman’s final film, completed months before his death in 1993, that is now being adapted for the stage as BLUE NOW, where it will be premiered as part of the Brighton Festival next Sunday (May 7), before going on to gallery showings in Margate, Manchester and London’s Tate Modern. (I’ll be reviewing it in Brighton for PLAYS INTERNATIONAL).
BLUE is also the name of an unrelated but extraordinarily powerful chamber opera, currently being given its UK premiere by English National Opera at the London Coliseum, that I caught today (pictured above is the curtain call). With music by Jeanine Tesori (best known for her work in musical theatre that eclectically spans from Caroline, or Change and Violet to more populist offerings like Thoroughly Modern Millie and Shrek) and libretto by Tazewell Thompson, it is a darkly anguished tale of a police killing. Tinuke Craig’s production is focused and intense, with stunning vocal performances.
MONDAY MAY 1
I’ve long been a serial return visitor to productions I particularly love. And news of a cast change gives me the perfect excuse to return. Joining the company of OKLAHOMA! on May 15 will be Sally Ann Triplett, taking over as Aunt Eller.
I’ve already seen multiple iterations of this mind-blowing, rule-breaking production, from its run at Brooklyn’s St Ann’s Warehouse in 2018 to its transfers to Broadway in 2019, then the Young Vic last May, before arriving at Wyndham’s in February this year.
My full review when it opened at Wyndham’s is here for PLAYS INTERNATIONAL. Now I can’t wait to see it yet again, not least to see the utterly marvellous Patrick Vaill as Jud Fry (pictured above right, with James Patrick Davis as Will Parker).
I also need to get back to PRETTY WOMAN again, now that Oliver Tompsett (pictured above) has taken over the lead male role (from Danny Mac) for the final weeks of its run to June 18.
TUESDAY MAY 2
There were 38 Tony-eligible productions in the 2022-23 Broadway season that officially ended last Thursday, including 17 new plays, nine new musicals, six play revivals and six musical revivals. 25 of them received one or more Tony nominations when they were announced today (May 3), with the winners to be revealed at a ceremony being held on June 11 at the United Palace Theatre in Washington Heights — the first time the event is being held that far North.
That means there were 13 shows that were cut out of the running entirely, including such high-profile entries as Andrew Lloyd Webber’s already seriously under-performing BAD CINDERELLA (grossing just under $515,000 last week) the revival of Bob Fosse’s DANCIN’, the Neil Diamond bio-musical BEAUTIFUL NOISE and THE THANKSGIVING PLAY.
This could, inevitably, cast a fatal pall over them, as there is now nothing left to hold on for in the hope of a win improving any of their box offices. By the end of Tuesday, the closing notice had duly gone up on DANCIN’, which will depart from the Music Box on May 14, after 17 preview performances and 65 regular performances.
Lolita Chakrabarti’s LIFE OF PI and Suzie Miller’s PRIMA FACIE, both of them winners of the Olivier Award for best play, failed to get a Tony nomination in the same category; there were also surprising exclusions for Sharon D. Clarke in DEATH OF A SALESMAN (another Olivier award winning performance in London), Laura Linney in SUMMER, 1976 and Anna Uzele in NEW YORK, NEW YORK, for which their respective co-stars Wendell Pearce, Jessica Hecht and Colton Ryan were each nominated.
And the trio of CAMELOT leads — Andrew Burnip, Philippa Soo and Jordan Donica — all went unrecognised, as did the two above-the-title stars of THE SIGN IN SIDNEY BRUSTEIN’S WINDOW, Oscar Isaac and Rachel Brosnahan, though supporting player Miriam Silverman was nominated.
Five already long-shuttered shows, on the other hand, were remembered — the plays AIN’T NO MO’ and COST OF LIVING, with 6 and 5 nominations respectively, and A CHRISTMAS CAROL and TOPDOG/UNDERDOG with 3 nominations apiece. Also receiving posthumous recognition was the short-lived musical K-POP with 3 nominations; DEATH OF A SALESMAN, THE PIANO LESSON and BETWEEN RIVERSIDE AND CRAZY, with two nominations apiece, and ALMOST FAMOUS and OHIO STATE MURDERS (one each).
British originated shows and creatives fared well: the transfer of LEOPOLDSTADT topped the list earning six nominations, with LIFE OF PI receiving five nominations and PRIMA FACIE four (including one for star Jodie Comer). & JULIET, the Max Martin jukebox show that reached Broadway after a successful West End run, got nine nominations, including for its British sound and lighting designers Gareth Owen (a regular nominee) and Howard Hudson (a first-time nominee), but not for its director Luke Sheppard. Three British directors, however, compete for the Best Director of a Play trophy: Patrick Marber for Leopoldstadt, Max Webster for Life of Pi and Jamie Lloyd for A Doll’s House.
The latter, for his eponymous Jamie Lloyd Company, is the first of his shows to originate directly on Broadway, after its original plan to premiere at the Playhouse in 2020 was delayed by the pandemic. The production’s sound designers, Ben and Max Ringham, are not just a double act but also double nominated for Best Sound Design of a Play, also picking up a nomination for their work on PRIMA FACIE. The day before the awards were announced, I actually ran into Max in a North London hospital where we were both on visiting duties for relatives, so real life instead of show business was intervening.
WEDNESDAY MAY 3
I made two trips to London yesterday and today, catching four shows.
Yesterday I saw the Donmar’s utterly stunning revival of Coward’s PRIVATE LIVES, bristling with outrage and comedy courage. Stephen Mangan and the gloriously imperious, chilly Rachael Stirling (pictured above) are absolute bliss as a couple who reunite on their respective honeymoons to new partners, the latter of whom are played to perfection by Laura Carmichael and Sargon Yelda. This is an old warhorse of a play that I’ve seen many, many times; but it finally felt fresh as paint here.
Then in the evening I went to Crazy Coqs, one of my favourite cabaret spots on the planet after New York’s 54 Below, for John Owen Jones’s birthday bash concert — he turns 52 on Friday.
What an instrument he has! Even a song of repeated musical cliches like THIS IS THE MOMENT from Jekyll and Hyde sounds thrilling in his hands. And an absolutely gorgeous song from William Finn’s A NEW BRAIN — “I’d rather be sailing” — is a stunning departure from his more familiar repertoire.
Then today I caught up with the matinee of Deborah Bruce’s DIXON AND DAUGHTERS at the National’s Dorfman, securing a £10 Friday Rush ticket that was still available online when I looked on Sunday. The play is a relentlessly grim portrait of family abuse and the resulting trauma. Having heard similar stories in 12-step trauma rooms, I believed in it completely, and the performances shone with deep feeling and damage.
In the evening I went across to the London Coliseum for my second visit to ENO in the same week (see Sunday, above), this time for their extraordinarily beautiful staging of Henryk Górecki’s SYMPHONY OF SORROWFUL SONGS, with its gorgeous yearning music and desolate journey of loss. Thrilling!
THURSDAY MAY 4
One of the joys of living, as I now do, in West Sussex is having one of the best regional theatres in the country on my doorstep: it’s less than a 25-minute drive, door-to-door, to Chichester Festival Theatre. And tonight the 2023 season kicked off with a new, quietly devastating production of Noel Coward’s 1924 play THE VORTEX in its main house, with the intriguing casting of a real-life mother and son, LIa Williams and Josnua James, playing the damaging narcissistic actress and her son.
My full review will appear on PLAYS INTERNATIONAL’s website in due course. I will be back at Chichester next week for the opening of Amy Herzog’s 4,000 MILES on Wednesday (May 10) in the Minerva starring Eileen Atkins; the play’s originally planned London production was, like the aforementioned A DOLL’S HOUSE (also coincidentally adapted by Herzog), also delayed by the pandemic. Atkins had been due to star in it at the Old Vic, opposite Timothée Chalamet, directed by artistic director Matthew Warchus.
But last May the theatre wrote to patient ticket holders,
“Following its postponement due to the pandemic, and despite an enormous amount of effort from all involved, we have now sadly and reluctantly concluded that we are unable to reschedule the show at a time possible for everyone involved. It’s been a long journey to get to this point and despite two years of trying hard to make it work, it has proved impossible. We’re sorry not to have better news, and we want to thank you for your continued patience and understanding.”
Chalamet’s fans, who had sold out the entire Old Vic run in advance, will be disappointed; but now another director RIchard Eyre — and a new co-star, Sebastian Croft — are joining Atkins at Chichester (pictured above).
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-may-1-2023/
Recent additions include a West End transfer for the recent ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST (seen at Sheffield’s Crucible and the Lyric Hammersmith) to the Haymarket in June, a new production of KING LEAR with Kenneth Branagh in the title role that will have a season at Wyndham’s, and a Broadway run, at last, for Barry Manilow’s HARMONY.
See you here on Tuesday
I will be back after the Bank Holiday, on Tuesday. 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)