1st October, 2002 RECENT NEWS ‘DAMSELS IN DISTRESS’ Alan Ayckbourn’s new trilogy– ‘GamePlan’, ‘FlatSpin’ and ‘RolePlay’ – is currently playing at the Duchess Theatre, transferred from a highly successful premiere in Scarborough. The critics appear to have enjoyed the three plays greatly, receiving good reviews. with most strong reviews. ‘FlatSpin’ and ‘Role Play’ can be viewed separately most nights, or as a complete trio on Saturdays. ‘ART’ SET TO CLOSE Yasmina Reza’s hit play about art and friendship, will finish its West End run on 4 January 2003 at its current London home, the Whitehall Theatre. Translated by Christopher Hampton, Reza’s play picked up a host of awards on it’s original opening at the Wyndhams Theatre. Throughout its run, the play managed the feat of always having all-star casts, and the final company is no exception. Three of the team behind the TV comedy ‘The League of Gentlemen’ – Steve Pemberton, Mark Galiss and Recce Shearsmith - will take over from the current cast on 14 October. ‘THE FROGS’ IN CONCERT AT THE NATIONAL Due to a problem over performance rights involving a full production in New York next year, The National Theatre has been forced to cancel the five concert performanaces of Stephen Sondheim's musical The Frogs which where due to be held in the Olivier Theatre in early November 2002. ‘AYTHING GOES’ IS NUNN’S XMAS CHOICE On the subject of the National, Cole Porter’s ‘Anything Goes’ production has been named as the venue’s Christmas musical. Nunn will be doing the Lincoln Center 1987 production, (which includes further Cole Porter classics not in the original show score), which was last seen at the Prince Edward Theatre in 1989 with Elaine Paige and Bernard Cribbins. The casting has yet to be announced, though several big names have been mentioned for the role of Reno Sweeney. Actresses like Jane Krakowski, Louise Gold and Kristin Chenoweth have been mentioned, though nothing has been completely confirmed. Amongst the creative team is Stephen Mear as choreographer, and Gareth Valentine as dance music arranger. THEATRE REVIEW – ‘THE FULL MONTY’ Prince of Wales Theatre It was inevitable that a film as popular and financially successful as ‘The Full Monty’ was going to be picked up as the basis for a stage musical. Luckily the task fell into the hands of Broadway’s most distinguished book writer for the genre, Terrance McNally. But the job of penning the music and lyrics went to an unknown – David Yazkbek, who makes an impressive debut with this piece. So does ‘The Full Monty’ work as a musical? Well, yes and no. Having just praised Mr McNally, I have to say that ‘The Full Monty’ has possibly the worst opening to any show I have seen. It starts with an excessively greased, hunky bloke, wearing nothing more than a shred of lion fur to cover his most private parts, bumping and grinding around the stage. Howell Binkley’s lighting flashes disco-style, women in the audience squeal with girlish delight, and I put my head in my hands. There’s a line between full-on striptease and simulating the real McCoy for the purpose of a musical. In short, the opening goes too far. As a beginning, I didn’t give me high hopes for the action to follow. But from the first song ‘Scrap’ things began to get into full swing. The story needs no introduction: a group of guys are unexpectedly made unemployed by the their town’s local steelworks and need some hard cash fast. Their solution is a one night only striptease, and to beat off any other stiff competition they go a step further, promising to bare warts and all. It’s a lightweight plot well adapted by Terrence McNally, though the transfer from England to America stuck me as rather pointless. David Yazbek’s songs are all upbeat and clever, though his lyrics frequently fail to rhyme properly. His music makes up for this by being immensely catchy, and the material is performed with real skill by the terrific London company. In the central role of loser Jerry Lukowski, Jarrod Emick gave an all-round fantastic performance, and was brilliantly supported by David Ganly as Dave and Samuel James, superb in his West End debut as Malcolm MacGregor. The rest of the cast all gave appealing performances, with Lynda Baron and Andre De Shields of particular merit. But the production is not perfect. Rather oddly, its biggest flaws lie in the technical departments of set and sound. The action is hampered by an ugly, boring cardboard set by John Arnone. It gives the show a very cheap and tacky look, and I felt at times the actors played too much on just a bare stage. The other flaw of the evening – and it’s a big one – was Mike Walker’s atrocious sound design. Just because this is a musical show, it doesn’t mean the audience needs to be deafened. I like loud music as much as anyone, but the levels were so high that the actors were drowned by the band and 9more uncomfortably), I frequently had to cover my ears because the amplification was so painful. It is such a shame that these two aspects should let the side down so considerably. Being a collaborative art form, it is only when everything slots together seamlessly that you get a truly first class piece of theatre. As it stands, I found the ‘The Fully Monty’ a good fun night out - but it should have been a great one. THEATRE REVIEW – ‘FOLLIES’ Royal Festival Hall Hats off not just to those beautiful girls, but to the whole cast and crew of Paul Kerryson’s ‘Follies’, one of the best nights out I’ve had this year.I have always wanted to see ‘Follies’, and the cast list for this staging promised a real treat. Reading like a Who’s Who of the British musical stage, the entire company was superb. Follies is set in 1971 in an old abandoned theatre during a reunion of the once glamorous Ziegfield Follies girls. Needless to say, the artistes have aged somewhat and are unable to let go of their memories from their glory days not just in show business, but their personal lives as well. Devout Sondheim fans may find fault with this production (of what is widely regarded as one of the greatest musicals ever written), but I have to say I adored every minute. This is what musical theatre is about: intelligent, beautiful material and stunning performances. The show is packed to the hilt with show-stopping moments; in fact the second act is a complete knockout and David Needham’s outstanding choreography was a superb. My personal favourites included Louise Gold’s fantastically slick and sensual ‘The Story of Lucy and Jessie’, Henry Goodman’s manic clown in ‘The God Why Don’t You Love Me Blues’, and Kathryn Evans giving ‘Losing My Mind’ a stunning rendition – the best I’ve heard since Michael Ball in ‘Hey, Mr. Producer’. But the absolute highlight of my evening – which made me practically leap out of my seat with excitement (I kid you not) - was Joan Savage belting out ‘Broadway Baby’. She was sensational! It was one of those rare moments of perfection; marvellous song in the hands of a true professional. Kerryson’s exquisite, lavish production boasted gorgeous glittering costumes and a suitably eerie set by Paul Farnswoth. Jenny Cane lit the stage space extremely well, capturing the sense of ghosts and memories being trapped within the theatre’s crumbling walls. The next musical to play at the Royal Festival Hall is Stiles and Drewe’s beautiful version of ‘Peter Pan’. Again produced by Raymond Gubbay (though this time in collaboration with Imagination Entertainments), if the production values are anything like this ‘Follies’, I can’t wait to see it. UK CD RELEASE – ‘BOMBAY DREAMS’ London Cast Album Well, the much anticipated Bollywod musical arrived, picked up mixed to great reviews, is still selling tickets like hot cakes and is likely to be a part of London’s theatre scene for a long time to come. For it to be doing so well, one would hope that the show’s material is a key player in the show’s success. On the strength of this album, this seems to be far from the case. I wish to start by clearly stating that I have not yet seen ‘Bombay Dreams’ so cannot give a full summary of its plus and minus points as a theatre experience, and am only considering what is recorded on the album - the words and music. Some have claimed that this show is a leap forward for the musical genre. I disagree – it’s a step back decades. It is my belief that musical theatre should say something. Songs should not sit on the spot – the irritatingly repetitive ‘Shakalaka Baby’ is a case in point – but should drive a story. To justify turning anything into a musical it is essential to piece together an exceptional group of songs, otherwise there is no purpose in adding to the genre. Don Black’s words are completely dull, drawing on every over-used cliché imaginable: ‘Like the eagle was born to fly, right across the open sky’ – hands up how many didn’t see that rhyme coming? AR Rahman’s music is enjoyable and evocative of India whilst also having definite Western influences, but take away the synthesizers and keyboards and there’s very little left Many argue that it doesn’t matter about the songs, because the show is a visual spectacular. Fine– but don’t call it a ground breaking musical. ‘Riverdance’ has never claimed to be a musical yet incorporates dance and song. The songs from ‘Bombay’ do nothing. There is no indication that they aim to tell a proper story or explore emotions beyond just sugary pop. This is not a major step forward and certainly not a boundary stretching experiment, as the show’s producer would like us to believe. Therefore, I cannot help but feel sorely disappointed. I had high hopes for a new voice in musical theatre, but on the strength of this CD it is nothing more than a big-bucks commercial venture parading as art. Tim Connor, London ___________________________ Additional information on London's current theatre scene is available at Albemarle of London.

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