Miss Nightingale

I have to admit I that the first time Miss Nightingale appeared for public performance I was not able to make it. It ran in 2011 at the King's Head in the theatre's late night slot which, owing to an even later finishing time I was unable to attend.  There are lots of things to commend this musical for, particularly its adherence to Forties style burlesque, where comedy was a greater element of the entertainment over the striptease. Here composer Matthew Bugg comes into his own with some really great comedy numbers that capture the period and genre beautifully.

This said, the musical runs into problems with structure and narrative. Miss Nightingale, brought to effervescent life by Amber Topaz, is almost sidelined in the second act playing second fiddle to the burgeoning love story between her composer and her manager. The musical Miss Nightingale is stymied by a lack of characters, in a show where so many broad themes - homosexuality, anti-semitism, world war and sexual equality - are being played out. It desperately wants to be a big show and indeed could be with work but currently it looks, sounds and feels like an intimate piece stretched way beyond its capability. 

What amazes me is that this musical is embarking on tour of the UK - and not tiny venues either. Certainly The Wolsey in Ipswich was packed out for press night and from what I can gather, added extra matinees to the run there. Quite frankly, in my opinion this is a musical with potential but at this stage it should still be being workshopped, not embarking on a national tour. If nothing else, Bugg needs to find a way to shave at least 30 minutes off the 2 hour 45 minute running time. 

That musicals aren't written, they are re-written is a well worn theatre cliche but like all cliches, they are usually true. 

Out With The Old, In With The New

As some of you may be aware by now, I am no longer one of the judges for the Off-West End Awards. There are several reasons for this although I have no intention of going into them at length on a public blog.

The Offies were an important part of my life for nearly three years and in that time I have been privileged to have witnessed some wonderful productions and performances on the London Fringe. Highlights have included 2 perfectly marvellous Sally Bowles in Southwark and Islington; a shuddering Thomas Coombes in Tooting; discovering my favourite musical theatre authors, Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens; Jon Bradfield and Martin Hooper's writing brought to filthy life in their adult pantos; Thom Southerland rediscovering classics and Michael Strassen giving it large at the Union; much of the output of the Landor with Rob and Andrew and naturally the Chickenshed, who made me cry (again!).

I fully intend to continue being a regular presence in theatres all over London in my capacity as a theatre reviewer for The Stage and other publications.

In the meantime, I shall endeavour to update my blog more often with observations on the comings and goings on and off West End, as time dictates. Despite the moving of the International Make-Artists Trade Show to June, I have been hellishly busy since the end of October with shows, deadlines and even helping Sean occasionally.

Two of the movies he has worked on in the last year have been nominated for Academy Awards and BAFTA's for Best Costume including Anna Karenina and Snow White and the Huntsman. That said, I am meeting him this evening to go and see a production of Dear World staring Betty Buckley and Paul Nicholas, which he has also worked on.

Back To Basics

It’s been quite a busy week with several reviews to get under my belt and an unscheduled extra day in the office to deal with. On Sunday I was off to review Back To The Musicals at The Pheasantry on the King’s Road. The Pheasantry is an intimate venue that seats about 70 people comfortably and serves food and drinks. To a certain extent it fills the gap left behind by the closure of Pizza on the Park a couple of years ago but it lacks the size and facilities to be able to handle really big names in the industry, who no will no doubt be lured by the bright lights and plush fixtures and fittings of the Matcham Room at the Hippodrome in Leicester Square.

The Matcham Room is also a much bigger venue, seating about 180 people so producers are more likely to be able to make some money. A hope shared no doubt by the crowds of tired-looking punters wandering around the casino in search of easy money on red or black. Anyway, according to the official press release Back To The Musicals promised ‘up and coming performers from the world of the West End exploring the rich and varied catalogue of musical theatre’s biggest hits (and misses) from 1950 – 1955’ Hmmmm……

Now I won’t get into a lather about the choices made but suffice to say the variety wasn’t quite as rich as it could have been. My biggest beef was with the performances.  Hell yes, the quartet were great singers but who were they? I’m not moaning at the lack of star names but at the lack of any names at all. Cabaret, especially intimate cabaret like this has always been a little bit more than standing on stage and singing songs. It’s about engaging with your audience, explaining why you ate there and maybe explaining some of your song or show choices. Admittedly there was an introduction to each set, but either spoken off-stage or read from a scrappy piece of paper on stage. Ingénue director and performer Jennifer Coyle needs to realise that they have a decent product here that requires a good deal more thought in terms of presentation. At the very least next time, be prepared for an encore! It does make me wonder how many good cabaret performer graduates actually get to see to learn from.

Not Only A Winter's Tale

Having only recently been a little concerned at the lack of new musicals on the scene suddenly four appear on the trot. Firstly we have The Picture House opening next week at Lost Theatre in Wandsworth, then in November we have A Winter's Tale at the Landor Theatre and Boy Meets Boy at the Jermyn Street Theatre. I guess you might also be able to include The Hatpin, an Australian musical which is having its UK premiere at the lovely Blue Elephant next month. I shall also be checking out Gap Year - The Musical, running for two performances only at the Leicester Square Theatre.

Add to this productions of Call Me Madam, Hot Mikado, Victor Victoria, Marguerite and the return of the Above The Stag panto Call Aladdin it looks like there will be plenty to warm our spirits as Winter well and truly sets in.

Soho Cinders

George Stiles and Anthony Drewe are in a very strong position in the West End. They are prolific new musical theatre writers who have worked hard over the years and have developed a solid reputation although if truth be told they have arguably never scored a popular hit. Their greatest success to date has been adding additional material to the already popular score of Mary Poppins. Their appeal however has never really stretched to a successful long run despite a number of amiable, smaller shows such as Honk! The Ugly Duckling and Just So, their recent Betty Blue Eyes was a damp squib that failed to attract popular attention.

Their reworking of the Cinderella story, Soho Cinders had been in development for some time with various workshops and a well-received concert version taking place last year. The problem is that the plot of Soho Cinders feels as if it has been written by a couple of sixth-form school boys out to shock. The Soho they depict is more rose tinted than pink, with rent boys who don't have sex, closeted politicians with astoundingly understanding wives and strip-club managed by sexually frustrated, overweight women.

The daft thing is that it could have been so much better. The Cinderella story is a rich multi textured tale that has been used again and again through the years. It is the most filmed story in the history of movie-making not to mention ballets and of course the countless pantomimes that exist. So where did they go wrong? I am wont to believe that it was partially to do with the development of fairly unlikeable and unlikely heroes. Rather than have their Cinders as a reluctant sex-worker, forced unwillingly to go on the game to help fund his further education, our hero is given the 'vanilla' option and we are asked to believe that the sex never really takes place. As for the new Prince Charming, making a politician the hero is always going to be a stretch, especially one who is in the closet whilst engaged to a charming and intelligent woman.

On the plus side, Robbie’s (the Soho Cinders of the title) step-sisters are a great pair of comedy grotesques and thankfully Stiles and Drewe draw on them for many of the lighter and invariably more successful moments in the show. There is also the villainous political advisor William George to add conflict into the narrative and the sweet Velcro, the Soho Cinders version of the Buttons character – d’ya get it?!

Stiles and Drewe have many other irons in the fire, not least an adaptation of one of my favourite movies Soapdish – based on a Sally Field, Kevin Klein vehicle from the early 1990’s. Hopefully, it will capture the public’s imagination and give them the popular hit they so richly deserve.

The Good Gatsby

On the subject of musicals, a few weeks ago I was at a performance of Vieux Carre at the Charing Cross Theatre where I bumped into that prolific theatre director and sometime theatre reviewer Phil Wilmot. I have had the pleasure of seeing a number of Phil’s productions over the years and I was particularly impressed with his King John at the Union earlier this year for which he has been nominated as Best Director in the 2012 Off West End Awards.

We spoke of musicals and in particular The Great Gatsby Musical, which I had seen the previous week. I mentioned that I had not been expecting much from it but found it a pleasant surprise. I also mentioned that a colleague had vehemently disagreed with me on it arguing that it was easily one of the worst musicals he had ever had the displeasure to witness.

I had previously written here in May about the subject matter of musicals. The underlying problem with any musical treatment of The Great Gatsby is that the source work dwells on characters who are generally unsympathetic. In order to create a satisfying musical version, something of the nihilism of the source work has to be adapted.

Adaptations of great novels are indeed that, adaptations and historically compromises are made all the time to suit the nature of the medium. Lionel Bart's Oliver! removes vast swathes of the plot to Dickens' Oliver Twist to create his popular masterpiece and Boubil & Schoenberg's epic Les Miserables is still practically a York Notes version of Victor Hugo's classic. In the same way unsympathetic characters are altered to suit a purpose. Sweeney Todd is allowed to slaughter but not mindlessly, so Sondheim assures us that he has a very good motive for doing so.

What The Great Gatsby Musical gave me was a sense of the period, a workable plot and some decent, evocative musical numbers that coloured the piece. It was not by any means perfect and there were vast stretches of dialogue and denouement that screamed out for musical treatment, but as an early draft I felt that the show had legs. If producers Ruby In The Dust think they have a polished piece of musical theatre on their hands then they need to think again. Composer and lyricist Joe Evans needs to go back to the drawing board and take another look at his work and consider the old adage 'Great musicals are not written, they are re-written.'

I think I managed to leave Phil with the impression that I felt that musicals have to be light, nonsense filled with pretty or formulaic characters. I certainly don't think that - but I do feel that writers of new musicals can sometimes ignore the basic elements of structure and characterisation when working in the medium.

The Problem With Musicals

The Off West End Awards, of which I am one of the judges, has always been eager to support new writing. Indeed there are three separate awards available that lay testament to this namely Best New Play, Most Promising New Playwright and Best New Musical. The first two awards have, for the past two years, garnered plenty of nominations but the Best New Musical Category has always been slightly more difficult to fill.

In 2010, Silence! The Musical at Above The Stag, Britain's Got Bhangra at Theatre Royal Stratford East and Porn – The Musical at Theatre503 all made the running with Porn – The Musical taking the trophy. 2011 saw Burlesque at the Jermyn Street win the award, beating off rivals La Ronde at the Rosemary Branch and latecomer Little Women at the Lost Theatre.

This year, at the beginning of August, there was still not a single nomination for Best New Musical posted. The London Fringe is certainly not afraid of musicals and indeed is awash with revivals of classics such as Mack & Mabel, Carousel and the forthcoming Call Me Madam, not to mention countless revivals of operettas from Merrie England to an average of three Pirates of Penzance a year.

If the classics aren’t your thing – no matter how re-imagined - then there are also plenty of contemporary revivals such as Rent, Spring Awakening and The Drowsy Chaperone to pull in punters. However it is not just revivals out there vying for a share of ticket sales. There is also a healthy contingent of premieres of Off-Off Broadway, Off Broadway and even Broadway shows making their first appearance in the UK in tiny theatres above pubs, like the wonderful production of Kander and Ebb’s Curtains recently at the Landor.

No, when it comes to musicals the London Fringe offers more variety than the West End. Sadly it is new musicals with decent runs that we are seeing less and less of. At the judges debate last year, the question of the relevance of the category arose and I pointed out that I felt it was our duty to support new musicals with the same passion as we support new plays. When judging new musicals I tend to take a much broader view of the production. They seldom arrive upon the Fringe as finished, polished pieces of work. I expect them to flawed and judge them more on their potential, more than upon their production values.

By the time I saw Burlesque in November 2011, I was despairing at the dearth of new musicals that had come my way. I had seen Bed and Sofa, 1888, Slay It With Music and La Ronde, with only the latter making enough of an impression for me to concur with its nomination. Then along came Little Women – The Musical in December, with nowhere near as good production values as, say Bed and Sofa, but a far more impressive musical in terms of composition, structure and ultimately popular appeal. Sadly, with 15 days left before judging closed and at only 10 days before Christmas not many people actually saw it.