REVIEW| Legally Blonde @ Leicester Curve

A childhood favourite, I was so excited to finally catch a professional production of this musical over the weekend. 

The musical remaking of the 2001 Reece Whitherspoon film tells the story of the stereotypically “blonde” Elle Woods on her journey of self-discovery whilst stalking ex-boyfriend Warner to the Ivy League Harvard Law school. Over 2 hours we watch Elle winning her first big case and bagging herself a better man all before graduation. With music and lyrics by Laurence O’keefe and Nell Benjamin and a hysterical book by Heather Hach the best thing about this show remained the “positive” feel-good tunes and pink humour- there are no bad songs in this show.

Directed by the usually genius Nikolai Foster, the curves production fell short of my (admittedly high) expectations. Individual performances were strong and scenes transitioned seamlessly into the next however ensemble numbers felt unpolished and messy. Danny Mac as Warner Hunnignton III was brilliantly arrogant as the role demands equally matched to his strong, independent law school girlfriend Vivienne played by the sublime Phoebe Street. Jon Robyns  also impressed as dorky Emmett but the stand out performance was given by leading lady Lucie Jones as Elle Woods. With stellar vocals and an honest, heart-wrenchingly naive and lovable performance I was left completely flabbergasted by critics who repeatedly criticised her (un)apparent lack of depth in the role – my only gripe was that she be more aware of her wig blocking the audience from seeing more of her fantastic performance.

Lucie Jones and Danny Mac were fantastic in their roles of Elle and Warner.

The less exciting aspects of the production included the simple and lurid pink set; although it may be Elle’s favourite colour it did little for the production except give the audience a mild headache. Equally I was not a fan of the Bollywood themed Spring break re-write in “what you want” which may have served the cast but felt out of place in a well known piece. Nick Winston’s choreography was strong in parts but lacked a level of difficulty making it feel tired and lacking energy (even for a Saturday matinee) however I suspect this was also due in part to the lack of attack in the performance given by the ensemble in the larger numbers where they were not always in sync.
Overall a suitably pink and fuzzy production; you’ll leave feeling generously uplifted after a hard days work. It’s a highly enjoyable night out for the family however I wouldn’t expect to see much more of this production following its close on 14th May. The fluffy feminism just fell too dated compared to the more substantial and emotive pieces that are currently dominating theatre land.

Legally Blonde the Musical plays at the Leicester Curve theatre till 14 May 2016. More information and tickets can be found at the Curve’s website: http://www.curveonline.co.uk

Review: Pomona @ The Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester

Ollie is a girl, A girl whose sister is missing. Charlie is a security guard, what for? He doesn’t know. Fay was hurt but the police can’t help. One thing is sure; they are all shaped by whatever happens in the “hole” that is Pomona.

Pomona at the Royal Exchange, Manchester (Photo by Richard Davenport)

This dystopian drama is nothing if not gripping. Set in and around a derelict former dockland in the heart of Manchester, Pomona is an unnervingly gritty, urban piece of theatre. Coming to it’s home, the piece couldn’t have been better suited to the unforgiving space at the Royal Exchange following it’s stints at the Orange Tree and National Theatre London. Alistair McDowall’s looping narrative – whilst sometimes veering to the unnecessarily obscure – delivers a sublime balance of fantasy and reality, capturing the Mancunian nature to an absolute tee and never quite allowing the audience to calm. Combined with stellar sound and lighting effects (designed by Giles Thomas and Elliot Griggs respectively), the audience is completely immersed in the interwoven lives of the characters. The prolonged blackouts sporadically placed throughout the piece provided an incredible deprivation, heightening all other senses creating an almost terrifying atmosphere.

As the centric character of “Ollie”, Nadia Clifford provides a varied performance with some regrettably weak choices and delayed reactions in the opening scenes but surpassing above excellence later in the piece. Excluding these minor blips the overall production suffers little with strongly emotive performances from the 7 strong cast. Most favourable was that of Sam Swann as “Charlie” whose blatant and refreshing honesty provided some much needed comic relief from the intensity of the piece whilst Sarah Middleton as the mysterious “Keaton” instantly draws attention without need to utter a word. Additional strong performances can be seen from by the battered wife turned sex worker “Fay” played by Rebecca Humphries and Guy Rhys as the city’s kingpin “Zeppo” opening the play with a fantastically dramatised synopsis of Indiana Jones; Raiders of the lost ark.

Overall a fabulous piece of contemporary theatre with merit in all areas. Deliciously dark this piece had me squirming on the train home through this wonderful city and I strongly recommend all who are yet to see this piece to get down to the Royal Exchange as quick as they can before it’s final performance 21st November 2015.

A Day at The Fringe

On friday 7th I went on a crazy one day mission to Edinburgh for a day full of theatre – fresh out of a shift at the nightclub I work in, at 4.30am .

Initially I wasn’t planning on going to the fringe as I didn’t have the money for a hotel and I didn’t believe even I was crazy enough to attempt the Fringe in one day but apparently I was wrong and I was swayed by the free tickets I won to watch lovebirds. After work I jumped on the earliest train possible to Edinburgh Waverley Station with my timetable of shows and venues. The plan was to sleep on the 2 and a half hour train but my brain had other plans; instead I blasted some musicals and read some plays (how stagey) till I arrived. For those who have never been, Waverley station is HUGE – finding my way out was probably the most difficult part of the day but as soon as I stepped out I could feel the theatre vibes! Everywhere you looked was covered in posters and flyers for fringe shows, absolute theatre heaven!

Pleasance Courtyard, venue 33

First stop was to pick up some tickets from the Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33) which was less than a 10 minute walk pleasing me greatly. The Pleasance Courtyard is a large family centric courtyard run by the north London theatre from which it takes it’s name. The majority of The Pleasance 16 venue’s can be found in this area with a few others spaced out across Edinburgh. The courtyard was very brightly coloured in sunshine yellow with a number of bars and food stalls – it had a kind of English/Scottish country vibe which was really chilled but due to the layout of the buildings the entrance area crammed up really quick. I wanted to pick up my complementry tickets for Lovebirds early as I had a show just before over at Assembly and was worried about time – and thank god I did as it took ages, the poor staff just couldn’t find the tickets anywhere and had to put through completely new ones, whilst it took up valuably fringe time the staff dealt with the situation and were courteous enough to give me some very coherent directions to my first venue.

My first show was over in George Square Studios, just by the Assembly. Again the distance was under a 10 min walk and it was a lot easier to find my way around than I expected – mainly due to the hordes of Fringe staff that are dotted about the city to help out. My first show was a modernised version of “Julius Caeser”  by Bristol Old Vic Theatre School Students held in a university lecture theatre style space. I saw the all male cast on its very first preview so I won’t say too much but I did enjoy it. Lucky me got picked on for audience participation which was quite amusing especially when they agreed to my terms of a place on the course – Bristol I’m 100% holding you to that! What I really did notice was the technical ability of the casts voice’s. As someone who struggles with diction and placement, I almost turned green with envy at the precision and clarity of the boy’s voices – they also incorporated some beautiful harmonies and a very smooth movement section which makes me feel that Bristol is a good school for any applicants who want a good mix of MT and acting. The show was fun and easy enough to follow (there were a lot of kids in the audience so this was a massive plus for them), on one hand, I was slightly disappointed to miss sections due to the audience participation section where the took us back stage but it was also quite entertaining to take part – the younger helpers especially loved getting up on the stage and feeling a part of the production. The cast were clearly very nervous for their first performance but I do hope they have a fabulous run as the hard work was evident.

My *FREE* Tickets to Lovebird the Musical

Following Julius Caeser, I met up with my lovely, Oxfordian friend Lou who had been working over at BBC Glasgow (jealous much!), and together we popped back to the Pleasance to watch Lovebirds. At its London previews the one hour childrens musical got rave reviews so I was really excited to watch it for free. The show takes on the form of a vaudeville production with plaques titling each song/act at the side of the stage. The characters consist of a dinosaur, 4 singing penguins, the macaw sisters, a wise motherly parrot and a flamboyant diva parrot – as you can probably tell it was very much a comedy musical. The production was full of colour and brilliant fun for the whole family with a lot of adult humour thrown into the mix that went straight over the kiddy’s head. I will most likely do a full review of the production but if you get chance do take a look as it runs till the end of the fringe.

The Royal Mile during Edinburgh Fringe

By now I was more than ready for dinner so me and Lou took a trip to The Assembly in George Square to pick up some street food to nibble on in the glorious Assembly gardens. The weather was beautiful so we enjoyed a good hour in the sun with a couple of beers and a g&t from the Hendricks bar (I am a enormous fan of gin and can be found with one in my hand at pretty much any occasion that allows me to drink). The summery feel made it difficult to leave but eventually we dragged ourselves away and headed to the Royal Mile which is the main hub of the fringe festival and unsurprisingly was crammed with what seemed like the entire population of Europe combined. The sheer magnitude of theatre lovers was quite overwhelming and can get quite stressful if you’re looking for a particular venue – give yourself plenty of time and prepare to be pushed around… a lot. However, if you can get over the amount of people the mile is an endless treasure chest of stagey fun with street performances everywhere you look for (a) miles on end.

The flyer for the brilliant Below The Breadline, part of the Desperate Measures Season by second year GSA students

After some time on the mile we headed to Ccubed to watch the second year GSA production of Below The Breadline which I still cannot stop babbling about. The production is a devised piece of theatre exploring the typical day to day lives of various Londoners in the contemporary austerity Britain we face, the difficulties they face as a result of this and their inability to successfully reach out to one another. In the first few moments the piece looked a little flat and cliché “devised” but it didn’t take much longer for the piece to grip me in the worlds of the complex and authentic characters. The reality of their situations easily bought me to tears – there wasn’t a single character or actor that didn’t seem as though they could be a true Londoner re-enacting their own lives. The musical elements intertwined within the piece created an emotive ambience and I was particular impressed with the masterful use of live instruments. All in all it was a truly moving and thought provoking piece – the most prominent thought in my mind being that I just might die if I don’t get to GSA the inordinate volume of talent held by this brilliant cast.

Overall I had a fantastic day and was surprised how much I took in in just one day on a very tight budget. Every penny spent was well worth it and hopefully next year I’ll be able to spend a little more time to get an even better experience. For all my budding actors out there I truly recommend saving up some money to visit the fringe. It’s a marvellous way of seeing a stupendous quantity of theatre in one day and every production I saw (in full or part thereof) was performed to an unexpectedly high standard. My only advice would be to book accommodation early as prices quickly rise and spaces soon run out. 3 days later I’m on a complete fringe come-down, it was one of the greatest theatre experiences I’ve had, albeit a short one!

A Damsel in Distress at The Chichester Festival Theatre

The P.G Wodehouse novel-turned play-turned musical film has been given an all singing, all dancing makeover and hit the Chichester Festival Theatre stage just a couple of weeks ago headed by a cast of absolute theatre royalty. Following the trope of shiny, west-end-transferred revivals produced at the landmark regional theatre, Damsel in Distress is not one to miss.

Summer Strallen as Maud Marshmoreton and Richard Fleeshman as George Bevan are dazzling in their roles. (Photo: Jonhan Persson)

The production, lit to perfection, is headed by the sublime Richard Fleeshman who portrays day-dreaming American composer George Bevan to Summer Strallen’sthoroughly modern, thoroughly English socialite Maud. Through George and Ira Gershwin’s joyful, iconic songs, Maud becomes somewhat of an objecting damsel as the boisterous Lady Caroline (played by Isla Blair) enforces her iron rule across the stately Totleigh Towers insisting Maud be married to her farcical son-in-law Reggie(Richard Dempsey) who has an eye for the secretary. After a chance encounter at the savoy theatre, George instantly falls for Maud and with the help of his Broadway pal Billie (Sally Ann Triplett) he is determined to win her heart.

The revolving set with its immense attention to detail is pleasing to the eye and fits well into the performance neither too dominant nor too lacking. Costumes are befitting to the time and status of the characters adding to the whimsical giddinessand gaining many laughs from the audience. Likewise the choreography of the piece was equally impressive, tight yet jovial and perfectly in tune to the feel of the show; although some of the male leads appeared to struggle slightly getting a clear tap; director Rob Ashford can be confident in the merit of his creation.

Theatre royalty Sally Ann Triplett as Billie Dore accompanied by Matt Wilman (Left) and Matthew Hawksley (Right) (Photo: Johan Persson)

As the most critical of critics, I am astonished to admit I found almost no faults with this spectacular performance. Strallen and Triplett were simply radiant in their roles giving two of the most accomplished and graceful performances I have seen all year; whilst Fleeshman was utterly captivating as George. Meanwhile Dempsey’s Reggie felt perfectly matched with Melle Stewart’s Alice Keggs, together the pair had my sides splitting with laughter throughout. In fact I could go on for days describing the glorious performances given by this remarkable cast, my compliments go to all.

The light-hearted plot and toe-tapping numbers all make for a deliciously frivolous evening at the theatre and with such astounding talent behind it, I am sure it will be quick to join its predecessors as the west end’s next shining spectacle.

A Damsel in Distress plays at the Chichester Festival theatre until 27th June 2015.

REVIEW: Carrie The Musical @ The Southwark Playhouse

So to break up the endless drama school posts I thought I’d post a quick review of my experience at Carrie – The Infamous Flop  Musical.

Now despite the cheesy lyrics and a story line that has never translated all too well on stage Carrie is in fact a personal favourite of mine and this wasn’t an opportunity I was going to miss. Based on the classic novel by Stephen King with music and lyrics by Michael Gore and Dean Pitchford, the story follows a teen on the verge of womanhood discovering periods and telekinetic powers whilst being endlessly picked on by her peers and oppressed by her slight psychotic bible bashing mother. Ultimately the fiery Carrie loses her shit and SPOILER ALERT – they all die.

Except the pretty popular girl who realises the error of her ways – because someone had to narrate.

Southwark itself operates an unreserved seating system – a feature I strongly advise they reconsider. Whilst one-price-for-all & sit-where-you-want is fun, watching staff run around like headless chickens trying to find the aggravated group of 12 seats via jostling the pre-seat audience about is not. Additionally I found they had tried to cram far more seats than the space actually allowed resulting in myself sharing half my seat with a slightly larger lady – an awkward and uncomfortable experience for all parties involve. Whilst this was a mild aggravation throughout the piece it didn’t stop me from admiring the effective mood lighting and intimacy of the performance. The set was simple yet effective and as a performer myself I particularly enjoyed being able to see the smaller details and of course the blood dousing in its glory was quite the spectacle – although those on the squeamish side may want to take a seat towards the back of the audience.

Crisswell and Hoskins were splendid as mother and daughter duo Margaret and Carrie White.

The production stars the tiny powerhouse Evelyn Hoskins in a fierce interpretation of Carrie White with Kim Crisswell play the role of the crazy-ass mother (pictured above) with a strong supporting cast with Hoskins fellow classmates being portrayed almost exclusively by Arts Ed alumni. The performances were pleasant to the ears and eyes although in ensemble numbers there was often a difficulty in balancing each sound resulting an indecipherable blur of rather nice sound. Hoskins simply wowed the audience with her vocals and was splendid in her performances however both herself and Crisswell had a slight tendency to flourish and revel in the final notes of their songs which dampened an otherwise spectacular performance from both performers. Other stand-out performances included Greg Miller-Burns as Tommy Ross and Jodie Jacobs who was glorious as Miss Gardner. The brightest star for me however was in fact Sarah McNicholas as Sue Snell – whilst she didn’t get to portray her vocals quite to the extent of her cast-mate Hoskins, McNicholas performed splendidly through-out the production and drew attention with her impressive acting and engagement in the character.

The company performing Lloyds choreography in the gym scene.

Overall the production came to life and Gary Lloyds direction and choreography worked well to make a difficult piece work in a difficult space. The effects were impressive for the scale of the performance but begged to be fully realised in a larger space – the destruction sequence felt lack lustre after a number of attention grabbing moments executed to perfection.

Ultimately I think its fair to say the cast and crew have done superbly well in reviving a piece that many condemned to hell and I sincerely hope that we will see more of the production in future- perhaps finally gracing the west end?  

Carrie is playing at the Southwark Playhouse, London till May 30th 2015. Tickets available online: http://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/the-large/carrie/